Recaps

Congress passed the Superhuman Registration Act and created a powerful federal agency to enforce it, while Tony Stark discovered that lawmakers had stripped safeguards from the version he supported. The chapter left the Avengers facing a more coercive law and Tony furious at Congress for bypassing him.

• Congress passed the Superhuman Registration Act by a vote of 398 to 2, requiring Metahumans to register their identities and other information within ninety days.
• Smithson urged a gentler implementation, but other officials dismissed his concerns and supported controlling Metahumans with weapons and surveillance.
• The president created the Superhuman Affairs Administration, funded it with five billion dollars, and named former Secretary of Defense Dale Rusk as its director.
• Tony questioned Peter Parker about the black spider, while Peter denied contact and Tony ordered JARVIS to remove copies of the tavern video.
• An assistant showed the Avengers the final act, and Tony realized Congress had removed the safeguards from his draft without consulting him.

Tony confronted Nick Fury over Congress’s revised superhuman bill and learned that Fury had also been bypassed, though he admitted S.H.I.E.L.D. would benefit from administering the alliance. Tony suspended federal access to Stark Industries’ superpower-related technology for forty-eight hours, leaving the Superhuman Affairs Administration scrambling and Congress forced to negotiate with him.

• Tony left with Wasp and War Machine for S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters after learning Nick Fury was being questioned by Congress, while Peter stayed behind.
• Fury explained that Congress suspected S.H.I.E.L.D. of letting Natasha leave so it could gain authority by administering Chen Mo’s Autonomous Alliance, and admitted that the arrangement would benefit him.
• Tony compared the passed bill with the earlier draft and challenged Fury over Congress removing safeguards and using Tony’s name to promote the final text.
• Tony ordered JARVIS to suspend federal access to Stark Industries’ satellite interface, friend-or-foe identification system, and Anti-Superpower Equipment authorization keys for forty-eight hours.
• The Superhuman Affairs Administration’s equipment tests failed as its Stark systems shut down, and a Congressional Liaison Office caller demanded that Fury make Tony restore them.
• Tony cited Stark Industries’ contract rights and told the caller that access would return automatically in forty-eight hours, warning that he could extend the suspension.

Tony Stark’s forty-eight-hour suspension of Stark Industries’ support sent markets tumbling and exposed lawmakers’ financial ties to the contractors behind the Superhuman Registration Act. As the Superhuman Affairs Administration sought emergency funding and S.H.I.E.L.D. dealt with Congress’s demands, Dale Rusk met secretly with Crossbones.

• Tony told Nick Fury that Stark Industries’ suspension would last forty-eight hours, and Rhodey reported that demonstrations and procurement committees had been disrupted while contractors’ shares fell.
• Lawmakers in a Washington club learned that their investments were losing value and that the Superhuman Affairs Administration wanted $1.2 billion for backup infrastructure independent of Stark Industries.
• Maria Hill told Nick Fury that S.H.I.E.L.D. had publicly agreed to support the Superhuman Registration Act, while they privately questioned Dale Rusk and prepared to delay Congress’s demand for Natasha’s records.
• Hill reported that Natasha’s clearance had been revoked and Congress wanted her operational records; Fury told Hill to provide the public version and stall the full request.
• Dale Rusk returned to his office, opened a concealed doorway, and met Crossbones.

Dale Rusk, secretly the Red Skull, used the conflict over hero registration and Tony Stark’s licensing freeze to advance Hydra’s plans and manipulate Congress, heroes, and the public. He sent Crossbones to investigate the Daily Bugle’s leaked procurement records while preparing to present himself as the face of order at a press conference.

• Rusk told Crossbones that Stark’s licensing freeze would renew Congress’s fear of heroes and help secure a larger budget for the Administrative Bureau’s backup system and anti-superpower weapons.
• Rusk reviewed files on heroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. leaders, identified Black Spider as trouble, and ordered Crossbones to leave Nick Fury and Maria Hill alone for now.
• Rusk explained that the Superhero Registration Act was only the start of a plan to collect heroes’ identities, family addresses, powers, and weaknesses while turning Congress, heroes, and ordinary people against one another.
• Rusk gave Crossbones a photograph of the Daily Bugle and ordered him to discover who had provided the newspaper with procurement records, keeping the source alive if possible.
• Rusk told Crossbones to let Stark remain angry, then went to address reporters and claimed that no corporation, vigilante, or unregulated power should stand above national security.
• The chapter revealed that Dale Rusk was secretly the Red Skull.

Chen Mo and Daredevil confronted the Daily Bugle over a misleading report about Black Spider, and Chen restrained employees he suspected of tampering with the story. Jameson revealed that an editor had cut crucial footage from the report and gave Chen the complete video, leaving Chen with no use for the threats he had prepared.

• Chen Mo read the Daily Bugle’s accusations aloud in the newsroom and challenged Jameson over the misleading coverage.
• Chen Mo played Peter Parker’s recording to show that Peter had not been at the office and warned the staff not to blame him.
• After Daredevil identified employees trying to delete files, Chen webbed three of them to their chairs and confronted Jameson.
• Jameson said he had not seen the afternoon revision, gave Chen a USB drive with the complete rescue video, and blamed Thompson and the deputy editor for altering the story.
• Chen Mo realized Jameson had not knowingly approved the edited report and lamented that his prepared threats were no longer useful.

Chen Mo recruited Jameson and the Daily Bugle to expose the Administrative Bureau’s spending and manipulated rescue coverage, while Reed and Daredevil pursued other potential allies. After the Bugle published an extra edition, Crossbones decided to target an Anti-Registration faction printing plant instead of attacking the newspaper directly.

• Chen Mo gave Jameson purchase orders, insurance proposals, and evidence of a PR campaign, persuading him to investigate the Administrative Bureau’s five-billion-dollar budget and edited rescue footage.
• Daredevil identified Dale Rusk as a rapidly promoted official with an unusually clean record, while Chen Mo and the newsroom recovered original emails from the Advertising Department’s server.
• Jameson assigned Ned to write a long-form report, and the Daily Bugle published an extra edition questioning the Bureau’s budget, contractors, and rescue insurance.
• Chen Mo asked Reed to verify the documents and approved remote contact with a skilled hacker; Daredevil also told him that Jack, an engineer employed by Kingpin, wanted to provide technical support.
• Crossbones read the Bugle’s report and decided not to attack the newspaper, instead ordering a strike on an Anti-Registration faction printing plant.

Chen Mo used the Daily Bugle’s coverage to redirect public anger toward officials, contractors, and insurers, then gathered evidence of their corruption. He planned to approach his enemies for “wealth redistribution,” and Black Widow prepared to improve his crude strategy.

• Chen Mo celebrated the Daily Bugle’s coverage while Tinkerer, Black Widow, Doctor Octopus, Susan, Vulture, and Rhino worked around the fighter jet.
• Rhino asked whether they had money to redistribute, and Chen Mo said the plan was not ready yet.
• Chen Mo showed the group evidence of campaign donations, contractor ownership, insurance terms, and overpriced equipment procurement.
• Chen Mo told the group they would knock on their enemies’ doors, prompting Tinkerer to call it blackmail and Black Widow to call it extortion.
• Black Widow called Chen Mo’s idea crude, and Chen Mo deferred to her expertise.

Chen Mo and Black Widow turned compromising political files into a lucrative bidding operation, then traced a suspicious shell company to a printing plant. As the team headed there, Steve warned that Patriot had accused them of planning to destroy the plant’s records and frame the Administrative Bureau.

• Black Widow advised Chen Mo to sell the politicians’ compromising files to their rivals, and a hacker organized the files, tracked access, and set up a bidding pool.
• Chen Mo sold a political rival a photo for eight million dollars, while another buyer paid twenty million for part of the remaining material.
• The hacker traced a shell company to a printing services supplier, and Natasha led the team toward the plant while Daredevil went ahead to investigate.
• Chen Mo’s group drove toward the plant as Human Torch carried the car, and a further thirty-million-dollar payment arrived from the caller who had threatened Chen Mo.
• Steve told Chen Mo that Patriot had claimed the team planned to destroy the newspaper’s reprint records and frame the Administrative Bureau, then said he would head to the plant.

Natasha, Reed, and Chen Mo traced a suspicious lead to a printing plant while Eli warned Steve that Black Spider might be targeting it. Eli’s warning proved timely when fake Black Spider and fake Rhino stormed the plant, leaving Eli and the workers in danger.

• Natasha confirmed that Patriot’s tip matched a location found by their hacker, but warned that the information was bait; Reed traced the lead to a small payment made to the printing plant.
• At the plant, Eli weighed an anonymous informant’s claims that Chen Mo was creating his own superhuman registration system and called Steve to warn him of a possible attack.
• Eli told Steve that Black Spider might be targeting the plant’s records and people hiding there, and Steve said he would come while advising Eli to flee if danger appeared.
• A thin black line tore the plant’s roll-up door away, and a fake Black Spider entered and kicked Old Joe down.
• A fake Rhino smashed through a side door, ignored the worker’s wrench strike, and sent the worker flying into cardboard boxes.

Eli escaped the factory as the Administrative Bureau detained the injured defenders and loaded them onto helicopters. Matt Murdock discovered that the attackers had disguised themselves as Bureau agents and used technology linked to Hydra, and Chen Mo's team arrived as the helicopters began to take off.

• Eli fought the counterfeit villains at the printing factory, but Fake Rhino, Fake Octopus, Fake Black Spider, and Fake Human Torch captured and injured the defenders.
• Eli called Steve for help, then escaped through the fire door when Administrative Bureau agents arrived and began arresting the defenders instead of pursuing the attackers.
• Matt Murdock overheard the Bureau agents loading prisoners and recognized that some of them were the attackers in disguise.
• Matt seized a communicator and helped the hacker trace its handshake code to the same code used by a S.H.I.E.L.D. fighter jet's self-destruct module, prompting the group to identify Hydra's infiltration.
• The Administrative Bureau began evacuating with the prisoners, and Chen Mo's team arrived in a flaming vehicle as it faced two Bureau helicopters in the sky.

Chen Mo and the Fantastic Four fought the Administrative Bureau’s aircraft and rescued its captives, while Hydra’s staged attack drew the heroes into a chaotic clash. Chen Mo and Steve secretly agreed to present a united front and investigate Hydra first, but the battle continued as Patriot was knocked into the dirt.

• Chen Mo boarded an Administrative Bureau transport, defeated the fake Black Spider and its soldiers, and helped the Fantastic Four disable the aircraft and repel the attack.
• Chen Mo and the Fantastic Four pursued another helicopter, rescued the prisoners aboard it, and forced it to crash in an empty lot.
• Steve, Falcon, Eli, and other heroes arrived as Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Sandman, and Rhino emerged, and Eli’s charge set off a sprawling fight.
• Chen Mo and Steve secretly discussed Hydra’s infiltration and agreed to stage their fight while investigating Hydra first and avoiding harm to the young heroes.
• Chen Mo and Steve publicly called for their sides to withdraw, but Patriot was kicked into the ground between them.

Chen Mo and Steve staged a fight at the printing plant while a hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. operative used the chaos to portray the Anti-Registration faction as divided. The Administrative Bureau planned a media campaign against Black Spider and the Daily Bugle, leaving the public narrative as its next weapon.

• Chen Mo mocked Patriot and taunted Steve, who struck him with his shield as their staged fight continued.
• Natasha and Matt Murdock detected a concealed Helicarrier hovering above the printing plant.
• A Hydra-marked S.H.I.E.L.D. operative ordered footage edited to show Black Spider fighting Captain America and the factions clashing, while footage of rescued detainees was removed.
• The Administrative Bureau media officer proposed linking Jameson and the Daily Bugle to Black Spider and accusing him of betraying the Anti-Registration faction.
• The operative and media officer agreed to focus their public attacks on Black Spider and portray him as seeking personal control over superheroes.

Jameson published evidence linking the Administrative Bureau’s communications and equipment to Hydra, triggering a public backlash that spread from protests and resignations to political investigations and collapsing contractor shares. As officials fell and public pressure mounted, Smithson avoided the fallout and was given temporary external coordination duties.

• Jameson received files connecting the Administrative Bureau’s equipment and communications systems to Hydra and used them to report on the link.
• The Daily Bugle’s report sold out, and New Yorkers protested as public trust in the Administrative Bureau plunged and officials faced resignations, suspensions, and investigations.
• Chen Mo watched the backlash with Tinkerer and joked that he had merely spilled a truckload of trash.
• Smithson avoided the purge by keeping quiet and following procedure, then received a temporary external coordination assignment.
• Administrative Bureau contractors lost business and share value, and construction of a Bronx support facility was halted.

As Congress tried to redirect attention from the Administrative Bureau’s Hydra scandal by demanding access to Stark Industries’ armor technology, Tony Stark prepared to attend an emergency inquiry. Rhodey also faced a request to open War Machine’s interface, and Tony planned to answer the subpoena by confronting the lawmakers.

• Lawmakers decided to frame the scandal as Superheroes running out of control, while an Administrative Bureau official objected that the public wanted answers about Hydra’s ties to the bureau.
• Tony learned Congress had subpoenaed him and demanded access to Stark Industries’ armor interfaces, and he angrily questioned their judgment.
• Rhodey rejected the Congressional Technical Review Committee’s request for read access to the War Machine armor interface.
• An Administrative Bureau official archived Hydra-related documents under a category blaming Superheroes, as a lawmaker insisted television would shape public attention.
• People outside the Capitol criticized lawmakers for blaming Tony Stark after Hydra infiltrated the government.
• Tony told Rhodey he would attend the inquiry and then joked that he would politely flip the table in the lawmakers’ faces.

Tony Stark faced a congressional hearing demanding access to his Iron Man armor and emergency takeover privileges, and he rejected the authorization while accusing the lawmakers of neglecting Hydra and other threats. He left the hearing denouncing the Registration Faction and the Administrative Bureau and declaring that they had driven their nuclear deterrent to resign.

• Tony Stark mocked the authorization document and challenged the committee over its demand for control of his armor.
• Tony asked the lawmakers how far their investigation into Hydra and the Administrative Bureau had progressed, and accused them of targeting him instead.
• The Speaker demanded Tony submit the Iron Man Armor authorization interface, including emergency takeover privileges.
• Tony confronted the lawmakers over their failures during the Hydra infiltration, the Administrative Bureau warehouse scandal, and the New York crash.
• Tony wrote “Not happening” on the document, refused the committee's demand, and told the cameras that America was safe because of him.
• Tony declared that the lawmakers had driven him to resign and cursed the Registration Faction and the Administrative Bureau.

Tony exposed the Administrative Bureau’s secret weapons procurement at the hearing and withdrew Stark Industries’ support for the registration system, endorsing a revised proposal for hero autonomy. He called Chen Mo to tell him, but Chen was busy helping repair a construction site and had not seen the news.

• Tony used JARVIS to show Congress and the press records linking disguised energy-weapon shipments to an old S.H.I.E.L.D. warehouse and a congressional adviser’s office.
• Tony declared Stark Industries was withdrawing support for the registration enforcement system and called for an end to unilateral government deployment and the collection of heroes’ identities.
• Tony said he would use Black Spider’s draft to create a more comprehensive proposal and acknowledged that Black Spider had been right.
• Chen Mo, Sandman, and Rhino helped workers repair the Administrative Bureau’s construction site in the Bronx.
• Tony called Chen Mo, but Chen was hanging from a crane and struggling to position a steel beam, so he had not heard about Tony’s announcement.

Chen Mo arranged legal construction work for Sandman and Rhino, then rushed to Stark Tower after Tony said he had overturned Congress and rewritten the superhero registration bill. Tony welcomed Chen into the new superhero Self-Made Faction after Alexei confirmed the workers had been paid.

• Tony summoned Chen Mo to Stark Tower, saying he had overturned Congress and was rewriting the registration bill, while Chen finished supervising Sandman and Rhino at a Bronx construction site.
• Chen Mo asked Ben Grimm to take over supervision, then swung away as Ben arrived and received the timesheet.
• Four days earlier, Chen Mo offered the foreman Sandman and Rhino as low-cost workers after a stop-work notice and machinery removals threatened the construction project.
• Chen Mo secured official employment and payroll records for Flint and Alexei, who helped lower steel and level mortar at the site.
• Flint received an hours confirmation and reflected on how Chen Mo had given him a rare chance to work legally.
• At Stark Tower, Tony showed Chen Mo the new draft, and Chen received Alexei's message that the pay had arrived before welcoming Tony to the superhero Self-Made Faction.

Tony and Chen Mo launched the Autonomy Faction’s collaboration system, bringing the superhero factions together while former criminals found construction work. Red Skull planned to exploit that work to reignite conflict and cover Hydra’s evacuation, and the chapter ended with an Administrative Bureau risk notice arriving at the Church.

• Tony set up public, reviewable hero action logs while protecting heroes’ identities, and he accepted Steve’s message agreeing to collaborate under the rules of no government identity records and logged operations.
• Chen Mo forwarded Tinkerer's repair-work application to the construction foreman, while Tony added Alexei and Flint’s work records to the Autonomy Faction’s trial files.
• Red Skull escaped from a detention-center double and told Crossbones that Hydra’s evacuation had lost its cover now that the heroes had stopped fighting.
• Red Skull sent risk notices and other measures meant to push Alexei and Flint out of work, provoke a dispute over the Autonomy Faction protecting them, and draw attention away from Hydra’s retreat.
• The next morning, Flint checked the insurance terms on a Queens warehouse quote before calling about the job, and an Administrative Bureau risk notice printed at the Church.

Chen Mo, Tony, and Matt Murdock challenged the Administrative Bureau’s attempt to detain Flint Marko and Alexei Shostakov using fraudulent notices. The court suspended enforcement, and the Autonomous Alliance announced a supervised rehabilitation-employment program as Flint and Alexei returned to work.

• Flint sent Chen Mo a notice naming him and Alexei Shostakov as high-risk criminals, and Tony found that it had been issued using a decommissioned Administrative Bureau terminal and sent to forty-seven sites at once.
• Matt Murdock advised the construction workers to livestream, preserve their records, and refuse to surrender originals while Tony and Stark Legal challenged the notices and protected the workers’ contracts.
• At the Bronx construction site, the foreman and workers demanded valid court documents, showed the employment records, and kept Alexei and Flint behind the safety line as officials threatened them.
• Tony secured Stark Industries’ involvement, and an emergency court order suspended the detentions and risk notices while sealing the authorization codes.
• Chen Mo and Tony publicly condemned the attempted arrests and announced that the Autonomous Alliance would open a supervised rehabilitation-employment program.
• The Administrative Bureau’s vehicles left, the foreman reopened the gate, and Flint received confirmation that his Queens warehouse contract would proceed.

Chen Mo and Peter helped establish the Autonomous Alliance’s low-risk community rescue missions while New York settled into a tense, more manageable post-Hydra peace. A spacetime anomaly then pulled Chen Mo from Stark Tower and dropped him into the Time Variance Authority.

• Alexei and Flint worked at a Bronx construction site while New York returned to its usual routines.
• Chen Mo, Peter, and Tony added community assistance missions to the Autonomous Alliance’s superhero permissions chart.
• Chen Mo and Peter responded to an overturned truck in Queens, cleared the road, and logged the rescue.
• Tony reviewed the Alliance’s progress and privately saved a log after JARVIS briefly froze and reported an external data delay.
• A spacetime fluctuation began erasing Chen Mo from Stark Tower, and Peter and Tony failed to hold on to him.
• Chen Mo crashed into an office and learned from a uniformed staff member that he was at the Time Variance Authority.

The TVA blamed Chen Mo for a chain of events that ended in global nuclear annihilation and tried to detain him, but an abnormal Spider-Totem response made him impossible to prune. Chen Mo was thrown into a rainy Gotham alley, with his system still silent and the Venom Suit responding.

• Chen Mo learned that the TVA had altered the memories of witnesses to cover his removal from Stark Tower.
• A TVA report blamed Chen Mo for a causal chain from Flint Marko and Alexei Shostakov's rehabilitation to global nuclear annihilation, and officials moved to detain him.
• Chen Mo's Spider-Totem marks activated, disrupting the TVA instruments and preventing the agents from pruning him.
• Chen Mo was hurled from the TVA office and landed in a Gotham alley.
• Chen Mo found no Tony, JARVIS, Peter, or response from his system, while the Venom Suit remained active.

After returning to Gotham, Chen Mo found his old attic ransacked and his dog Bruce missing, but a newspaper photo revealed Bruce was with Bruce Wayne. He decided to find Batman at a press conference, where Hugo Strange planned to assess Batman’s behavior.

• Chen Mo swung through Gotham, stopped a robbery, and took the victim’s sandwich and newspaper as a rescue fee.
• Chen Mo returned to his attic and found it broken into, its contents destroyed, and Bruce and his comic drafts gone.
• Chen Mo spotted Bruce in a newspaper photo with Bruce Wayne and learned he had been away for four months.
• Chen Mo concluded that finding Bruce meant finding Batman and read that Hugo Strange would discuss Batman at the Old Gotham Psychiatric Research Center.
• Chen Mo set off through Gotham’s night to find Batman at Hugo Strange’s press conference.

Hugo Strange used a live broadcast at the Old Gotham Psychiatric Research Center to accuse Batman of escalating violence and being responsible for Spider-Man’s disappearance, while Batman fought Hugo’s test subjects and rescued the people in danger. As Hugo demanded that Batman admit he had gotten a child killed, Spider-Man’s voice came from above and challenged him.

• Hugo Strange presented injuries, crime-scene images, and headlines to portray Batman as increasingly violent and linked Spider-Man’s disappearance to Batman’s influence.
• Batman entered the research center’s basement, found six altered test subjects and three tied-up researchers, and began freeing the hostages while Hugo broadcast the confrontation.
• Hugo released the test subjects toward the press, and Batman fought to protect the crowd while using restraints and sedatives instead of lethal force.
• Hugo showed a photograph of Chen Mo’s old attic and accused Batman of hiding his connection to the missing Spider-Man and failing to protect him.
• Hugo demanded that Batman remove his mask and admit Gotham’s Bat could get children killed, but a strand of spider silk appeared above the gallery and Spider-Man asked who Hugo had called dead.

Chen Mo returned to Gotham and interrupted Hugo Strange’s livestreamed announcement of his supposed death. He reunited with Batman at the psychiatric research center, where Batman’s first question was whether he was hurt.

• Chen Mo arrived at the Old Gotham Psychiatric Research Center and heard Hugo Strange tell the citywide livestream that Spider-Man was dead.
• Chen Mo confronted Hugo from the ceiling, corrected him about being Spider-Man rather than Batman, and mocked his claims.
• Chen Mo silenced a loudspeaker with webbing and warned Hugo against using his words in his research papers.
• Chen Mo landed beside Batman and greeted him, and Batman immediately asked whether he was hurt.

Chen Mo returned to Gotham and exposed Hugo Strange’s staged accusations by protecting the reporters and subduing the test subjects with Batman. After Gordon arrested Hugo, Batman took Chen Mo away in the Batmobile, leaving their reunion to continue on the road.

• Chen Mo faced Hugo Strange on camera and declared that he was alive, then helped Batman restrain the escaped test subjects and prevent anyone from being hurt.
• Hugo tried to activate the console, but Batman disabled it and told him to stop; Gordon arrived with police and arrested Hugo for his crimes.
• Chen Mo told the cameras that he was Spider-Man, not a copy of Batman, and Gordon welcomed him back after his four-month disappearance.
• Batman asked Chen Mo to come with him, and Gordon urged Chen Mo to go, explaining that Batman had spent four months looking for him.
• Chen Mo climbed into the Batmobile, found the energy bars Batman had kept in its small fridge, and rode with him through the rain.