Chapter Summaries

Ba Di used hypnotic gas and suggestion to control a Wayne Enterprises shareholders' meeting after Bruce publicly revealed he was Batman. He arranged to summon the Court of Owls, reassured the shareholders, and learned from Alfred that they had probably found Joker.

• Shareholders and Gotham Family heads demanded that Bruce explain his Batman declaration or step down as Wayne Enterprises chairman.
• Ba Di used altered Fear Toxin to identify members of the Court of Owls by provoking their reactions.
• Ba Di hypnotized everyone at the meeting and ordered the Court of Owls to gather at its secret cave in Wayne Enterprises the next night.
• Ba Di promised the shareholders a business proposal for the day after tomorrow, and they agreed to wait.
• Alfred told Ba Di that they had probably found Joker.

Ba Di deduced that Joker's next game would take place at Gotham Television Headquarters and headed out in the Batplane. The chapter left Gordon waiting beneath the Bat-Signal, furious and worried because Joker had taken Barbara.

• Ba Di reviewed Joker's files, identified Gotham Television Headquarters as his target, and told Alfred to prepare the Batplane.
• Ba Di explained that he had recognized Joker's earlier schemes as traps and predicted the final game after Batman's identity was revealed.
• Ba Di noticed the Bat-Signal rising over Gotham, then jumped from Wayne Building into the Batplane as Alfred joked about preserving an heir.
• Gordon raised the Bat-Signal on a dilapidated building and gripped a Joker playing card, consumed by anger and worry over Barbara's kidnapping.

Ba Di, disguised as Batman, learned that Joker had captured Barbara and raced to Gotham Television Headquarters to rescue her. He infiltrated the building and interrupted Joker's livestream just as Joker began threatening Batgirl.

• Gordon told Batman that Joker had captured Barbara and pleaded with him to save her.
• Ba Di promised to bring Barbara back, then leaped into the moving Batmobile and headed for Gotham Television Headquarters.
• Ba Di and Alfred determined Joker was likely on a broadcast floor, and Ba Di planned to climb the building while Alfred arranged Batplane support.
• Ba Di observed Joker Gang guards at the entrance and began climbing the building, planting nerve gas on each floor to incapacitate its occupants.
• Joker began livestreaming from the twentieth floor and announced a game while Batgirl lay unconscious on a table.
• As Joker drew a scalpel across Batgirl's cheek, a handgun entered the frame and aimed at Joker's temple.

Ba Di confronted the Joker during a live broadcast and killed him to save Barbara, who had been poisoned by the Joker’s scalpel. Ba Di rushed her toward the Batcave for treatment as a red-and-blue figure descended onto the Batmobile.

• The Joker hijacked Gotham’s screens and challenged Batman, who appeared beside him while the Joker held Barbara at knifepoint.
• Ba Di’s neurotoxin incapacitated everyone in the building except Ba Di and the Joker, and the Joker cut Barbara with a scalpel coated in laughing gas.
• The Joker taunted Ba Di and threatened Barbara, so Ba Di shot and killed him, then caught his falling hand before the scalpel could cut her artery.
• Ba Di stopped Barbara’s bleeding, discovered the poison’s danger, and carried her through a twentieth-floor window to the Batmobile.
• Ba Di drove toward the Batcave with Barbara as a red-and-blue figure plunged from the sky toward the Batmobile’s hood.

Ba Di clashed with Superman after Superman stopped the Batmobile, then rushed the badly injured and poisoned Barbara to the Batcave. Nightwing had returned to Gotham to help, while Ba Di began testing Barbara’s blood for an antidote.

• Superman crashed into the Batmobile, worsening Barbara’s injuries, and warned Ba Di not to kill again or wear the Bat gear.
• Ba Di told Superman that he had saved 120 people and demanded room to treat Barbara, whose poison would kill her within twenty-three minutes.
• Superman flew away after warning Ba Di that he would be watching him, and Ba Di called Alfred to bring the Batplane.
• Ba Di carried Barbara to the Batcave and began testing her blood to identify the laughing gas and devise an antidote.
• Nightwing appeared beside the Batcave’s mechanical dinosaur and greeted Ba Di, who continued working to save Barbara.

Nightwing offered to impersonate Batman to protect Bruce, but Ba Di refused and focused on curing Barbara from the Laughing Gas Virus. After saving her, he discovered an owl-shaped device hidden in Nightwing’s tooth and arranged an operation for the next night.

• Nightwing proposed wearing the Batsuit so Bruce and Batman could appear as separate people and Bruce could avoid prosecution.
• Ba Di rejected Nightwing’s offer and synthesized a Cleansing Serum to counter the Laughing Gas Virus in Barbara’s blood.
• Ba Di gave Alfred the serum to inject into Barbara, then knocked out one of Nightwing’s teeth and found a tiny owl-shaped compound inside it.
• Ba Di told Nightwing to have the tooth analyzed and join him on an operation the next night.
• Ba Di made Bewitching Incense, neurotoxins, and mind-controlling drugs to bring the Court of Owls under his control.

Ba Di took Nightwing to the hidden thirteenth floor of Wayne Tower to reveal the Court of Owls. They found dozens of its members unconscious, exposing the powerful figures who had gathered under Ba Di’s mental suggestion.

• Ba Di and Nightwing discussed the Court of Owls nursery rhyme while walking through Wayne Tower.
• Ba Di stopped the elevators and showed Nightwing that Wayne Tower had a concealed thirteenth floor between the twelfth and fourteenth floors.
• Ba Di climbed the elevator shaft with Nightwing and pried open the thirteenth-floor doors.
• Nightwing found dozens of unconscious people in owl masks, including Gotham socialites, crime-family members, and philanthropists.
• Ba Di confirmed that the gathered people were members of the Court of Owls.

Ba Di recruited mercenaries to build a force for his plans in Gotham and tried to hire Death Knell as his bodyguard. The mercenaries accepted his offer, and Death Knell agreed to join for five million dollars.

• Ba Di learned that 872 mercenaries had assembled and asked Alfred to contact General Sam Lane with an offer of a weapon capable of countering Superman.
• Ba Di entered the assembly hall and offered the mercenaries one million dollars per person for a month of service, prompting them to accept enthusiastically.
• Death Knell rejected Ba Di's initial offer and reminded him that they had a grudge.
• Ba Di raised his offer until Death Knell accepted five million dollars to serve as his bodyguard.

Ba Di traveled to Washington to present the Gotham Project, a plan to transform Gotham with government cooperation and make Batman its officially recognized crime-fighting hero. He left the Oval Office waiting for the government’s response to his proposal.

• Ba Di sent Death Knell and other mercenaries to capture Gotham’s criminals while Nightwing’s Court of Owls helped contain them.
• Ba Di decided Gotham’s crime also required changing the city’s gloomy environment and architecture, and planned to seek the authorities’ cooperation.
• Ba Di arrived at the White House and met the President, generals, Cabinet members, and congressmen in the Oval Office.
• Ba Di presented the Gotham Project, describing it as a half-year effort to transform the city and as a Super Hero Control Project for the government.
• Ba Di asked the government to declare Batman Gotham’s official heroic representative and part of their joint project to fight crime.

Ba Di presented the U.S. government with plans to recognize Batman as Gotham’s official hero and offered advanced military technology and Cold Fusion Technology through Wayne Enterprises. The U.S. President agreed to declare Batman Gotham’s hero.

• Senators and officials condemned Bruce Wayne’s proposal to make Batman Gotham’s officially recognized hero.
• Ba Di presented a plan for coordinating superheroes and gaining government oversight of them.
• Ba Di showed the Army advanced Iron Man armor, prompting military leaders to demand a cooperation deal.
• Ba Di revealed that Wayne Enterprises had developed Cold Fusion Technology and planned to use it to transform Gotham.
• The U.S. President accepted Ba Di’s offer and declared, “Batman is Gotham’s hero!”

Over the course of a year, Ba Di used Batman’s authority, military force, legal reforms, and new-energy projects to transform Gotham from a crime-ridden city into a city of light and hope. After Gotham honored Bruce Wayne with a statue, Ba Di passed the Batman identity to Dick.

• On Day Six, Ba Di and his allies brought Gotham’s criminal gangs under control and sent them to trial, plunging the city into upheaval as reforms began.
• The United States recognized Batman as Gotham’s official superhero with law-enforcement powers, and Ba Di formed the Superhero League to unite heroes and keep them occupied beyond Gotham.
• Ba Di deployed more than thirty thousand soldiers to maintain order as judges and courts processed the evidence-backed cases against Gotham’s criminal gangs.
• Over the following months, Ba Di installed environmental regulators, while Wayne Enterprises and Gotham businesses built a cold-fusion industry that created jobs and transformed the city.
• One year later, Gotham’s mayor unveiled a statue honoring Bruce Wayne, and Nightwing praised Ba Di for changing the city.
• Ba Di told Dick that he would be Batman from that day onward.

Ba Di awoke after a year, surveyed his expanding cosmic empire, and then went back to sleep to descend into another universe. There, Superman saved a falling rocket before arriving at Louis’s apartment, where she slapped him and ordered him to leave.

• Ba Di woke after fulfilling Batman’s final wish, passed Batman’s mantle to Nightwing, and learned that Bruce’s body had spread throughout the universe as information.
• Ba Di heard that Volthoom had won the submission of 780,000 alien races, the Monitor Race had withdrawn, and the Anti-Monitor was destroying universes from Superboy-Prime’s universe.
• Ba Di toured Earth, the universal network, and Oa Star, then let Volthoom continue conquering while Kang Na and Ai Li hunted Lantern Beasts and the Black Death Emperor.
• Ba Di spent several days with his women before sleeping and descending into another universe.
• Superman caught a rocket falling toward Bradau City and returned it safely to Rocket Base No. 75.
• Clark arrived at Louis’s apartment with roses, but Louis slapped him and told him to get out.

Ba Di, inhabiting Louis’s body, considered how to fulfill her wishes after breaking up with Clark, focusing on reconciling with General Sam Lane and becoming a world-famous reporter. Clark arrived with Zha Tan Na to check whether Louis was under magical control, but Zha Tan Na confirmed that Louis was acting of her own accord.

• Ba Di decided to skip Louis’s wish to spend her life with Clark and planned to reconcile with General Sam Lane when he returned to Metropolis.
• Ba Di considered how to make Louis famous worldwide and began opening her laptop to put a plan into action.
• Clark entered Starbucks Cafe with Zha Tan Na and insisted that Louis’s breakup was too sudden and strange to accept.
• Zha Tan Na examined Louis and told Clark that no magic or body takeover was involved and that this was truly Louis.

Ba Di, acting as Louis, reconciled with General Lane and agreed to join his work after completing one final report. At the military base, Ba Di secretly modified Red Tornado to help protect the information he planned to release.

• Louis warmly greeted General Lane and apologized for their estrangement, telling him she had broken up with Clark and would leave journalism after one final report.
• General Lane and Louis reminisced about her childhood, reconciled, and agreed she would come to the military base to explore becoming an officer.
• General Lane introduced Ba Di to the first-generation Red Tornado, and Ba Di pointed out its weaknesses against Superman and the Justice League.
• With General Lane's approval, Ba Di used a USB drive to implant a virus and modify Red Tornado's framework, making the robot more agile and controllable.
• The scientists and General Lane were delighted by the improved Red Tornado, while Ba Di prepared to use it to guard the information he planned to release.

Louis used Ba Di’s rapid stock-market gains to fund a global publishing operation, preparing a book that would spread her report beyond the reach of Cyborg’s network controls. At a printing factory, Di Fu and Kast read the manuscript and realized its revelations about superheroes were shocking.

• Louis decided that physical copies of her report were necessary and planned to publish a book in enormous numbers.
• Ba Di borrowed three million dollars against Louis’s credit, multiplied it through stock trading, and acquired printing factories and distribution channels around the world.
• Ba Di ordered the factories and printing companies to print the book and sell it cheaply through bookstores and newsstands.
• Di Fu hesitated over printing the manuscript after reading it, and Kast read the pages and reacted with horror.

Cyborg and Batman discovered that Louis Lane had exposed the secret identities and private histories of every Super Hero in a book and across the internet. As the Justice League scrambled to protect their families, Batman and Superman set out to find Louis, suspecting something had happened to her.

• Cyborg detected that Super Hero identity files had been published online, and Batman told him Louis Lane had released the information in a book.
• Batman ordered Cyborg to remove the online reports and contacted Super Heroes to move their families to safety.
• Wonder Woman arrived with the book and reacted with shock to its revelations about her parentage and the heroes' private lives.
• Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, and other League members gathered at the Watchtower as the book's widespread release made it impossible to suppress.
• Batman concluded that Louis had changed and must have been affected by something, then went with Superman to her apartment after the Watchtower failed to locate her.

Superman and Batman found no trace of Louis and confronted General Lane, who blamed them for her disappearance. A mysterious man warned them that Louis had been scattered across the universe and the multiverse faced a threat, but a system seized him and he killed his incarnation before identifying himself as Phantom Stranger.

• Batman used a scan of a half-eaten apple to conclude that Louis had been in her apartment an hour earlier, while Superman insisted the person who had occupied her body was not truly Louis.
• Superman and Batman recalled that the Watchtower could not find Louis and feared the consequences of her book exposing every superhero’s secret identity.
• General Lane arrived with armed soldiers and demanded that Superman reveal where his daughter was, but Superman and Batman said they were searching for her too.
• A man in blue emerged from the floor and told Superman and Batman that Louis had become particles of consciousness scattered across the universe and that the Only Emperor was devouring the multiverse.
• A system announced that the man had obtained the Multiverse Hero System and ordered him to warn multiverse heroes, prompting him to say they must beware the system and that his incarnation had to die.
• The man slit his throat and vanished after telling Batman to call him Phantom Stranger.

Ba Di awoke to find that the Hera Terminal had demolished Emperor Tower and begun building Ba Miu Luo Di Temple, a cosmic-scale palace planned by his wives and forces. After learning how they were developing the temple, he turned his attention to the Anti-Monitor and his coming challenge against the Only Gods in God's Domain.

• The Hera Terminal completed the initial plans for Ba Miu Luo Di Temple and demolished Emperor Tower while Ba Di slept.
• Ba Di awoke in the enormous new palace and found Little Hera and his wives sleeping on a vast floating cloud bed.
• Ba Di's wives described their work on the temple, including creating legendary plants and beasts, training guards, and strengthening defenses.
• The Hera Terminal briefed Ba Di on the temple's plans, and Ba Di said his main concern was gaining power to enter God's Domain and face the Only Gods.
• Ba Di asked the Hera Terminal about the Anti-Monitor.

Ba Di learned that the Anti-Monitor was destroying universes and preparing to fight Darkseid, whose sleeping avatar remained hidden in Ba Di’s universe. The chapter then shifted to Captain Cold’s childhood, his feud with Flash, and how repeated defeats led him to seek allies.

• Hera told Ba Di that the Anti-Monitor had destroyed more than 752 universes, was empowered by the Anti-Life Equation, and had arranged a war with Darkseid.
• Ba Di learned that Darkseid’s avatar had gone into hiding after defeating Skyfather, and he asked Hera to alert him when Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor fought.
• Ba Di dismissed Hera and resumed strengthening his power while looking forward to confronting Darkseid someday.
• Captain Cold recounted his abusive childhood, his departure from home to support his sister, and his arrest after a failed bank robbery against Flash.
• Captain Cold escaped prison, modified a gun using particle accelerator radiation, and discovered it could produce absolute zero.
• After repeatedly challenging Flash and returning to prison, Captain Cold concluded that he needed an organization to defeat him.

Ba Di staged a seizure in Iron Mountain Prison after signaling the other metahuman inmates that he planned to escape. The warden ordered the metahuman prison opened for emergency treatment while warning guards to prepare for a possible escape.

• Ba Di observed the camera rotation and signaled the inmates by writing “escape” on the glass.
• Heat Wave, Trickster, and the other prisoners grew excited and asked to join Ba Di’s escape attempt.
• Ba Di collapsed and faked a severe seizure in his cell.
• The monitoring system reported that Ba Di’s vital signs were failing, and the prison warden ordered an emergency doctor and armed guards to enter the metahuman prison.