Recaps

Li Jie pursued Raven after Constantine’s botched bargain with Nergal, while Batman, Zatanna, and the police prepared a rescue mission into Hell. The convoy reached an interstice, where Jason Blood warned them of the danger Raven posed under Nergal’s control and Etrigan hinted at a bargain.

• Li Jie stopped Clark from retaliating against the armed dealers after Superman disarmed them, then later explained to Clark that he could not save everyone and discovered Batman had been following them.
• Li Jie introduced Clark and Kara to Batman, agreed to keep Superman’s intervention discreet in Gotham, and later confronted Bruce Wayne about his identity as Batman.
• Li Jie learned that Nygma had deduced both Bruce Wayne’s and Clark Kent’s secret identities, while Zatanna told Bruce that Constantine was coming to Gotham to search for her missing father.
• Raven vanished during Zatanna’s performance, and Li Jie arrested the troupe before Constantine’s attempted escape summoned the First of the Fallen, who marked Li Jie’s hands so his weapons could pierce most magical protections.
• Zatanna and Batman found Constantine in an underground ritual site, where he confessed that Nergal had taken Raven through a fissure to Hell after Constantine tried to bargain for Astra’s soul.
• Li Jie forced Constantine to help retrieve Raven, organized the police and a rescue team, and joined Batman, Zatanna, and Constantine as Superman held open the portal to Hell.
• The convoy fought through Hell’s hostile landscapes, destroyed the false image of Giovanni Zatara at Wayne Tower, and battled demons across the Greed Plains before reaching an interstice.
• Jason Blood warned that Nergal’s control of Raven threatened her and Hell, while Etrigan suggested Jason bargain by giving himself away.

Li Jie led the group through Hell to rescue Raven, then returned to Gotham and continued shaping the East End force while facing new criminals and a deadly Chinatown hostage crisis. The arc ended with Bruce Wayne deciding to investigate Li Jie’s connection to Guan Gong.

• Li Jie and the group escaped the dream-filled pyramid, rescued Raven, and fought through Hell until Michael’s sword helped subdue Beelzebub.
• Li Jie proposed that Hell’s rulers manage Constantine’s soul together, and Superman carried the battered group back to Gotham.
• Li Jie returned to police work, negotiated with Bruce Wayne, and arranged help for Floyd Lawton and his daughter Zoe.
• Bob promoted Wilson and Harleen to sheriff, while Li Jie became head of the East End Major Crimes Unit.
• Harleen, Poison Ivy, and Anna confronted Red Hood robbers at a bank, but explosions killed and injured civilians as Li Jie and Wilson pursued the gang.
• A green-haired gunman held Jack Napier, Jenny, and Chinatown elders hostage with bombs before Li Jie shot him and ordered an evacuation.
• Li Jie comforted Harleen after Bob demoted her, helped Jack find a role at the community center, and visited the recovering Old Chen.
• Bruce Wayne and Alfred reviewed footage of Li Jie with the Nth Metal spear and identified poses resembling Guan Gong, prompting Bruce to plan a visit to Chinatown.

As A.R.G.U.S. challenged Gotham and Starro’s invasion took control of the city, Li Jie and his allies organized survivors while Batman and the other heroes fought the giant alien. Starro’s main body reached Earth, and Waller began investigating Otis Flanagan as Gotham recovered.

• Li Jie helped Harvey Dent secure Sal Maroni’s conviction, then stopped Maroni from throwing acid at Harvey in court.
• Waller ordered the transfer of Mark Desmond and Floyd Lawton, but Li Jie and Nygma forced her to abandon the operation and leave Gotham for two years.
• Li Jie enrolled Zoe Lawton at Shelter School and promised Floyd he would protect her.
• Starro’s spores took control of Gotham, but Li Jie, Harleen, and their allies freed residents with fire and organized shelter and supplies.
• Li Jie and his allies helped restore order as Nygma used Otis’s rats to clear starfish, Cobblepot’s volunteers guarded neighborhoods, and Dick repaired utilities.
• Batman and Superman freed the Justice League from Starro’s control, then joined the heroes in fighting Starro’s main body as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
• Batman used a combined mech to open a breach in Starro’s force field, while Superman attacked the alien and Batman sought a tissue sample.
• Waller watched footage of Otis’s rats eating starfish and sent Turner and Harkness into Gotham to investigate him.

Li Jie helped defeat Starro, strengthened the East End, and faced escalating threats from Bane and Clown. After the deadly Blackgate riot put his methods under scrutiny, he took leave and challenged Bane to think beyond defeating Batman and ruling Gotham.

• Batman discovered that calcium carbonate destroyed Starro’s cells, and Superman used calcium oxide to destroy Starro’s core and free its human hosts, though spores remained scattered around the world.
• Cobblepot became a public official and promised to improve the East End, while Li Jie pressed him to repair streetlights and use his influence for the district.
• Bruce agreed to discuss forming an independent Justice League on the condition that Gotham remained under his control and he commanded operations, while he began preparing countermeasures for its members.
• Jeremiah Arkham uncovered his ancestor’s warning about an entity seeking a door into their world, and an unseen presence later placed a Blackwood Mask in his office.
• Bane investigated the East End’s unusual order, recruited Scarecrow, and later broke prisoners out of Blackgate while a masked man guided him through Arkham’s containment wards.
• Li Jie confronted Clown at the steelworks after Superman rescued the threatened children, then ordered the East End sealed and placed under curfew as Bane’s prison uprising spread.
• Li Jie used a machine gun to stop armed rioters on Eleventh Street, and the killings sparked public controversy and a federal investigation that led to his two months of paid leave.
• After becoming intimate with Harleen, Li Jie met Bane, questioned his plans to rule Gotham, and asked him to prepare a municipal budget and five-year development plan before they discussed joining forces.