Recaps

Bruce Wayne learned that Hal Jordan had fallen and discovered Apokolips's fleet approaching Earth. He modified the Divine Frequency Emitter with a Kryptonian AI fragment, planning to exploit the coming clash between Chu Men and Darkseid to seize control of the One God Temple Defense System.

• Bruce watched the signal cut out after seeing Hal Jordan kneel before the tyrant, then refused Alfred's food and asked whether anything could still be done.
• Alfred gave Bruce a black-market data chip showing that Apokolips's massive fleet was approaching Earth.
• Bruce retrieved the Divine Frequency Emitter and ordered Alfred to bring him the Kryptonian AI Invasion Module.
• Bruce fused the AI fragment with the emitter and turned it into a key designed to infiltrate and disable the One God Temple Defense System.
• Bruce planned to let Chu Men and Darkseid weaken each other before using the device to make them pawns in his plan.

Apokolips's advance fleet deployed an antimatter weapon on the moon, but Chu Men sent Clark and Diana to destroy it. After they wiped out the fleet, DeSaad appeared in the One God Temple.

• A Parademon commander ordered five hundred ships to deploy Annihilation Seeds on the moon to build an antimatter cannon aimed at Earth's defenses.
• Luthor warned Chu Men about the fleet, but Chu Men sent Clark and Diana to eliminate the threat.
• Clark destroyed the flagship and tore through the Apokoliptian fleet while Diana crushed the Annihilation Seeds and defeated their guards.
• Clark briefly resisted the dark red brand's control before returning to Earth with Diana under Chu Men's command.
• DeSaad appeared as a hologram in the One God Temple after Chu Men dismissed the destroyed fleet as too weak.

Darkseid sent DeSaad to demand the return of the Mother Boxes and the Kryptonian, but Chu Men struck DeSaad through the communication channel, prompting Darkseid to mark Earth for destruction. Chu Men then ordered a global broadcast and commanded the world’s leaders to prepare banquets in their capitals as Apokolips’s fleet waited outside Earth.

• DeSaad delivered Darkseid’s ultimatum, demanding the Mother Boxes, the Kryptonian, and Chu Men’s surrender.
• Chu Men attacked through the quantum channel, mortally wounding DeSaad aboard Apokolips’s flagship.
• Darkseid appeared on the flagship’s bridge and marked Earth with a rune of death before withdrawing his projection.
• Chu Men told Selina to have Luthor start a global livestream.
• Luthor broadcast Chu Men’s announcement worldwide, and Chu Men ordered the heads of 197 countries and territories to host banquets in their capital squares and watch the coming spectacle.

Chu Men forced the world’s leaders to perform a banquet as thirty thousand Apokolips warships darkened Earth’s skies. When the Mother Boxes tried to answer Darkseid’s summons, Chu Men crushed their resistance, while the fleet began moving in orbit.

• World leaders obeyed Chu Men’s threat and staged a global feast, despite their fear and grief.
• Chu Men enjoyed his private feast in the Greenhouse while Selina worried about the Apokolips fleet.
• Thirty thousand Apokolips warships blocked the sun and drove panic through the crowds at the forced celebrations.
• The Mother Boxes shook as they responded to Darkseid and tried to break free of Chu Men’s control.
• Chu Men forced the Mother Boxes’ power back inside them and branded their surfaces with his handprint.
• The Apokolips warships began moving in low Earth orbit.

Apokolips launched a global invasion with parasitic Parademon pods, while Chu Men’s forces and enslaved heroes fought to defend Earth. Amid the chaos, Bruce infiltrated Gotham and prepared a covert strike on the One God Temple as Kalibak readied to descend into battle.

• Chu Men ordered Luthor to mobilize their army and directed Wonder Woman to perform as the Parademon pods began falling toward cities worldwide.
• LexCorp Bio-Soldiers and Bio-Tyrants opened fire over Metropolis, but many pods struck the city and unleashed Parademons.
• Diana led the Divine Temple guards in a brutal counterattack, while enslaved Green Lanterns and Arthur’s sea beasts fought Parademons elsewhere on Earth.
• Bruce and Alfred planted an intrusion code in LexCorp’s network, and Bruce ordered the Seventeen-Nation Secret Alliance to disable the Dark Tower’s defenses at a critical moment.
• Bruce piloted a Bat submersible toward the One God Temple, intending to act as an assassin during Chu Men and Darkseid’s showdown.
• Kalibak demanded that Darkseid let him enter the battle from the Apokolips flagship Fist of Grief.

Kalibak and the Furious Female Furies attacked the One God Temple, incapacitating Clark and Diana with neural electric spears. Chu Men rose from his throne and appeared behind Kalibak as the alien prepared to strike the empty seat.

• Kalibak led the twelve Furious Female Furies from the launch bay toward the Dark Tower and smashed through the One God Temple's greenhouse dome.
• Clark confronted Kalibak and sent him crashing into a pillar with a powerful punch.
• The Furious Female Furies pierced Clark with neural electric spears that bypassed his Bio-electric Field and paralyzed him.
• Diana stopped Kalibak's attack with the Lasso of Truth, but the Furies pierced her defenses with their spears and brought her down beside Clark.
• Kalibak broke free of the lasso, raised his Bonecrusher over Clark and Diana, and turned toward Chu Men on the throne.
• Chu Men stood and appeared behind Kalibak while Kalibak charged toward the throne, unaware that his target had moved.

Chu Men killed Kalibak and all twelve Furious Female Furies after they attacked him in the Greenhouse. On the Fist of Grief, Granny Goodness appeared in fury after the signals went dark, while Clark and Diana remained incapacitated.

• Chu Men caught and shattered Kalibak's Chaos Bone Shatter Club, then killed him with a single slap.
• The twelve Furious Female Furies attacked Chu Men with their Neural Electric Spears, but he seized two of them and killed them before slaughtering the rest.
• Chu Men called for Pamela and Selina to clean the Greenhouse and dismissed the injured Clark and Diana as useless.
• On the Fist of Grief, DeSaad realized Kalibak and the Furies' signals had vanished, and Granny Goodness emerged, furious that Chu Men had killed her girls.

Granny Goodness attacked Chu Men with Apokolips’s Wailing Cradle, but his defenses neutralized the psychic assault and sent it surging back through their link. Granny Goodness screamed for Darkseid’s help as the backlash began devouring her mind.

• Granny Goodness asked Darkseid for permission to torment Chu Men, then treated his silence as approval and ordered the Wailing Cradle activated.
• Granny Goodness used the Wailing Cradle to send an amplified psychic storm and mind-overwriting attack toward Chu Men on Earth.
• Chu Men’s Toxin Immunity neutralized the psychic toxin, and Absolute Anchoring blocked the attempt to overwrite his will.
• Chu Men ordered the system to initiate psychic backlash against the attack’s source.
• The backlash struck Granny Goodness, overwhelmed her psychic defenses, and made her cry out for Darkseid to save her.

Darkseid descended upon Gotham City after destroying Granny Goodness from afar, unleashing devastation across the city. As Bruce Wayne searched for a way to defeat both Darkseid and Chu Men, Chu Men went to confront Darkseid.

• Two red beams from the One God Temple struck Granny Goodness, vaporizing her until only ash and her scepter remained.
• Darkseid rose from his throne and passed through the main screen into the void.
• Darkseid emerged above Gotham City and landed, triggering earthquakes and lava that destroyed much of the city and overwhelmed the One God Temple's defenses.
• Bruce Wayne watched Darkseid's arrival and resolved to find an opening to destroy both Darkseid and Chu Men.
• Pamela and Selina hid in fear as the throne hall shook, while Chu Men sensed Darkseid's power and vanished from his throne to meet him.

Chu Men and Darkseid clashed in a battle of overwhelming strength that tore Gotham away from the continent and sent the peninsula sinking into the sea. Both fighters injured each other, then launched into savage hand-to-hand combat as the city disappeared beneath magma and seawater.

• Darkseid demanded that Chu Men surrender the Mother Box and Anti-Life Equation fragments and become his slave, but Chu Men insulted him.
• Darkseid and Chu Men exchanged punches, creating a devastating shock wave that destroyed thousands of Apokolips warships and shattered the One God Temple.
• The force of the clash split the Gotham peninsula from North America, and it began sinking into the sea as seawater flooded the magma hell.
• Chu Men and Darkseid both sustained minor injuries, and Chu Men eagerly called for another round.
• Chu Men and Darkseid fought across the sky, ground, and boiling sea, while their battle accelerated Gotham's descent and disrupted the worldwide broadcast.

Darkseid struck Chu Men with his Omega Beams, inflicting a severe wound that resisted healing, then demanded that he submit. As Chu Men’s condition worsened, Bruce decided to launch every available attack against Darkseid.

• Darkseid fired his Omega Beams, which pursued Chu Men despite his attempts to evade them.
• Chu Men’s shield failed to stop the beams, and he was blasted into the ruins of Gotham with his right arm badly corroded and disintegrating.
• Darkseid said the Omega Effect was erasing Chu Men and offered to halt it if Chu Men knelt and submitted.
• Bruce saw Chu Men’s declining vital signs and concluded that both Darkseid and Chu Men had to be eliminated.
• Bruce ordered Alfred to activate every backup plan, trigger the intrusion code, and have the Seventeen-Nation Secret Alliance attack Darkseid.

Chu Men’s defenses and power grew as Darkseid’s Omega Beams pushed him to the brink, and Chu Men struck back hard enough to injure Darkseid. As Darkseid unleashed more power, Chu Men’s upgrade progress continued to rise, while the surviving Apokolips Fleet argued over whether to fire its main guns.

• Chu Men laughed through his injuries as the system detected a lethal attack and activated his ultimate defense, raising his Silver Age Superman Physique Fragment progress to 75%.
• Chu Men regenerated his right arm, rose from the rubble, and taunted Darkseid before rushing at him.
• Chu Men struck Darkseid in the face, denting his faceplate and knocking out several teeth.
• Darkseid unleashed his full destructive power, and Chu Men welcomed the stronger threat as his progress bar crept upward.
• The surviving Apokolips Fleet commanders debated firing their main guns, but one warned that doing so could hit Darkseid.

Darkseid unleashed the Anti-Life Equation across Gotham, overwhelming the minds of everyone in its gray domain and targeting Chu Men. As the equation forced visions of his powerless past into Chu Men’s mind, he appeared close to surrendering.

• Bruce Wayne halted the fleet’s attack, fearing that helping Chu Men would make him even stronger.
• Darkseid realized Chu Men was growing stronger by absorbing the force of their clashes and decided to destroy him quickly.
• Darkseid released the Anti-Life Equation, turning Gotham and the surrounding sea and sky gray and filling the domain with enslaving runes.
• The Anti-Life Equation clashed with Chu Men’s control over Scarecrow, Bane, Clark, and Diana, leaving them near death.
• Darkseid sent the equation’s runes toward Chu Men, who began reliving his exhausting, submissive life before arriving in this world and thought about giving up.

Chu Men broke free of Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation through sheer rage and Absolute Anchoring, then fought through Darkseid’s Omega Beams. His Silver Age Superman Physique Fragment reached 100% as his final blow struck Darkseid.

• Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation nearly made Chu Men submit, but memories of his former life as a corporate slave ignited his rage.
• Chu Men activated Absolute Anchoring and shattered the gray realm of despair surrounding Gotham.
• Chu Men emerged from the collapsing realm and charged Darkseid, who attacked him with vastly empowered Omega Beams.
• Chu Men pushed through the beams as his body disintegrated and regenerated, bringing his Silver Age Superman Physique Fragment to 99%.
• Chu Men abandoned his defenses and struck Darkseid in the chest as the shackle restraining his power snapped and the fragment reached 100%.

Chu Men completed his transformation into a higher-dimensional being and effortlessly overwhelmed Darkseid. After crushing Darkseid’s Omega Beams, he outpaced him so completely that Darkseid could only strike at afterimages.

• Chu Men’s ultimate fusion completed, transforming his body and allowing him to perceive and manipulate the laws of the universe.
• Darkseid’s Omega Beams stopped in midair as Chu Men awakened and challenged him to witness true despair.
• Darkseid poured his divine power into the Omega Beams, but Chu Men seized them and crushed them into fragments.
• Darkseid suffered a backlash that injured his godhead and left him bleeding from his eyes.
• Chu Men moved too quickly for Darkseid to track, taunting him from all directions as Darkseid struck at afterimages.

Chu Men overwhelmed Darkseid, beating him nearly to death while the world watched, then annihilated the fleeing Apokolips Fleet. Darkseid fell helplessly toward Earth as the fleet vanished from low orbit.

• Chu Men suppressed Darkseid’s Divine Power and punched him through Earth, sending him out of the seabed in the South Pacific.
• Chu Men caught Darkseid and savagely beat him above Gotham, breaking his body and armor while holographic screens broadcast the fight worldwide.
• Governments and ordinary people watched in stunned fear as Chu Men dominated Darkseid.
• The surviving Apokolips Fleet panicked and tried to flee Earth.
• Chu Men released the nearly dead Darkseid, then swept the fleet from low Earth orbit with a platinum beam, annihilating its warships.

Bruce used the Divine Frequency Emitter to briefly free Arthur from Chu Men’s control and ordered him to kill Clark, but Chu Men overpowered Arthur’s resistance and turned him against Bruce. The Trident struck the cloaked Bat Stealth Fighter as it tried to escape.

• Bruce activated the Divine Frequency Emitter, and its power briefly restored Arthur’s clarity.
• Bruce told Arthur to pierce Clark’s enslavement mark with the Trident while Clark’s defenses were weak.
• Arthur charged at Clark, but Chu Men’s gaze stopped the Trident a millimeter from Clark’s chest.
• Chu Men’s Spiritual Imprint reclaimed Arthur, who turned the Trident away from Clark and became loyal to the Tyrant again.
• Chu Men ordered Arthur to drag Bruce out, and Arthur hurled the Trident at the escaping cloaked Bat Stealth Fighter.

Bruce crashed after his attack on Chu Men failed, while Darkseid used the Mother Boxes to trigger a catastrophe at Earth’s core. Chu Men watched as the planet began to collapse, and the Washington shelter’s scientists warned that Earth was about to explode.

• Bruce escaped his burning fighter wreckage but could not stand, and Alfred urged him to retreat.
• Darkseid, still alive in the ruins, crawled to the Mother Boxes and restored their power by touching them.
• Darkseid overloaded all three Mother Boxes and plunged toward Earth’s core to detonate it.
• Chu Men turned to face Darkseid’s attempt to destroy the planet as massive fissures spread across North America.
• At the Washington shelter, the chief scientific adviser reported that Earth’s core pressure and gravitational collapse meant the planet was going to explode.

Darkseid’s overloaded Mother Boxes tore Earth’s crust apart and threatened to collapse the planet into a singularity. As Bruce and the others faced the end, Chu Men spread platinum light across the world and halted the destruction.

• Darkseid’s attack triggered massive volcanic eruptions, shifting tectonic plates, failing infrastructure, and collapsing shelters around the world.
• Bruce lost contact with Alfred as he and the injured Clark and Arthur remained amid Gotham’s ruins.
• Bruce realized Darkseid’s Omega energy was turning Earth’s core into a collapsing mass that could destroy the Earth-Moon system.
• Chu Men endured the planet’s noise, ordered it to shut up, and released a platinum membrane from his body.
• Chu Men’s light swept across Earth, fitting North America’s splitting faults together and freezing Yellowstone’s eruption in place.

Chu Men stopped the Earth's surface from moving, then entered the core and used his power over physical laws to halt its collapse and stabilize it. He crushed Darkseid's remaining skeleton beneath his foot.

• Chu Men enveloped the Earth in a platinum field that stopped the waves and geological movement, while Darkseid warned that the core was still collapsing.
• Chu Men plunged through the crust and mantle into the Earth's core, where Darkseid's remnant body was driving a destructive fusion reaction.
• Chu Men stopped the collapsing vortex and kneaded the runaway core energy back into a stable state.
• Chu Men restored the core's convection and geomagnetic field, then stepped over to Darkseid and stamped on his spine.

Chu Men sent Darkseid blasting from Earth into deep space, then confronted him in orbit and prepared to imprint his will. The chapter ended as Chu Men invoked his Absolute Spiritual Imprint against Darkseid.

• Chu Men crushed Darkseid beneath his foot in Earth’s molten core and kicked his remains up through the planet’s crust.
• Bruce, the Washington shelter, and the International Space Station witnessed Darkseid’s body shoot from Earth and out into deep space.
• Chu Men appeared in low Earth orbit and stopped Darkseid’s tumbling body by planting his foot on Darkseid’s forehead.
• Chu Men revealed dark-red patterns in his eyes and explained that he would give Darkseid overtime pay by branding him with his rule.
• Darkseid tried to attack Chu Men, but Chu Men bent his arm aside and invoked his Absolute Spiritual Imprint.

Chu Men nearly enslaved Darkseid’s battered avatar before the true Darkseid appeared from the fourth dimension and demanded its release. He offered Chu Men control of the universe and the local Anti-Life Equation in exchange, leaving Chu Men to answer the bargain.

• Chu Men restrained Darkseid’s self-destruction and drove psychic chains into him, forcing the dark lord toward absolute enslavement.
• A fourth-dimensional will interrupted the binding, and Darkseid’s avatar regained a trace of awareness as space folded around them.
• The true Darkseid revealed that the body under Chu Men’s foot was only an avatar projected into this universe, while Bruce felt the pressure of his arrival on Earth.
• Darkseid demanded that Chu Men release his beacon and offered him the universe, an Apokolips withdrawal, and local dominion over the Anti-Life Equation.

Chu Men defied the Fourth Dimension’s shadow and destroyed Darkseid’s avatar, severing its connection to the higher dimension. The furious shadow retreated, warning Chu Men that it would return to destroy him.

• The Fourth Dimension’s shadow offered Chu Men control of the universe in exchange for the beacon and demanded that he accept its boundaries.
• Chu Men mocked the shadow’s domineering attitude, compared it to his former workplace bosses, and refused to surrender what he considered his own.
• Chu Men crushed Darkseid’s avatar beneath his foot and then destroyed its body and omega source with a platinum-powered punch.
• The omega beacon went out, the tesseract network collapsed, and dimensional backlash damaged the Fourth Dimension’s throne.
• The shadow threatened to remember Chu Men and return when the dimensional barriers fell, while Chu Men watched the rift recede and asked if it was leaving.

Chu Men restored Gotham Peninsula to the North American continental shelf after defeating the outer god’s phantom. Luthor and the One God Temple’s forces began clearing the ruined land, and Luthor reported that the shelf was stable.

• Chu Men mocked the departing outer god, then descended to inspect the submerged remains of Gotham Peninsula.
• Luthor told Chu Men that the temple and industrial base had sunk and asked whether to salvage them or relocate.
• Chu Men used gravitational forces to lift Gotham Peninsula from the ocean and join it back to the continental shelf.
• Chu Men fused the fractured land with Heat Vision, stabilizing the crust and stopping the seawater from boiling.
• Luthor ordered Bio-Tyrant troops and cleanup squads to clear the wreckage and secure the island.
• Luthor knelt before Chu Men and reported that the continental shelf was fully stable and the shock waves had subsided.

Chu Men learned that Bruce Wayne had survived the battle and confronted him at the Old Harbor. He told Bruce that he had deliberately let the catastrophe unfold as a performance, leaving Bruce to face Chu Men’s claim that the lives of billions depended on his will.

• Luthor reported that Clark and Diana had stabilized, Victor was trying to seize control of surviving Apokolips warships, and Bruce was trapped in a crashed stealth aircraft.
• Chu Men refused the Pentagon and United Nations Defense Committee’s offer to send engineering corps, then went to the Old Harbor rather than let his Tyrants kill Bruce.
• Bruce crawled from the wreckage of the Batwing with a broken leg and challenged Chu Men for letting Darkseid threaten the planet.
• Chu Men explained that Bruce’s use of the Mother Box and the Trident had disrupted his control over Arthur and improved the spectacle.
• Chu Men dismissed Bruce’s concern for humanity and declared that whoever he wanted to live or die would do so.