Recaps

Darwin intercepted Azazel’s attack on Charles and fought him in the cabin of a fighter jet. After Azazel gained the advantage with his close-combat experience, Darwin unleashed his Mach ten speed.

• Charles realized the White Queen’s overwhelming psychic power likely came from Compound V and suspected Vought was manipulating the conflict.
• Azazel appeared in the cabin and stabbed at Charles, but Moira’s bullets failed to harm him.
• Darwin teleported into the cabin and caught Azazel’s tail, stopping the attack and preventing Azazel from teleporting away.
• Darwin and Azazel traded blows, but Azazel’s fighting experience forced Darwin onto the defensive.
• Darwin unleashed his full Mach ten speed, vanishing into overlapping afterimages as the fighter jet shook from the sonic booms.

Darwin rescued Charles and the others from the exploding jet and subdued Azazel, but the White Queen unleashed a psychic assault that incapacitated Vought’s fighters and turned the battle around. Watching the live broadcast, Pietro wanted to confront Shaw, while Wanda warned him not to disobey their boss and go to the battlefield.

• Darwin wrapped Azazel in his tail, overwhelmed him with rapid strikes, then teleported Azazel, Charles, Moira, and the pilot off the jet before it exploded.
• Darwin arrived on the island to find Riptide incapacitated and the Hellfire Club apparently outnumbered, with only Shaw and the White Queen still standing.
• The White Queen released a psychic storm that forced Erik, Raven, Darwin, and Alex Summers to their knees, while Charles struggled to resist and Shaw was protected by his helmet.
• Shaw mocked Vought’s fallen fighters and asked where A-Train and the Seven were as the live broadcast showed the battle’s reversal.
• Pietro angrily said he would stop Shaw if he were on the battlefield, and Wanda warned him that she would use her power to stop him if he disobeyed their boss.

Pietro defied Wanda’s order and joined the island battle, breaking the White Queen’s psychic suppression before Shaw caught his high-speed punch. Raven then attacked the White Queen, but her diamond form nullified the psychic assault and shattered Raven’s wrist, leaving the battle’s outcome unresolved.

• Wanda tried to stop Pietro from going to the battlefield, but he raced across the sea while she sent psychic support toward the island.
• Pietro struck the White Queen by surprise, collapsing her psychic storm and freeing Erik, Raven, and the others from her mental restraints.
• Pietro charged Shaw, who caught his punch and held him fast after enhancing his speed and strength with Compound V.
• Erik suspected that Shaw and Riptide had taken Compound V, while Raven copied Pietro’s speed and attacked the White Queen.
• The White Queen transformed into diamond, resisted the combined psychic pressure, and shattered Raven’s wrist when Raven punched her.

Raven and Alex Summers trapped the White Queen between their Plasma Shockwaves, but she deactivated Diamond Form and let their attacks kill her. Shaw watched without emotion, while Raven and Alex were left shaken by her death.

• Raven’s bones healed through her adaptive evolution, and she called on Alex Summers to attack the White Queen.
• Alex Summers fired a Plasma Shockwave at the White Queen as Raven circled behind her and joined the assault with a second blast.
• The White Queen saw that Shaw would not help her and recalled how she had once believed he had saved her.
• The White Queen deactivated Diamond Form, causing the two Plasma Shockwaves to collide and leave a crater where she had stood.
• Shaw showed no grief, while Raven panicked and Charles reassured her that the White Queen had chosen to die.
• Alex Summers stared at the crater, overwhelmed by shock, guilt, and confusion.

Shaw survived Alex Summers, Raven, and Erik’s combined attack, absorbing their energy and revealing the strength Compound V had given him. He unleashed a devastating energy storm across the battlefield.

• Shaw wounded Pietro and offered Charles a chance to serve him in the coming new world.
• Enraged by Shaw’s refusal to save Emma Frost, Alex Summers attacked him with a plasma beam, and Raven copied his power to launch a second blast.
• Erik formed a colossal steel dragon from wreckage and sent it at Shaw while Darwin retreated to protect Charles and the others.
• Shaw stood unharmed after the attacks, having absorbed the plasma and melted the steel dragon with his heat.
• Shaw praised Compound V and released a massive blue-and-red Energy Ball that swept outward across the battlefield.

Darwin returned to the exploding island to save Pietro and shielded him from the blast as a mushroom cloud engulfed the battlefield. Charles believed both had died, while Erik and Raven suspected that Compound V had caused their enemies’ sudden increase in strength.

• Raven used Pietro’s Super Speed X-Gene to carry Alex Summers and Erik away, while Darwin teleported Charles and the others to safety.
• After Wanda warned that Pietro was still on the island, Darwin returned, found the injured boy, and covered him with his body as the energy blast struck.
• Raven, Alex Summers, and Erik escaped the explosion’s core and watched the blast destroy the island as viewers worldwide reacted in terror and anger.
• Charles told Erik, Raven, and Alex Summers that Darwin and Pietro likely had not escaped, and Alex blamed Boss for refusing to send help.
• Erik asked Charles to question Azazel about Compound V, while Raven concluded that it explained the White Queen’s unexpectedly powerful diamond form.

Azazel revealed that Shaw’s group had stolen Compound V and that Shaw had absorbed a nuclear reactor’s energy, while Erik suspected Solomon had secretly allowed the theft. On the ruined island, Shaw displayed the badly injured Darwin to the world and declared his intention to destroy humanity and rule the new world.

• Azazel confessed to Charles that he, Emma Frost, and Janus had each injected one vial of Compound V, while Shaw had injected two after they stole five vials from Vought.
• Azazel warned Charles that Shaw had also absorbed the energy from a nuclear submarine’s reactor and was now too powerful for them to defeat.
• Charles shared Azazel’s confession with Erik, Raven, and Alex Summers; Erik suspected Solomon had allowed Shaw to obtain Compound V to make the worldwide battle more dramatic.
• Erik’s resolve to leave Vought grew stronger, though he decided he had to obtain the complete Compound V formula first.
• Shaw stood amid the devastated island with the surviving Darwin in hand, slammed him into the ground, and told Vought and humanity that their heroes were powerless.
• Shaw declared that he would use Vought as a stepping stone, destroy the human world, and become the king of the new world.

Homelander arrived as Shaw was about to kill Erik and attacked him with Heat Vision. Shaw absorbed the beams at first, but Homelander increased their intensity and challenged the limits of Shaw's energy absorption.

• Erik manipulated the distant fleet with his magnetic field and ordered Raven to take Alex Summers away.
• Shaw rushed Erik, choked him, and blasted Alex Summers and Raven into the sea.
• Homelander descended and introduced himself as the captain of The Seven, while Shaw mocked his claim to be a god.
• Homelander fired Heat Vision at Shaw, who absorbed the attack and boasted that energy absorption was his specialty.
• Homelander intensified his Heat Vision to test Shaw's absorption limit as the surrounding seawater vaporized.

Homelander trapped Shaw in a threefold cycle of energy absorption, forcing him past his capacity until his body burst apart. The resulting explosion consumed the island and unleashed a massive shockwave across the sea.

• Homelander restrained Shaw with Telekinesis and attacked him with Blood Manipulation while keeping his laser beams trained on him.
• Shaw absorbed all three sources of energy, then reached his limit as the energy continued pouring into his body.
• Shaw pushed his strength, defense, and speed to level 4.5 and struggled to escape, but Homelander's restraints held him fast.
• As Shaw's body swelled and cracked, he begged Homelander to spare him, but Homelander continued firing.
• Shaw's overloaded body burst apart, releasing the absorbed energy alongside the nuclear energy he had stored.
• The explosion vaporized the island and sent a destructive shockwave across the sea, boiling the water and scorching the surrounding air.

Homelander survived a second nuclear blast and stopped the tsunami it sent toward the military fleet. He then used the live broadcast to invite mutants worldwide to join Vought and become superheroes.

• A second nuclear explosion devastated the sea, but Homelander remained unharmed at its center.
• A towering tsunami surged toward the military fleet, leaving the soldiers expecting certain death.
• Homelander flew to the wave and stopped it with a touch, letting the water fall harmlessly as rain.
• Homelander addressed the worldwide broadcast, announced Vought's invitation to mutants, and told viewers, "I'll be waiting for you at Vought!"
• Homelander stretched and gathered strength for an explosive burst.

The global broadcast ended with Shaw dead and the other fighters alive, prompting nations to fear mutants and seek to push the problem onto Vought International. On the island, Darwin awoke first, checked that Pietro was safe, and began rousing the others.

• The broadcast showed Erik, Raven, Alex Summers, Darwin, Charles, Pietro, Wanda, Azazel, Riptide, the White Queen, Moira, and the pilot alive, while Shaw had been annihilated.
• Governments worldwide convened emergency meetings about mutants and Vought International, then agreed to promote Vought and direct mutants toward it while secretly pursuing mutant research.
• Solomon anticipated the governments’ schemes and allowed their research programs to spread, seeing them as a route to Deadpool’s future creation.
• Darwin awoke on the devastated island, checked that Pietro was unharmed, and found the others unconscious and weakened.
• Darwin roused the others, and Alex Summers joyfully exclaimed that Darwin was alive.

After Shaw’s defeat, Solomon reassured the survivors and invited the White Queen, Azazel, and Riptide to join Vought. The White Queen questioned whether Solomon could trust them after their crimes, leaving his offer unanswered.

• Wanda tearfully reunited with Pietro, while Erik and Charles confirmed that everyone had survived and Shaw had died in the nuclear blast.
• Erik reconsidered his suspicions of Solomon and silently vowed to oppose Vought if it ever exploited mutants.
• Solomon appeared on the beach, praised Pietro’s courage, and reminded him that his recklessness had nearly cost Darwin his life.
• Pietro apologized to Darwin, who accepted his apology and urged him not to act impulsively again.
• Solomon announced that the survivors should return to Vought and offered the White Queen, Azazel, and Riptide a place there.
• The White Queen asked Solomon why he would employ them after they had helped Shaw commit atrocities.

Solomon recruited Azazel, Riptide, White Queen, and Charles into Vought after the battle, then reviewed the gains his powers had received from the defeated mutants. He left the recruits to return to Vought headquarters while he went to his office and checked his updated attributes.

• Solomon explained that he had secretly rescued White Queen and Riptide during the battle and let Darwin endure the nuclear blast to strengthen his adaptive ability.
• Azazel, Riptide, and White Queen each agreed to join Vought after Solomon promised to clear their charges and negative publicity.
• Charles agreed to join Vought so he could help build a bridge between mutants and human authorities.
• Solomon ordered Azazel to take everyone to Vought headquarters, then teleported to his office in Vought Tower.
• Solomon checked his attribute panel and noted the gains from defeating Riptide, White Queen, and Black King Shaw.

After Solomon's strength and defense reached level 5, he anticipated gaining even greater power by harvesting Mutants enhanced with Compound V. Meanwhile, Vought welcomed the returning Mutants as heroes and ordered them to give scripted interviews praising the company, beginning with Erik.

• Solomon adapted to his level 5 attributes and expected the growing Mutant population and Compound V enhancements to help him reach level 6.
• Azazel brought the battle-worn Mutants to Vought Tower, where employees welcomed them with applause and gratitude.
• Manager Roland told the Mutants that Vought had arranged interviews about their pasts and their fight against Shaw.
• Erik refused to participate, but Roland said the Boss had made the interviews mandatory and gave him a script.
• Erik read a script portraying Vought as a century-old protector and himself as a saintly hero, then followed Roland toward the Studio.

Erik endured a scripted Vought interview as Magneto while Moira briefed the president and senior officials on Vought’s power. The government considered offering Vought an overseas island, but Moira said the company planned to build a vast superhero industry instead.

• Roland told Erik to follow the scripted questions and emphasize his humanity before his interview with Wally began.
• Moira arrived at a White House situation room, where the president and senior officials asked her to describe her recent dealings with mutants and Vought.
• Moira recounted her investigation and the final battle, withholding some details as the officials feared Vought’s abilities could make any opposition fatal.
• The president proposed giving Vought an overseas island to encourage it to leave the American mainland.
• Moira rejected the proposal and said Vought intended to develop a commercial system that assigned supes to patrol neighborhoods, guard districts, and represent cities.

Moira persuaded the United States leadership to publicly support Vought while secretly preparing ways to counter mutants and their powers. Meanwhile, Logan and Victor rejected Vought’s recruitment and fled across the border, wary of the powerful mutants they had seen.

• Moira argued that Vought’s presence would deter crime and foreign aggression, and urged the government to help its superhero business expand.
• After Moira left, the president and senior officials agreed to promote Vought publicly while a secret Defense Department and CIA team developed weapons and drugs to counter mutants.
• At a bar near the northern border, Victor teased Logan about joining the superheroes who had fought in Cuba.
• Logan refused to join Vought, and Victor said he would only consider joining if they were recruiting supervillains.
• Logan and Victor left the bar and crossed into the snowy night, seeking to escape Vought and the powerful mutants.

After seeing Vought celebrate mutants as superheroes, mutants around the world broke from lives of fear and persecution and began fleeing toward America. Lucas’s parents decided to take their family to Vought, while a young mutant in Moscow and a bone-armed fighter in Madripoor also set out for the promised refuge.

• Lucas watched a broadcast of Vought’s mutant heroes, and his parents decided to sell their home and take him to the United States.
• A young mutant held by the KGB saw Azazel and Magneto on television, melted his restraints with fire, and escaped toward Vought.
• A bone-armed mutant in a Madripoor fighting ring saw the broadcast, killed the gang boss who tried to cheat him, and fled toward New York.
• Mutants across the world broke their disguises and shackles and began traveling toward America in a mass pilgrimage to Vought.

After Vought’s interview turned mutants into celebrated superheroes, the U.S. government offered the company support in exchange for binding its heroes to American interests. Roland rejected that condition and presented Vought’s paid service rates, leaving Moira alarmed by the cost of staffing a city.

• The Vought Tonight Show interview sparked a worldwide superhero craze, drove Vought’s stock to its trading limit, and brought crowds of recruits and callers to the company.
• Moira arrived at Vought Tower with the president’s offer of policy support, tax exemptions, media access, and legal privileges in exchange for Vought’s loyalty to the United States.
• Roland accepted the proposed privileges but told Moira that Vought served customers around the world and would not belong to any one country.
• Roland explained that Vought charged for every superhero service and gave Moira a price list with block, district, city, and state tiers.
• Moira calculated that Vought’s required bundles would cost fifty-two million dollars for a basic city team and protested that nationwide coverage would cost billions.

Roland negotiated Vought’s superhero service contracts with Moira, who secured U.S. government approval to hire heroes nationwide and several powerful mutants. The chapter ended with Moira reviewing the contract’s enormous itemized bill.

• Roland offered nationwide superhero services at a discounted rate but said Charles, Erik, Raven, and other top assets cost extra, while The Seven were unavailable for hire.
• Roland set the fee for mutants at Charles and Erik’s level at one hundred million dollars per person per year and explained the heroes would not take military orders.
• Moira consulted her superiors, who decided the United States could not risk hostile countries hiring the powerful mutants.
• Moira agreed to purchase nationwide coverage and hire Charles, Erik, Raven, Darwin, Alex Summers, the White Queen, Riptide, Azazel, and two children for a billion dollars, provided they would not serve other countries.
• Roland said Pietro and Wanda were ineligible because they were minors, then presented Moira with the contract, whose itemized bill made her eyelids twitch.

Moira reviewed Vought’s $16.28 billion superhero security contract, and Roland assured her that the United States would pay only as heroes took up their posts. Solomon then laid out Vought’s plans to recruit and train mutants worldwide, while resolving to strengthen himself before confronting the sleeping Apocalypse.

• Roland explained to Moira that Vought did not yet have enough superheroes to fill the contract, but the United States would receive priority as new heroes completed training; Moira took the proposal for government approval.
• Roland reported to Solomon that Vought had only around 150 registered mutants and that governments worldwide were already seeking hero security services.
• Solomon ordered Vought’s international branches to recruit and train mutants, with Azazel and other teleporters transporting recruits who needed Compound V injections.
• Roland confirmed that the experimental chamber had been modified with infrasound generators to suppress mutant powers if they ran wild during injections.
• Solomon ordered Charles to receive Compound V, tasked him and the White Queen with using Cerebro to locate mutants worldwide, and called for a global campaign to recruit them.
• Solomon decided not to awaken Apocalypse until his own attributes were strong enough to overwhelm the ancient mutant.

Bolivar Trask failed to secure funding for his DNA bionic prosthetics project and despaired over humanity’s dependence on Mutants. Solomon arrived with Azazel and approached him, recognizing his potential to create the Sentinels.

• Bolivar Trask pitched DNA bionic prosthetics to a group of investors, but they rejected the project as too costly and unnecessary beside Vought International’s Superhero contract.
• The investors ordered security guards to throw Bolivar Trask out of the conference room with his proposal.
• Bolivar Trask sat alone in Times Square, convinced his technology could help ordinary humans resist the growing Mutant population, but unable to continue without funding.
• Solomon arrived in a black Maybach with Azazel at his side, and Bolivar Trask noticed Azazel’s deference to the young man.
• Solomon looked at Bolivar Trask and recognized him as the future creator of the Sentinels.

Solomon recruited Bolivar Trask for Vought and learned that Trask planned to use his DNA bionic prosthetics research to create weapons capable of countering mutants. Solomon warned Trask that Vought’s boss might be a mutant and confronted him about proposing to build a weapon designed to kill him.

• Solomon identified the rejected geneticist as Bolivar Trask and offered him unlimited resources and a laboratory at Vought.
• Trask accepted Solomon’s invitation and rode with him and Azazel toward Vought Tower.
• At Solomon’s request, Trask explained that his prosthetics technology could fuse machinery with human DNA and potentially X-Genes.
• Trask described plans to create artificial super soldiers and a biomechanical organism capable of countering mutant abilities.
• Solomon asked whether Trask realized Vought’s boss might be a mutant and challenged him for proposing to build a weapon to slaughter him.

Solomon forced Trask to abandon plans for mechanical substitutes for Mutants and ordered him to build a detector for dormant X-Genes. As Vought expanded its Superhero program, Solomon considered hunting Apocalypse and creating a global terrorist threat to keep governments paying for Vought’s services.

• Azazel threatened Trask after he described mass-producing machines to kill Mutants, and Trask desperately tried to justify his plans as risk management and a way to expand Vought’s business.
• Solomon rejected mechanical heroes but ordered Trask to develop equipment to detect and suppress Mutants and a detector for dormant X-Genes.
• Trask promised to find every dormant Mutant, while Solomon reflected that binding him to Vought could prevent a future Sentinel apocalypse.
• Solomon calculated that he had a little over two months left in the X-Men world and considered defeating Apocalypse before returning home.
• Solomon realized that peace would undermine Vought’s Superhero contracts and decided the company needed an independent global terrorist organization to create ongoing crises.

Solomon injected William Stryker with Compound V, activating his dormant X-Gene and awakening powerful mind-control abilities. He imprinted Stryker’s mind, turning him into a loyal agent tasked with secretly creating Supes and attacking Vought International.

• Solomon chose fifteen-year-old William Stryker as an executor for his plans.
• Solomon entered Stryker’s bedroom, stopped his gunshot with telekinesis, and injected him with Compound V.
• Stryker survived the transformation, and Solomon discovered that the serum had activated his dormant X-Gene.
• Solomon gained Mind Control +5 and the Mind Stone Imprint ability.
• Solomon rewrote Stryker’s mind, ordering him to obey Shaw, mass-produce Supes, and strike Vought International worldwide.

Solomon conditioned Stryker to pursue Mutant experimentation, then traveled to Cairo to assess the sleeping Apocalypse and found that the ancient Mutant’s power was still beyond his reach. He left the pyramid, planning to return after growing stronger and wondering how powerful Jean Grey’s Phoenix Force might make him.

• Solomon gave Stryker ten vials of Compound V and implanted a directive to preserve his interest in experimenting on Mutants and creating biological weapons.
• Solomon traveled to Cairo and used Intangibility to enter the buried pyramid where Apocalypse slept.
• Solomon used Energy Vision to estimate Apocalypse’s mental attribute at level 6 and his energy attribute at least level 7, with vastly greater energy reserves than his own.
• Solomon decided not to awaken Apocalypse and left the pyramid, intending to return after he had grown stronger.
• Solomon anticipated that Jean Grey would be born before his next visit and wondered whether copying the Phoenix Force could raise his energy to level 8 or 9.