Chapter Summaries

Brad and Superman tried to stop Kara from destroying their red-star reactors, only to discover that she was the sane Kryptonian who had conquered this universe. Kara explained how desperation and loss led her to build New Krypton into a galactic empire, and she declared herself queen of the universe.

• Skynet and Brad's duplicate failed to find a safe way to investigate the Inspiration Realm, so Brad promised to send Firestorm to help.
• Brad built red-star reactors, and teams from eight parallel universes began installing them at Krypton Bases, with Barry Allen placing them at super-speed.
• Barry reported that a powerful woman crushed one reactor and started destroying the others, so Brad and Earth One's Superman went to intercept her.
• The woman recognized Superman as Carl, and Brad identified her as Kara, the universe's sane Kryptonian who had led the conquest of countless civilizations.
• Kara told Superman that she built artificial suns after most of her people died, then led the survivors in conquering planets and destroying Earth.
• Kara revealed that she had modified her genes using Superman's corpse and strengthened herself with twelve artificial stars before declaring herself queen of New Krypton and the universe.

Brad restrained Kara after Superman confronted her over leading the Kryptonians in massacres, then learned that a mysterious man had given her technology to contain their madness. Brad identified the man as The Batman Who Laughs and destroyed a necklace that held coordinates, leaving his plan unclear.

• Superman accused Kara of using Krypton's survival as an excuse to slaughter innocents, and Kara attacked him in fury.
• Kara grabbed Superman by the throat, but Brad intervened and effortlessly subdued her.
• Brad demanded to know who had supplied the New Krypton technology, and Kara revealed that a man with a spiked visor had given it to her.
• Brad extinguished the thirteen artificial yellow stars and identified the mysterious benefactor as The Batman Who Laughs.
• Kara handed over a skull necklace, and Brad shattered it after realizing it contained a set of coordinates.

Brad decoded The Batman Who Laughs's temporal coordinates and met a still-lucid Batman in Dark Universe Earth-22 after he had slaughtered the Justice League. Batman explained how the Joker Virus and a dark will had driven him toward becoming The Batman Who Laughs, then asked Brad to help him resist that darkness; Brad demanded proof of his willingness to cooperate.

• The Multiverse Justice League secured the conquered Kryptonian universe, imprisoned Kara on Earth One, and postponed its campaign against Nekron's universe.
• Brad decoded The Batman Who Laughs's spacetime coordinates and traveled to Dark Universe Earth-22 without telling the others.
• Brad found Bruce Wayne standing among the Justice League's corpses and discovered that Bruce was resisting the madness influencing him.
• Bruce explained that a dark will had promised him revenge if he accepted the Joker Virus and helped destroy his doomed universe.
• Bruce asked Brad to help him break free of the dark force, and Brad challenged him to demonstrate his sincerity by solving a problem first.

Brad sought help accessing the Inspiration Realm, and The Batman Who Laughs used the Black Kryptonite Knife to make him perceive the world through controlled madness. After Brad killed and transformed the man in his hallucination, the madness transferred to Brad, and another dark figure emerged to propose an alliance.

• Brad told the man about the Inspiration Realm and asked for a way to reach it.
• The man claimed that controlled madness could let Brad see the realm and stabbed him with the Black Kryptonite Knife.
• The man became The Batman Who Laughs as Brad vanished, then Brad returned to the blood-soaked Hall of Justice seeing a spring and strange creatures instead.
• Brad offered the strange bird a white flower formed from spring water, while his technology purified blood into a reagent that the bird accepted.
• The bird dissolved into a cloak for Brad, and its former body vanished as conceptual madness surged into him.
• A masked man in a black straitjacket appeared and proposed that he and Brad work together.

The Batman Who Laughs and Brad split into two versions, built forces to conquer the multiverse, and plotted to overthrow Barbatos. Later, the Batman Who Laughs entered a universe ruled by the Black Lanterns, while Brad prepared the Multiverse Justice League to invade it with simulated white light.

• The Batman Who Laughs emerged from the World Forge and split into Brad, who also gained Barbatos's reality-altering power.
• The Batman Who Laughs formed the Dark Knight Order, while Brad secretly supported its conquests and arranged escapes from powerful pursuers.
• After the Batman Who Laughs suffered his first defeat, Brad suggested killing Barbatos, then vanished and left him to gather strength alone.
• The Batman Who Laughs found a fallen universe where Black Lantern Rings killed the living, and met a dead man digging at Bruce's grave.
• The Batman Who Laughs summoned Nekron and asked to discuss a deal, while Brad's Multiverse Justice League developed devices that simulated white light.
• The Multiverse Justice League equipped its fighters with White Light Emblems and prepared to invade the Black Lantern Legion Universe.

Brad and the Multiverse Justice League waged a massive war against Nekron’s Black Lantern Legion by flooding its universe with white-light mechanical armies. As Black Lanterns and planets fell, Nekron begged Brad to stop, but Brad ordered the production and assault to continue.

• Brad and Dream Firestorm transformed universe remnants into white-light mechanical beings, and the Multiverse Justice League sent the growing army through a portal into Nekron’s universe.
• The Black Lanterns fought back under Black Hand, while Brad’s endless reinforcements overwhelmed Earth and caused planets to collapse into black holes.
• Brad told Nekron he intended to destroy the entire universe, and the expanding white light weakened the Black Lantern Legion.
• The mechanical army assembled a White Light Star Extinguisher that extinguished star systems and reignited their stars as sources of white light.
• After Black Lantern Superman was worn away by the mechanical swarm, Nekron begged Brad to stop, but Brad revived the exhausted Firestorms and ordered them to continue.

Brad steadily weakened Nekron with endless white-light machines while avoiding a direct battle that could strengthen the Black Lanterns. The Batman Who Laughs then revealed that Brad might accept an invitation to join the family that included the true Death, and Nekron realized the Dark Knight Order was cooperating with Brad.

• Nekron repeatedly sent Black Lantern armies and powerful champions through portals, but Brad’s machines and two White Light-emblem Supermen stopped them.
• Nekron unleashed his deathly will across the universe and destroyed the mechanical armies, but Brad canceled the effect and restarted the machines.
• Batman and Lord Batman discussed Brad’s slow strategy and concluded he was weakening Nekron while keeping the Multiverse Justice League’s people from dying.
• The Batman Who Laughs visited Nekron and offered to renegotiate their deal, arguing that Brad could keep the conflict going for thousands of years.
• The Batman Who Laughs told Nekron that Brad had been invited to join the family of conceptual powers, including the true Death, and that he could learn of other dark universes’ plans through the Dark Knight Order.
• Nekron became jealous and accused The Batman Who Laughs of colluding with the light.

Brad tricked Nekron into surrendering the Black Lantern energy, then revealed himself and sealed Nekron inside the lantern to control its power and collect the Black Lantern Rings. After the Black Lantern Universe was left lifeless, Superman and the Multiverse Justice League committed to conquering the dark universes before they could threaten other worlds.

• The Batman Who Laughs persuaded Nekron to hand over all the Black Lantern energy by promising to stop the White-Light Mechanical Legion and help him escape.
• Brad revealed himself, sealed Nekron inside the Black Lantern as its wick, and used technology to recall the Black Lantern Rings from across the universe.
• With Nekron and the rings gone, the Black Lanterns decayed into dust, and the Multiverse Justice League cautiously confirmed the enemy had disappeared.
• Brad moved the Solar System's black hole and used Virtual Reality Technology with Dream Firestorm to create a new Earth.
• After witnessing the devastation, Superman urged the Multiverse Justice League to conquer the dark universes, and the gathered heroes agreed with him.

Kong Kenan’s team entered a demon-ravaged universe and learned that Nezha’s unleashed demonic Qi had corrupted the world, prompting its gods to purge every demon. Kong Kenan realized the Giant Spirit God had turned demonic too, just as the god invited him to join the Heavenly Court.

• Kong Kenan led his team into Metropolis, sensed the world’s dense demonic Qi, and sent his teammates to close the Portal as Eastern immortals approached.
• Xiao Qing recognized immortal Qi mixed with the demonic Qi and warned that the Heavenly Court had fallen, while Kong Kenan flew out to meet the approaching gods.
• Kong Kenan introduced himself to the Giant Spirit God as an unaffiliated cultivator, gained his trust, and followed him while asking what had happened to the world.
• The Giant Spirit God explained that Nezha’s demonic Qi had erupted in Gotham, corrupting the world, and that the Eastern and Western gods had begun killing every being touched by it.
• Kong Kenan noticed the Giant Spirit God’s immortal Qi had become demonic and saw severed limbs in his mouth as the god invited him to join the Heavenly Court.

Kong Kenan discovered that the Eastern immortals had been corrupted by demonic qi and attacked him when he refused to join them. After defeating them, he returned to his squad and mistook Sun Wukong for another corrupted god, launching a fight that left them charging toward a head-on clash.

• Kong Kenan questioned Giant Spirit God about the Demon Rain, recognized the demonic qi clouding the immortals, and refused to go to Heaven.
• Giant Spirit God and the other immortals tried to kill Kong Kenan, but Kong Kenan transformed into Pure Yang Form and sent Giant Spirit God flying.
• Kong Kenan defeated the remaining immortals, learned that the gods of East and West might have wiped out the world, and flew back toward his squad.
• Xiao Qing's squad encountered Sun Wukong, who suspected they came from another world and said the gods had killed everyone.
• Kong Kenan saw Sun Wukong near his teammates, assumed he was corrupted, and attacked him before Xiao Qing could explain.
• Sun Wukong used his expanding staff to hurl Kong Kenan into the sky, and Kong Kenan transformed and charged back down as Sun Wukong prepared to fight.

Kong Kenan and his team discovered that Sun Wukong had lost his memories, so Brad traced the monkey’s past through time and restored his recollection. Sun Wukong then vanished when another multiverse reclaimed the information that had formed him, leaving Brad to identify the encounter as an exchange of inspiration between universes.

• Kong Kenan realized Sun Wukong was not infected by demonic energy, and the two ended their fight as friends.
• Sun Wukong could not remember Western Heaven or who had taught him, so Kong Kenan’s team took him to the Multiverse Justice League headquarters.
• Brad investigated Sun Wukong’s history in Negative Energy Universe Thirteen and found a discontinuity in spacetime.
• Brad used his supercomputer to reconstruct the Great Thunderclap Temple, and Sun Wukong remembered cultivating under Buddha for hundreds of years.
• Sun Wukong began disappearing after his memories returned, and Brad concluded that another multiverse had reclaimed the information that represented him.

Brad struggled to create a naturally evolving universe, then used the experiment to reflect on his stalled progress and his search for a way forward. While the First Batman scrutinized him, Brad secretly coordinated with The Batman Who Laughs to draw Barbatos into a trap and planned to use The Batman Who Laughs's reality-altering power afterward.

• Brad created a lifeless parallel universe and painstakingly guided its Earth through billions of years of evolution, with Manhattan joining him to simulate the Cambrian explosion and a gamma-ray-burst extinction.
• Brad revealed that he had dispersed his own information throughout the universe to test whether a naturally evolved version of himself could emerge, and told Manhattan he could see no path to greater power within DC or Marvel.
• After Manhattan left, Brad resolved to search the beginning and end of time for Skynet and Hemen, while the First Batman confronted him over his intervention in the Eastern-mythology universe.
• Brad submitted a detailed report about his research to the First Batman, who continued to distrust and monitor him.
• Brad observed life beginning to move onto land in the Universe Sphere and contacted The Batman Who Laughs, agreeing to help lure Barbatos into their trap before using The Batman Who Laughs's reality-altering ability in an experiment.

The Batman Who Laughs escaped Barbatos by giving up his dark powers, and the Multiverse Justice League launched its final assault on the dragon. As Barbatos fell and The Third began to awaken inside the World Forge, Brad discovered that he and The Batman Who Laughs bore Perpetua’s mark and warned that they had to leave DC or face even greater threats.

• Barbatos summoned The Batman Who Laughs, but The Batman Who Laughs revealed that the final war had begun and turned against him, escaping after Barbatos destroyed his mortal body.
• The Batman Who Laughs emerged from a lunar regeneration canister beside Brad and discussed his lost powers and Barbatos’s impending death.
• The Multiverse Justice League attacked Barbatos, with Superman and Diana blinding him and the heroes breaking free of his illusions to fight the dark army.
• Brad and The Batman Who Laughs watched Barbatos suffer as the World Forge began reviving The Third, whom The Batman Who Laughs identified as the World Forger.
• Brad absorbed information about The Third and Perpetua, then discovered that both he and The Batman Who Laughs carried Perpetua’s mark and told him they had to leave DC or face stronger enemies.

Brad and The Batman Who Laughs secretly created a simulated universe and manipulated events to keep Brad from being sent home, while Luthor unknowingly followed their elaborate deception. The chapter ended with Luthor imprisoning The Batman Who Laughs and learning that he needed seven mysterious energies to decipher the Totality.

• The First Batman grew suspicious after Barbatos vanished and kept the remote that could send Brad home instead of using it.
• Brad shaped a simulated universe while The Batman Who Laughs injected darkness into it and shared what he knew about Perpetua and the Source Wall.
• Brad and The Batman Who Laughs revealed that they had staged Luthor’s journey through future timelines and supplied the technology he acquired.
• Luthor discovered the Totality after it fell into the First Universe and hid it in a heavily secured prison.
• Luthor questioned the imprisoned The Batman Who Laughs, who persuaded him that he needed to collect seven mysterious energies to decipher the Totality.

Brad tested the Anti-Life Equation, which repeatedly destroyed his bodies because it negated his existence, and relied on The Batman Who Laughs to survive its attack. He then traveled to Trigon’s dimension and struck a deal promising him part of the Parallel Universes, while Batman’s team discovered Brad’s abandoned lunar base.

• Brad analyzed the Anti-Life Equation and found that its altered rules repeatedly erased him whenever he regenerated.
• The Anti-Life Equation struck The Batman Who Laughs, who survived the attack, and Luthor arrived after his alarm sounded.
• Brad regenerated again, opened a portal to Trigon, and left the moon; Batman and a Multiverse Justice League team later found Brad’s empty glass tanks and traces of Trigon.
• Brad met Trigon in his alternate dimension and learned how the demon had been stranded outside the DC Multiverse.
• Brad offered Trigon a portion of the Parallel Universes in exchange for his help, and Trigon accepted while planning to claim everything after Brad died.

Brad created a new universe with Trigon as its ruler of Hell, then exchanged its possible future with a DC-associated universe that had produced the Quantum God. The change alarmed DC’s Multiverse Justice League, and Batman decided to find Brad while keeping him under surveillance.

• Trigon’s power spawned demons in Hell, where they fought until ten Demon Kings ruled a hierarchy of demons.
• Brad unfolded the simulated universe into a new universe, cut off its information exchange with DC, and invited Manhattan to join him.
• Brad created a future in which Manhattan became the Quantum God, then exchanged that future’s information with a DC Dark Energy Universe, causing the original universe and its related Watchmen realities to vanish from DC’s multiverse.
• An angel warned the Multiverse Justice League that a universe had been stolen, but Batman argued that the humans within it were unharmed and refused to act on the gods’ behalf.
• Batman explained that Brad had taken an independent universe rather than undermining DC’s foundations, then told the heroes he knew how to find Brad.
• Batman agreed to show Brad more friendliness only if Brad remained under constant surveillance.

Brad, Manhattan, and Trigon celebrated the new universe and planned to plunder worlds and timeline branches to expand it while avoiding DC’s supreme beings. The Batman Who Laughs, confined to the Inspiration Realm, confronted Brad over being left out.

• Trigon invited Brad and Manhattan to a feast in her alternate-dimensional space, where they exchanged unusual foods and seasoning.
• Manhattan warned that the newborn universe lacked enough humans to support Hell’s growth and that expansion could provoke DC’s primordial deities.
• Brad, Manhattan, and Trigon agreed to secretly gather plunderable worlds and timeline branches, then leave the multiversal system for the Great Void.
• The Batman Who Laughs complained in the Inspiration Realm that Brad had excluded him from the trio’s plans.
• Brad appeared beside the Batman Who Laughs, who answered his question with mocking complaints about being imprisoned and forgotten.

Brad and The Batman Who Laughs plotted to use Luthor’s efforts to free Perpetua as cover for their own plans, while Brad arranged to make Luthor more anxious about his prisoner. Luthor was left searching for a missing button, and Brad turned his attention to developing the new world.

• The Batman Who Laughs told Brad that Luthor was struggling to obtain the first three energies because Batman had secured their physical counterparts.
• Brad decided to help accelerate Perpetua’s release and enlist The Batman Who Laughs in a scheme to distract Luthor and Batman.
• Luthor noticed a missing button on The Batman Who Laughs’s jacket and questioned him in the underground prison, using a device to inflict pain.
• The Batman Who Laughs taunted Luthor with threats of revenge until Luthor stormed out, convinced he needed to find the missing button.
• Brad revealed that he had kept the ordinary button in the Inspiration Realm and explained how Luthor’s agitation could lead him to steal the energies.
• Brad left the Inspiration Realm and returned to studying which universes he could seize to speed up the new world’s development.

Billy Batson met Brad, who revealed that he knew about Billy’s Shazam powers and brought him to witness the Wizard Shazam’s past. The chapter left Billy watching the young Wizard cross a desert as Brad explained that this was the Wizard’s true history.

• Billy went to meet Brad, but refused his adoption offer because he considered the Vasquezes his real family.
• Brad praised Billy’s compassion, revealed that he knew Billy possessed the Power of the Six Gods, and said he wanted to invite him rather than simply adopt him.
• Billy transformed into Shazam and demanded to know Brad’s intentions.
• Brad transported Shazam to a wilderness and said it was his true origin.
• Shazam saw a dehydrated boy he recognized as the young Wizard and realized he was witnessing the Wizard Shazam’s past.

Brad showed Shazam the true history of Jebediah, the first Wizard, whose world merged with the DC Universe and whose power and past were erased. Brad invited Billy to join his New World and help restore the path of transcendence through faith, leaving Billy to consider the offer.

• Shazam watched Jebediah endure the murder of his parents and set out across the world to find the deity he believed would answer him.
• After waiting on a mountain summit and recognizing the blessings of the creatures he had met, Jebediah received divine power and became Shazam.
• At the edge of his universe, the aging Wizard Shazam sought a way to protect his world from the Great Void and found a universe filled with people willing to help others.
• The Wizard Shazam merged his declining universe into the expanding DC Universe, sacrificing himself as his world was absorbed and his information gave rise to weaker versions of the Wizard across parallel universes.
• Brad told Billy that DC's world suppressed his potential and invited him to join the New World so they could revive transcendence through faith.