Chapter Summaries

Jack spent the day exploiting Director House, selling S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence to the Hunter, and arranging the Hunter’s arrest before meeting Typhoid Mary at a hotel. He found Mary amid a massacre and came face-to-face with Bullseye, whom he claimed to have hired.

• Jack drank Director House’s coffee for hours, promised to return every morning, and House considered hiring an assassin to kill him.
• Jack met the Hunter, sold him classified S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence, accepted one million dollars, and arranged for Hawkeye to lead an arrest operation against him.
• Jack called Typhoid Mary and went to the Duran Hotel, where he found her standing among five dead men.
• Mary complained that Jack had spoiled her attempt to seduce him, and Jack told her to leave the bloody scene.
• Bullseye appeared behind Jack with a dagger, and Jack claimed he was the employer for Bullseye’s unfinished job.

Jack, Mary, and Bullseye tried to resolve the conflicting assassination contracts when Hawkeye warned that the Hunter had escaped and was tracking Jack. Jack destroyed his S.H.I.E.L.D. badge, used Bullseye to pose as a hostage, and headed for the Hell's Kitchen Precinct to kill Director House.

• Jack learned that Bullseye's contracts to attack Jack and kill him conflicted, and the three decided to kill Director House instead.
• Hawkeye called to warn Jack that the Hunter had escaped and was coming for him using the tracker in Jack's S.H.I.E.L.D. badge.
• Jack crushed the badge, then told Bullseye to take him hostage so they could leave without drawing suspicion.
• Bullseye drove Jack and Mary to Hell's Kitchen while Mary flirted with men along the roadside.
• Jack cut himself free and led Mary and Bullseye toward the Hell's Kitchen Precinct to kill Director House.

After killing House and an innocent woman, Jack told Marian that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. Marian then faced a choice about whether to follow Jack or stand against evil, while Jack struggled to answer her.

• Jack shot and killed House and an innocent woman, earning 200,000 Evil Points, then left Hell's Kitchen with Bullseye.
• Jack visited Marian at the New York precinct and told her about House's attempt to kill him and the events of the night.
• Jack revealed to Marian that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and explained its plans and members.
• Marian said she had decided not to stand on the side of evil and asked Jack what he would choose.
• Jack found himself unable to give Marian a simple answer because he wanted to keep both her and his options.

Jack and Marian parted ways after he learned that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew he was a Hydra agent, while Marian secretly urged him to defect. The next day, Jack lifted the hammer with ease, and S.H.I.E.L.D. took him and the hammer aboard a Quinjet for relocation.

• Jack left Marian after she rejected his plan to play both sides, and Marian reported to Fury that Jack's allegiance was wavering.
• Marian found Jack's listening device and quietly urged him to defect from Hydra, while Jack listened from his car.
• Black Widow told Jack that S.H.I.E.L.D. was moving the hammer and brought him to the secret base where it was stored.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists fitted instruments on Jack, but he lifted the hammer effortlessly, prompting Black Widow to reconsider the information about the hammer and a god.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. removed the instruments and boarded Jack and the hammer onto a waiting Quinjet.

Jack delivered the hammer to the Dark Energy Research Facility, then spotted Hela in Las Vegas and fled back to New York. He visited Kingpin in Hell’s Kitchen and reflected on the everyday work behind S.H.I.E.L.D., criminal gangs, and superheroes.

• Jack delivered the hammer to the Dark Energy Research Facility and was sent to Las Vegas because the Quinjet had other assignments.
• Jack entered a casino, left after noticing its strong security, and then spotted Hela near the Tropicana Hotel.
• Jack fled to McCarran International Airport and caught the earliest flight back to New York, suspecting Hela had come for the hammer or the Tesseract.
• Jack returned to New York, hailed a car to Kingpin Tower, and went to see Kingpin.
• Jack watched Kingpin handle gang business and considered how much routine work occupied S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, gangs, and superheroes.

Jack took a violent debt-collection job for Kingpin, but Luke Cage stopped him from roughing up a debtor and agreed to take him to Hell’s Kitchen. When Daredevil called to say he was being hunted, Jack redirected Cage to Matt Murdock’s law office, eager for a chance to face a serious threat.

• Kingpin sent Jack to Carl, who assigned him five debt collections totaling one million dollars and ordered him not to kill anyone.
• Jack went to Harlem to collect Old Harry’s debt, but Luke Cage subdued him and offered to pay the debt himself.
• Cage took Jack toward Hell’s Kitchen, while Jack reflected on how oppressive and boring his recent life had become.
• Daredevil called Jack and said he was being hunted, asking him to wait at Matt Murdock’s law office.
• Jack persuaded Cage to change course for Matt’s law office and revealed that he had let Cage capture him because he was bored.

Jack met Luke Cage and Daredevil outside Matt's law office, where Matt explained that he had overheard a suspicious conversation while in Washington with Captain America and was wounded after being discovered. Jack connected the mystery of Hydra's past actions to the Tesseract and wondered whether it had created a new space, leaving him looking to the sky for a way to test whether their world was real.

• Jack found Sitwell and a group of agents outside Matt's law office, argued about being excluded from their mission, and left after Matt waved him over.
• Jack met Daredevil and Luke Cage in an alley and vouched for Cage, allowing Matt to sit down and explain what had happened.
• Matt recounted accompanying Captain America to Washington, where officials held gatherings to celebrate his return.
• Matt said he overheard people discussing major moves after Captain America's return, was discovered while eavesdropping, and was hunted down and shot.
• Jack suspected Captain America had joined Hydra, then reasoned that the Tesseract could explain Hydra's actions by creating a new space.
• Jack looked at the sky and considered that testing whether the world was real was the only way to confirm his theory.

Jack’s repeated declarations of love to Death earned her favor and triggered Thanos’s curse, making him effectively impossible to kill. After testing his new condition, Jack concluded the Tesseract had not altered the world and decided to bring Captain America back so the Avengers could form.

• Jack professed his love to Death outside the underground clinic while Claire Temple treated Daredevil, and Luke Cage explained that Jack was trying to confirm something.
• Death heard Jack and favored him, while Thanos cursed him with an Undying ability that kept fatal dangers away; Jack gained 60,000,000 Evil Points and learned Thanos would arrive on Earth sooner.
• Jack tested his new condition by trying to cut his throat, swallow emergency medicine, and inject adrenaline, but each item turned to ash before harming him.
• Claire angrily sent Jack out of the clinic, where Cage carried him away from the railway tracks before a train could reach him.
• Jack reasoned that Thanos’s curse proved the Tesseract had not altered the world and resolved to use the Tesseract to restore Captain America and help bring the Avengers into existence.

Jack went to S.H.I.E.L.D. seeking permission to touch the Tesseract, but Hill refused and tried to stop him by force. He revealed to Fury that Captain America Steve Rogers had become Hydra's captain, and Fury invited him to meet in person.

• Jack learned that Hill, Romanoff, Hawkeye, and Coulson were absent, then called Hill and received a decoy address in Yonkers.
• Jack met Hill on a hill surrounded by snipers and demanded access to the Tesseract, but she refused.
• Jack walked toward Hill as the snipers and Hill fired; the bullets turned to ash, and he caught Hill when she tried to flee.
• Hill told the agents to cease fire and gave Jack a private earpiece so he could speak with Fury.
• Jack told Fury that Steve Rogers had been altered by the Tesseract and had become Hydra's captain.
• Fury asked Jack to come meet him with Hill, and Jack wondered whether Fury was taking an enormous risk.

Jack learned that Hela had stolen the Tesseract from the Dark Energy Research Facility, throwing the timeline he knew into chaos. After joining S.H.I.E.L.D.'s airborne response, he decided to seize the Tesseract for himself while other forces fought over it.

• Jack told Fury he wanted the Avengers Initiative to succeed and asked to examine the Tesseract.
• Fury learned Hela had broken into the Dark Energy Research Facility and stolen the Tesseract, then left to assemble the Avengers.
• Hill ordered Jack to provide support, and he boarded a S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft with her.
• After a day and night aboard the aircraft, Jack reflected on his recent caution and worried that he had grown too timid.
• Jack resolved to pursue the Tesseract independently so he could use its power to travel wherever he wanted.