Chapter Summaries

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.

Over two months, Solomon’s Vought empire expanded rapidly, signing up thousands of mutant superheroes and turning Magneto into a commercial superstar. Solomon approved a Hollywood film that dramatized Magneto’s past, then learned that Dr. Trask’s laboratory had completed the first-generation combat suppression collar.

• Vought’s superhero roster passed five figures, while Erik Lehnsherr became its most popular star and reluctantly accepted endorsements in exchange for wealth and support for mutants.
• Vought Studios began preparing “The Rise of Vought,” a film that recast the Cuban Missile Crisis as a victory for Vought’s heroes.
• A screenwriter pitched a melodramatic showdown between Magneto and Sebastian Shaw, and Solomon approved the script without changes.
• Solomon ordered the Public Relations Department to have Erik attend the film’s launch press conference and warned the screenwriter to remove metal objects before meeting him.
• Roland reported that Dr. Trask’s X-Gene energy suppression project had produced the First-Generation Combat Suppression Collar, and Solomon went to inspect it.

Solomon witnessed Trask test a collar that suppressed a mutant’s powers and learned that mutant assaults were becoming frequent. He left Charles and Erik to handle the growing problem, insisting only that Vought’s reputation and business remain untouched.

• Trask showed Solomon the first-generation Suppression Collar and demonstrated it on Mad Rhino, whose powers vanished when the collar activated and who broke his ribs against the test wall.
• Solomon learned that Mad Rhino had tortured a civilian family to death after losing his temper during a rescue mission.
• Roland reported that dozens of similar assaults had occurred that month as mutants’ newfound status and past grievances fueled their brutality.
• Roland explained that Charles and Erik had disagreed over Mad Rhino’s fate until Raven proposed sending him to Trask’s laboratory.
• Solomon refused to intervene in the mutants’ affairs and ordered that Vought’s share price and reputation be protected.

Solomon told Trask that his work on the suppression collar could earn him a place on the Compound V research team, then informed Charles, Erik, Raven, and Emma Frost that he would leave Earth. He assigned them control of Vought and warned that he would destroy them and reset the world if they let the company fall into infighting.

• Solomon praised Trask’s work on the suppression collar and promised him a place on the Compound V research team after he completed recessive X-Gene detection technology.
• At a meeting in Vought Tower, Solomon told Charles, Erik, Raven, and Emma Frost that he would leave Earth and claimed The Seven were fighting threats capable of destroying the planet.
• Solomon assigned Charles and Erik to oversee superhero management and global security, with Raven mediating disputes between them.
• Solomon put Emma Frost in charge of Vought’s business, capital, and secret research, and ordered her to prioritize Compound V and continue improving Cerebro.
• Solomon warned the four leaders to keep Vought as Earth’s undisputed overlord or he would crush them and reset the world.

Solomon tested the first-generation X-Gene suppression collar and concluded he needed stronger mutant subjects to learn whether it could weaken Apocalypse. He summoned Magneto, Charles, and Emma Frost to Trask's laboratory and began testing the collar on Emma.

• After the others left, Solomon considered using the collar against Apocalypse but decided to determine its suppression limit first.
• Solomon fastened the collar around a clone that lacked an X-Gene, and the device failed to suppress it.
• The clone removed and broke the collar despite its anti-tampering electric shock, and Solomon discarded the damaged device.
• Solomon summoned Magneto, Charles, and Emma Frost to Trask's laboratory to test new collars on their different peak attributes.
• Emma Frost volunteered first, and Trask activated a collar around her neck at Solomon's command.

Solomon tested Trask’s Mutant Inhibitor collars on Emma Frost, Charles, and Erik, but all three overwhelmed the restraints with their level 5 powers. He reviewed his own attributes afterward and concluded that reaching level 6 would require finding powerful people in other worlds.

• Emma Frost overloaded her collar with her X-Gene energy and regained her diamond transformation.
• Charles burned out his collar’s chips with a surge of psychic power.
• Erik overloaded his collar with genetic energy, then crushed it into an iron ball with magnetic force.
• Solomon reassured Trask that the test had gone as expected and told him to keep improving the collar.
• Solomon checked his superpower panel and saw that all his attributes had reached level 5, but the mutants he had recruited had not raised any to level 6.