Chapter Summaries

Russell used the Phoenix Phantom to destroy Dormammu and devastate the Dark Dimension. After being dragged back into the void, he emerged with a new mark that made him ruler of the Dark Dimension, leaving him wondering what had happened to the promised Sin Buster.

• Russell sent the Phoenix Phantom through Dormammu’s attacks, erasing the Dark Dimension’s energy and rules as it grew stronger.
• Dormammu compressed his dimension and unleashed a final attack, transforming himself into a galaxy-sized black hole.
• Russell’s Phoenix Phantom swallowed Dormammu, killing him and shrinking the Dark Dimension until it vanished.
• Russell tried to leave, but lines shot from the void and dragged him away for an unknown span of time.
• Russell emerged with a black holy mark that stored dark power and served as the key to the Dark Dimension, making him its ruler.
• Russell wondered what had happened to the promised Sin Buster.

After killing Dormammu, Russell became the weakened Dark Dimension’s ruler and rejected merging with it, then learned that the Sorcerer Supreme had died and was appointed his temporary successor. He took charge of the funeral arrangements and was tasked with training Strange.

• Russell explored his new control over the Dark Dimension and decided not to merge with it because doing so would limit his freedom and tie his power to the Marvel Universe.
• Russell met Ding Yi at Kamar-Taj and learned that the Sorcerer Supreme had died three days earlier.
• Russell read the Sorcerer Supreme’s magical letter, which confirmed the death, praised Russell’s fight against Dormammu, and named him temporary Sorcerer Supreme.
• The letter entrusted Russell with training Strange, and Russell accepted the role while vowing to teach Strange properly.
• Russell took charge of the Sorcerer Supreme’s funeral and ordered a feast and an opera performance, offering to sing himself if no troupe could be found.

After learning that thirty-five years had passed while he was in the Dark Dimension, Russell returned to Earth in 1995 and found Hydra thriving in Wakanda. Yelena Belova briefed him on the latest crisis: Hydra suspected Captain America had betrayed them.

• Russell ended the memorial gathering after the Sorcerer Supreme’s portrait unexpectedly smiled, then asked Ding Yi about his duties as the new Sorcerer Supreme.
• Ding Yi told Russell that Earth’s time had advanced to 1995 while Russell fought in another dimension, leaving him stunned to learn he had been gone for thirty-five years.
• Russell arrived in Wakanda, saw how Hydra had helped develop its hidden capital, and entered Hydra’s underground headquarters.
• Russell summoned Yelena Belova, who reunited with him after thirty-five years and told him she had gained the ability to foresee the future.
• Yelena told Russell that Hydra suspected Captain America had betrayed them.

Russell convened Hydra’s leaders, learned that Steve had removed several people’s contracts and was seeking the Tesseract, and released everyone from their contracts. He prepared to use Hydra’s allies and portal magic to locate Steve, while Bucky stayed behind and hoped to plead for him.

• Russell met with Yelena and Hydra personnel from Svartalfheim, reviewed Hydra’s military forces and reports, and received the Power Stone.
• Natasha arrived and reported that Steve had removed the contracts of Peggy Carter, Dr. Pym, the Starks, and the Kree scientist couple, but several of them had chosen to remain in Svartalfheim.
• Russell released everyone present from their contracts, and none of them chose to leave.
• Bucky admitted that he stayed partly to plead for Steve, while Natasha reported that Steve and his companions were in America and appeared to be after the Tesseract.
• Russell called on Kamar-Taj mages and asked his shadow clone to have Heimdall locate Steve, confident that Steve could not escape him.

Steve and his allies fled a Hydra raid at a California resort and headed into the desert, hoping to keep pursuing the Tesseract. Russell appeared with Bucky and the Winter Soldiers, confronting Steve and mocking his shield.

• Steve explained to Howard that he wanted to stop Hydra from taking control of Earth, while Howard agreed to help him.
• Natasha, Yelena, and the Alice Legion attacked Steve and Howard at the resort, and a battle broke out between them and the armored defenders.
• Carter and Maria joined Steve and Howard, and the four escaped south into the desert as the Alice Legion pursued them.
• Steve and Howard landed in the desert after shaking off their pursuers, but Steve realized the attack suggested Hydra knew their target was the Tesseract.
• Russell emerged through a portal with Bucky and two squads of Winter Soldiers, and told Steve that the Stars and Stripes shield did not suit him.

Russell confronted Steve and his allies after their attempted escape, capturing most of them and forcing Steve to fight. As Russell and Steve clashed, Russell claimed that his control over Hydra had saved Howard and hinted at Steve’s future, leaving Steve furious and unsettled.

• Russell arrived with Kamar-Taj mages as a Winter Soldier marked Natasha and Yelena’s location, and he mocked Steve for betraying Hydra.
• Russell exposed Bucky’s suggestion to surrender and threatened him with a five-million-word self-criticism, while Steve’s group prepared to fight.
• Natasha, Yelena, and others surrounded Steve’s group, and Howard, Maria, and Carter attempted to surrender before Russell used mental control to bring Howard and Maria into his camp.
• Carter aimed a weapon at Steve, but Steve knocked her unconscious; Russell then told Steve that the failed betrayal had helped him identify Hydra’s unstable members.
• Russell demanded that Steve fight him and caught Steve’s punches, arguing that Howard would have died without his intervention and describing Steve’s supposed future with Carter and her niece.

Russell confronted Steve over Hydra’s rule, but a Space Stone disturbance brought Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers to the battlefield. After learning they had joined Steve as The Marvels, Russell released Steve and challenged all three Captain Marvels at once.

• Steve resisted Russell’s Dark Energy and condemned Hydra’s rule as dangerous and oppressive.
• Russell sensed the Space Stone’s power and watched Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers arrive with the Tesseract.
• Russell recognized Mar-Vell and learned that Danvers was an Earthling with Kree heritage, while the narration explained how the three heroes had formed The Marvels.
• Russell questioned Steve’s trust in Mar-Vell and warned that the Supreme Intelligence could pursue the Kree hero.
• Russell flung Steve back to Mar-Vell, ordered Natasha and the others to stand down, and declared he would fight all three Captain Marvels himself.

Russell fought Steve, Mar-Vell, and Danvers, quickly knocking Danvers unconscious before clashing with Steve. He left the three Captain Marvels struggling to stop another enormous sphere of Dark Energy.

• Russell charged the three heroes and dragged Danvers across the sand before beating her unconscious.
• Steve attacked Russell while Mar-Vell revived Danvers, and Russell and Steve exchanged powerful blows in the sky.
• Russell summoned a massive Dark Energy sphere and hurled it toward Mar-Vell and Danvers, forcing Steve to intercept it.
• Mar-Vell and Danvers joined Steve to push the sphere back, but Russell detonated it remotely.
• As the heroes recovered from the blast, Russell formed another huge Dark Energy sphere and challenged them to stop it.

Steve, Danvers, and Mar-Vell fought Russell, who used the battle to master Dark Energy and defeated the two Captains. Steve returned to face Russell as he flew out of the black mist holding Danvers and Mar-Vell unconscious.

• Steve, Danvers, and Mar-Vell combined their attacks against Russell, but he absorbed their Dark Dimension energy blast and began fighting Steve to test his Dark Energy.
• Danvers and Mar-Vell joined forces to hold Russell back while Steve prepared a powerful Photon Energy attack, but Russell adapted and knocked both Captains away.
• Russell seized Mar-Vell and used him as a shield when Danvers attacked, then fought Danvers and endured her headbutt before capturing both Captains.
• Russell engulfed himself, Danvers, and Mar-Vell in a black energy sphere, then emerged from the explosion holding both Captains unconscious.
• Steve rushed back and confronted Russell, who taunted him about taking his companions.

Russell defeated Steve and the two Captains Marvel, then learned that Ronan's small Kree fleet was approaching Earth for the Tesseract. As Russell prepared to face the threat, Ronan ordered a bombardment of Mar-Vell's location to force him to surrender the cube.

• Steve surrendered to Russell to save Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers, but Russell made him shout Hydra's slogan and fight anyway.
• Russell used Carol Danvers and then Mar-Vell as weapons to knock Steve unconscious, leaving both Captains Marvel incapacitated.
• Natasha and the others arrived, and Russell ordered the Kree taken to Svartalfheim for a sentence of digging and filling pits.
• Bucky reported that Ronan's Dark Aster and three other Kree ships had entered the solar system, and Russell allowed them to approach.
• Russell removed the Space Stone from the Tesseract and placed it in the Infinity Gauntlet, then accused Mar-Vell of bringing the Kree threat to Earth.
• Ronan denied his adjutant's suggestion to honor Mar-Vell and ordered ballistic warheads launched at his location to force him to hand over the cube.

Russell used the Infinity Stones and Dark Dimension energy to destroy Ronan’s fleet after the Kree attacked Earth. Ronan fled to the planet, where Natasha and Steve stopped him before Russell captured him.

• Ronan ordered a missile strike on Earth, but Russell froze the warheads with the Space Stone and destroyed them with his black Wings of Light.
• Russell blocked the Kree fleet’s attacks with a Dark Dimension barrier and destroyed one escort ship with corrosive black mist.
• Russell used the Space Stone to trap the remaining ships and the Power Stone to disintegrate them, while Ronan teleported to Earth to escape.
• Ronan landed in the desert and was attacked by Natasha and Hydra; Steve interrupted his attempt to teleport away with a Photon Energy shockwave.
• Russell stepped on Ronan’s Universal Weapon, welcomed him to Earth, and punched him in the head.

Russell killed Ronan, put Mar-Vell, Danvers, and Steve under Hydra’s authority, and visited Kamar-Taj after humiliating them with embarrassing photos. He then began planning a magic book that would let mages use the Dark Dimension’s power, leaving him to refine spells focused on weakening and corrupting targets.

• Russell killed Ronan with a punch and had his shadow consume the Kree’s body before taking the Universal Weapon.
• Russell made The Marvels a Hydra subordinate organization tasked with countering cosmic invasions, then staged embarrassing photos of Mar-Vell, Danvers, and Steve.
• A Kamar-Taj mage explained Russell’s role as Sorcerer Supreme and his victory over Dormammu, while Russell insisted he preferred to keep his achievements quiet.
• Russell searched Kamar-Taj’s library and planned to distribute Dark Dimension energy to mages through a new magic book.
• Russell considered which spells to include, favoring effects such as corrosion, degeneration, hallucinations, weakness, and withering.

Russell completed a Dark Dimension magic compendium whose spells proved far safer than expected, earning acclaim from Kamar-Taj. Back at Hydra Base in Wakanda, he rewarded loyal members, confronted the four who had betrayed the organization, and arranged a humiliating video of Howard to send to Tony Stark.

• Russell finished his Dark Dimension Magic Compendium and gave it to Ding Yi to test among Kamar-Taj's sorcerers.
• Ding Yi found Russell's spells made Dark Dimension energy far less harmful, and Kamar-Taj sorcerers praised Russell and began learning the magic.
• Russell held a Hydra meeting in Wakanda, rewarded Yelena with a Regeneration Factor, enhanced Natasha's potential, and gave Bucky the Kree weapon.
• Russell confronted Steve Rogers, Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, and Maria Stark over their betrayal, then offered Howard a chance to earn forgiveness.
• Russell had Bucky and two Winter Soldiers stage a bloody-looking video of brushing Howard's teeth, then ordered it sent to Tony Stark.

Russell’s work in the Marvel Universe settled into a routine as he developed magical tools and waited for a new mission world. The thirteenth world began with Russell facing a possessed girl in a crowded apartment building, and he prepared to confront the evil spirit.

• Russell sentenced Howard to fifty years confined to Hydra’s Svartalfheim base and arranged for Maria to see Tony once a year from afar.
• Russell established hyperspace gates at bases in Wakanda, Mars, and Svartalfheim, then created a limited supply of Dark Dimension Black Gems for Hydra members.
• Russell revised the Dark Dimension Magic Compendium, gave Natasha and Yelena two Black Gems each, and eventually received notice that his thirteenth mission world was beginning.
• Russell appeared in a crowded apartment building, where a young man had hired him to exorcise a girl for five hundred dollars.
• Russell entered the bedroom, found the girl tied to her bed and possessed by an evil spirit, and challenged the spirit to die.

Russell exorcised a demon, met John Constantine in Los Angeles, and returned to Gotham City to find his detective agency in ruins and a large debt awaiting him. After paying the principal, he used telepathy to make the debt collector arrange renovations, just as another group arrived to confront him.

• Russell drove the demon out of the girl and destroyed it, then accepted five hundred dollars from her grateful family.
• Russell met John Constantine, rejected his offer of friendship, and left for Gotham City while Constantine bribed the young man for Russell's details.
• Russell discovered that his detective agency was a dilapidated, doorless office in an unfinished building, with a business card advertising an absurd range of services.
• A debt collector arrived with seven men, and Russell paid the one-hundred-thousand-dollar principal with a credit card.
• Russell pointed a Desert Eagle at the debt collector and used telepathy to order him to renovate the agency within three days.
• Another group arrived, and Russell realized they could give him a ride.

Russell settled the original owner's debts, took over the renovation of his family building, and adopted a mysterious cat that could survive impossible falls. After finally heading out to find Batman, he returned alone and transformed the Green Goblin equipment into a black-and-red Deathstroke-style suit, preparing to venture out again.

• Russell used his psychic powers and persuasive talk to deal with the original owner's creditors, paying off the debts and borrowing enough to leave himself with five million dollars.
• The creditors pooled money to restart construction on Russell's building, and Russell hired an assistant and spent his days relaxing on the rooftop with a newly adopted cat.
• After three days of delaying his search for Batman to pet the cat, Russell went out at night but found neither Batman nor the cat when he returned.
• The cat appeared unharmed despite apparently jumping from the fifteenth floor, leading Russell to suspect it was more than an ordinary cat.
• Russell used the Green Goblin Suit item card, recolored and reshaped the armor into a black-and-red Deathstroke-style suit, and prepared to head out.

Russell followed a mysterious cat through Gotham and found it visiting a young woman, then encountered Batman and challenged him. Their fight began with Russell forcing Batman to one knee and cutting through his forearm blades.

• Russell followed the cat across Gotham and watched it reject cheap food offered by a young woman in an apartment.
• Batman attacked Russell with Bat-Darts, and Russell caught them before flying to an abandoned warehouse.
• Russell introduced himself to Batman as Deathstroke and said he was a Gotham local, but Batman questioned his conduct and demanded he remove his mask.
• Russell’s glider shorted out, and he blamed Batman for the damage before drawing his Adamantium Blade and attacking.
• Batman blocked Russell’s strike with blades from his forearm guard, but Russell’s force drove him to one knee and began cutting through the blades.

Russell fought Batman in a Gotham warehouse, revealing that his armor absorbed electricity while keeping some of his abilities hidden. Batman escaped in the Batmobile, but Russell caught him again and asked to take a photo together.

• Batman used electricity against Russell, who confirmed his armor could absorb it and charged his blade with lightning.
• Batman attacked Russell with smoke, gas, Batarangs, explosives, and Bat-Darts, but Russell blocked the attacks and struck him with a kick.
• Batman summoned a swarm of bats and fled in the Batmobile, but Russell leaped onto the car and pursued him.
• Russell deflected the Batmobile’s cannon fire, tore open its armor, and cut Batman off from his flying escape route.
• Russell grabbed Batman by the throat, held his Adamantium Blade before Batman’s face, and asked to take a photo together.

Russell defeated Batman, exposed him as Bruce Wayne, and took compromising photos before escaping. Bruce identified Russell as the masked Deathstroke and began preparing to confront him, while investigating the changes in Russell’s life after his return from Los Angeles.

• Russell overwhelmed Batman, stripped away his armor, and photographed him in strawberry boxer briefs before removing his helmet and recognizing Bruce Wayne.
• Russell escaped after Bruce tracked him, then noticed the surveillance and switched to traveling through the sewers.
• Bruce returned to Wayne Manor, ordered Alfred to acquire materials for an upgraded suit, and used money to speed up delivery.
• The Batcomputer matched Deathstroke to Russell, and Bruce recalled that Russell had borrowed fifty million dollars from him.
• Bruce asked Alfred about Russell’s recent activities and confirmed that they still had the loan contract.

Bruce Wayne visited Russell to question him about his powers and plans as Deathstroke, then threatened legal action over a damaged glider. The two parted on hostile terms, with Bruce demanding repayment and Russell suspecting Batman had planted a bug.

• Russell made his assistant lose her job for prioritizing Bruce Wayne, but Bruce offered her a position at Wayne Group.
• Bruce confronted Russell about his powers and warned him not to cause trouble in Gotham; Russell demonstrated his ability by restoring a scrapped glider with a hammer.
• Bruce and Russell argued over whether Russell’s childhood dream was to become a superhero, while Bruce dismissed his claims as lies.
• Bruce presented Russell with loan contracts totaling fifty million dollars and argued that Russell could not bill Bruce Wayne for damage Batman had caused.
• Russell countered that Deathstroke could post Batman’s nude photos without Russell being responsible, and Bruce threatened to take him to court over the debt.
• After Bruce left, Russell searched the room, suspecting Batman had planted a listening device.