Chapter Summaries

After Lucifer explained that Neron had isolated Hell to prevent Shane from entering too soon, Shane realized his growing power could eventually turn the mortal world into Hell. Shane left determined to protect Earth and settle his score with Neron first.

• Lucifer explained that Neron had built a reversed magical defense network in Hell, cutting off information and keeping Shane from entering until he was strong enough to become Lord of Hell.
• Lucifer told Shane that if the mortal world became Hell, the entire universe would be torn down and rebuilt, and he offered no way to prevent it.
• Shane rejected Rachel’s suggestion to dismantle the magical defense network and said he hated having his life arranged for him but still needed to save Earth.
• Shane realized his gold demonic coin resembled Constantine’s and that Constantine might have fit Neron’s criteria for the Trinity, but would be too difficult to trick.
• Shane concluded he could not stop growing stronger and decided to protect Earth, settle his scores, and deal with Neron first.

The Teen Titans responded to Witch Circe’s attack on the Golden Gate Bridge, where she drained civilians to power a spell linking to the Underworld. Rachel identified the magic’s structure and planned a rescue, but Circe recognized Tula and Donna as Amazonians and began checking whether Themyscira had sent forces after her.

• An alarm alerted the Titans Base to trouble near the Golden Gate Bridge, and Shane authorized the Teen Titans to deploy and protect civilians.
• The Teen Titans reached the bridge and found Circe draining civilians’ life energy while black mist and destruction engulfed the roadway.
• Rachel identified Circe’s Underworld spell and asked the team to buy her twenty seconds to reverse it and save the victims.
• Tula and Donna destroyed key parts of Circe’s magic circles, enraging the witch and disrupting her spell.
• Circe recognized the scent of Themyscira on Tula and Donna and questioned whether the Amazonians had come to hunt her.

Circe attacked San Francisco after her attempt to reach the Underworld failed, but the Teen Titans disrupted her ritual and freed the citizens she had drained. With Donna and Tula transformed into Circe’s animal guards, the Titans coordinated their counterattack as Circe flew into a rage.

• Circe’s ritual failed when she struck Neron’s defensive spell, so she attacked San Francisco in an attempt to force a connection to the Underworld.
• Blue Beetle drew Circe’s attention and blasted her, giving Red Robin and Mia an opening to follow up with coordinated attacks.
• Circe transformed Donna into a raven and Tula into a sea snake, turning them into her guards.
• Rachel reversed Circe’s spell, restoring the citizens’ life energy, and Mia caught them with gel-filled arrows as they fell.
• The Titans coordinated their next move, with Mal restraining Tula while the others attacked Circe.

The Teen Titans defeated Circe and rescued Donna and Tula after she transformed them into animals. Rachel recognized Starfire, who embraced her, and offered to explain what had happened as Starfire eagerly began asking questions.

• Mal subdued Tula while Mia and the others helped capture Donna and Circe.
• Tim restrained Circe, and Rachel dismantled the magic circles she had prepared.
• Mia wondered why the fight felt easy compared with their adventures with Shane as Jaime celebrated the Teen Titans’ victory.
• Koriand'r watched the Titans from an alley, then Rachel found her and greeted her as Starfire.
• Starfire recognized Rachel as Raven, embraced her, and leaned in to kiss her.

Starfire arrived on Earth and accidentally shared her memories with Rachel and Shane through a Tamaranian kiss, leaving everyone embarrassed and Shane’s magic blasting a hole through Titans Tower. After Rachel explained that this world differed from Starfire’s memories, Shane welcomed her to the Teen Titans and suggested she use handshakes instead of kisses.

• Starfire kissed Rachel to share the story of her journey to Earth, and the linked memory reached Shane, causing his magic to explode and blast him out of Titans Tower.
• Shane realized Starfire had arrived, while Starfire and Rachel were embarrassed to discover that the kiss had reached him too.
• Rachel took Starfire’s hand and explained that the world differed from the one Starfire remembered because she had only partly explored Big Raven’s memories.
• Shane submitted a repair request to the Justice League and returned to the Titans Base, where Jaime tried to flirt with Starfire and Shane slapped him into the wall.
• Shane welcomed Starfire to the Teen Titans and shook her hand, while Blue Beetle wondered why the Instructor had emphasized handshakes.

Shane confronted Witch Circe, who claimed her immortality came from Hecate, and discovered that Greek magic was concealing the goddess’s name and a major change to her origin. He left Witch Circe stunned with a slap and demanded that she undo the transformations on Tula and Donna.

• Starfire joined the Teen Titans, and Shane left Tim to handle contacting the Justice League about her identity.
• Shane brought Tula and Donna’s cage to Witch Circe’s holding cell and entered to question the witch.
• Witch Circe said Shane could not kill her because Hecate, goddess of the Underworld, had blessed her.
• Shane detected Greek magic interfering with his memory and identified Hecate as the source of magic in the DC Multiverse after the New 52 reboot.
• Shane realized the post-New 52 Hecate had no anchor in his universe, where an ordinary Greek goddess named Hecate already existed.
• Witch Circe mistook Shane’s blank expression for the effect of her charm, but Shane slapped her and demanded she turn his students back.

Shane restored Donna and Tula to human form, then questioned Witch Circe about her failed ascension attempts and learned they had been disrupted by forces linked to his magic network. He persuaded Circe to believe his explanation and hinted that his wealth could keep her out of ordinary prison, leaving open whether she would join his side.

• Circe reversed Donna's and Tula's transformations, and Shane watched the disturbing process before the team restrained her again.
• Shane weighed the risks of killing or imprisoning Circe because of her connection to Hecate, then questioned her about why she had attacked.
• Circe explained that repeated disruptions had thwarted her ascension ritual and that her divinations blamed more than a dozen unrelated magic users.
• Shane connected Circe's failures to the Omnimagical Defense Network and told her that Neron had sealed Hell, but she challenged his account.
• Shane threatened Circe with overwhelming force until she believed his explanation and admitted that the Justice League would likely imprison her.
• Shane told Circe he had enough money to spare her a mundane prison sentence.

Shane returned to Olympus as the new god Pausios and discovered that the Underworld was sealed and the Olympian gods were missing from their celebration. Suspecting something had happened in the Divine Realm, he used Hermes’s body to reach it and saw a strange crimson-pink streak.

• Shane left a mental avatar with the Teen Titans and went to the Olympian Realm, where Hermes greeted him as an equal.
• Shane asked Hermes how to visit Hades and learned that the Underworld had been sealed off, though Hermes claimed other realms could house the dead.
• Shane found the celebration still underway, with minor gods drunk and the major Olympians absent; Hermes said Zeus and Hercules were too busy to receive him.
• Shane suspected something was wrong with the Divine Realm and reached for Hermes to look into it directly.
• Hermes allowed Shane to use his body to access the Realm of the Gods, and Shane began ascending until a crimson-pink streak came into view.

During his ascension, Shane discovered that Darkseid, Demon Lord, and Ares had ambushed Olympus and trapped its gods in stasis. Demon Lord destroyed Shane’s partial ascension, and Shane returned to reality, leaving the gods frozen while he sought time to grow stronger.

• Darkseid invaded the Olympian banquet with Demon Lord, who had allied with him from the Dark Multiverse.
• Shane saw that Darkseid’s staged wars had hidden Ares’s betrayal and the trio’s attack, which left Zeus occupied and the other major gods gravely wounded or frozen.
• Demon Lord, Darkseid, and Ares confronted Shane’s phantom and warned him to stop obstructing darkness.
• Shane refused to back down, and Demon Lord dissolved his partially ascended body into fundamental particles.
• Shane awoke in the Divine Realm in reality, realized the gods were still trapped in a puppet show, and left them frozen.

Shane assembled a team of powerful, battle-tested individuals after deciding he needed help responding to the strange disruptions connected to the Divine Realm. He brought Amazo, Chronos, Circe, and Lobo together, where Lobo immediately attacked him and Amazo copied Chronos’s defensive armor.

• Shane failed to gain answers from Athena’s temple on Themyscira, and he withheld news of the Divine Realm’s crisis from Queen Hippolyta.
• Shane decided he needed a stronger team than the inexperienced Teen Titans and gathered Amazo, Chronos, Circe, and Lobo.
• Shane took the drunken Lobo into the sky to sober him up, and Lobo angrily attacked Shane for interrupting his vacation.
• Circe watched as Amazo questioned Chronos about his Battle Armor and copied its technology.
• Chronos explained that his armor created a looping spacetime defense for Shane, who needed protection that could not be broken.

Shane assembled Lobo, Amazo, Chronos, and Witch Circe for a mission in space to find Kyle Rayner. As the group left the Solar System, Batman defended Shane’s decision to recruit Circe and quietly continued investigating the Hellbat Armor.

• Circe asked whether anyone would help Shane, but Chronos said no one on Earth could beat their boss; Shane arrived with Lobo defeated and sent him to join the mission.
• Shane asked Chronos whether his armor worked in space and checked that Circe could manage the journey before the group set off.
• Wonder Woman confronted Batman over Shane freeing Circe, citing Circe’s long history of violence against Themyscira.
• Batman said he trusted Shane to handle former villains and revealed that he had provided a spacecraft and Kyle Rayner’s location for the mission.
• Wonder Woman demanded to be told when Circe returned, while Batman resumed examining the Hellbat Armor he had hidden in the Batcave.

Kyle Rayner and three other Earth Green Lanterns searched for a world on which to rebuild the Corps, but The Old-Timers’ threat made every use of their power dangerous. As the Lanterns discussed the other Corps’ losses, Arisia suggested asking Superman for help, despite the Green Lanterns’ past refusal to assist him.

• John Stewart said they could not move the planet they had chosen as a new home for Oa because The Old-Timers might detect their Green Lantern energy.
• Arisia reported that the planet had the minerals and trace elements needed to rebuild Oa, then asked whether The Old-Timers was truly as powerful as the Earth Lanterns claimed.
• Guy Gardner admitted that The Old-Timers made emotional energy seem useless, and Hal Jordan recalled that the giant was immune to it.
• Hal Jordan told Arisia that the Red Lanterns had been devastated, Atrocitus was hiding with survivors, and Larfleeze had lost his ring and disappeared.
• Hal Jordan said the Sinestro Corps was hiding in the Antimatter Universe, while the Lanterns had no news of the Blue or Indigo Corps and had received no reply from the Violet Corps.
• Arisia suggested seeking Superman’s help, then felt embarrassed because the Green Lantern Corps had previously mocked his request for assistance.

The Green Lanterns tried to rebuild their Corps while secretly towing their planet, but the Old-Timers found them and captured Arisia and Guy Gardner. Just as the Old-Timers threatened Hal and Kyle, Shane arrived with Battle Beast and rescued the captives.

• Guy Gardner refused to swallow his pride, while Hal Jordan and Guy began towing the planet toward the Center of the Universe as John and Kyle handled security and Arisia patrolled.
• The Lanterns planned to rebuild the Green Lantern Corps to draw the scattered Guardians of the Universe back together and unite the forces opposing the Old-Timers.
• In the second month, Hiveworld discovered the Lanterns, and Hal decided they should hide and leave the planet behind after they lost contact with Arisia.
• The Old-Timers appeared holding an unconscious Arisia, and Guy charged him but was captured and stripped of his Power Ring.
• Hal and Kyle attacked the Old-Timers to rescue Guy and Arisia, but their Green Lantern energy was absorbed by his uniform.
• Shane punched through the Old-Timers' hand and rescued Guy and Arisia, tossing them onto Battle Beast's motorcycle.

Shane confronted an Old-Timer who sought to destroy emotional-spectrum technology, but Silver Amazo intercepted the giant’s attack and grew to challenge him. The two titans battled in deep space as Arisia wondered how Earth had produced so many dangerous people.

• Shane protected Lobo and the Lanterns, then refused the Old-Timer’s demand to leave them alone.
• The Old-Timer explained that his civilization had exhausted emotional energy and perished, driving him to prevent others from using it.
• Shane argued that the current universe had far fewer emotional-energy users and would not face that danger for hundreds of thousands of years.
• The Old-Timer dismissed Shane’s argument and reached for the Lanterns, declaring that he would destroy all Emotional Spectrum technology.
• Silver Amazo blocked the Old-Timer’s hand, rapidly grew to a fraction of his size, and challenged him in a contest of strength.
• Arisia marveled at the battle and asked Hal why he had not mentioned Earth’s dangerous people.

Shane and the Green Lanterns moved a planet to the Center of the Universe while Amazo battled The Old-Timers. The planet was placed in position and its orbit stabilized, leaving The Old-Timers still fighting Amazo.

• Circe watched Amazo's strength and wondered if she might be the weakest member of Shane's team.
• Shane asked Hal about rebuilding the Green Lantern Corps, and Hal said they had found a suitable planet for a new Oa.
• Guy Gardner mocked Shane's team, so Shane threw him at Amazo, whose copied technology drained Guy's ring energy and pinned him to its body.
• Shane offered to push the Green Lanterns' chosen planet through a portal to the Center of the Universe, while The Old-Timers tried and failed to break free of Amazo.
• Chronos shielded Shane and the Green Lanterns from spatial distortions as Shane and the Green Lanterns pushed the planet through the portal.
• Hal, Kyle, and Shane adjusted the planet's position near the Center of the Universe, then the Green Lanterns stabilized its orbit.

Shane returned to find The Old-Timers had torn Amazo apart and nearly killed the Green Lanterns, but Lobo had kept them safe. Shane then faced The Old-Timers himself, whose advanced spacetime technology and compressed body made him a formidable opponent.

• The Old-Timers shrank to a few hundred meters tall and tore Amazo into pieces, while Lobo protected John and Guy until Shane returned.
• Shane gathered Lobo's scattered body fragments and sent them to the Green Lanterns, then took Chronos's place against The Old-Timers.
• Chronos told Shane that The Old-Timers had countered Amazo with his own spacetime expertise, and Shane reassured Chronos.
• The Old-Timers sent an invisible ripple at Shane that could disrupt the molecules of carbon-based life, but Shane detected and repelled it with mental power.
• The Old-Timers tried to seize Shane, whose knife-hand strike failed to penetrate his compressed, exceptionally tough body.
• Shane dodged The Old-Timers' attacks and landed several ineffective counterblows, while observing that the giant's movement speed was slower than his own.

Shane struggled to fight The Old-Timers, whose immense strength, speed, and weapons kept him on the defensive. Shane baited him into using Green Lantern energy, then exploited his immunity to it to gain the speed needed to slash him.

• Shane and The Old-Timers fought at near-light speed, while Shane struggled to hurt him and dodge his hidden weapons.
• Witch Circe tried to transform The Old-Timers, but he repelled her magic with Green Lantern energy; Shane's attack during the attempt severed part of his body and reduced his mass.
• The Old-Timers grew several times larger and faster, while Arisia explained how his technology let him use his immense body as an advantage against Lanterns.
• Shane mocked The Old-Timers about his use of emotional energy, provoking him into raising a multicolored barrier across Shane's escape route.
• Shane passed through the barrier unharmed, gained a burst of speed, and turned to slash The Old-Timers.

Shane infiltrated The Old-Timers’ body and ignited the high-energy fluid powering his systems, severely weakening him. The Old-Timers shrank and fled, and Shane pursued him and cut off his head.

• Shane sliced through The Old-Timers’ battlesuit and entered his body, where mechanical spheres attacked him.
• While Amazo and Battle Beast kept The Old-Timers occupied, Shane studied the spheres and the energy-rich fluid throughout his body.
• Guided by Rachel through telepathy, Shane used Hell magic to ignite the fluid, causing an explosion inside The Old-Timers.
• Shane escaped the blast with severe burns, then rapidly regenerated his skin and returned to Amazo’s side.
• The Old-Timers lost much of his energy, shrank to a few dozen meters tall, and turned to flee.
• Shane charged after The Old-Timers and sliced off his head.

After defeating The Old-Timers, Shane learned that Black Hand might pose a future threat and that the emotional spectrum contained five previously unknown lights. Amazo made primordial Power Rings for the new lights, and Shane set out for the Source Wall.

• Shane interrogated The Old-Timers and learned that his race had survived a cosmic reboot at the Source Wall.
• Shane recalled Black Hand as a potential threat and confirmed the Source Wall's location through The Old-Timers.
• Amazo extracted unfamiliar emotional energies from The Old-Timers and revealed five lights beyond the conventional seven.
• Amazo created primordial Power Rings for the five new lights and warned Shane that infrared and ultraviolet could cause the emotional spectrum to collapse if they touched.
• Shane tested the rings, kept the Justice Gold Light ring, and announced that the team would head to the Source Wall.