Chapter Summaries

Solomon agreed to Charles’s request for Vought’s help against Sebastian Shaw in Cuba and let Raven believe she would join the mission. After Alex Summers joined Vought and Compound V transformed his powers into cosmic-energy-fueled plasma, Solomon challenged him to attack at full strength.

• Raven told Solomon that Shaw had persuaded the Russians to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba and that Charles had offered Vought a global live broadcast in exchange for its assistance.
• Solomon accepted and let Raven volunteer for the Cuba mission with Erik and Charles, while privately judging that they would be outmatched by Shaw and the White Queen.
• Alex Summers arrived at Vought Tower, joined the company, and received Compound V under laboratory supervision.
• Compound V boosted Alex Summers’s abilities, improved his control, and gave him the power to absorb ambient cosmic energy and release it as plasma shockwaves.
• After Alex Summers’s awakening devastated the laboratory, Solomon invited him to fire his strongest attack and promised him Vought’s leadership if he could make Solomon move or ruffle a hair.

Solomon defeated Alex Summers in a test of their powers, then agreed to let him join the operation against Sebastian Shaw. In Washington, D.C., officials approved sending Vought International’s mutants after Shaw but rejected Charles’s request for a worldwide broadcast and secretly planned to eliminate the mutants afterward.

• Alex Summers fired a powerful Plasma Shockwave at Solomon, who stopped it with Heat Vision and forced Alex to exhaust himself.
• Solomon ended his lasers before they struck Alex, then told him he needed much more practice to pose a threat.
• Alex asked to join the operation against Shaw, and Solomon agreed, telling him to train with his new power.
• In Washington, D.C., officials accepted the plan to let Vought International’s mutants handle Shaw but refused to arrange Charles’s worldwide broadcast.
• The officials secretly planned to attack and kill the weakened mutants after they defeated Shaw.

Congress rejected Charles and Moira’s proposal to broadcast the truth about Shaw, while the President threatened to shut down Vought if it refused to act. Solomon revealed Vought had its own plan to seize worldwide satellite signals, and Charles was left stunned by how much Vought’s experiments had strengthened Raven, Erik, and Hank.

• The President ordered the CIA to force Vought to fight Shaw and threatened to raid Vought Tower if it refused.
• Moira told Charles that Congress had rejected the broadcast proposal and relayed the President’s ultimatum; Charles urged her to keep the military away from Vought and went there to negotiate.
• Charles and Moira told Raven that Congress had refused to endorse mutants, while Charles concealed the President’s threat.
• Solomon told Raven that Vought’s Public Relations Department was ready to take over satellite signals worldwide, and Raven passed his response to Charles and Moira.
• Charles explained the Cuban Missile Crisis and Congress’s position to Erik, Raven, and Hank; Erik crushed a metal cup and threatened the politicians if Washington attacked Vought.
• Raven copied Charles’s appearance and demonstrated a psychic power that blocked his mind-reading, leaving him astonished.

Raven demonstrated that Compound V let her copy other mutants’ X-Genes and urged Charles to join Vought, but he postponed his decision until after dealing with Shaw. A month of Vought’s specialized training strengthened its mutants as they prepared for the coming battle.

• Raven transformed into Erik and used his magnetic ability, explaining that she could replicate another mutant’s X-Gene by taking their appearance.
• Raven invited Charles to join Vought, while Moira encouraged him to follow his heart; Charles left with Moira and said he would decide after Shaw was dealt with.
• Raven wanted to kill Moira, but Erik warned that doing so would drive Charles away; Raven insisted Moira’s influence threatened Charles.
• Erik trained with Vought’s specialists and learned to improve his magnetic control, while Raven and Darwin received specialized training to develop their powers.
• A month passed as Vought’s mutants grew stronger through training, and a little over ten new mutants joined the organization.

As the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the United States and Russia to the brink of nuclear war, a mysterious television channel broadcast the fleets’ confrontation live to the world. Russia ordered the Weihai freighter to turn back, but it ignored the command and kept approaching the embargo line, leaving the American commander preparing to fire.

• Russia's missile deployment in Cuba was exposed, and the United States president threatened a full nuclear retaliation if Russian missiles crossed the blockade line.
• As the fleets faced off and panic spread, a mysterious channel began broadcasting the standoff and the ships’ interiors live, drawing viewers around the world.
• With the Weihai freighter minutes from crossing the embargo line, both fleets sounded battle alarms and prepared for combat.
• A Kremlin directive ordered the Weihai to return to the Port of Odessa and abandon its voyage to Cuba, prompting cheers around the world.
• The Weihai ignored repeated orders to turn back and continued toward the embargo line at full speed.
• The American commander ordered his forces to prepare to fire.

The Weihai was revealed to be a ghost ship carrying the corpses of its crew, but the American fleet still prepared to fire as it neared the exclusion line. Charles tried to prevent war by arranging for Russia to destroy the ship, but Emma Frost’s powerful psychic shield blocked him, leaving him to plead with her.

• The live broadcast showed that everyone aboard the Weihai had been killed and the freighter was following a fixed course toward the exclusion line.
• Alexander Novits told the American fleet that Russia had lost control of the ship and asked it not to fire, but the American commander dismissed the warning and ordered his forces to prepare to fire.
• Charles told Moira that the crew was dead and asked her to contact American leadership, but she believed the Americans would fire once the ship crossed the line.
• Charles saw the American commander begin a five-second countdown and tried to control a Russian serviceman into launching a missile at the Weihai.
• Emma Frost blocked Charles with a powerful Psychic Shield, so he pleaded with her to stop supporting Shaw and avert a world war.

The White Queen embraced Shaw's plan as the American fleet launched a missile at the Weihai, triggering Russian and American counterattacks and the start of World War III. A Vought Mutant appeared in the sky and halted more than a hundred missiles, leaving the world's leaders stunned by the power of Mutants.

• The White Queen thanked Charles for opening her eyes and welcomed a new world for Mutants.
• The American fleet launched a missile that struck the Weihai, and Russian and American forces launched missiles at each other.
• More than a hundred missiles suddenly froze in midair before the exchange could escalate further.
• A man in a black combat suit hovered among the missiles with a V+7 emblem on his chest.
• The White House and Kremlin recognized the emblem as Vought International's logo, and the American president realized the man was a Mutant.

Raven revealed magnetic field powers like Erik’s and dragged Shaw’s nuclear submarine from the sea, prompting Erik to redirect the frozen missiles at it. Shaw absorbed the entire barrage unharmed, leaving the world to see him as a terrifying supervillain.

• Charles wondered whether Vought had staged its intervention to display overwhelming power as the world teetered on the brink of war.
• Raven arrived above the battlefield and used her magnetic powers to haul Shaw’s hidden nuclear submarine out of the deep sea.
• Shaw decided to make an entrance and had Azazel teleport him onto the submarine as it rose into the sky.
• Erik redirected thousands of missiles toward the submarine and launched them at Shaw.
• Shaw absorbed the missiles’ explosive energy and emerged unharmed, shocking viewers around the world.

Shaw faced Raven, Erik, and Vought’s fighters on an isolated island, convinced that his stolen Compound V enhancements made him powerful enough to defeat them. After their public confrontation, Shaw ordered his allies to attack, and Riptide unleashed enhanced tornadoes at Vought’s team.

• Azazel caught Shaw before he fell into the sea and teleported him to a nearby island.
• Raven and Erik flew down to confront Shaw, while A-Train and another Vought fighter arrived at their side.
• Raven demanded that Shaw abandon his plan to start a world war, but Shaw argued that mutants had to destroy humanity and build their own world.
• Shaw realized Vought had arranged the confrontation as a public spectacle, but believed his secretly enhanced forces could overcome them.
• Shaw ordered his allies to attack; Azazel vanished in crimson smoke as Riptide sent two enormous tornadoes sweeping toward Vought’s fighters.

Raven and Erik fought to break through the Hellfire Club’s defenses, with Raven revealing that she could mimic powers through skin contact and Erik defeating Riptide with a torrent of steel. As Riptide fell, Azazel teleported above Charles’s fighter jet, preparing to kill him and free the White Queen to dominate the battlefield.

• Raven used Super Speed to attack Riptide, then tried Telepathy when he escaped into the air, but the White Queen’s psychic barrier blocked her attack.
• Shaw realized Raven could mimic abilities by touching people and noted that she had copied powers from Vought mutants.
• Erik lifted wreckage from the Nuclear Submarine and used the steel to pin Riptide’s expanding tornado in place.
• Riptide enlarged the tornado, but Erik forced steel fragments through the wind field and struck him with heavy plates, sending him crashing onto the reef.
• Azazel teleported above Charles’s fighter jet, intending to kill him and leave the White Queen free to use her psychic powers.

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.