Chapter Summaries

Su Ming explained how Charles could use the Eiffel Tower and Erik’s magnetic powers to amplify his telepathy and search Paris for Sebastian. The group prepared to work together, while Charles and Erik began to see how Mutants’ abilities could complement one another.

• Ciri admired Paris from the Eiffel Tower with Su Ming, who discussed buying paintings before sending her off to finish the mission.
• Su Ming asked Charles to find Sebastian, but Charles said his telepathic range could not cover the city.
• Su Ming taught Charles how the Eiffel Tower could act as a Brainwave Amplifier, helping him detect people and distinguish Mutants from ordinary humans.
• Su Ming proposed that Erik use magnetism and his control over metal to generate and amplify electricity for Charles’s search, and Erik agreed to cooperate.
• Charles and Erik shared an understanding as they considered how Mutants could combine their powers.

Su Ming stopped Magneto from rushing blindly after Hellfire and led the group toward its Paris branch at Les Invalides. As they reached the complex, he ordered Charles to locate the enemy before they began their assault.

• Su Ming and Ciri watched Charles and Magneto use the Brainwave Amplifier at the Eiffel Tower, while Su Ming joked about their partnership.
• The scan revealed that charged particles had increased in the air, and Magneto flew off toward the enemy; Su Ming followed with Ciri, Charles, and Parham.
• Su Ming overtook Magneto, then lied that the enemy had not moved to stop him from charging into a fight alone.
• Su Ming identified Hellfire's Paris branch as Les Invalides and explained that Charles would locate the enemy while the group avoided harming civilians.
• The group reached Les Invalides, and Su Ming told Charles to begin scanning for the enemy.

Su Ming’s group tried to kill Sebastian Shaw and confront Mastermind, but Azazel and Wind Demon interrupted them before an unknown portal rescued Sebastian. Su Ming then faced Jason Wyngarde until Merlin arrived and took over the fight, leaving Su Ming questioning what Merlin’s identity meant.

• Charles controlled Sebastian and made him walk out of Les Invalides, but Azazel appeared and knocked Magneto’s metal spike aside.
• Su Ming sent Ciri to keep Azazel occupied while Magneto attacked Sebastian again, but Wind Demon intervened and Ghost Rider pursued him.
• Magneto tried to kill Sebastian from within, but a black portal swallowed Sebastian and severed Charles’s psychic connection.
• Jason Wyngarde emerged and denied helping Hydra, then challenged Su Ming to a magical duel.
• Merlin arrived and summoned armed suits of armor to attack Jason, while Su Ming wondered whether Merlin’s identity matched the stories he knew.

Su Ming saw through Jason’s illusion and confronted him over the Sorcerer Assault Team, but Jason denied knowing who trained it. Jason returned Sebastian and was allowed to leave, while Su Ming urged Magneto to face his enemy and explained how to overcome Sebastian’s energy-absorbing power.

• Su Ming exposed Jason’s illusion, explaining that Jason could not convincingly impersonate the Great Mages who guarded Earth’s magical nodes.
• Jason admitted that Ancient One may have defeated Master Merlin through time magic, then denied helping Madame Hydra train the Sorcerer Assault Team or knowing that Wind Demon served Blackheart.
• Su Ming let Jason leave after he returned Sebastian from the Endless Void, warning him about the danger posed by demons.
• Su Ming told Magneto that Sebastian could be killed by giving him no energy to absorb.
• Magneto transformed a Divine Metal Bullet into a thin golden disk and sent it after the fleeing Sebastian.

Magneto killed Sebastian with Deathstroke’s guidance and left to pursue a broader fight for Mutant justice. Charles chose to travel and learn how to prevent hatred, while Su Ming dealt with the surviving Hellfire Club members and prepared to move on.

• Magneto suffocated Sebastian with a God Metal mask, then decapitated him and flew away with his head.
• Charles decided to travel the world and learn how to build understanding between humans and Mutants, and Su Ming warned him about dangerous countries.
• Su Ming recognized Paris Seville among the Hellfire Council and left the frightened members to their confusion.
• Su Ming had Strangle consume Sebastian’s corpse and used Cloak to capture Wind Demon.
• Su Ming asked Charles to erase the Council members’ memories, and they later found themselves skating on the frozen Seine without knowing why.

Su Ming learned that Gibborim had taken control of Blackheart’s Sorcerer Assault Team and was targeting Kamar-Taj. He prepared to hunt Gibborim and clean house for Kamar-Taj.

• Su Ming handed Wind Demon to Merlin for interrogation, then gave Charles money and sent him to begin his travels.
• Su Ming, Ciri, and Parham discussed leads to Madame Hydra’s whereabouts while waiting for Merlin’s findings.
• Merlin returned and revealed that Blackheart had formed the Sorcerer Assault Team before abandoning it after Germany’s defeat.
• Merlin identified Gibborim, one of Ancient One’s former disciples, as the Dark Sorcerer now commanding the team in hatred of Kamar-Taj.
• Su Ming put on his armor, drew the Godslayer, and called for Heimdall.

Su Ming used Heimdall and Hamill to travel with his group to find Kamar-Taj’s traitor Gibborim, then the story followed Heimdall as Thor and his companions returned from shopping in Vanaheim. Thor had become a hunter who traded his prey for food, while Odin used the apparent losses to strengthen peaceful ties with Gullveig’s people.

• Su Ming asked Hamill to locate Gibborim and teleport him, his companions, and their horse to the traitor without jolting them.
• Heimdall watched Su Ming’s group depart, then answered Thor’s call and received Thor, Loki, the Warriors Three, and Sif with their purchases from Vanaheim.
• Heimdall recalled how Thor began hunting and trading prey for Vanaheim’s food after Gullveig told him to stop relying on Odin.
• Thor hoped that supporting his companions through hunting would prove he was fit to inherit Asgard, while Loki enjoyed the free meals and mocked him.
• Heimdall suspected Thor had traded a valuable ice wolf pelt for a hamburger, but Odin allowed the arrangement to continue.
• Odin accepted the apparent losses because he wanted to ease Vanaheim’s resentment and unite the two realms against future threats.

Deathstroke pressured Gibborim into exhausting himself with costly spells while explaining the history of the Ancient One and Karu's conflict. Gibborim continued casting as Su Ming aimed to let the demon gods collect the price, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Gibborim attacked Deathstroke with spells, but Deathstroke's armor and Cloak of Levitation rendered them ineffective.
• When Gibborim tried to teleport away, Deathstroke shot his arm and stopped him.
• Gibborim accused the Ancient One of betraying Karu, and Su Ming recounted how Karu turned to Chthon and fought the Ancient One, who defeated her with help from the Vishanti and Cyttorak.
• Su Ming explained that Karu later became Sorcerer Supreme of an Alternate Dimension and that Gibborim had joined her efforts against the Main Dimension.
• Su Ming deliberately pressured Gibborim to keep casting, hoping the price owed to demon gods would destroy him.

Deathstroke and his allies defeated Gibborim and his Sorcerers, then searched their mountain base for clues. Su Ming found a hidden elevator leading to a dark laboratory filled with human-demon hybrid experiments.

• Ghost Rider, Ciri, and Deathstroke cleared out the Sorcerers while Gibborim tried and failed to escape.
• Gibborim died from the cost of his spellcasting, and Su Ming collected his shrunken corpse to take back to Kamar-Taj as a warning to apprentices.
• Su Ming promised Parham a bath and a chance to meet Hollywood actresses after the mission, while Ciri reached the enemy base first and found a tank.
• Su Ming and Parham searched the base, and Parham suggested that a secret room might be above them.
• Su Ming discovered a concealed elevator and rode it down to a laboratory where Gibborim had researched human-demon hybrids.

Su Ming explored Gibborim’s laboratory, uncovered more details about the alliance behind Madame Hydra’s plans, and collected a few useful magical materials. He concluded the remaining clue was upstairs and left the laboratory with Strangle and Cloak.

• Su Ming discovered that the hanging corpses were Voodoo Zombies and inferred how Gibborim, Sebastian Shaw, and Madame Hydra had cooperated.
• Su Ming searched Gibborim’s experiments and found a potion that restored decaying corpses using a trace of self-healing Mutant blood.
• Su Ming concluded that Madame Hydra’s unexplained helper was likely connected to the potion’s Mutant blood ingredient.
• Su Ming recovered Magic Books, potion samples, and a formula, while Cloak found two magical rings and some low-grade materials.
• Su Ming decided the next clue was upstairs and left the laboratory with Strangle and Cloak.

Su Ming destroyed Gibborim’s bunker and sent Ciri and Parham away before heading alone to SSR’s Caspian Camp. Heimdall brought him and the tank to Asgard first, where Loki tried to learn who he was, then sent them on to the camp.

• Su Ming found no useful intelligence in Gibborim’s bunker, and Parham burned the facility after Su Ming decided to leave.
• Ciri asked to keep the tank, so Su Ming had it brought along when Heimdall transported them to Asgard.
• Thor and his companions ate and drank with Heimdall, while Loki tried to learn Su Ming’s identity and Heimdall warned him not to provoke the visitor.
• Heimdall sent Su Ming, Ciri, Parham, and the tank to Su Ming’s home, then transported Su Ming’s group to the outskirts of SSR’s Caspian Camp.
• Parham and Ciri stayed behind to avoid exposing themselves, and Su Ming paid them to go to Los Angeles while he entered the SSR facility alone.

Su Ming returned to Howard’s laboratory, where Howard and Hank Pym disagreed over the purpose of a silver sphere inside Madame Hydra’s robot. He identified it as a device that stored and transmitted memories, then told Fury to retrieve Faustus’s body and pay him for the job.

• Fury introduced fourteen-year-old scientist Henry Jonathan Pym, known as Hank, to Su Ming.
• Howard explained that he thought the robot’s head held Madame Hydra’s memories, while Hank suspected the silver sphere had a special function.
• Su Ming removed the sphere and explained that it could upload intelligence and memories to distant signal stations to activate another body.
• Su Ming told Zola he had killed Blue Glove and Faustus, and Fury warned Zola to help them find Root of Hatred to prove his innocence.
• Su Ming told Fury where Faustus’s body could be found and demanded payment before anyone claimed credit for retrieving it.

Su Ming delegated investigations into the National Guard deployment and Romulus to Howard in exchange for information about Howard’s future wife, then returned to Kamar-Taj to seek intelligence about a South American fire-worshipping group. He left Hamill to investigate the Amazon region and preserve Gibborim as teaching material.

• Zola dismantled the sphere while Howard criticized his work, and Su Ming pulled Howard aside to discuss two investigations.
• Su Ming asked Howard to find who mobilized the National Guard and to officially search for Romulus, offering information about Howard’s future wife in return.
• Howard agreed to help, and Su Ming left for South America to negotiate with Selene about the Hellfire Club and the current crisis.
• Su Ming returned through the Sanctum Sanctorum to Kamar-Taj and learned from Hamill that Mordo was in Philadelphia.
• Su Ming ordered Hamill to investigate magical activity and fire worshippers near the Amazon River, then gave him Gibborim’s body to preserve for Kamar-Taj.

Su Ming negotiated Selene's return to Britain under a contract that required her to kill Hydra's Root of Hatred thoroughly. He then confronted Romulus on Mount Fuji, warned him to stop causing trouble, and defeated him with a single punch.

• Su Ming threatened Selene with the Eye of Agamotto and forced her to choose between remaining a rainforest goddess and returning to Britain as queen of the Mutants.
• Selene signed a contract witnessed by the Vishanti, agreeing to kill Root of Hatred and a later target in exchange for Kamar-Taj's noninterference and help taking over the Hellfire Club.
• After Su Ming left, Selene ordered her followers to prepare to relocate her pyramid and the nearby rainforest to Britain.
• Su Ming met Romulus on Mount Fuji, learned he had traded with Hydra, and warned him that further trouble would lead to Wolverine being sent into the sun.
• Romulus challenged Su Ming to prove his strength, and Su Ming punched him across Lake Kawaguchi and into the forest.

Natasha and Gin found Romulus after Deathstroke hurled him into their path, and Natasha slowed his regeneration with anti-regeneration needles before they headed home. Back at Caspian Camp, Deathstroke agreed to take research or intelligence instead of payment from the SSR, while Fury ordered Dugan to investigate the identity of Dave Armstrong.

• Natasha and Gin discovered Romulus in a crater after Deathstroke sent his mangled body flying toward them.
• Natasha recognized Romulus as a mutant with rapid regeneration and stabbed his organs with anti-regeneration needles.
• Natasha and Gin left the forest and discussed whether Spider Web headquarters should be renamed the Batcave.
• Fury told Deathstroke that the SSR could not afford his commission because it owed compensation to agents lost in the incident.
• Deathstroke offered to accept research materials or intelligence instead, agreeing to the private deal for the sake of Dave Armstrong.
• Fury ordered Dugan to investigate Dave Armstrong, while explaining that Gabriel and half the Howling Commandos were in Britain helping James Falsworth with vampires.

Su Ming took Howard to meet Maria Collins Carbonell for a blind date after finishing their work on Romulus and discussing Hydra infiltration. The chapter ended with Howard approaching her manor, determined to impress her despite learning that her family was far wealthier than he was.

• Su Ming told Howard that the people sent to guide him had probably died, and Howard dismissed them as unimportant Japanese businessmen.
• Howard reported that Hydra's domestic connections might reach the Vice President, Congress, and ICON, while Su Ming said SSR would follow up on Zola's leads.
• Su Ming teased Howard about compensation for the dead men, and Howard said he would award their families two hundred dollars each.
• Su Ming drove Howard through the damaged outskirts of New York toward Southampton, where Howard grew increasingly nervous about meeting his date.
• Su Ming revealed that Maria Collins Carbonell came from a prominent olive oil family, and Howard insisted he would win her over with his charm.

Howard tried to sneak into Maria Collins Carbonell’s home to see his future wife, but fled after her daughter caught him and exposed his plan. He then decided to build a zoo, and Wong teleported him to Cuba to scout land.

• Howard climbed the wall into Maria Collins Carbonell’s garden and met her twelve-year-old daughter, who revealed her name was Maria and demanded a tiger in exchange for letting him in.
• After Maria called for her father, Howard panicked and drove away with Su Ming, assuming Maria was married and had a daughter.
• Maria sent bodyguards to watch Howard and see whether he would keep his promise to buy her a zoo.
• At Loyalty Academy, Howard strained his back and announced he would buy land to build a zoo, while denying he was doing it to impress Maria.
• Wong teleported Howard to Cuba to inspect land in the warmer winter climate.

Su Ming sent Wong to deliver Spider Web’s intelligence to Selene and went to the ruins of Washington D.C. to check on Steve. Steve struggled with guilt over killing controlled American soldiers, while William tried to reassure him before they parted.

• Su Ming decided Wong should take Spider Web’s intelligence to Selene in Hawaii while he went to Washington D.C. to find Steve.
• Steve sat among the ruins, dwelling on the soldiers he had killed and the footage Madame Hydra had broadcast.
• William, whose face matched Steve’s, told Steve he still considered him the real Captain America and apologized for impersonating him.
• Steve admitted he could not move past killing men who could have been freed from control by being knocked unconscious.
• William left to report to his superiors, and Steve remained behind with his shield; neither knew it would be their last farewell.

Pentagon leaders planned to scapegoat William for the massacre and manipulate the public fallout surrounding Steve, while plotting to build a Super Soldier Legion. Bolivar Trask presented his Sentry robot as a weapon against Mutants, and the lieutenant general agreed to discuss it after the press conference.

• Pentagon officials decided to blame a supposed foreign Mutant for the massacre and use the Imposter to stage a cover story about Steve’s leaked footage, with William as their backup scapegoat.
• The officials discussed producing more Captain Americas, eventually replacing Steve, and suppressing potential opposition from the Howling Commandos and Black activists.
• Bolivar Trask confronted the lieutenant general outside the conference room and claimed he could save the country with a weapon designed to eliminate Mutants.
• Trask presented a giant robot design and warned that Mutants would eventually threaten humanity through their growing population.
• The lieutenant general invited Trask to wait in his office and learned that the robot was called the Sentry.

Su Ming found Steve brooding over having killed Americans and tried to convince him that he had done nothing wrong. He drugged Steve with a control-enhanced cigar and began drilling the lesson into him, though Steve’s literal repetition left Su Ming struggling to get through.

• Su Ming picked Steve up near the ruined White House and said Peggy was occupied with the SSR’s political fallout.
• Steve confessed that he had killed the wrong people and felt unfit to be a hero.
• Su Ming gave Steve a Hydra-enhanced cigar to make him more receptive to persuasion.
• The drug took effect, and Steve obeyed Su Ming’s simple commands.
• Su Ming taught Steve to say that the people he killed were bad and that he had done nothing wrong.
• Steve repeated Su Ming’s instruction to repeat the words a hundred times, forcing Su Ming to keep trying.