Chapter Summaries

Batman’s allies questioned why he had abandoned the Batcave and discovered he was hiding an unexplained secret. Deathstroke and Laurie reached a bizarre, joyless amusement park occupying Wayne Manor, where Deathstroke planned to raid the Batcave for Crisis Energy.

• Harley tried to prank the elderly Batman, but he caught her wrist and startled the others with his reaction.
• Bobo deduced that Batman was injured and using alcohol and anesthetics, while Batman said the Batcave was unsafe because the Justice League and his old friends had been infected.
• Barry asked Batman to explain what had happened, but Batman refused and shut himself in the bathroom.
• Deathstroke and Laurie arrived at Wayne Manor and found it transformed into a carnival whose visitors looked miserable.
• Deathstroke told Laurie they could collect what they needed by raiding Batman’s home through the Batcave.

Su Ming and Laurie infiltrated Joker’s Paradise, where Joker had turned Wayne Manor into a deadly carnival and forced captives to play roles. Su Ming posed as a plumber, provoked Joker into offering a more dangerous game, and left Joker stung by his criticism.

• Su Ming and Laurie disguised themselves and entered the amusement park to investigate whether the Emperor was behind Joker’s actions.
• Su Ming found a cotton candy stall and learned from its owner that Joker’s Paradise was a concentration camp for people who refused to go crazy.
• The Joker lock around the stall owner’s neck released laughing gas, killing him in front of Su Ming.
• Joker appeared and put a lock around Su Ming’s neck, mistaking his plumber disguise for a new carnival worker.
• Joker showed Su Ming a roller coaster bursting through Wayne Manor, but Su Ming dismissed the spectacle as unoriginal and demanded something more exciting.

Joker toured his carnival with the Plumber, who repeatedly criticized its attractions and proposed more deadly alternatives. Joker accepted the Plumber’s ideas and, increasingly intrigued, invited him into a house to see something even more entertaining.

• Joker prepared to use laughing gas after the Plumber dismissed his roller coaster, but the Plumber praised its concept and suggested adding crying losers for contrast.
• Joker hired the Plumber as the amusement park’s manager and took him to the Shooting Wild Ducks booth.
• The Plumber stopped Joker from loading a grenade and suggested a long slope with a rolling boulder to represent fate.
• Joker admired the suggestion, put down his rifle, and led the Plumber to the goldfish-scooping pool, where the Plumber proposed replacing the piranhas with sharks or crocodiles.
• As the tour continued, Deathstroke rejected Joker’s attractions and suggested more extreme versions until Joker invited him into a house to see something better.

Su Ming disguised as a plumber faced Joker in the remodeled Wayne Manor, while Batwoman rapidly rescued a hostage from one of Riddler’s traps. Joker’s next challenge began as Batman turned the remaining hostage rescues over to Damian.

• Joker suspected Su Ming was not who he claimed to be and threatened to kill everyone, but Su Ming inhaled the green smoke released by Joker’s remote without harm.
• Joker recognized that Su Ming was not Batwoman, speculated that she had already made a move, and posed him a riddle.
• Batwoman solved Riddler’s riddle in fifteen seconds and rescued a hostage, then knocked the suicidal Joker follower unconscious and left a tracker.
• Riddler threatened Batwoman with another question and ended their communication.
• Batman decided Damian should handle the scattered hostage rescues while he focused on Joker’s larger game.

Su Ming searched the Batcave with the Joker and recovered valuable metals and equipment before insisting that the Joker stay with him for his blood and Joker Virus. As the Black Lantern Ring reacted and Emperor’s attack approached, the Joker prepared a toy for the coming fight.

• Su Ming questioned the Joker about Batwoman’s belongings and learned that the Joker had thrown them into an underground cavern.
• Su Ming and the Joker jumped into the cavern, where Su Ming recovered Nth Metal and Amber Gold equipment to keep Emperor from taking them.
• The Joker offered Su Ming the deed to the Amusement Park, but Su Ming said he needed the Joker’s blood and Joker Virus.
• Su Ming’s Black Lantern Ring began glowing, and he warned the Joker to prepare for Emperor’s arrival.
• The Joker said he had a fun toy ready and leaped into the darkness, laughing and screaming.

Deathstroke and Joker left the Batcave and prepared for Emperor’s arrival while Black Lantern’s crisis loomed over Gotham. Su Ming gave Laurie a tiny locator to place on the enemy, leaving the group ready for the coming confrontation.

• Joker donned the modified Hellbat Armor, and Deathstroke reflected on Batwoman’s final plan and Joker’s dependence on her.
• Deathstroke brought Joker through the Bat-elevator and discussed Harley Quinn, who had gone to Greece with Poison Ivy and married her.
• Deathstroke and Joker reached the living room and found the carnival outside unchanged, with the cotton candy vendor’s corpse still lying there.
• Deathstroke told Laurie that Emperor had likely kept zombies away temporarily and instructed her to prepare for an attack.
• Deathstroke gave Laurie a Micro Doom Bot carrying a shrunken Spider Totem and explained that it could locate someone through the Threads of Destiny.

Joker and Deathstroke confronted the Emperor after he appeared in Joker’s carnival and destroyed its chocolate bath. Joker attacked the Emperor in the Hellbat Armor and knocked him out of Gotham, then claimed to be Batwoman.

• Joker watched the laughing-gas carnival from a window while Deathstroke prepared his sword for the arriving thief.
• The Emperor appeared in the carnival grounds and destroyed the chocolate bath with a beam, killing the Smiling People inside.
• Joker asked whether he could kill the Emperor, and Deathstroke agreed, planning to stab him from behind while Joker kept him occupied.
• Deathstroke vanished, and Joker flew at the Emperor in the Hellbat Armor, kicking him several kilometers north of Gotham.
• Joker confronted the Emperor about breaking into his home and destroying the fountain, then said he was Batwoman.

Emperor fought Joker in the Hellbat Armor, but the battle turned against him when Joker overclocked the suit. As Emperor tried to kill Joker with the Entropy Rift, Deathstroke intervened and revealed that a Batcave bat had absorbed the attack.

• Emperor realized the armored fighter was Joker rather than The Batman Who Laughs and tried to outlast him.
• Joker's Hellbat Armor entered overclock mode, overwhelming Emperor and forcing him to prepare an Entropy Rift ray.
• Deathstroke stabbed Emperor from behind and drove him into the ground.
• Emperor fired the Entropy Rift at Deathstroke, who remained unharmed as the ray struck a Batcave bat instead.
• Deathstroke explained that the bat had blocked the attack and taunted Emperor for being the first person in the multiverse to kill a Batcave bat.

Deathstroke explained how he could counter Emperor and Mocun’s time travel and Entropy Rift abilities, then let Emperor escape after Laurie attached a Spider Totem to him. Deathstroke and Laurie prepared to track down every version of Emperor while Joker left to continue his plans with Batwoman.

• Deathstroke reasoned that a Spider Totem and Great Weaver could track Emperor across Timelines, while a small animal could shield him from the Entropy Rift.
• Emperor vanished from the crater, and Laurie confirmed she had attached a Spider Totem to him.
• Deathstroke explained that Great Weaver needed time to connect Emperor’s incarnations across all Timelines.
• Joker recognized that Deathstroke had deliberately let Emperor escape, then accepted a cigar and went back to prepare a game with Batwoman.
• Deathstroke asked Adjutant to have Great Weaver send him and Laurie after every Emperor.

Su Ming tracked Emperor across timelines and killed him in a Roman bathhouse, then continued hunting another version in prehistoric times. The chapter ended with Su Ming killing a god who had enslaved a tribe through addictive powder and arena fights.

• Emperor realized that one of his timeline split bodies had lost, then resumed enjoying himself in a Roman bathhouse.
• Su Ming and Laurie entered Emperor’s private chamber, where Su Ming shot him and used Strangle to dispose of the body and alter the slaves’ memories.
• Su Ming explained that he and Emperor now existed simultaneously across every Timeline of Earth-12, then Laurie asked to leave.
• In prehistoric times, a faceless blue-and-gold god made a tribe fight to the death in exchange for addictive white powder.
• Su Ming appeared behind the god and cut it in half, revealing to the tribe that gods could bleed and die.

Su Ming and Laurie recovered Bat-Metal and hunted Emperor across countless eras and Timelines, repairing each branch as they killed his incarnations. They cornered the last Emperor in Gotham after Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered, then approached the unconscious boy while planning to let their prey suffer longer.

• Su Ming retrieved Bat-Metal from the altar, altered the primitives’ memories, and left them worshipping a bat symbol.
• Deathstroke killed Emperor in many eras and settings, then used Tenth Metal and the Force of Connection to repair the Timelines and prevent surviving Emperors from escaping.
• The converging Timelines carried Bruce to Crime Alley, where he found his murdered parents and collapsed beneath a passing bat.
• Laurie questioned whether leaving Bruce’s parents unsaved was right, and Su Ming insisted it was necessary to preserve stories involving metal.
• Su Ming and Laurie descended from the rooftops to speak with Bruce while Black Alice watched the final Emperor flee.

Deathstroke and Laurie found Thomas and Martha Wayne murdered in a Gotham alley and arranged for the police to be called. They tried to steady the traumatized Bruce, and Deathstroke claimed he was the boy’s godfather before telling him to call him “Father.”

• Deathstroke and Laurie confirmed that Thomas and Martha Wayne were dead and moved the unconscious Bruce away from their bodies.
• Deathstroke called the police and warned them that the Kane Family still existed, prompting the dispatcher to take the murder report seriously.
• Deathstroke woke Bruce with cold water, while Laurie used shadows to hold him upright.
• Deathstroke gave Bruce cigarettes and vodka to calm him, and Laurie joked about using Heat Vision and Promethium on his hair.
• After seeing his parents’ bodies, Bruce regained his composure and asked who Deathstroke and Laurie were.
• Deathstroke claimed he had been Thomas and Martha’s friend and Bruce’s godfather, then told Bruce to call him “Father.”

Deathstroke showed young Bruce evidence that his parents had been deliberately ambushed and offered to teach him detective work, leaving Bruce determined to become both darker and richer. In the altered Timeline, Old Batman adopted the smoking, drinking, and perming habits Deathstroke had taught him, confirming that the past had changed.

• Bruce turned his parents' bodies over and rejected Deathstroke and Laurie’s claim that they were kindhearted passersby.
• Deathstroke showed Bruce the hidden waiting spot, cigarette butts, and a matchbox marked Marlon, persuading him that his parents had been ambushed.
• Deathstroke advised Bruce to become super dark or super rich, and Bruce decided to pursue both paths.
• Old Batman emerged from the bathroom smoking, drinking, and sporting a perm, while Bobo and Barry recognized the signs of an altered Timeline.
• Barbara asked Diana whether Batman smoked in her Parallel World, and Diana awkwardly admitted she did not know.

Deathstroke defeated the Emperor in Crime Alley, restored Earth-12’s broken Timeline, and learned that the Emperor’s plan involved Darkseid. He and Laurie then realized that Earth-12’s Batwoman and Bruce Wayne were the same person, and left to deal with Mocun.

• The Emperor’s red-beam ambush failed when a bat blocked the attack, and Deathstroke confronted him on a rooftop.
• Deathstroke used Strangle to trap the Emperor, reunified the Timeline, killed him, and had Strangle consume his brain for information.
• Deathstroke told Laurie they would deal with Mocun before pursuing what he had learned about the Emperor’s connection to Darkseid.
• Laurie said goodbye to young Bruce, who resolved to become a detective and protect others after his parents’ murder.
• Laurie realized that Earth-12’s Batwoman was Bruce Wayne, and Deathstroke explained that his intervention had changed Bruce’s fractured soul.
• Deathstroke and Laurie arrived at a sunny Time Point and headed toward an ice cream stand.

Deathstroke brought Laurie to an ordinary park on Earth-12 to rest, then slipped away to confront a grieving Hank Hall. He immobilized Hank with Symbiotes and began talking to him about his role as a source of misfortune.

• Deathstroke explained to Laurie that they were on Earth-12 before Blackest Night and offered to buy her food.
• Laurie stayed beneath a sun umbrella while Deathstroke vanished from the park and entered a nearby house.
• Hank Hall grieved Donald's death, blamed himself, and decided to burn his Hawk uniform.
• Hank recalled refusing Dawn's repeated attempts to reform Hawk and Dove, even as she continued contacting him.
• Deathstroke restrained Hank with Symbiotes, took his rum, and remarked on his drink as he prepared to talk.

Su Ming persuaded Hank to sacrifice himself to prevent a future in which he joined Darkseid and destroyed the world, then secretly poisoned him and arranged to replace him with a combat Synthezoid. He left Earth-12’s timeline restored and prepared to see what changes the Butterfly Effect had caused.

• Su Ming revealed his future knowledge to Hank and asked him to sacrifice himself for Earth.
• Hank accepted after Su Ming claimed that Hank’s future grief over Dawn’s death would drive him to join Darkseid and destroy the world.
• Su Ming poisoned Hank’s wine, and Hank died believing he had given his life for the Justice League.
• Su Ming ordered Hank’s body thrown into the sun and arranged for a combat Synthezoid to take his place and for Dawn to be released.
• Su Ming declined to prepare a plan for Kang the Conqueror and left to inspect the changes to Earth-12’s story.

Su Ming returned from dealing with Emperor and Mocun, shared food with Laurie, and reunited with the others in the sewer hideout. He revealed that the crisis was tied to Darkseid and turned the group’s attention to finding clues about his movements.

• Su Ming shared a giant burger and other food with Laurie, explaining that Strangle had prepared it.
• Su Ming spotted Dawn entering a house with a Synthezoid and concluded that things had likely worked out.
• Su Ming returned to the sewer hideout, where Bobo asked about Emperor and Mocun and reported that Dove and Batwoman were acting strangely.
• Su Ming told the group that Emperor and Mocun would not bother them again and that they needed to investigate Darkseid’s movements.
• Su Ming explained that Emperor had only collected items containing Crisis Energy and had been a pawn in the wider plot involving the zombies.

Su Ming and his companions discussed Blackest Night spreading across Earth and other planets, along with Darkseid’s possible plans. Meanwhile, Roy reunited with Jason, who took him for drinks and explained why he was staying out of Gotham.

• Su Ming questioned Lobo about conditions on Earth and learned that Black Light had surrounded planets including Thanagar and Oa.
• Su Ming said Darkseid had grown unusually patient after his plan to collect Crisis Energy was disrupted, and he suspected Darkseid wanted more than Crisis Energy.
• Deathstroke said Earth-12 was the last place where Darkseid had left a trace, but Emperor and Mocun had yielded no useful intelligence.
• Jason reunited with Roy and took him on his motorcycle toward a mercenary bar, saying Batwoman had warned him to stay out of Gotham.
• Roy told Jason about his return from the dead and the other version of himself, while Jason offered to explain Hypertime over drinks.
• Jason explained that Deathstroke had knocked him unconscious and that Batwoman had ordered him to take Joker's Daughter and leave Gotham.

Joker held Catwoman captive in her apartment and tried to exploit her doubts about Batman and Bruce Wayne. He offered her a way to test their feelings and access Bruce’s fortune, leaving her tempted by his scheme.

• Catwoman argued with Joker about Batman’s search, while Joker claimed Batman had noticed her lipstick but chosen to keep pursuing him.
• Joker ordered Punchline to kill more hostages, and Catwoman refrained from attacking him because she feared the consequences for Batman and herself.
• Joker taunted Catwoman about whether she loved Batman or Bruce Wayne, then offered to test which one loved her more.
• Joker showed Catwoman a laptop from Luthor and said it could transfer billions of dollars if she provided her and Bruce’s bank account numbers.

Detective Chimp explained why Deathstroke and the others suspected Darkseid was behind the zombie crisis, linking it to the Black Lantern virus and the absence of a second Black Lantern Ring. Diana understood that Darkseid was pursuing Crisis Energy and the Force of Connection, leaving the Tenth Metal and Earth-12’s Entity of Life as his next targets.

• Diana demanded an explanation for why the group suspected Darkseid, and Deathstroke asked Detective Chimp to lay out the evidence.
• Detective Chimp compared two points in time and explained that the zombies in both outbreaks carried Black Lantern energy and shared the same virus traits.
• Detective Chimp pointed out that the future zombie crisis had no Black Lantern Ring besides Deathstroke’s, suggesting another powerful source had driven the corpses.
• Diana inferred that Darkseid was likely behind the virus and had directed Golden Eagle’s clues toward Emperor and Mocun while pursuing Crisis Energy.
• Su Ming confirmed that Darkseid wanted the Force of Connection and identified the Tenth Metal and Earth-12’s Entity of Life as the next keys.