Chapter Summaries

Planet Eater and the Universal Truth Church fled through a spatial rift, ending the immediate threat to Earth, while the survivors began planning how to restore order to the Wasteland. Madame Shiva arrived with refugees from another Earth, and Old Barton realized they might have brought danger with them by setting coordinates.

• Planet Eater and the Universal Truth Church entered a spatial rift, which then closed as Earth’s survivors realized they had lived through the catastrophe.
• Old Barton and Kate Bishop discussed reclaiming territory and preventing the Wasteland from collapsing into war after Doctor Doom’s death.
• Madame Shiva appeared in the square and explained that Zhang Ye had promised refuge to the remaining people from her doomed Earth.
• Hundreds of refugees began materializing, and Old Barton welcomed their potential help in rebuilding the Wasteland’s order.
• Old Barton asked Madame Shiva whether they had set coordinates when they came to the Wasteland.

Madame Shiva and other arrivals found themselves in the Wasteland, where Old Barton and Kate Bishop organized a search and protection effort despite a network failure caused by Doom’s actions. The chapter ended as a burst of white light brought another group of newcomers into Hulk Gang territory.

• Madame Shiva realized that many arrivals were strangers and that the heroes from her group were missing.
• Old Barton ordered the Punisher to send Blood Nest guards to find nearby arrivals and use a bounty to enlist mercenaries.
• Kate Bishop ordered her camp and the Wasteland Avengers to protect outsiders, and had Hydra spread a warning that the Avengers Federation controlled the Wasteland.
• Madame Shiva offered to help Barton search for the missing heroes and other people from her world.
• A scholar told Barton that Doom’s reactor overload had burned out most electronic equipment, so Barton ordered repairs and messengers sent to Baxter Building and the Wasteland Avengers.
• A burst of white light brought a group of uninvited arrivals into Hulk Gang territory.

Zhang Ye encountered a Watcher in the House of Mystery while recovering the magic needed to reshape the Wasteland into an independent timeline. The Watcher explained that Zhang Ye’s arrival and actions had been hidden from his sight, and that Zhang Ye’s modification of the Eye of the Watcher had drawn him there.

• Zhang Ye observed the outsiders in the Wasteland facing the Hulk Gang and knew they were in danger, but he could not interfere.
• Zhang Ye recovered his magic in the House of Mystery until he noticed a bald man in blue robes watching him from the shadows.
• Zhang Ye recognized the stranger as a Watcher and questioned whether he had been observing him.
• The Watcher said he had only just become aware of Zhang Ye and could not see his past or future, including what he had done in the Ruined Universe.
• The Watcher explained that Zhang Ye’s modification of the Eye of the Watcher had blacked out surveillance of part of the Multiverse and brought him to the House of Mystery.

The Watcher explained that Zhang Ye could preserve the Wasteland Universe as long as it stayed separate from other universes and did not threaten them. Realizing the people he had brought there had scattered across Earth, Zhang Ye opened a portal to help them, leaving the Watcher to observe what he would do next.

• Zhang Ye questioned the Watcher about his purpose, and the Watcher declared that Zhang Ye would be his subject of observation.
• The Watcher told Zhang Ye that saving the doomed Wasteland timeline would cause no harm as long as its people did not endanger other universes and its timeline remained separate from theirs.
• The Watcher urged Zhang Ye to check on the people who had arrived in the Wasteland Universe through his actions.
• Zhang Ye used the House of Mystery's windows to locate Madame Shiva and Old Barton, Batwing, Mister Fantastic and Star-Lord, Conner and Steel, and the Justice League in different places across Earth.
• Zhang Ye summoned Miss Minutes, opened a portal, and hurried off to find the scattered arrivals while the Watcher remained behind to observe.

In the Wasteland Universe, Batwing tried to protect a crowd of newcomers from Otis and Charlie of the Hulk Gang. After Batwing wounded both Hulks, they recovered and prepared to retaliate as a flash of purple light appeared behind Charlie.

• Otis and Charlie spotted the newcomers and treated them as toys or food, while Batwing stood between them and the crowd.
• Otis struck Batwing into the crowd, and Batwing got back up and readied his weapons to hold off the Hulks.
• Charlie and Otis attacked Batwing, but he paralyzed them with electricity and slashed their chests with his arm blades.
• Otis hurled a Batarang into Batwing’s wing, knocking him to the ground, while Charlie recovered and threatened him.
• A flash of purple light appeared behind Charlie, followed by the sound of machinery grinding.

Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter arrived in the Wasteland, rescued civilians from the Hulk Gang, and learned that Bruce Banner ruled the territory. At the Baxter Building, Zhang Ye sent Batman and the others to help rebuild the Wasteland, then asked Reed and Susan to travel to the end of time.

• Wonder Woman punched Charlie aside and reassured the crowd that she and Martian Manhunter would protect them.
• Otis tried to flee, but Wonder Woman caught him with the Lasso of Truth and learned he was Bruce Banner's ninth son and that they were in the Wasteland.
• Wonder Woman killed Otis, while Martian Manhunter comforted the civilians and the two discussed bringing hope to the Wasteland.
• Zhang Ye explained the teleportation mix-up to Batman and described how the heroes were helping rescue and resettle people.
• Zhang Ye sent Batman, Raven, and Barbara Gordon through a portal to Blood Nest to restore its machinery.
• Zhang Ye asked Reed and Susan to go to the end of time.

After the Wasteland catastrophe, Zhang Ye recruited Reed Richards and Susan as Overseers to protect the timeline, while Susan arranged for their children to live ordinary lives. Zhang Ye named the new organization the Overseers and kept Miss Minutes’ origins hidden from Reed and Susan.

• Zhang Ye explained his plan to prune and protect the Wasteland Universe and asked Reed Richards and Susan to become Overseers.
• Reed agreed to take on the work, while Susan agreed to join on the condition that their children could live normal lives.
• Zhang Ye arranged for the children to live at the Blood Nest with two generations of Hawkeye and the Punisher.
• Reed and Susan hurried to the laboratory, where Zhang Ye had gathered the Baxter Building and its research materials.
• Zhang Ye told Miss Minutes to monitor Reed and Susan but not reveal herself or assist with temporal research.
• Zhang Ye rejected the name Time Variance Authority and established the organization as the Overseers.

Bruce Wayne and Barbara worked to restore power while discussing the heroes’ roles and the unstable wasteland. Bruce revealed that Lex Luthor was negotiating to establish a new regime, arguing that the wasteland needed unified leadership.

• Bruce Wayne asked Barbara to adjust the capacitor parameters as they continued repairing Blood Nest’s technology after working for three days and nights.
• Bruce assessed Jason’s fighting style and said the Super Soldier Serum had made him more dangerous, while explaining why he had once warned young heroes away from extraordinary power.
• Barbara asked what the Justice League and Suicide Squad were doing, and Bruce said the heroes were protecting civilians while Lois and Harley Quinn assessed losses and kept the villains under control.
• Bruce told Barbara that Lex Luthor was negotiating with several factions to establish a new wasteland regime, with Black Canary alongside him.
• Bruce explained that he and Clark wanted the two civilizations to merge and argued that the wasteland needed one voice to achieve real change.

Zhang Ye let the Wasteland rebuild under the heroes’ leadership rather than reshape its timeline himself, while Reed Richards discovered that his temporal device had intercepted information from other Multiverses. The chapter ended with Reed recognizing the strange data as a message from beyond their universe.

• Bruce Wayne told Barbara Gordon that Zhang Ye wanted the Wasteland to be unified under one voice, and he said Zhang Ye had not necessarily left the universe.
• The Avengers Federation’s first census reported that nearly two-thirds of the outsiders were unaccounted for and more than one hundred had died, prompting heroes to intensify rescue efforts.
• Zhang Ye refused to interfere with the Wasteland’s timeline and watched Pietro and Ashley fight Connors while Kara and Clark attacked the Daredevil Gang’s headquarters.
• Reed Richards’s timeline-stabilizing device began shaking as Herbie detected unfamiliar data connecting to it.
• Reed Richards realized the device had intercepted complex information sent from other Multiverses.

Reed Richards accidentally received a repeated signal from another universe, prompting Zhang Ye to warn against replying or revealing the Wasteland Universe’s location. The Watchers explained that the signal’s source could not be judged by ordinary ideas of distance, leaving Zhang Ye to reconsider how the Multiverse connected its universes.

• Susan hurried to inform Zhang Ye that Reed’s equipment had picked up messages from another universe.
• Miss Minutes told Zhang Ye about the oscillator anomaly, and he worried that the signal’s source might be dangerous or close to the Wasteland Universe.
• Zhang Ye asked Reed not to contact the source or expose their location, and Reed agreed with the warning behind the Dark Forest Theory.
• Zhang Ye asked the Watchers about the signal’s origin, but they said the universe was beyond their observation range.
• The Watchers described the Multiverse as a series of prisms and suggested the message might have been reflected through multiple universes rather than traveling across ordinary distance.

Zhang Ye learned that the Watchers had been containing a mysterious contamination spreading from enormous rifts, which matched footage he had seen before. Reed Richards decoded the message and discovered it was an invitation from another Reed Richards to join the Reed Council.

• Zhang Ye pressed the Watcher for information, and the Watcher explained that discussing the contaminated universe could itself spread its influence.
• The Watcher described a void and enormous rifts that were releasing contamination across the Multiverse, and Zhang Ye recognized the scene from the Time Twister's archived footage.
• The Watcher said they could not close the rifts and were only containing the contamination, while someone had gone to handle the affected world.
• Reed Richards finished decrypting the message and identified its sender as a parallel-world version of himself.
• Reed played the message, in which the other Reed invited capable Reed Richards to join the Reed Council for scientific discussion and technological exchange.

Zhang Ye recognized a transmission from a Reed Richards in the Zombie Heroes universe as a trap meant to lure other Reeds into a contaminated world. He decided to enter the universe and confront the contamination, then called on the Watchers to help.

• Zhang Ye warned Reed Richards and Susan that the video message was a trap from a dangerous, contaminated universe.
• Zhang Ye identified the universe as the Zombie Heroes universe, where Zombie Sentry’s infection formed an endless time loop.
• Zhang Ye ordered Reed and Susan to delete the message and monitor the Wasteland while he returned to the House of Mystery.
• Zhang Ye explained to Miss Minutes that he wanted to study the Worms inside Sentry and find a way to counter the contamination.
• Zhang Ye called out to the nearby Watchers to help him pursue the opportunity.

Zhang Ye persuaded the Watchers to point him toward a route to the Zombie Heroes Universe, then traveled alone to the Evil Dead universe. After hours of wandering through a strange, desolate world, he entered Hunter's Home, where a wary young woman confronted him.

• Zhang Ye convinced the Watchers to show him a route through a nearby universe to reach the Zombie Heroes Universe.
• Zhang Ye decided not to bring Pietro, Kara, and the others, then opened a portal and left alone.
• Zhang Ye arrived in an unfamiliar, barren universe and struggled to adapt his magic to its strange energy.
• Zhang Ye followed a highway until he spotted a roadside tavern called Hunter's Home and went inside.
• A blond young woman carrying a loaded pistol asked Zhang Ye whether he had come to the wrong place.

Zhang Ye arrived at a bar for Hunters, where he met Jo and learned that the world contained vampires and other supernatural creatures. He recognized the newly arrived Dean and Sam, leaving him startled by their appearance.

• Jo warned Zhang Ye to leave, but Ellen welcomed him into the bar and he paid with gold.
• Zhang Ye overheard Hunters discussing vampire attacks and told Jo he had killed three vampires.
• Zhang Ye used magic to fill two glasses with liquor, revealing himself as an occult scholar and Hunter.
• Jo explained that she and Ellen ran a bar for Hunters, who hunted demons, ghosts, and monsters.
• Dean and Sam entered the bar, and Zhang Ye spat out his drink when Ellen greeted them.

Zhang Ye recognized Dean and Sam as the Winchester Brothers and asked them to help him find Heaven's Rift. After proving he had supernatural powers and revealing he knew about Sam's connection to the Yellow-Eyed Demon, he secured Dean's agreement to help.

• Zhang Ye recognized Dean and Sam at Ellen's tavern and asked Ellen to let them talk privately.
• Zhang Ye told Dean, Sam, and Jo that he came from another universe and needed to find Heaven's Rift to reach a corrupted world.
• Dean dismissed Zhang Ye's story and tried to leave, but found that Zhang Ye had sealed the storeroom door shut.
• Zhang Ye identified the strange energy inside Sam as something left by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, prompting Dean to demand information about the demon.
• Zhang Ye agreed to tell Dean what he knew if the brothers helped him find Heaven's Rift, and Dean accepted before realizing Zhang Ye had called him "Soldier Boy."

Zhang Ye helped Dean contact Bobby to investigate a way into Heaven, while the group prepared to investigate disappearances in California. Jo insisted on joining the hunt and invited Zhang Ye along, leaving Dean wary of him.

• Dean told Zhang Ye that Bobby would search for information about Heaven, and Zhang Ye explained that he was hearing Angel Radio.
• Sam described a case involving six teenage girls who had disappeared in California over the past year.
• Jo insisted that Dean and Sam stop treating her like a child and announced that she would join the investigation.
• Jo asked Zhang Ye to accompany them, and Zhang Ye agreed to go with her.
• Dean warned Zhang Ye to stay away from Jo and questioned whether he belonged on a demon hunt.
• Sam defended Zhang Ye by listing the dangers he had faced and explained that he knew about them from comics.

Zhang Ye traveled with Dean, Sam, and Jo through the Supernatural Universe, telling stories about his adventures while Dean grew jealous of the attention he received. After Jo shared her past as a Hunter, Zhang Ye gave her a lightning-summoning ring, and Dean and Sam returned to the car as the atmosphere turned awkward.

• Zhang Ye entertained Sam and Jo with stories about fighting Red Skull, while Dean grew irritated at being left out of their conversation.
• Dean pulled the Impala over and confronted Sam, who realized Dean was jealous of Zhang Ye and reassured him that they were only making friends.
• Jo told Zhang Ye that her father had been a Hunter and that she had been unable to return to ordinary life after his death.
• Zhang Ye conjured one of Mandarin's Ten Rings and gave it to Jo, explaining that it could summon lightning and help protect her.
• Dean and Sam returned to the car while Jo and Zhang Ye were talking, making the atmosphere inside even stranger.

Zhang Ye and Jo investigated the disappearance of Rose and other young women, but Rose’s grieving mother could offer no useful leads. Zhang Ye noticed that the missing girls were likely virgins, and Jo received a call from Sam saying he and Dean had found clues.

• Zhang Ye, Jo, Dean, and Sam arrived at the crime scene and split up to investigate the missing girls.
• Zhang Ye and Jo interviewed Rose’s mother, who said Rose disappeared while returning home from church and had shown no unusual behavior beforehand.
• Zhang Ye reasoned that the missing girls were likely virgins, narrowing the possible supernatural causes.
• Jo received a call from Sam, who said he and Dean had found clues, and agreed to meet them.

Zhang Ye and the others connected the missing girls, a bedroom fire, and a mysterious wildfire to dragons after a search led them to a World of Warcraft dungeon. As Sam searched for nearby caves and Dean called Bobby for help, Zhang Ye sensed something and left the motel alone.

• Jo reported that the victims were virgins and that she had found no signs of demons, while Zhang Ye and the others returned to meet Sam and Dean.
• Sam and Dean shared a neighbor’s account of firelight in one victim’s room and the discovery of an unexplained wildfire before the first disappearance.
• Sam searched the clues online and found repeated results for a World of Warcraft dungeon; Jo identified dragons as the connection.
• Dean called Bobby, who doubted that dragons existed but agreed to ask his contacts, while Zhang Ye told Sam that dragons might live in caves and hoard treasure.
• Sam began searching for nearby caves, and Zhang Ye sensed something before leaving the motel alone to get food.

Zhang Ye confronted Azazel and his demons, forcing the Yellow-Eyed Demon to retreat after warning him to leave Jo alone. Back at the motel, Zhang Ye learned that Sam had located the dragon and Dean had discovered how to kill it.

• Zhang Ye recognized Azazel and challenged the Yellow-Eyed Demon after he surrounded him with more than twenty possessed people.
• Zhang Ye summoned the Seven Deadly Sins, which subdued and devoured Azazel’s demons and their hosts.
• Zhang Ye threatened Azazel and warned him not to harm Jo, then released him from the sealed space.
• Zhang Ye recalled that Azazel had chosen Sam Winchester as a future vessel for Lucifer but decided not to interfere with the brothers’ plans.
• Zhang Ye returned to the motel with Chinese food, where Jo told him Sam had found the dragon’s hiding place and Dean had learned how to kill it.