Chapter Summaries

After fusing with Rick from the C137 Universe, Chen Xing awoke in the body of Jude Herbert, a young man in a strange new world who looked much older and was broke and hungry. As Jude learned that this world contained superheroes and mutants, he began to realize where he had arrived.

• Chen Xing woke from a chaotic dream, then passed out as a wild-haired old man entered his consciousness and flooded his mind with memories and knowledge.
• Three days later, Chen Xing emerged from bed with an exceptionally clear mind and realized he had fused with Rick from the C137 Universe and transmigrated into Jude Herbert's body.
• Jude checked his driver's license and found he had only fifty-seven dollars and owed a local gang three thousand dollars.
• Jude went to a nearby Mexican restaurant, where Ceres and Anna remarked on his absence and his aged appearance, and he wolfed down a large meal.
• Jude listened to news reports about Metallo, Captain America, the Rogues, Stark Industries, and mutant attacks, then exclaimed in shock.

Jude realized he had arrived in a merged DC and Marvel world and began preparing to defend himself in Gotham City. After dismantling his prized Chevrolet to build a laser weapon, he recovered the memories explaining his debt to the Foot Clan and Ivy’s disappearance.

• Jude learned that he was in the dangerous American Comics World and decided he needed a way to protect himself.
• Ceres warned Jude that the Foot Clan would seize his 1957 Chevrolet if he did not repay his debt soon.
• Jude dismantled the Chevrolet and used its parts and the apartment television to build a small laser weapon.
• Jude pieced together memories showing that he was in Gotham City and had borrowed money to bail Ivy out of prison.
• Jude learned that the Deputy Warden had taken the money without releasing Ivy, who had already been transferred away.

Jude dealt with the Foot Clan after they confronted him over the dismantled car, killing five men with Grandpa Rick’s miniature laser emitter. He dissolved their bodies and began planning how to gather materials, build equipment, and strengthen himself.

• Jude decided to look for Ivy to give his body one final sense of closure.
• Five Foot Clan members broke into Jude’s apartment and demanded payment for the dismantled car.
• Jude killed four attackers in the apartment and shot the fleeing minor boss in the hallway with his laser emitter.
• Jude distracted Banderra and dragged the corpses inside before searching them and finding 233 dollars.
• Jude bought household and pharmacy supplies, then used them to dissolve all five bodies in his apartment.
• Jude considered making equipment and training his body to survive the dangers around him.

Jude confronted Deputy Warden Bob Dylan at Blackgate Penitentiary to learn where Ivy had been sent. He forced Bob to pay him and promised more money, but Bob could not provide any information about Ivy.

• Jude built a miniature listening device and took it with his laser emitter to Blackgate Penitentiary.
• Jude confronted Bob Dylan, who recognized him and demanded three thousand dollars to reveal where Ivy had been sent.
• When Bob mocked Jude and called in guard Billy, Jude used the laser emitter to melt Billy's leg and forced Bob to send the other guards away.
• Jude played a recording of Bob's corrupt remarks and threatened to expose him to Commissioner Gordon and Prosecutor Harvey Dent.
• Bob gave Jude ten thousand dollars, with another ninety thousand due the next day, but he still could not tell him where Ivy was.

Penguin negotiated with Blackgate Deputy Warden Bob Dylan and later met Ivan Steranko of the Foot Clan, who demonstrated the Mutagen's power. Excited by the possibility of curing his deformity, Penguin agreed to let the Foot Clan operate under his banner and demanded the Mutagen.

• Penguin agreed to help Bob Dylan deal with Jude Herbert in exchange for Dylan making one of Black Mask's imprisoned men an idiot rather than killing him.
• Penguin ignored Ivan Steranko's request to meet until after his party, then found Steranko waiting in his office.
• Steranko told Penguin that five Foot Clan members had disappeared and asked him to investigate.
• Penguin dismissed the missing men until Steranko mentioned the Mutagen could cure Penguin's deformity.
• Steranko transformed into Rhino to demonstrate the Mutagen, and Penguin allowed the Foot Clan to operate openly under his banner in exchange for the Mutagen.

Jude scavenged parts and bought tools to build Butter Bot Mark One, then equipped it with revolvers and tested its obedience. He prepared miniature dirty bombs and a camera network, and waited for Bob Dylan to retaliate that night.

• Jude paid to collect junkyard parts and bought tools, revolvers, and ammunition.
• Jude dismantled the salvaged items and built Butter Bot Mark One from the useful components.
• Jude armed Butter Bot with a modified revolver and connected it to his phone for remote control.
• Butter Bot shot open the refrigerator door latch to retrieve a beer for Jude.
• Jude made miniature dirty bombs from smoke-detector material and installed cameras around his apartment building.
• Jude monitored the area and waited to see whether Bob Dylan would retaliate that night.

Jude Herbert used Butter Bot Mark One to ambush the Foot Clan men who came to his apartment, then questioned the sole survivor about who had sent them. The man identified his boss as Oswald, or Penguin, but Jude knocked him unconscious before learning why Penguin wanted him dead.

• Jude Herbert told Ceres and Anna that he had dismantled his antique car and kept it as a laser emitter, while assuring them he could handle the Foot Clan.
• Jude watched four armed men enter his apartment and used his phone to activate Butter Bot Mark One’s attack mode.
• Butter Bot Mark One killed three intruders and wounded the fourth, ordering him not to move.
• Jude returned home, learned the survivor worked for Oswald, also known as Penguin, and asked why Penguin wanted him killed.
• When the survivor said he did not know and had only followed orders, Jude knocked him unconscious so he could question him later.

Jude went to the Iceberg Lounge to confront Penguin about the assassination attempts, forced his way inside by rallying a crowd against the doorman, and drank while waiting for Oswald. When Oswald finally arrived, Jude called him “little penguin,” freezing the room’s atmosphere.

• Jude decided to find Penguin at the Iceberg Lounge and ask why people were trying to kill him.
• Jude rallied the people outside the lounge against the doorman’s apparent discrimination until the duty manager let him in.
• Jude ordered a cart of expensive liquor and questioned the waiter about whether Oswald was there.
• Jude drank seventeen bottles while waiting, then saw Oswald enter the lounge with an umbrella.
• Jude called Oswald “little penguin,” and Oswald stopped as the atmosphere turned cold.

Jude confronted Penguin over the assassins sent after him and revealed that the Foot Clan’s alliance threatened Gotham. He offered to help Penguin become normal in exchange for a laboratory and an investigation into Ivy Pepper.

• Jude entered Penguin’s office and stopped him from having his guards shoot by threatening to detonate a Dirty Bomb.
• Penguin admitted he had ordered assassins to target Jude, then said he had no conflict with him and answered Jude’s questions about the Foot Clan.
• Jude guessed Penguin wanted the Foot Clan’s Mutagen and revealed that Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins were backing the clan’s plan to destroy Gotham.
• Jude offered to help Penguin become normal and asked him to provide a laboratory and investigate Ivy Pepper.
• Penguin agreed to hear Jude’s request and asked who he needed investigated.

Jude used Penguin’s laboratory to develop a gene-based serum and spent seven days building an interstellar television. When Penguin demanded proof of his results, Jude offered to demonstrate the serum on an unconscious dwarf and asked Penguin to tell him where Ivy was.

• Penguin trusted Jude enough to give him seven days in Cobblepot Technology Company’s laboratory, and Jude sent the researchers away.
• Jude spent seven days studying Penguin’s blood and working in the laboratory while the researchers secretly watched him.
• Penguin returned and found Jude asleep; when an underling touched him, Jude’s automatic defense system shocked the man.
• Jude showed Penguin and the white coats an interstellar television that received broadcasts from alien worlds, then destroyed it when they showed little interest.
• Penguin demanded to see Jude’s results, and Jude asked him where Ivy was before offering a gene-based serum and injecting a separate vial into an unconscious dwarf.

Jude transformed Penguin and a dwarf with a genetic-altering drug, then learned that Ivy was being held at Arkham Asylum. After refusing a job offer from Cobblepot Technology Company, he headed to the asylum at night to find her.

• Jude transformed the dwarf into a tall, muscular man, impressing Penguin and the researchers.
• Jude injected Penguin, who endured forty-five minutes of agony before emerging as a muscular man and declaring himself Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot.
• Oswald told Jude that Ivy was at Arkham Asylum and suggested she might be involved in human experiments there.
• Jude refused Osborn’s offer to become Cobblepot Technology Company’s chief scientist and used his Invisibility Belt to leave.
• Jude traveled to Arkham Asylum at night and used his Gravity-Adhesion Shoes to climb over its perimeter wall.

Jude infiltrated Arkham Asylum to find Ivy, but the guards knew nothing about her or the rumored experiments beneath the facility. He entered the prison block to question its villainous inmates about the hidden laboratory.

• Jude used his Invisibility Belt and Gravity-Adhesion Shoes to enter Arkham Asylum and followed a guard to the command center.
• Jude saw Joker, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Electro, Two-Face, Clayface, and Ventriloquist on the surveillance feeds, but could not find Ivy.
• Jude froze the guards in the command center and questioned the shift leader, who claimed not to know about Ivy, recent arrivals, or any hidden area beneath Arkham.
• Jude suspected the imprisoned villains might know about the rumored experiments and went to the prison section.
• Jude used flour and a super microscope to determine the combination for the thick metal door, then entered the prison block unseen.

Jude questioned Riddler about Arkham’s depths, and Riddler deduced that he had come to rescue someone. After Jude freed him by freezing and shattering his cell, Riddler agreed to lead him there.

• Jude visited the villains’ cells and asked Riddler to guess why he had come to Arkham.
• Riddler reasoned that Jude wanted help finding someone held in Arkham’s depths and admitted that he knew where the depths were.
• Riddler demanded that Jude free him, while Harley Quinn charged at her electrified cell after Riddler insulted her and Joker.
• Riddler warned Jude that the cells were protected by high-voltage current and suggested that he disable a control switch.
• Jude froze Riddler’s cell with his Freezing Ray and shattered its wall, then told Riddler to lead him to Arkham’s depths.

Jude followed the Riddler into Arkham’s underground laboratory, where he discovered human experimentation and learned Ivy Pepper had been brought there. He found the sedated, transformed Ivy among the test subjects, while a heat-vision-wielding prisoner offered him a deal.

• The Riddler showed Jude the hidden entrance to Arkham’s underground depths and left him to continue alone.
• Jude entered a laboratory, froze two researchers, and forced another to reveal that Dr. Hugo Strange ran the facility and Ivy had been brought there.
• Jude made the researcher lead him to the test-subject cells, where he shot the man after he fled through the entrance.
• A Black-Clothed Woman with Heat Vision identified Ivy Pepper’s location and warned Jude that the newly experimented-on prisoners could be dangerous.
• Jude broke through Ivy’s glass cell and found her unconscious from sedatives, then returned to the Black-Clothed Woman as she proposed a deal.

Jude freed Ivy Pepper and several test subjects from the depths of Arkham, but the escape left Man-Bull gravely injured and brought them face-to-face with a masked fighter called Talon. Talon attacked immediately, knocking the tiger-tailed man down.

• The Black-Clothed Woman offered to help Jude rescue Ivy Pepper, and Jude freed her from her cell with his Freezing Ray.
• The alarm triggered anesthetic gas, so Jude freed three test subjects and escaped with Ivy and the others.
• Jude turned invisible and used Protective Mode to incapacitate an armed security squad.
• Bat shattered the anesthetic nozzles while Man-Bull held up a closing blast door, but the door severed his legs after the others passed through.
• Arkham's commander ordered the freezing device deactivated and Talon released.
• Jude and the others reached the elevator, where Talon attacked and knocked the tiger-tailed man down with a punch.

Jude and the others defeated Talon and escaped the underground facility as its command center lost contact with Arkham Asylum. Meanwhile, Riddler freed Arkham’s inmates, and Harley Quinn released Joker, who prepared to return to Gotham’s chaos.

• Jude secretly rammed Talon to save Firefly, and Firefly burned Talon until his body was charred, though he began regenerating.
• Wild Tiger and Jude attacked Talon, and Jude’s Laser Gun severed Talon’s arm before Firefly burned him again until he fell.
• Jude, Firefly, and Wild Tiger escaped by elevator with Bat and Ivy while the command center discovered that Arkham Asylum was no longer answering.
• Riddler cut the asylum’s power and opened the cells, allowing Scarecrow, Two-Face, Ventriloquist, Mad Hatter, Clayface, and other villains to escape.
• Harley Quinn freed Joker from his isolated cell, and Joker broke loose and declared that he was back.

Jude brought Ivy and Firefly to his home after escaping the chaos at Arkham Asylum, while Batman and Commissioner Gordon discovered that every inmate had escaped. Ivy woke and reunited with Jude, who asked her to tell him who she was now.

• Jude refused Wild Tiger’s offer to stay with him and left Arkham with Firefly, who chose to accompany Jude.
• Commissioner Gordon and Batman arrived at Arkham, where Batman confirmed that all the inmates, including Joker, had escaped.
• Batman found a hidden surveillance device in the command room and prepared to review its recording.
• Jude brought the unconscious Ivy to his home, where Firefly introduced herself as Bridget Pike and Butter Bot renamed itself Kyle.
• Ivy woke in panic, then clung to Jude as she cried about the experiments she had endured at Arkham.
• Firefly teased Jude and Ivy, and Jude asked Ivy to tell him who she was now.

Jude helped Ivy discover that she could control and rapidly transform plants, but her powers overwhelmed her and a man-eating lily attacked their neighbor, Banderra. After Jude and Firefly rescued Banderra and destroyed the plant, Jude arranged a safer place for Ivy to practice at the Iceberg Lounge.

• Jude questioned Ivy about her abilities and helped her make a lily bloom through her connection with plants.
• Ivy enlarged and transformed the lily into a huge, barbed man-eating plant, then lost control of it.
• The plant attacked Banderra when she entered the apartment and swallowed her.
• Firefly, Jude, and Butter Bot burned and shot the plant until it collapsed, and Jude pulled the unconscious Banderra out alive.
• Jude called Penguin, who invited them to the Iceberg Lounge, and the group packed their belongings and left.

Jude brought Ivy and Firefly to the Iceberg Lounge, where Penguin revealed that the potion had restored his body and confidence. He borrowed Cobblepot Technology Company's laboratory to investigate what was wrong with Ivy, while warning that Batman and other escaped Arkham inmates could pursue them.

• Ivy told Jude that he seemed different from the cowardly, incapable friend she remembered, and Jude asked her to accept the new him as her best friend and ally.
• Jude reunited with Penguin, who showed off his restored fighting ability and welcomed Ivy and Firefly after hearing Jude had rescued them from Arkham.
• Penguin warned Jude that the Bat Family would pursue him and that Joker and the other Arkham inmates had escaped, but agreed to let Jude use Cobblepot Technology Company's laboratory.
• At the company, Jude refused the chief scientist Leonard's request to join his work and said he needed to treat Ivy first.

Jude Herbert analyzed Ivy’s plant genes and developed a plan to cure her while learning that Bridget had been attacked by a regenerative enemy. The Penguin warned Jude that the Court of Owls wanted him handed over, and Jude negotiated three days to finish his work before they were even.

• Jude drew Ivy’s blood and discovered that plant genes were consuming her human genes, which could eventually turn her into a rooted plant.
• After half a month of research, Jude identified 3,543 plant genes in Ivy and said he could make a stable serum within seven days.
• Ivy told Jude that a regenerative attacker had fractured Bridget’s right arm, and Jude suspected the attacker was a Talon backed by the Court of Owls.
• The Penguin called Jude and said the Court of Owls had offered him a tempting price to hand Jude over.
• Jude asked the Penguin for three days to finish his work, and the Penguin agreed.