Recaps

After the Do As You Please System gave Chu Men the Peak Homelander template, he slaughtered Joker and the inmates attacking him in Arkham Asylum. He left the second basement level as riot police surrounded the asylum, while Commissioner Gordon demanded that everyone inside surrender.

• The Do As You Please System activated beginner protection and integrated the Peak Homelander template into Chu Men as Joker prepared to strike him.
• Chu Men snapped his restraints, caught Joker's crowbar, and crushed Joker's head when he tried to flee.
• When the inmates attacked Chu Men, he killed them with heat vision and destroyed much of the second basement level.
• Chu Men crushed the security office radio and tore open the blast door, while a surviving guard reported the massacre to GCPD.
• More than a hundred riot police surrounded Arkham Asylum, and Commissioner Gordon ordered everyone inside to surrender.

Chu Men escaped Arkham Asylum, declared himself Homelander, and began asserting his power in Gotham. After killing several thugs and letting others flee to spread fear, he unlocked the Biochemical Field.

• Chu Men tore through Arkham's steel doors and flew away, leaving Gordon and the police stunned.
• Chu Men washed off the blood in a lake, decided to find food and clothes, and headed toward Gotham.
• Batman arrived at Arkham and entered the asylum after Gordon told him he was late.
• Five thugs confronted Chu Men in an East End alley; he killed two and frightened the others into fleeing.
• Chu Men put on a leather jacket and unlocked the Biochemical Field, which repelled water and dust from his body.

Chu Men stormed into the Iceberg Lounge, overpowered Penguin and his gunmen, and claimed the lounge as his own. He began feasting while Penguin knelt, but Chu Men killed a bodyguard who dropped a gun.

• Chu Men entered the Iceberg Lounge after shrugging off bullets and killing the four guards at the entrance.
• He ignored Penguin’s gunmen as their bullets stopped around him, then flew to the second floor and severed Penguin’s arm with Heat Vision.
• Penguin submitted, ordered the hall cleared, and knelt before Chu Men as staff prepared a lavish meal.
• Chu Men ate and drank while reflecting on his new life of wealth and power.
• When a bodyguard dropped his pistol, Chu Men killed him with Heat Vision.

Batman investigated the massacre at Arkham and suspected Superman after finding evidence of heat vision, while Chu Men took over the Iceberg Lounge and ignored Penguin’s schemes. Penguin plotted to turn Gotham’s authorities and underworld against Chu Men, then summoned Lark, Jay, and Raven to kill him.

• Batman found Joker dead and Arkham’s second basement level destroyed, then collected evidence and questioned a terrified guard.
• Batman searched for Superman’s heat vision records and considered him a suspect in the massacre.
• Chu Men relaxed at the Iceberg Lounge while Penguin learned that Chu Men had killed everyone on Arkham’s second basement level and crushed Joker’s head.
• Penguin arranged to leak surveillance footage to the GCPD and Batman and spread a rumor about secret information on Superman to lure more enemies to the lounge.
• Penguin summoned Lark, Jay, and Raven, and Lark questioned whether they were meant to kill Chu Men while he was having sex.

Penguin sent Lark, Jay, and Raven to assassinate Chu Men with poison-coated blades, but Chu Men stopped them with his Bio-electric Force Field and overpowered them. After his system reported that his force field had strengthened, Chu Men dressed and headed down toward Penguin's hidden room.

• Penguin told Lark, Jay, and Raven that their poisoned blades could kill Chu Men and promised them an East District Dock smuggling route if they succeeded.
• Lark, Jay, and Raven broke into Chu Men's suite and attacked him from three directions while he was in bed.
• Chu Men froze the assassins with his Force Field, snapped Lark's knife, and spotted Penguin watching through a hidden camera.
• Chu Men overpowered the three women and, two hours later, received a system message that his Bio-electric Force Field had grown stronger.
• Chu Men dressed in black and entered the elevator as Penguin watched him descend toward the hidden room.

Chu Men broke into Penguin’s secure room, branded him as a slave, and claimed his assets and territory while allowing him to manage them for a tiny share of the earnings. Penguin secretly vowed revenge, and the news shook Gotham’s underworld as Gordon received Arkham footage and an address.

• Chu Men forced open Penguin’s blast door, burned a slave brand into his forehead, and made him surrender control of his operations.
• Penguin agreed to give Chu Men his assets, territories, and forces in exchange for managing them and keeping 0.1 percent of each day’s earnings.
• After Chu Men left, Penguin seethed with humiliation and hoped the information he had sent would bring the GCPD, Blackgate inmates, and other threats against him.
• News of Chu Men’s takeover spread through Gotham, prompting rival factions to pull back and order their men to avoid the Iceberg Lounge.
• Gordon studied an anonymous encrypted email containing Arkham security footage and an address.

Chu Men crushed Gordon’s police force outside the Iceberg Lounge and flew back inside, demonstrating that Gotham’s laws and weapons could not stop him. Batman watched the confrontation and began searching for a weakness that could bring Chu Men down.

• Gordon surrounded the Iceberg Lounge with hundreds of officers and ordered Chu Men to surrender.
• Chu Men jumped from the balcony, landed on a police car, and walked through a barrage of bullets unharmed.
• Chu Men crushed three armored vehicles into metal balls, warned the officers that his word was law, and flew back to the Lounge.
• Batman analyzed Chu Men’s powers and concluded that Gotham’s police and firearms were useless against him.
• Batman compared Chu Men with the red-caped figure from Metropolis and glided away to investigate possible weaknesses.

At the Daily Planet, Clark Kent learned that a superpowered killer had slaughtered Arkham inmates and subdued Gotham’s crime bosses, using abilities that resembled his own. Clark recognized the destructive energy and decided he could no longer stay out of Bruce Wayne’s territory.

• Lois Lane showed Perry White and the newsroom leaked images of a red-eyed attacker at Arkham and outside the Iceberg Lounge.
• Lois reported that no one survived Arkham, Joker was dead, and Penguin had surrendered control of the East End.
• Clark examined the images and recognized the attacker’s heat vision and force-field energy as power from the same source as his own.
• Clark secretly listened to reports from Gotham, confirming that the attacker had terrorized its gangs, guards, and police.
• Clark left the newsroom for the rooftop, removed his disguise, and resolved to confront the killer rather than let the violence tarnish his symbol.

Chu Men demonstrated his power by killing Frank and three East End bosses from the Iceberg Lounge restaurant, forcing Penguin to pledge his crews to him. After learning Penguin had lured Superman to Gotham, Chu Men accepted the plan and unlocked Toxin Immunity.

• Penguin told Chu Men that seventy percent of the East End crews had switched allegiance, while Maroni and Falcone veterans remained beyond his control.
• Frank and his enforcers stormed the Iceberg Lounge, killed a guard, and demanded that Penguin come out.
• Chu Men used red beams from his eyes to kill Frank and three neighborhood bosses through six floors of the building.
• Penguin's subordinate reported the killings, and Penguin knelt before Chu Men, pledging the East End crews to him.
• Chu Men revealed that he knew Penguin had spread word about top-secret information on the alien in Metropolis to lure Superman to Gotham, and said he welcomed the guest.
• Chu Men received a system notice that he had established a fledgling tyrant's rule and unlocked Toxin Immunity.

Chu Men tested his new poison immunity, then flew to Gotham’s clock tower and waited for Batman. Batman confronted him with a synthetic Kryptonite weapon, but it had no effect, and Chu Men prepared to attack.

• Chu Men learned that his new passive ability made him immune to poisons and launched himself from the restaurant balcony into the storm.
• Chu Men perched on a Gargoyle above Gotham and waited for Superman, then noticed Batman approaching.
• Batman secretly analyzed Chu Men before confronting him and ordering him to leave Gotham.
• Batman aimed a synthetic Kryptonite ray at Chu Men, but Chu Men remained unaffected because his powers did not come from Krypton.
• Chu Men mocked Batman’s weapon, rose from the cracking Gargoyle, and said Batman talked too much before a blast erupted.

Chu Men effortlessly defeated Batman in the clock tower, shrugging off his weapons and gadgets while Batman tried to escape. He let the battered Batman crawl into the sewers and flew away, leaving their confrontation unresolved.

• Chu Men smashed through Batman’s Kryptonite beam and struck him hard enough to wreck his armor and break his arms.
• Batman used lead smoke and high-frequency emitters to cover his escape, but Chu Men melted the emitters and walked through the smoke.
• Batman froze Chu Men’s legs with a Liquid Nitrogen Grenade and threw electrified Batarangs, but Chu Men shattered the ice and crushed the weapons.
• Batman overloaded the clock tower’s searchlight and escaped through a stained-glass window while Chu Men remained unharmed.
• Chu Men burned Batman’s cape as Batman opened a sewer manhole and dragged himself inside.
• Chu Men chose not to pursue Batman and flew away through the clock tower’s roof.

Bruce returned to the Batcave gravely injured after Chu Men defeated him, then analyzed the fight and concluded that Chu Men was a chemically altered, nearly invulnerable threat. He ordered surveillance of Metropolis, fearing Chu Men would come to Gotham and clash with another superhuman there.

• Bruce reached the Batcave, where Alfred treated his broken arm, broken ribs, and bleeding wounds without calling an outside doctor.
• Bruce reviewed his helmet footage and found that Chu Men had resisted the Synthetic Kryptonite Ray, physical attacks, electricity, and extreme temperatures.
• Bruce compared Chu Men's apparent genetic mutations with a sample from Joker's corpse and concluded that a powerful chemical compound had altered him.
• Bruce and Alfred assessed Chu Men as selfish, bloodthirsty, and amused by treating Gotham as his playground.
• Bruce ordered long-range acoustic surveillance of Metropolis because he feared Chu Men might go there and a superhuman fight could devastate Gotham.

Penguin recruited Black Mask and Two-Face to hire Deathstroke to kill Chu Men, while Chu Men held court at a yacht gathering in the East End. Deathstroke took position at an abandoned dock and watched the gathering through a night-vision scope.

• Penguin told Black Mask and Two-Face that Chu Men had defeated Batman and proposed hiring Deathstroke for three hundred million dollars.
• Two-Face agreed to contribute, and Black Mask arranged the payment and contacted Slade.
• Deathstroke accepted the contract and told Penguin he planned to use nerve toxin to kill Chu Men.
• Penguin planned an escape route in case Deathstroke failed and vowed to take revenge on Chu Men.
• Chu Men attended a yacht gathering with Lark, Jay, and Raven as Gotham mob bosses watched nervously.
• Slade lay on a crane at an abandoned East End dock and aimed a night-vision scope toward the yacht.

Slade ambushed Chu Men with a poisoned depleted uranium bullet, but Chu Men’s Force Field stopped it and he crossed two thousand meters to intercept Slade in midair. Slade’s sword shattered against Chu Men’s neck, leaving Slade helpless before him.

• Slade fired a poisoned armor-piercing bullet at Chu Men from a crane, but Chu Men’s Force Field crushed it before it could reach him.
• Chu Men spotted Slade, unleashed his Bio-electric Field, and flew from the yacht toward the sniper’s position.
• Slade abandoned his glider and attacked Chu Men with the Prometheus Broadsword during free fall.
• Chu Men’s neck broke Slade’s sword, and he asked whether that was all the strength Slade had.

Chu Men crushed Deathstroke’s attack and held the mercenary by the throat until Superman arrived at the dock. Penguin celebrated Superman’s arrival, while Bruce Wayne monitored the confrontation and feared the destruction it could cause.

• Chu Men caught Slade’s bullet, drove him through three crane supports, and disabled him as Slade’s weapons and attacks failed.
• Chu Men asked Slade who had hired him and tightened his grip as Slade struggled to breathe.
• Superman descended onto the dock with a shock wave and ordered Chu Men to stop.
• Penguin watched the confrontation from the Iceberg Lounge and celebrated, expecting Superman to defeat Chu Men.
• Bruce Wayne ordered the Batcave to activate every backup satellite and monitored the two men as Superman confronted Chu Men.

Chu Men killed Deathstroke in front of Superman, prompting Clark to confront him above Gotham’s docks. Their first clash shook the coastline, and Clark held back to protect bystanders as Chu Men noticed his distraction.

• Chu Men snapped Deathstroke’s neck despite Clark ordering him to let the mercenary go, then declared that his word was law.
• Penguin realized he had provoked a ruthless tyrant, while Bruce Wayne saw Deathstroke’s vital-sign waveform go flat in the Batcave.
• Clark erupted in anger and confronted Chu Men as Lark, Jay, and the others watched from the Yacht.
• Chu Men challenged Clark’s right to tell him what to do, and Clark flew at him with a punch.
• Chu Men met Clark’s fist with his own, unleashing a shockwave that shattered windows and swept across the Yacht; Clark pulled back to protect people nearby, and Chu Men taunted him for being distracted.

Chu Men brutally overpowered Clark at the dock, taunting him for holding back to protect bystanders. Clark finally abandoned his restraint and rose into the air, preparing to fight at full strength as Chu Men welcomed the challenge.

• Chu Men dodged Clark's charge, grabbed his cape, and slammed him into the dock before stomping his Heat Vision back and battering him through abandoned warehouses.
• Bruce Wayne watched the fight in the Batcave and concluded that Superman would lose, while Penguin panicked after seeing Tyrant overwhelm him.
• Chu Men mocked Clark for protecting bystanders and argued that power was the rule, then struck him into a warehouse wall and buried him in rubble.
• Clark emerged from the debris, acknowledged that he no longer needed to hold back, and rose into the air as his power intensified.
• Chu Men lit his eyes with red light and urged Clark to show his full strength as thunder rolled overhead.

At the docks, Clark nearly overwhelmed Chu Men with Heat Vision, but Chu Men unlocked a Silver Age Superman Physique Fragment and turned the fight around. Clark was blasted through several buildings and buried beneath a collapsed structure.

• Clark and Chu Men clashed with their Heat Vision, and Clark gradually forced the beam boundary toward Chu Men.
• Bruce Wayne suspected Chu Men was waiting for something, while Penguin celebrated as Clark appeared to gain the upper hand.
• Clark weakened his attack out of compassion, but Chu Men provoked him into unleashing his full power.
• As Clark's Heat Vision engulfed him, Chu Men unlocked a Silver Age Superman Physique Fragment (10%), warping the space around him.
• Chu Men unleashed dark-crimson Heat Vision that broke through Clark's beam and hurled him through three buildings into the foundations of a fourth.
• Chu Men stood at the docks as his new power faded from his eyes and crackled between his fingers.

After gaining a fragment of a Silver Age Superman physique, Chu Men overwhelmed Clark and used the civilians aboard a ferry to force him to endure a deadly Heat Vision attack. Clark remained between the beams and the ferry as his strength and consciousness began to fail.

• Chu Men emerged with ten percent of a Silver Age Superman physique fragment, while Clark rose from the ruins and focused on the passenger ferry nearby.
• Bruce watched from the Batcave as Superman’s vital signs fell and Chu Men’s energy exceeded the computer’s limits, while Penguin fled toward his helipad to escape Gotham.
• Chu Men accused Clark of endangering the ferry’s passengers and fired Heat Vision at the vessel to test Clark’s limits.
• Clark intercepted the beams and took their full force on his back, shielding the ferry and its hundreds of passengers.
• Chu Men taunted Clark for letting his morality make him vulnerable as the beams burned him, and Clark’s strength and consciousness began to fade.

Chu Men publicly crushed Superman and shattered the world’s faith in him, then unlocked a power that could enslave the souls of those whose wills had collapsed. He decided that turning Superman into his servant would humiliate justice more than killing him, and lifted the unconscious hero by the hair.

• Chu Men blasted Clark off the ferry and drove him into a crater on the shore.
• Chu Men pinned Clark down and broke his chest while Lois Lane and Jimmy broadcast the beating to the world.
• Bruce Wayne watched the broadcast, healed his injuries with a syringe, and headed deeper into the armory.
• Penguin saw Superman being crushed on television and fainted as he realized he had nowhere to run.
• Clark grabbed Chu Men’s calf to stop him from attacking Lois, and Chu Men paused before preparing to kill Clark.
• The System announced that Chu Men had unlocked Spiritual Imprint, and Chu Men chose to enslave Clark rather than make him a martyr.

Batman used a gravity-field missile and the Batwing to rescue Clark from Chu Men, who deliberately let them escape so he could prolong the conflict. Chu Men taunted the world on live television, leaving the people of Metropolis and Gotham terrified and despairing.

• Bruce fired the Batwing's Miniature Gravity Field Generator at Chu Men, but the gravity field failed to make him bend.
• Bruce sent cables from the Batwing to pull Clark away, and Chu Men chose to release him.
• Alfred told Bruce that Chu Men had let them take Clark as the Batwing escaped into the clouds.
• Chu Men dismissed the fleeing heroes as rats, then raised his middle finger at Jimmy's camera before the helicopter fled.
• The broadcast of Chu Men taunting the world stunned the crowd in Times Square as panic spread.
• Gordon watched armed officers tremble on the Gotham Police Department roof and silently accepted that Gotham was not the only thing finished.

Chu Men seized control of Gotham’s underworld after capturing its rival bosses and killing them in the Iceberg Lounge. He left Lark in charge of the gangs and their profits under his rule.

• After the storm, Chu Men returned to the yacht, and Lark ordered the captain to head back to port.
• Lark stopped Penguin from escaping the Iceberg Lounge, while Gotham’s underworld figures gathered and knelt in the lobby.
• Chu Men broke into Black Mask’s safe house and captured Roman Sionis, then pulled Harvey Dent from his armored vehicle.
• Chu Men brought Black Mask and Two-Face to the Iceberg Lounge, where Penguin blamed them for hiring Deathstroke to kill Chu Men.
• Chu Men burned Penguin, Black Mask, and Two-Face to death in front of the kneeling gang leaders.
• Chu Men declared that only his rules would govern Gotham, demanded 99 percent of the gangs’ business profits, and appointed Lark to take over.

Lark forced Gotham’s crime bosses to sign contracts recognizing Chu Men as their ruler, while Commissioner Gordon ordered police to avoid the Iceberg Lounge. As news of Chu Men’s defeat of Superman spread worldwide, Lex Luthor declared that LexCorp would remove the threat, drawing Chu Men’s interest.

• Lark killed a gang boss who challenged the contract, then watched as Carmine and the other crime bosses signed their names and left the Iceberg Lounge.
• Gordon learned that Chu Men had taken control of Gotham’s underworld and ordered patrol officers to withdraw from the East End and avoid the Iceberg Lounge.
• Chu Men watched news broadcasts replaying his defeat of Superman and asked Jay to bring him a late-night meal.
• Lex Luthor announced that LexCorp would protect humanity and described Chu Men as a threat to be removed.
• Chu Men heard Luthor’s declaration, chuckled, and called it interesting.

Lex Luthor analyzed Chu Men’s battle with Superman and became obsessed with the mutant’s mid-fight evolution. He decided to travel to Gotham and meet Chu Men, the city’s new king.

• Mercy Graves told Lex Luthor that his speech had broken ratings records and that government officials wanted access to LexCorp’s defense technology.
• Lex ordered Mercy to project footage and data from Gotham, then studied Chu Men’s confrontation with the police and the city’s crime bosses.
• Lex examined Chu Men’s clash with Superman and identified a sudden spatial distortion that appeared to change Chu Men’s power.
• Lex decided to investigate how Chu Men had evolved, hoping to apply the mechanism to humanity or LexCorp’s armor.
• Lex told Mercy to prepare gifts so he could go to Gotham and meet Chu Men.

The Oracle Stone showed Diana a mysterious man crushing Clark, and the seer Philippa warned that he was outside the Fates’ design. Diana armed herself with Magic-Breaker and flew toward Gotham, where a LexCorp plane carrying a bald man was headed as well.

• The Oracle Stone projected an image of a pale man brutally pinning Clark, and Philippa failed to trace his origins before warning that his fate was blank.
• Diana told Hippolyta she would go to the human world, arguing that Clark had lost because he held back.
• Diana entrusted Themyscira’s defense to Artemis and took Magic-Breaker from the Temple of Ares.
• Diana left the island without saying goodbye to Hippolyta, and Philippa warned that even the gods were afraid.
• Diana spotted a LexCorp plane carrying a bald man bound for Gotham and followed its route toward the city.