Chapter Summaries

At the East End Police Department, Li Jie and Bruce Wayne arranged Dick and Barbara’s release, then argued over Li Jie’s violent methods and control of the East End. The argument ended at the school donation monuments, where Bruce discovered Oliver Queen’s name ranked above his.

• Li Jie explained how the police could release Dick and Barbara, and Bruce paid their bail and donated an additional million dollars to the officers.
• Gordon took Barbara home, while Bruce sent Dick to the car and asked Li Jie to walk with him.
• Bruce challenged Li Jie over killing criminals without trials, using heavy firepower, and giving former criminals authority in the Service Squad.
• Li Jie defended his methods as effective for protecting East End residents but admitted that power could corrupt him and that he would fight Bruce if they became enemies.
• Bruce and Li Jie reached the school’s donation monuments, where Bruce saw Oliver Queen’s two-million-dollar donation ranked above his own and angrily demanded to know why.

Wayne Enterprises began building a massive education center for the East End school, while James Gordon asked Li Jie to let Barbara spend time there learning from Raven. Bruce learned that Dick was still obsessively training after his defeat, and Alfred noted that he had also revised his costume designs.

• Li Jie showed the officers plans for Wayne Enterprises’ twelve-story education center and told them to keep construction traffic from blocking ambulance access.
• Li Jie met James Gordon, who asked whether Barbara could spend her free time at the East End school and help Raven.
• Gordon explained that he wanted Barbara away from rooftop vigilantism for a while, and Li Jie agreed to arrange it only if Barbara chose for herself.
• Li Jie warned Gordon that the school had strict rules and that Raven would punish bullying literally.
• Bruce asked Alfred about Dick, and Alfred said Dick was analyzing his fight with Raven, training counters and contingencies, and revising his costume designs.

Li Jie surveyed Gotham’s East End redevelopment and the newly licensed drug businesses, while General Zod arrived on Earth to reclaim Krypton’s legacy. The chapter ended as Zod’s message interrupted a broadcast and gave Earth twenty-four hours to surrender Kal-El.

• Li Jie questioned a homeless man’s claim that he witnessed the Waynes’ murder, then learned the Crime Alley streetlights were being protected by the Community Service Team.
• Li Jie inspected Sofia Falcone’s Midnight Palace and warned her to keep her business out of the East End and prevent violence from harming innocent people.
• Li Jie passed Rupert Thorne’s Quiet Garden Hotel construction site and returned toward the East End without meeting Thorne.
• NORAD detected unidentified objects as General Zod’s spacecraft descended over Kansas and began transforming the land below it.
• General Zod arrived with Faora, Major Ursa, and Kryptonian soldiers, then ordered a distress signal sent to Kal-El.
• Zod interrupted a television broadcast and demanded that Earth surrender Kal-El within twenty-four Earth hours.

After learning that Zod and his forces would reach Earth in twenty-four hours, Li Jie mobilized Gotham’s police and allies to prepare for chaos and urged Clark to protect his loved ones. The chapter ended with Li Jie loading a kryptonite magazine into his pistol as the countdown began.

• Li Jie learned that Zod’s forces would arrive in twenty-four hours and warned the East End Police Department to prepare for widespread disorder.
• Li Jie ordered Wilson to control the streets and sent Harleen and Anna to secure the school with Raven’s help.
• Li Jie tasked Nygma with monitoring communications and distributing heavy weapons, and told Cobblepot to protect essential supplies from hoarding and price gouging.
• Alfred offered Wayne Enterprises’ emergency supplies to the East End, while Batman said he was preparing for combat and hoped to communicate with the Kryptonians.
• Li Jie urged Clark to evacuate Jonathan and Martha, hide Lois Lane and other loved ones, and wait for Batman and the Justice League before confronting Zod’s forces.
• Li Jie loaded a kryptonite magazine into his M1911 as the enemy’s arrival drew near.

Li Jie helped Clark bring Jonathan and Martha Kent to Wayne Manor for shelter amid Gotham’s growing chaos. After arranging for Bane to return to Santa Prisca, Li Jie stayed to protect his precinct, and Bane reminded him that someone always had to stand on the outside.

• Clark asked Li Jie to persuade Bruce to shelter Jonathan and Martha in the Batcave, and Li Jie agreed to bring them to Wayne Manor.
• Li Jie assigned Harkness to escort the Kents, and Alfred welcomed them into the Manor after learning they were Superman’s parents.
• Li Jie drove through Gotham, where officers and Cobblepot’s men enforced order as residents queued for supplies and looters were punished.
• Bane told Li Jie he planned to return to Santa Prisca, kill its president, and take power, though he might return if his attempt failed.
• Li Jie told Bane that Earth faced a global crisis and said he would protect his precinct until he could no longer fight.
• Bane shared an old saying about ants surviving floods in a ball and told Li Jie that someone always had to be on the outside.

Li Jie faced Faora after she overwhelmed Kara and threatened everyone on the street, then unleashed a powerful golden transformation and blasted her into the sky. He ended the chapter declaring himself Super Vegeta.

• Li Jie helped Barry and Bane bring the wounded Batman into a vehicle after Wonder Woman and Kara fell from the sky, while three armored Kryptonian soldiers arrived.
• Li Jie killed one Kryptonian soldier with a ricocheted kryptonite bullet, and Barry ran to rescue Diana.
• Kara warned Li Jie that Faora had arrived, but Faora knocked Kara down and threatened to kill everyone unless Li Jie killed her.
• As Faora counted down, Li Jie transformed with golden energy and struck Faora so hard that she flew hundreds of meters into the sky.
• Li Jie engulfed Faora in a torrent of golden energy, then called himself Super Vegeta.

Li Jie explained the destruction of Faora and learned that General Zod had captured Superman and Aquaman after the Justice League’s failed attempt to stop the Kryptonians. As the survivors reviewed their defeat in the Batcave, Li Jie criticized their plan and left the group facing the need to rethink their response.

• Lee Vegeta killed Faora with the Flash Cannon, toyed with another Kryptonian, and lost his borrowed power before falling to the ground.
• In the Batcave, Batman asked Li Jie to explain what had happened, and Li Jie asked where Clark was.
• Diana told Li Jie that General Zod had captured Clark and Arthur, while Batman recounted how Clark had tried to negotiate with Zod over the Codex of Life.
• Batman showed how kryptonite-tipped rounds killed two Kryptonians before the others destroyed the Batwing, and Diana explained how Zod’s forces overwhelmed Superman and the rest of the team.
• Li Jie criticized the Justice League’s plan to split up and fight the Kryptonians separately, calling them the Justice Tribe.

Li Jie urged the heroes to abandon notions of honorable duels and use kryptonite tactics to fight the invading Kryptonians, while Batman prepared a newly modified anti-Kryptonian armor. The group planned to rescue Clark, and Batman revealed the armor’s surprisingly flashy tactical lights.

• Li Jie sent Kara outside to heal and proposed using Barry’s speed and kryptonite to weaken Kryptonians before Diana finished them off.
• Diana objected that attacking poisoned, weakened enemies was dishonorable, but Li Jie argued that Earth’s fight against the Kryptonians was a war rather than a duel.
• Diana agreed to fight alongside the others after grabbing Li Jie’s injured shoulder, and Batman said they would rescue Clark while Li Jie guarded the East End.
• Batman revealed Winslow’s modified anti-Kryptonian armor, equipped with force-field protection, impact-dampening thrusters, kryptonite dust, and cryogenic gas.
• Batman demonstrated the armor’s multicolored tactical lights, and Li Jie admitted that the feature made sense.

Li Jie advised Bane that fear could impose order only temporarily and that people needed tangible hope to follow rules. Meanwhile, J’onn found Clark and Arthur aboard Zod’s ship, where Zod tortured Arthur to force Clark to reveal the Codex’s location.

• Li Jie told Alfred to keep Clark’s situation from Jonathan and the others before leaving the Batcave with Bane.
• Li Jie explained to Bane that force could quiet unrest in the short term, but lasting order required food, aid, and hope; Bane joined the supply line to observe the system.
• Li Jie stopped at a deserted intersection and spent his saved skill points.
• J’onn infiltrated Zod’s ship and located Clark and Arthur in an interrogation room, warning Batman that something seemed strange.
• Zod tortured Arthur in front of Clark and threatened to continue until Arthur died unless Clark revealed what he knew about the Codex.

Kara Zor-El lured two Kryptonian pursuers into Batman's ambush, where Diana, Barry, and the Bat-Armor defeated them. Back in Gotham, Li Jie and Nygma discussed who would take command if the crisis eliminated the current leaders.

• Li Jie reviewed his randomly drawn skills and considered using Shared Misfortune against an enemy.
• Kara Zor-El released her bio-electric field to draw the Krypton Squad toward her, then fled along Batman's programmed route.
• Barry Allen and Diana helped Batman ambush the two Kryptonian pursuers with Kryptonite dust and Diana's Kryptonite Sword, killing one and incapacitating the other.
• Kara landed after the brief battle, and Batman told the group to move to another location and continue the fight.
• Li Jie told Bob that the children at the school were safe in underground passages, while Bob reported that Gotham's bosses had not ordered a work stoppage.
• Nygma raised the need for a command handover protocol if Li Jie, the Chief, and he were all lost, and Li Jie warned that using more nuclear weapons could provoke Superman.

Dru-Zod ordered the World Engine activated as his troops were ambushed, while its effects began altering Earth’s gravity and environment. Li Jie coordinated Gotham’s evacuation as the population faced the prospect that nowhere on Earth would remain safe.

• Dru-Zod noticed patrols disappearing across Kansas, recognized that an enemy was predicting his forces’ movements, and ordered a fleet-wide alert and the World Engine’s activation.
• Li Jie and Nygma observed worldwide gravity and tidal anomalies as the World Engine transformed Earth’s environment.
• Martian Manhunter infiltrated the Kryptonian ship and found Aquaman being tortured in the interrogation room.
• Li Jie directed Anna and Wilson to maintain order in Gotham and warned them that fleeing would not save people from the planet-wide transformation.
• Fighter jets flew toward the inverted black mountain as crowds gathered at Gotham Harbor.

Li Jie ordered Gotham’s East End to admit screened refugees while Cobblepot enforced the rules amid rising panic. On the World Engine, the heroes launched an attack on Ursa, but their kryptonite assault failed to stop him.

• Li Jie told Bob to open the East End perimeter to screened refugees and warned that troublemakers would be shot after one warning.
• Cobblepot watched checkpoint officers reject bribes and enforce screening, while Wilson used warning shots to quell a crowd and sent a disruptive new resident back to the line.
• Martian Manhunter freed Arthur Curry from his restraints, and Arthur knocked out his interrogator before ripping out a control panel to throw at pursuing Kryptonians.
• Batman sent Kara to the Kryptonian warship to help rescue Clark and led The Flash and Wonder Woman toward Ursa with a plan to use kryptonite.
• The Flash distracted Ursa while Wonder Woman struck him with the Kryptonite Sword, then Barry forced kryptonite powder into his mouth; Ursa endured the pain and cleared the dust as Batman’s Mecha struck him.

Batman used a self-destructive Bat-Armor attack to blast Ursa into the sea, while Li Jie controlled a panicked crowd in the East End. In Metropolis, Superman and Kara confronted Zod, who refused to shut down the World Engine and vowed to destroy them.

• Batman endured Ursa's assault by trapping him in a bear hug, then detonated the armor's green energy core and hurled Ursa into the sea, but was badly injured.
• Li Jie ordered the East End crowd to undergo screening and had Wilson arrest a woman who tried to incite the crowd.
• Zod noted the failed air attacks on the World Engine before Superman struck him and Kara joined the confrontation.
• Superman gave Zod one last chance to shut down the World Engine, but Zod argued that Krypton's rebirth justified the sacrifice of Earth's people.
• Zod rejected Superman and Kara as traitors and threatened to destroy them if Krypton could not be reborn.

As Zod used civilians and Krypton’s fate to torment Superman, Li Jie tried to use his Shared Misfortune Skill to weaken the general. His first attempt failed, but after shooting himself, he made Zod suffer the same injury and gave Superman a chance to fight back.

• Zod resumed fighting Superman while taunting him with Jor-El’s choice to save Kal-El instead of Krypton, and Kara warned that the World Engine was still running.
• Li Jie arrived and asked Kara to hold Zod in place while he prepared a crushed Kryptonite Bullet.
• Kara distracted Zod by claiming she knew where the Codex of Life was, but he saw through her ploy and knocked her away.
• Li Jie activated Shared Misfortune and swallowed the Kryptonite fragments, but realized Kryptonite had no effect on him and only gave him indigestion.
• Li Jie shot himself in the thigh, causing Zod to scream and lose his balance so Superman could punch him down.
• Li Jie told Superman he had thirty minutes, then raised his gun toward his left arm.

Li Jie lost consciousness after shooting himself and was resuscitated in surgery, while Alfred and Barry worked to save Bruce Wayne in the Batcave. Li Jie’s heartbeat returned, but Bruce remained critically injured as Barry left to help outside.

• Li Jie succumbed to blood loss after shooting his left arm and leg, thinking he had not said goodbye to Harleen.
• Li Jie recalled his childhood and memories of Harleen, Raven, Nygma, Wilson, and his first day at the East End Police Department before hearing doctors resuscitate him.
• Doctors restored Li Jie’s heartbeat and treated his severed femoral artery with transfusions and surgery.
• Barry brought the gravely injured Bruce Wayne to the Batcave, where Alfred began emergency treatment.
• Alfred and Barry stabilized Bruce’s heartbeat, though his spine was severely damaged, and Barry prepared to return to the crisis outside.

Li Jie woke in Gotham General Hospital after five days unconscious and learned that his injuries were severe, while the alien invasion had stopped. In Metropolis, Lex Luthor began covertly recovering alien technology and hinted that he planned to replace those with power.

• Li Jie woke in the ICU, learned he had been unconscious for five days, and heard from Dr. Meyer that surgery had saved his badly injured arm and leg.
• Dr. Meyer told Li Jie the aliens had stopped and ordered the nurse to notify Detective Wilson and Ms. Quizzle that he was awake.
• Lex Luthor directed recovery teams to gather alien remains and technology at Smallville, Metropolis Bay, and the India Ocean.
• Mercy reported that Batman was likely severely injured and that Superman had disappeared after taking General Zod's remains into the sun.
• Lex Luthor reviewed a report on the invasion, examined a piece of Krypton stone, and spoke of a coming era of “replacement.”

While Li Jie recovered in the hospital and gained control over qi, Nygma and Bruce Wayne investigated the mystery of Li Jie's self-inflicted wound and its connection to Zod's defeat. Bruce awoke paralyzed from the waist down, learned the state of Gotham, and ordered Alfred to gather his medical records as he vowed to return.

• Li Jie reached a new level of qi mastery and used the warm current in his body to ease the pain of his injuries.
• Wilson told Harleen and Raven that hospital visits were allowed one person at a time, and Raven went first after a tentacle knocked Wilson to the floor.
• Nygma reviewed the forensic evidence, concluded that Li Jie had likely traded his own injury for one inflicted on Zod, and locked his hypothesis away.
• Bruce Wayne awoke after six days unconscious and learned that spinal damage had left him temporarily paralyzed.
• Alfred briefed Bruce on Zod's death, the state of Gotham, and Li Jie's likely self-inflicted wound, while Bruce ordered medical records and rehabilitation plans and vowed he would recover.

Li Jie spoke with Wilson in the ICU, while Kara found Clark grieving over the destruction of Krypton and helped him accept that he had done the right thing by stopping Zod. Kara left Clark with renewed resolve by reminding him that she was his big sister.

• Wilson visited Li Jie in the ICU, guessed that Li had injured himself to get close to the alien, and promised to keep the story quiet.
• Li Jie asked Wilson about events outside, and Wilson described rescue work, relief efforts, and driving squatters out of the East End.
• Kara found Clark hovering above Earth and told him that Lois, his parents, Bruce, and the Sheriff were recovering or worried about him.
• Clark confessed that he felt like a traitor for killing Zod and destroying Krypton's last hope, but Kara argued that he had protected Earth from invasion and slaughter.
• Kara reminded Clark that Krypton was already gone and told him that their parents would be proud of his choice.
• Clark accepted Kara's reassurance, and she declared herself Krypton's young lady and his big sister.

As Li Jie recovered in the hospital, Harleen visited him and learned how he had used Shared Misfortune to help defeat Zod, then pointed out a safer way he could have used it. Elsewhere, Cobblepot secured preliminary approval for Gotham’s reconstruction plan and saw an opportunity to expand his influence.

• Dr. Crud told Li Jie that his injuries were healing at an extraordinary rate, and Li Jie attributed it to Chop Suey Kung Fu.
• Li Jie practiced circulating qi in bed before Harleen climbed into his hospital room with help from Poison Ivy’s vines.
• Harleen kissed Li Jie, learned he had shot himself to use Shared Misfortune against Zod, and explained that holding his breath could have produced the same effect more safely.
• Harleen urged Li Jie to try Shared Misfortune on her, then initiated an intimate encounter despite his injuries.
• Cobblepot rejected compensation demands from a district representative and celebrated Mayor O’Brien’s preliminary approval of his Gotham Reconstruction Plan.

Dick Grayson began his first solo patrol in a new uniform while Bruce recovered, but found that copying Batman left him feeling like he was only playing a role. After speaking with Barbara, he started moving through Gotham in a way that felt more like himself, though he had not yet figured out who he wanted to become.

• Dick designed a new uniform and persuaded Alfred to let him patrol, promising to retreat and call for backup if he faced danger.
• Dick stopped two thieves in the Diamond District and handled several other minor problems, but felt empty while trying to imitate Batman.
• Dick told Barbara that patrolling felt wrong, and she urged him to discover his own reasons and identity rather than fill in for Bruce.
• Dick continued his patrol with a spontaneous trapeze-like twist through the air, while Barbara watched him from her window.