Chapter Summaries

Yang Ming brought Dave to Wayne Manor to meet Bruce Wayne, after arranging the visit with Alfred. The chapter ended with Bruce confronting them in the manor’s training garden and asking Yang Ming why he had come.

• Yang Ming called Alfred and arranged to visit Wayne Manor at eight the next morning, saying he would bring a gift.
• Yang Ming warned Dave about Bruce’s suspicious and controlling nature, leaving Dave anxious through the night.
• Yang Ming drove Dave from the East End to Wayne Manor, where Alfred greeted them and identified weaknesses in Dave’s stance.
• Alfred led Yang Ming and Dave through the manor to the rear garden, where Bruce was training against a titanium-alloy punching bag.
• Bruce stopped training, fixed his attention on Dave, and asked Yang Ming what had brought him there.

Yang Ming brought Dave Lizewski to Wayne Manor and persuaded Bruce Wayne to train him. After surviving Bruce’s punishing test punch, Dave was accepted as Bruce’s apprentice and potential scout in an investigation of Lex Luthor’s operations in Gotham.

• Yang Ming asked Bruce Wayne to train Dave for two months in exchange for one of the favors Bruce owed him.
• Bruce challenged Dave to withstand a punch delivered at thirty percent of his strength, and Dave stood up after being launched across the lawn.
• Yang Ming inspected Dave and found that his body had endured the blow with only soft-tissue bruising.
• Yang Ming explained that Bruce needed an inconspicuous scout to investigate Lex Luthor’s covert activity and drug distribution in Gotham.
• Bruce accepted Dave as his apprentice, warned him of the dangers of vigilantism, and Yang Ming left Dave in Bruce’s hands.

Bruce put Dave through an extreme Batcave training test, where Dave endured triple gravity and a barrage of rubber bullets without giving up. Impressed by Dave’s strength and rapid healing, Bruce accepted him as a trainee and began arranging his recovery for one-on-one training.

• Bruce ordered Alfred to activate the Batcave’s level-two security and prepare an extreme training regimen for Dave.
• Bruce brought Dave to the Batcave’s Gravity Chamber and locked him inside with a fifty-pound weighted vest.
• Alfred activated triple gravity and automatic defensive fire, leaving Dave pinned down and badly battered.
• Dave remembered his past hardships, forced himself to stand, and challenged the security camera despite the pain.
• Bruce stopped the test after Alfred reported Dave’s rapid healing, then declared that Dave had passed.
• Bruce ordered Alfred to put Dave in the Medical Pod and announced that he would train him one-on-one.

Bruce gave Dave a private lesson in practical fighting, criminal observation, and discreet surveillance, teaching him that being a superhero meant protecting ordinary people as well as stopping criminals. After spotting a weapons delivery, Bruce photographed the exchange and sent it to Gordon, leaving the police to handle the suspects.

• Bruce trained Dave in striking, defense, reading an opponent’s movements, and using his enhanced durability to create openings.
• At a café, Bruce taught Dave to identify a gang cleaner, a rookie drug dealer, and two men showing signs of amphetamine withdrawal by observing small details.
• Bruce pointed out a struggling mother and her daughter, explaining that protecting ordinary people was the purpose of their training.
• Bruce noticed a suspicious courier watching the two addicts and led Dave in following him through the crowd.
• Bruce and Dave watched the courier deliver new Glock pistols to the two men, and Bruce sent a photograph of the exchange to Gordon.

Bruce sent Dave undercover to investigate a black-market weapons hub in the East End, where Dave won a brutal fight and gained access to the operation’s VIP area. Dave saw the same military-grade Glocks from the surveillance footage, but the fat boss sent him to await another fight before he could learn more.

• Bruce identified the guns in the surveillance footage as military-grade Glocks and told Dave to scout the Rusty Iron Anchor bar because police operations kept leaking.
• Dave entered the bar by paying off a bodyguard and spotted a guarded iron door leading to the VIP Section.
• At Bruce’s urging, Dave accepted a fight with Bald Mark and endured his punches before knocking him unconscious with one blow.
• The man with the mohawk took Dave to meet the fat boss, who offered him work as a fighter and showed him a lockbox full of the same Glocks.
• Dave refused to join the arms trade, and the boss sent him to wait for another fight.

Dave infiltrated an underground fight club and discovered LexCorp planned to drug Gotham’s East End, but he was caught and overpowered by a mutant bodyguard. Bruce raced to rescue him as Dave was pinned by the throat.

• Dave used his communicator to report to Bruce, then crawled through a ventilation duct to spy on Geralt’s office.
• Dave overheard a LexCorp envoy reveal that Mr. Luthor planned to distribute Elysium through drinks and turn the East End into a test site.
• A gray-eyed mutant detected Dave in the vent and shot it apart, sending Dave crashing into Geralt’s office.
• Dave fought the mutant, staggered him with a sweep and uppercut, but the brute seized him and smashed him through a desk.
• The mutant pinned Dave against a wall and choked him while Bruce raced toward the fight in the Batmobile.

Batman and Dave raided a Gang hideout to recover a silver Incubator containing drugs for Lex Luthor. After they subdued the guards and retrieved it, the gray-eyed brute transformed under Elysium’s effects, leaving Batman facing a newly empowered threat.

• Dave broke the gray-eyed brute’s thumb, but the brute ignored the injury and pressed a gun to Dave’s head.
• Batman crashed the Batmobile into the hideout and used a concussion round to blast open the VIP office, freeing Dave.
• Batman disabled the brute by breaking his knee and shocking him with electric Batarangs while Dave tackled the suited man and seized the Incubator.
• The gray-eyed brute’s body swelled, his veins glowed blue, and his broken knee healed as he declared Elysium humanity’s ultimate evolution.
• Batman pulled Dave behind him and prepared miniature bombs against the transformed brute.

Batman fought a rapidly regenerating monster altered by the Elysium serum while Dave protected the serum case. Dave helped Batman exploit the monster’s weakness, and Batman froze the growth controlling it, leaving the creature defeated and Dave badly injured.

• Batman’s explosives failed to stop the monster, which regenerated from a devastating chest wound and attacked him.
• Batman identified the glowing growth on the monster’s neck as the source of its control, but the monster caught him and began crushing his neck.
• Dave overcame his fear, hid the serum case beneath a sofa, and charged the monster with a sliding tackle that broke its weakened knee at the cost of fracturing his shin.
• Batman used the monster’s loss of balance to press a liquid-nitrogen bomb against the growth on its neck.
• The freeze bomb disabled the growth and turned the monster into an ice sculpture, which crashed to the floor and shattered.

Bruce and Dave returned to Clinic No. 22 with a case of serum, and Yang Ming analyzed it as an addictive, life-shortening enhancement virus tied to Lex Luthor’s plan for Gotham’s East End. Bruce left to find and destroy Luthor’s hidden processing facility, while Dave stayed behind to recover and continue training.

• Bruce collected mutant blood and copied data from a phone before carrying Dave and the serum case away from the GCPD response.
• Bruce brought Dave to Clinic No. 22, where Yang Ming reset Dave’s broken leg and treated it with healing ointment.
• Yang Ming analyzed the serum and found a genetically recombinant virus that burned through telomeres and contained a highly addictive compound.
• Bruce revealed that Lex Luthor planned to put the serum in drinks at the East End Underground Fight Club, and Yang Ming and Bruce concluded Luthor meant to create a dependent mutant army.
• Bruce decided to locate and destroy Luthor’s hidden processing facility, then left Dave at the clinic to recover and train the next evening.

Bruce gave Dave a custom Redscale suit of armor in the Batcave, and Dave chose the new code name Nightlight after recalling his failed beginnings as Kick-Ass. Bruce registered Nightlight in the Batcomputer, accepting that Gotham needed the light Dave hoped to offer.

• Bruce presented Dave with the Redscale armor and explained how it could protect him from common street weapons.
• Dave tried on the armor, asked for a cape, and heard Bruce explain why capes were dangerous in close combat.
• Dave told Bruce and Alfred that he had once called himself Kick-Ass and described how Yang Ming rescued and trained him after he was badly beaten.
• Dave chose the name Nightlight, saying he wanted to bring hope to people in Gotham and New York rather than fight fear by becoming part of the darkness.
• Bruce warned Dave that Gotham's criminals would try to destroy his idealism, then registered Nightlight's armor in the Batcomputer.

Lois Lane traced the mysterious guardian who saved her to the Kent farm and chose to protect Clark’s identity instead of publishing her findings. Meanwhile, General Zod learned that the scout ship had been activated on Earth and sent the Black Zero there to find Carl-El and claim the Codex of Life.

• Perry White rejected Lois’s Arctic story and ordered her to take leave, so she searched old reports for a mysterious rescuer.
• Lois found a report about a school bus rescue in Smallville and went to the Kent farm to ask Jonathan and Martha about their son.
• Jonathan told Lois that Clark had been feared and rejected after saving the bus, and warned that the world would torment him if it learned his secret.
• Lois burned her notes about Clark and promised to keep his identity secret.
• Faora told General Zod that the scout ship’s signal had returned and carried the genetic key of Jor-El.
• Zod ordered the Black Zero to Earth to find Carl-El and reclaim the Codex of Life, threatening to destroy the planet if its inhabitants resisted.

Dave became Nightlight, using his armor and combat training to cripple Gotham gangsters while refusing to keep their money. As he and Batman watched Gotham from Wayne Tower, a mysterious signal hijacked electronic displays and communications across the world, heralding a threat beyond Earth’s technology.

• Dave used his Redscale armor and Bruce Wayne’s tactical guidance to defeat five Falcone Family enforcers and rescue two homeless men.
• Over the next two weeks, Nightlight raided gang operations across Gotham and left criminals with severe injuries.
• At the 22 Lake Street Clinic, Yang Ming treated Dave for a contusion and sent him back to Wayne Manor for combat review.
• Three days later, Dave and Batman watched the city from Wayne Tower when electrical fluctuations struck cities around the globe.
• An unknown signal hijacked electronic displays worldwide, and Batman recognized that the attack surpassed existing Earth technology.

General Zod broadcast an ultimatum demanding Earth surrender one of its people, triggering panic and chaos as Bruce, Yang Ming, and Lois responded to the crisis. Clark resolved to confront Zod and draw the fight away from Earth, but a Kryptonian landing ship arrived before the twenty-four hours were up.

• Zod announced that Earth must surrender one of his people within twenty-four hours or face destruction, and Gotham erupted into riots and looting.
• Bruce ordered Alfred to activate Wayne Tower's defenses and sent Dave into the streets to rescue civilians.
• Yang Ming ordered Selene to secure the clinic and Maggie to shelter in the basement while he prepared to defend their ground.
• Federal agents arrested Lois after linking her to the Arctic research station and demanded she reveal Clark's location.
• Clark learned from Jor-El that Zod wanted the Codex of Life to transform Earth, and he decided to confront Zod away from the planet.
• A Kryptonian landing ship entered Earth's atmosphere, and Clark left the ship with Krypto to meet the incoming threat.

Diana revealed herself as Wonder Woman and prepared to intervene in the crisis after General Zod’s broadcast. In Gotham, Batman and Dave rescued Jason Todd and a crowd of children from armed thugs, then headed for the East End’s only safe place.

• Diana subdued four armed robbers in the Smithsonian and retrieved her Amazon armor and weapons from a hidden chest.
• Dave and Batman fought rioters in Gotham as Jim Gordon reported that the city’s jails and police were overwhelmed.
• Jason Todd shielded a group of street children from more than twenty thugs who intended to attack them.
• Batman and Dave defeated the thugs, and Batman caught the injured Jason as he collapsed.
• Batman carried Jason while Dave led the children toward the only safe place in the East End.

After Gotham fell into chaos, Yang Ming slaughtered the gang attacking his clinic and then agreed to treat Batman’s injured children for payment from Wayne Enterprises. Jason Todd was left staring at Yang Ming with new determination, while Dave suspected Yang was stealing Batman’s recruit.

• Yang Ming emerged from his clinic after gang members tried to break in and burn it, then killed or crippled more than thirty attackers with his strength and fighting skills.
• Batman and Dave arrived with Jason Todd and a group of children, and Batman asked Yang Ming to treat them because Falcone’s men had cornered them.
• Yang Ming agreed when Bruce Wayne offered to have Wayne Enterprises cover the costs at triple the rate.
• Selene and Maggie began helping the children, and Maggie treated Jason’s back wound.
• Jason asked Yang Ming who he was, and Yang Ming told him survival in Gotham required wealth or the ability to fight.
• Dave told Bruce Wayne that Jason looked at Yang Ming the way Dave once looked at his mentor.

As Gotham’s riots intensified, Clark Kent surrendered to the U.S. military to meet Zod, hoping to protect Earth. On the Black Zero, he learned Zod intended to terraform Earth and exterminate humanity, so Clark attacked him as negotiations collapsed.

• Dave and Batman continued clearing rioters from Gotham’s East End while Yang Ming sent the children to the basement and billed Wayne Enterprises for medical expenses.
• Clark arrived at a Nevada military base with Krypto, revealed his identity, and agreed to meet Zod in hopes of stopping Earth’s destruction.
• Clark boarded Zod’s ship and learned that the Codex of Life was hidden in his cells and that Zod planned to use the World Engine to transform Earth into New Krypton.
• After Zod dismissed humanity as expendable and threatened to extract the Codex from Clark, Clark attacked him aboard the Black Zero.

Clark fought Zod aboard Black Zero, then raced to Kent Farm when he heard Faora threaten his adoptive parents. With Diana’s help, he drove the Kryptonians away, but the frightened townspeople rejected him; he and Diana agreed to stand together against Zod.

• Zod ordered Faora to capture Jonathan and Martha, so Clark escaped Black Zero and flew to Kent Farm.
• Faora attacked the Kents, but Diana arrived and fought her and two Kryptonian Soldiers.
• Clark returned and unleashed his full strength against the invaders while Diana helped incapacitate one of the soldiers.
• Faora ordered a retreat, and the Kryptonians escaped aboard their landing ship.
• Smallville residents reacted to the ruined farm with fear and suspicion, while Martha comforted Clark and Diana introduced herself.
• Clark declared that Earth was his home and that he would stop Zod, and Diana promised to fight alongside him.

Clark and Diana raced to stop Zod’s World Engine as its gravitational waves devastated Metropolis, while Bruce, Dave, and Yang Ming headed into the crisis. The chapter left Bruce and Dave trapped before a heavily armored Kryptonian soldier after saving a mother and daughter.

• Clark told Diana that the World Engine could crush Earth, and they split up to attack its two devices over Metropolis and the Indian Ocean.
• The World Engine’s gravitational waves shook Gotham, destroyed Yang Ming’s centrifuge, and prompted Bruce and Dave to fly toward Metropolis; Yang Ming also set out after them.
• In Metropolis, Diana destroyed a Kryptonian Heavy Walker while Clark flew toward the Indian Ocean to stop the other World Engine.
• The Black Zero’s laser disabled the Batplane, forcing Bruce and Dave to eject before its crash.
• Bruce and Dave rescued a mother and daughter trapped beneath rubble, then faced a towering Kryptonian soldier that landed in their path.

Bruce and Dave were nearly killed by the Kryptonian Soldier until Yang Ming emerged from concealment and struck him hard enough to draw blood. After collecting Bruce’s promise to pay five million dollars, Yang Ming faced the enraged alien for a rematch.

• The Kryptonian Soldier shrugged off Bruce’s explosives and Heat Vision blasted Bruce and Dave into rubble.
• Dave failed to break the soldier’s arm and was grabbed by the throat, while Bruce’s liquid-nitrogen bomb briefly froze the soldier before he knocked Bruce away.
• Yang Ming emerged from an Optical Camouflage Medical Blanket and punched the Kryptonian Soldier through several buildings, freeing Dave.
• Yang Ming charged Bruce five million dollars for the rescue and damages, and Bruce agreed to pay by bank transfer.
• The injured Kryptonian Soldier returned to the sky and threatened to burn Yang Ming to ashes, while Yang Ming prepared to fight him.

Yang Ming fought a Kryptonian soldier in Metropolis and, after three Kryptonian warriors overwhelmed him, opened the Seventh Gate. He challenged all three to fight, while Diana remained locked in battle with Faora.

• Yang Ming opened the Third Gate and battered a Kryptonian soldier with Haki-coated strikes, knocking him into a crater.
• Diana arrived and clashed with Faora as two armored Kryptonian warriors joined the injured soldier against Yang Ming.
• The three Kryptonians struck Yang Ming through a bank vault while Dave and Bruce watched helplessly.
• Yang Ming emerged from the wreckage and opened the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Gates, unleashing a vast surge of power.
• Yang Ming challenged the three Kryptonian warriors to attack together or one at a time, warning that the loser would die.