Recaps

Chu Men learned that Gotham’s gangs had submitted to his rule and heard that Lex Luthor wanted to meet him, while Lex arrived in Gotham intending to recruit him. Diana tracked Lex’s convoy and then headed for the Iceberg Lounge to confront Chu Men.

• Lark reported that Gotham’s gangs had paid Chu Men, surrendered territory, and were helping carry out the East Side Renovation Plan.
• Chu Men asked whether anyone had rebelled, then learned that a LexCorp agent had repeatedly requested an audience and sent a letter of intent.
• Lex Luthor arrived in Gotham with Mercy Graves and decided to meet Chu Men in person, believing he could offer him a new challenge.
• Diana watched Lex’s convoy pass, questioned Falcone Family lookouts about Chu Men’s whereabouts, and leaped toward the Iceberg Lounge.

Clark woke in the Batcave and learned that Lois was safe, while Bruce warned him that Gotham was under military lockdown and Chu Men had gained the gangs’ support. Diana arrived near Gotham with a sword she believed could pierce Chu Men’s defenses, leaving her preparing to confront him.

• Alfred told Bruce that Clark’s injuries were healing unusually slowly, and Clark woke from a nightmare about Chu Men.
• Bruce assured Clark that Lois had survived, then showed him the military’s preparations around Gotham and Lex Luthor’s efforts to court Chu Men.
• Diana contacted Bruce and reported that Themyscira’s Oracle Stone had shattered after a magical barrier was disturbed.
• Bruce sent Diana his data on Chu Men and warned her about his bio-electric field and an unknown explosive ability.
• Diana drew Magic-Breaker at the abandoned Stark Weather Station and declared she would use it to cut through Chu Men’s defenses.

Lex Luthor sent Mercy Graves to deliver Chu Men a gift meant to win his favor, including a holographic analysis of Chu Men’s fight with Superman. Chu Men dismissed the first two gifts but was intrigued by the data and asked to meet Mercy.

• Lex Luthor prepared a gold KING plaque, a deed to Gotham’s three main power plants, and a cylinder containing data from Chu Men’s battle with Superman.
• Mercy Graves brought the gifts to the Iceberg Lounge, where Lark confronted her and eventually carried the lockbox upstairs to Chu Men.
• Chu Men crushed the gold plaque and dismissed the power-plant deed as useless.
• Chu Men watched the hologram reveal a spatial curvature anomaly and energy surge during his fight with Superman.
• Chu Men told Lark to bring Mercy upstairs so he could hear Lex Luthor’s proposal.

After Chu Men defeated Superman, Amanda Waller rejected nuclear force and negotiations as ways to stop him. She secured approval for Task Force X and ordered four Belle Reve inmates sent to Gotham within seventy-two hours.

• Government officials argued over whether to attack, negotiate with, or avoid Chu Men, while Waller dismissed each option.
• Waller presented Task Force X—Alpha, naming Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, King Shark, and Harleen Quinzel as specialized assets.
• The White House envoy approved Waller's plan, and Waller warned that she had a Plan B if the team failed.
• Waller ordered Belle Reve's warden to implant the four inmates with nanobombs, equip them, and transport them to Gotham within seventy-two hours.

Diana entered Gotham’s lawless East End and found the streets ruled by fear under the Tyrant. After confronting the gangsters and sensing a blank presence at the Iceberg Lounge, she discovered Gotham’s poorest residents already worshipping the Tyrant.

• Diana watched repeated footage of Clark being pinned beneath Chu Men and resolved not to hold back.
• Diana rescued a shopkeeper from Falcone Family enforcers and demanded to know where their new king was.
• Diana leaped to a rooftop and sensed no spiritual trace of anyone on the Iceberg Lounge’s top floor.
• Diana found homeless people kneeling before graffiti of red eyes and praying to the Tyrant for forgiveness.

Lex Luthor offered Chu Men a partnership to study his power and establish a new world order, but Chu Men rejected him and attacked. Luthor activated a personal energy shield and threatened to destroy LexCorp’s databases if he died, but Chu Men began crushing the shield.

• Lark stopped Macy outside the conference room and let Lex Luthor enter alone.
• Luthor presented his analysis of Chu Men’s power and offered LexCorp’s resources in exchange for studying him.
• Chu Men rejected Luthor’s proposal and lifted him by the throat.
• Luthor activated his S.H.I.E.L.D. energy generator and threatened to destroy LexCorp’s databases if he died.
• Chu Men ignored the threat and began crushing the shield with his hand.

Chu Men discovered that Luthor had surrounded the Iceberg Lounge with a heavily armed LexCorp force and superhuman mercenaries. He carried Luthor outside to face the army, preparing to test its weapons.

• Chu Men sensed the military forces and superhuman mercenaries surrounding the Iceberg Lounge, while Luthor's wrist terminal signaled that they were in position.
• Lark told Chu Men an army had arrived, and he dismissed its equipment and mercenaries as unimpressive.
• Chu Men carried Luthor through a shattered window and hovered above the lounge as the force below targeted them.
• The army ordered Chu Men to release Luthor, who regained awareness and believed his private army had restored his advantage.
• Chu Men laughed at Luthor's confidence, raised him before the assembled force, and prepared to see whether its weapons could hurt him.

Chu Men slaughtered LexCorp’s forces while holding Luthor, surviving their weapons with an invisible force field and devastating the streets with his eye beams and brute strength. He left the attack ongoing as he strolled through the fleeing mercenaries, tearing them apart.

• LexCorp’s commander demanded that Chu Men release Luthor, but Chu Men vaporized an electricity-wielding mercenary and sliced an armored vehicle apart.
• LexCorp’s troops opened fire with helicopters, missiles, guns, and lasers, but Chu Men’s force field stopped the barrage and protected Luthor.
• Chu Men destroyed armored vehicles and superhuman barriers with his eye beams, then dropped into the crowd while still holding Luthor.
• Mercury charged Chu Men, who shattered Mercury’s metal spear and killed him with a punch.
• Chu Men crushed a mech with a kick and tore through mercenaries as he strolled down the street.

Chu Men slaughtered Luthor’s mercenaries in Gotham’s East End and kept Luthor alive. Bruce stopped the wounded Clark from confronting him, while Diana chose to retreat and seek allies, and Chu Men noticed her leaving.

• Chu Men destroyed a helicopter, then hunted down the fleeing mercenaries and killed them across three blocks.
• Chu Men kept Luthor alive and forced him to breathe as he surveyed the slaughter.
• Bruce refused to release the injured Clark from the Medical Pod, arguing that he needed to recover and they needed to find Chu Men’s weakness.
• Diana realized she could not defeat Chu Men alone, abandoned her plan to attack, and left to seek help from Clark and Bruce.
• Chu Men noticed Diana retreating and smiled while holding Luthor.

Chu Men used a Spiritual Imprint to make Lex Luthor his devoted servant, then entered the Iceberg Lounge. Luthor returned to his corporate role and ordered LexCorp to clean up the East End and cover up the destruction.

• Chu Men rejected Luthor’s offer of political and corporate power, declaring that a god was the law.
• Chu Men used a Spiritual Imprint to erase Luthor’s former ambitions and make him worship and obey Chu Men.
• Luthor crawled to Chu Men’s feet, kissed his boot, and pledged LexCorp and his life to him.
• Chu Men told Luthor to bring him more entertainment next time and ordered him to clean up the area before entering the lounge.
• Luthor ordered Macy to contact Metropolis Headquarters, dispatch a cleanup crew to the East End, and spread a cover story blaming the explosions on aging gas lines.

After Chu Men’s destruction of LexCorp’s forces in Gotham, the government concealed the attack while the poor began worshipping him. Lex Luthor embraced the massacre as a religious “baptism” and ordered LexCorp to turn Chu Men into a global icon, leaving Macy horrified as the campaign began.

• The president ordered officials to blame the Gotham explosions on a gas pipeline accident and avoid provoking the being in Gotham.
• Homeless people and residents of the slums watched the massacre video and hailed Chu Men as a god.
• Macy warned Lex Luthor that the video had spread worldwide and that fanatics were forming communities around Chu Men.
• Luthor rejected Macy’s objections, declared Chu Men his master, and called LexCorp’s defeat a baptism for the world.
• Luthor ordered LexCorp to spend a billion dollars promoting the video and targeting the desperate with a campaign called “Purging Evil.”

Bruce, Diana, and Clark assessed Chu Men’s power and the growing public worship of him, then began organizing an alliance to oppose him. Clark flew into space to seek strength from the sun, while Bruce and Diana split up to recruit allies; Amanda Waller watched footage of Chu Men’s massacre at A.R.G.U.S.

• Bruce concluded that Lex was being controlled by Chu Men after learning that Lex was promoting him as a savior.
• Diana reported that Chu Men had no apparent weakness and that neither she nor Clark could withstand him.
• Bruce showed Diana and Clark how Chu Men’s massacre had inspired worshippers and how Lex had been enslaved.
• Bruce proposed an alliance of people with special abilities and identified Barry Allen and Arthur Curry as potential recruits.
• Clark tore free of the Medical Pod and flew into space to seek help from the sun, while Bruce and Diana set out to recruit allies.
• Amanda Waller watched high-definition footage of Chu Men killing Lex’s private army at the A.R.G.U.S. command center.

Amanda Waller and A.R.G.U.S. realized they had no way to stop Chu Men after their analysis showed Task Force X could neither kill him nor survive him. The chapter ended with Waller admitting defeat and hoping the captured agents would not expose the agency or bring Chu Men to Washington.

• An analyst reported that Task Force X had no chance against Chu Men and that the mission would end in total annihilation.
• Waller ordered the communications officer to recall Deadshot and the other agents, but their signal had been jammed.
• Waller refused to detonate the agents' nanobombs, warning that their A.R.G.U.S. implants could expose the agency and provoke Chu Men.
• The chief of staff urged Waller to activate Plan B, but she revealed that the red-skull file contained only blank paper and had been a political ruse.
• Waller declared A.R.G.U.S. out of the fight and hoped the four agents would die without leading Chu Men to Washington.

Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark tried to flee after seeing the destruction caused by Gotham’s King, but Harley Quinn forced them to join her revenge plot against him. The chapter ended with the four criminals planning their attack while Chu Men relaxed in the Iceberg Lounge penthouse.

• Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark saw the aftermath of the massacre near the Iceberg Lounge and decided to escape.
• Harley Quinn blocked their way with a stolen signal jammer that could suppress the control signal to their Nano Bombs.
• Harley threatened to disable the jammer unless the three joined her mission to avenge the Joker, forcing them to agree.
• Deadshot studied a map and said the team would get Harley close to the King of Gotham, while she would handle the killing herself.
• Chu Men reclined in the Iceberg Lounge penthouse as Jay and Lark attended to him.

Floyd led Harley, Nanaue, and Dig into the Iceberg Lounge to attack Chu Men, but Chu Men had detected them and let them enter his trap. As Chu Men’s crushing force pinned the team down, Harley advanced toward him and Floyd seized the distraction.

• Floyd led Harley, Nanaue, and Dig through a ventilation shaft toward the Iceberg Lounge’s top floor.
• Chu Men detected the intruders with his Super Hearing and ordered Lark to move the hidden guards upstairs, leaving the lower floors empty.
• Floyd recognized the empty corridor as a trap and ordered the team to retreat, but Harley rushed ahead and the others followed her to the suite.
• Harley smashed through the suite’s doors, where Chu Men’s force field knocked Floyd, Dig, and Nanaue to the floor.
• Harley resisted the force field and swung her bat at Chu Men as a vicious glint flashed in Floyd’s eyes.

Chu Men defeated Harley Quinn, broke her will, and used a Spiritual Imprint to make her devoted to him. He led her downstairs to watch as Floyd, Dig, and Nanaue were pinned down by hundreds of mob gunmen.

• Floyd stole the jammer from Harley and fled with Dig and Nanaue, leaving her behind.
• Harley attacked Chu Men with a venom-coated dagger, but the blade shattered and its fragments cut her face.
• Chu Men seized Harley, exposed her fear and despair beneath her clown persona, and triggered the Spiritual Imprint after her will collapsed.
• The imprint stripped away Harley’s obsession with the Joker and left her fixated on Chu Men, whom she called “Master.”
• After an explosion and gunfire sounded downstairs, Chu Men led Harley into the hall, where Floyd, Dig, and Nanaue were trapped under heavy fire from hundreds of mob gunmen.

Chu Men rescued Harley, killed Floyd, Dig, and Nanaue, and demanded that Harley keep her bloodied makeup. Diana diverted to Themyscira after sensing an ancient presence awakening, while Bruce found Barry in an underground garage.

• Chu Men descended into the hall with Harley, and the mobsters bowed as Floyd, Dig, and Nanaue realized they had been betrayed.
• Floyd tried to use the jammer to trigger the Nano Bombs, but Chu Men severed his arm with Heat Vision and Lark retrieved the device.
• Chu Men crushed Floyd, Dig, and Nanaue with his Bio-electric Field, then took Harley upstairs and stopped her from washing off her makeup.
• Diana sensed the Oracle Stone resonating and the sealed coffin beneath Themyscira shaking, so she told Bruce to handle the boy in Central City and flew back to the island.
• Barry watched footage of Chu Men killing people and despaired, until Bruce spoke to him from a chair in the locked garage.

Bruce recruited Barry Allen by using Wayne Enterprises’ resources to address Barry’s needs, then traveled to Port of Mercy to recruit Arthur Curry as an anomalous tsunami struck the coast. Bruce offered Arthur control of the local fishing rights and began projecting a reason for him to join the fight.

• Bruce revealed that he knew Barry was the Flash and offered him a research job, a new suit, and legal help for his father in exchange for joining a team.
• Barry accepted Bruce’s offer and agreed to design his own suit.
• Bruce detected a massive energy signature near Port of Mercy and went there after telling Barry to await instructions.
• Bruce found Arthur Curry at the Old Sailor Tavern and asked him to help fight a war.
• Arthur rejected Bruce’s offer of money, but Bruce revealed that Wayne Enterprises had bought the local fishing rights and transferred them to the Port of Mercy Guild.
• Bruce activated a wrist projector to show Arthur a reason he could not refuse.

Bruce recruited Arthur to help fight Chu Men, then found the mortally wounded Green Lantern Hal Jordan after a meteor crashed near Port of Mercy. As Bruce carried Hal back toward Gotham, Clark drifted toward the sun and began to recover under its radiation.

• Bruce showed Arthur footage of Chu Men’s destruction and warned that Atlantis would not be safe, and Arthur agreed to join the fight.
• Bruce left the tavern, but a sickly green meteor crashed into a forest near Port of Mercy, so he investigated the radiation crater in Bat-Armor.
• Bruce found Hal Jordan badly injured, sealed his chest wound with medical gel, and learned that Apokolips and its Parademons army threatened the universe.
• Hal’s ring briefly projected a Parademon before its energy failed, and Bruce injected Hal with a stimulant and carried him onto the Batwing.
• Clark Kent drifted toward the sun, where its radiation began restoring his body.

Diana and Artemis confronted the awakened Mother Box beneath Themyscira, but neither the temple’s seals nor Diana’s Magic-Breaker could stop its growing power. The Mother Box tore open a pitch-black rift, from which a voice called, “Return.”

• Diana returned to Themyscira and learned from Artemis that the Mother Box had awakened and incapacitated the four priestesses guarding it.
• Diana and Artemis descended into the sealed chamber, where black liquid seeped from the temple murals and the Mother Box hovered amid failing restraints.
• Artemis tried to reach the injured priestesses, but the Mother Box’s red energy repelled her.
• Diana attacked the Mother Box with Magic-Breaker, but the blade barely penetrated its energy shield before a blast hurled her into a pillar.
• The Mother Box’s power tore open a dark rift, disrupted gravity throughout the chamber, and sent a voice calling, “Return.”

Diana sealed the rift before Steppenwolf could enter, but the out-of-control Mother Box broadcast signals to Apokolips and exposed the locations of three worlds. At S.T.A.R. Labs, Silas Stone opened the containment case holding humanity’s Mother Box, determined to use it to save his dying son, Victor.

• Diana used the Aegis to trigger Earth’s spatial defenses and close the rift as Steppenwolf tried to force his way through.
• The Mother Box sent three beams marking Themyscira, Atlantis, and the human world as locations for Apokolips’s army.
• Diana contacted the Batcave and learned that Bruce was returning with a gravely wounded visitor and that an energy explosion had occurred at S.T.A.R. Labs.
• Silas Stone found Victor nearly dead after an explosion and tore open the lead panel covering the alien Mother Box.
• Silas struck Thomas aside and insisted he would use the Mother Box to save Victor despite the risk.

Silas used the Mother Box to rebuild Victor as the cyborg Steel Bone, who discovered an approaching Apokolips invasion fleet and accessed the global network. When Victor traced an anomalous energy signature to Chu Men, Chu Men struck back through the surveillance link and nearly shut him down.

• Silas poured maximum laser energy into the Mother Box, which transformed into liquid metal and rebuilt Victor's body with mechanical parts.
• Victor awakened as Steel Bone, connected to the global network, and identified invasion activity near Themyscira, the Atlantic Ocean, and Central City.
• Victor discovered a rift containing Parademons and warships, identifying Steppenwolf and the Apokolips invasion fleet.
• Victor traced an anomalous energy field to Chu Men at the Iceberg Lounge and tried to analyze him through a surveillance camera.
• Chu Men looked into the camera and overwhelmed Victor through the network, causing three supercomputer motherboards to burst and Victor to nearly shut down.

Bruce and the others gathered in the Batcave as Hal reported that a Parademon fleet was approaching and Victor revealed that its invasion route had been opened. Victor showed them footage and data indicating that Chu Men was connected to the Mother Box’s activity, leaving the heroes facing an invasion and an unknown threat.

• Bruce brought the badly wounded Hal Jordan to the Batcave, where Alfred prepared the Medical Pod.
• Diana arrived with Victor Stone and explained that the S.T.A.R. Labs explosion had left Victor as its sole survivor.
• Hal projected images of a vast Parademon army and warned that the sector defenses had collapsed.
• Diana said the Themysciran seal had shattered and that Steppenwolf’s projection had opened a rift for Apokolips’s vanguard.
• Victor revealed that the invasion coordinates had been transmitted from Themyscira, the Atlantic, and Central City, and that a spatial passage was forming.
• Victor showed security footage of Chu Men with Harley and Mother Box readings that exceeded measurable limits.

The Justice League argued over whether to confront Chu Men or prepare for Apokolips, with Bruce insisting Chu Men had to be dealt with first. The group remained deadlocked as Barry’s snacking interrupted the debate.

• Hal demanded to know where the Kryptonian was, and Bruce said he had flown into the sun.
• Bruce argued that the League had to eliminate Chu Men before facing Apokolips, while Victor calculated that the invasion passage would form in forty-eight hours.
• Arthur supported Bruce’s plan, but Diana warned that Chu Men had withstood missiles and that her divine sword had barely pierced the Mother Box’s barrier.
• Victor revealed that Chu Men had damaged three of his core processors through a surveillance feed and judged an attempt to kill him certain to fail.
• Hal urged the League to prioritize Apokolips, describing its invasion as a planetary calamity, while Barry quietly ate chips in the corner.

Chu Men watched Gotham’s heroes argue while waiting for the coming alien threat, then met Selina Kyle after she was caught breaking into his Private Vault. Selina tried to bargain for her freedom, but Chu Men said he only wanted obedient followers.

• Barry warned Bruce and Diana that fighting Chu Men while aliens approached was reckless, and Bruce said he would search for Chu Men’s weakness while preparing for both threats.
• At the Iceberg Lounge, Chu Men listened to the heroes argue beneath Wayne Manor and anticipated enjoying the coming conflict.
• Lark reported that a wildcat had been caught in Chu Men’s Private Vault and brought Selina Kyle into the suite.
• Selina offered Chu Men ten million in bearer bonds and the locations of Black Mask’s remaining gang in exchange for her life.
• Harley threatened Selina, but Chu Men stopped her with a word and made her kneel obediently again.
• Chu Men rejected Selina’s offer to work as a thief and told her he only needed obedient dogs or cats.