Chapter Summaries

Shen Ji confronted Sivana in the Rock of Eternity, then overwhelmed him with psychic power after Sivana fled back to Kahndaq. The chapter ended with Shen Ji defeating Sivana and acquiring his powers, including Venusian Physiology.

• Sivana found Shen Ji and thousands of real Shen Jis in the Rock of Eternity, then used “Shazam” to escape.
• Shen Ji told Teth-Adam that Sivana would return, and Sivana reappeared in Kahndaq moments later.
• Teth-Adam charged at Sivana, who fled in terror while Shen Ji stayed behind.
• Sivana raised a mental barrier against Shen Ji, but Shen Ji’s psychic power shattered it and knocked Sivana unconscious.
• Shen Ji defeated Sivana and acquired the powers of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Six Gods, and Venusian Physiology.

After taking Sivana’s powers and extracting the Demon’s Eye, Solomon gave Clark the champion power, transforming him into a Superman who wielded magic as well as might. He left the captured Sivana to Teth-Adam, warning that the Venusian caterpillar in Sivana’s brain was his true body.

• Solomon absorbed the Venusian caterpillar’s mental power and the powers of the seven deadly sins and six Greek gods, gaining eighteen strands of rule power.
• Teth-Adam brought the helpless Sivana to Solomon, who released his psychic suppression and heard Sivana beg for mercy and blame Lex Luthor.
• Solomon gouged out Sivana’s Demon's Eye and decided to give his champion power to Clark rather than return it to Billy Batson.
• Solomon summoned Clark from Metropolis, and Sivana used the Shazam incantation to transform him with sacred lightning into a red-armored champion.
• Solomon handed Sivana over to Teth-Adam and warned him that the caterpillar in Sivana’s brain was his true body.

Solomon gave Clark champion power that strengthened him and could eventually be shared with loved ones, then explained Sivana’s plot and Lex Luthor’s role in the Metropolis subway tragedy. Clark wanted to kill Lex, but Solomon said he would handle the matter and confronted Lex at Vought Tower.

• Teth-Adam seized Sivana and flew away, while Solomon explained that Clark’s new champion power combined magic with his Kryptonian abilities.
• Solomon told Clark that he could share the power with up to five people, and Clark considered giving some to Martha.
• Solomon revealed that Sivana had worked with Lex Luthor and engineered the subway tragedy to distract Solomon while he sought Teth-Adam’s power.
• Clark became enraged and offered to kill Lex, but Solomon calmed him and headed back toward Metropolis with Clark.
• Teth-Adam crushed Sivana’s skull and burned his body to ashes before Solomon and Clark flew to Metropolis.
• Solomon confronted Lex Luthor at Vought Tower, and Lex denied acting against him.

Solomon confronted Luthor with memories proving his betrayal, but Luthor threatened Metropolis with a hidden nuclear bomb whose countdown depended on a daily reset. Solomon dismissed the threat and psychically rewrote Luthor into a completely loyal servant, leaving him bowing and calling Solomon “Boss.”

• Solomon projected memories from the Venusian Caterpillar into Luthor’s mind, proving Luthor had conspired against him.
• Luthor offered to stop the nuclear threat in exchange for Solomon pretending to know nothing, then revealed that the bomb would detonate if he died or changed his behavior.
• Luthor explained that he had erased his memories of the bomb’s location and its timer-reset arrangements, and argued that the threat would turn Metropolis’s defenders and government against Solomon.
• Solomon told Luthor he could find the bomb, identify the person resetting its timer, evacuate the city, or learn the bomb’s location by seeing the future.
• Solomon overwhelmed Luthor’s mind, erased his personality and resistance, and transformed him into a devoted servant who bowed and called him “Boss.”

Martian Manhunter discovered that Solomon had rewritten Lex Luthor’s memories and soul, then found a possible lead Lex had left behind. He traveled to a fishing village to seek Arthur Curry, who agreed to hear him out amid a vast Atlantean military force.

• Martian Manhunter used his psychic power on Lex Luthor and realized Solomon had brainwashed him, but chose not to act for fear of being discovered.
• Martian Manhunter found a book about Atlantis on his desk and suspected Lex Luthor had left it as a clue before his memories were erased.
• Martian Manhunter traveled to a remote fishing village and asked its armed residents whether Arthur Curry was there.
• Arthur Curry stormed into the tavern, mistook Martian Manhunter for Solomon, and attacked him before Martian Manhunter explained who he was.
• Arthur Curry agreed to let Martian Manhunter follow him, and Martian Manhunter saw Atlantean warships massed across the land, beach, and sea.

Martian Manhunter arrived in Atlantis and learned that Arthur and Orm had joined forces after Solomon’s attack, with Arthur now wielding the Trident of Atlan and commanding the ancient behemoth Kara-sen. Arthur agreed to ally with Martian Manhunter against Solomon, but insisted the ocean be their battlefield, while Martian Manhunter warned that they still lacked strength and feared Superman and Wonder Woman might side with Solomon.

• Martian Manhunter saw Kara-sen at the head of Atlantis’s warships and followed Arthur beneath the sea to witness the behemoth’s full size.
• Arthur explained that he and Orm had allied after Solomon’s attack, found the Trident of Atlan, and reunited with their mother, Atlanna.
• Martian Manhunter told Arthur that Solomon was secretly causing disasters through Supes and proposed that they join forces against him.
• Arthur and Orm silently agreed, and Arthur accepted an alliance while insisting that any battle take place in the ocean, where Kara-sen and the Trident were strongest.
• Martian Manhunter agreed to the ocean battlefield but warned that their forces were still inadequate and that Superman and Wonder Woman might take Solomon’s side.

Arthur used the Trident of Atlan to search the seas for Themyscira after Martian Manhunter proposed seeking an Amazon alliance against Solomon. Meanwhile, Teth-Adam entered the Rock of Eternity to find the gods who might resurrect Hutru.

• Atlanna told Martian Manhunter that Atlantis could help locate Themyscira and urged him to seek the Amazons' support against Solomon.
• Arthur commanded the sea creatures to search for hidden islands, and Martian Manhunter left to seek other allies.
• Teth-Adam revealed that Caterpillar had promised the gods could resurrect Hutru, so he spared the creature and entered the Rock of Eternity.
• Caterpillar guided Teth-Adam to a wooden door leading to the realm of the gods, where Atlas's Three Daughters awaited.

Teth-Adam entered the Realm of the Gods seeking help to resurrect his son Hutru, who had been dead for five thousand years. After Caterpillar revealed he knew where the Staff of the Gods was, the goddesses agreed to help Adam and decided to accompany him to retrieve it.

• Calypso, Hespera, and Anthea ambushed Teth-Adam when he entered the castle and subdued him.
• Teth-Adam asked the goddesses to resurrect Hutru, and Hespera said it might be possible despite the five-thousand-year delay.
• Calypso said the sisters lacked the divine power to bring Hutru back unless they recovered the Staff of the Gods.
• Caterpillar told Teth-Adam he knew where the staff was, so Adam offered to retrieve it in exchange for the goddesses' help.
• Hespera promised the sisters would honor Adam's request and said they would accompany him to retrieve the staff from the Wizard.

Teth-Adam helped Hespera, Calypso, and Anthea recover the Staff of the Gods and break the seal imprisoning them, but the sisters revealed that they needed Superman’s Champion Power before they could resurrect Hutru. The chapter ended with Adam demanding a reason to trust them after they changed the terms of their promise.

• Teth-Adam led the three goddesses through the Rock of Eternity to Doctor Sivana’s former mansion, where they found the Staff of the Gods.
• Hespera, Calypso, and Anthea seized the staff, and Hespera used it to destroy the seal around the Realm of the Gods.
• Teth-Adam demanded that the sisters fulfill their promise to resurrect Hutru, but Hespera said they first needed to reclaim Atlas’s Champion Power from its inheritor.
• Teth-Adam realized the Champion Power was inside Superman and feared that attacking him would mean going to war with Solomon.
• Teth-Adam confronted the sisters, asking why he should trust them after they changed their demands.

Calypso used Whispers of Chaos to enslave Teth-Adam and sent him with Calypso and Anthea after the inheritor of the Champion Power, while Hespera searched the Rock of Eternity for the Golden Apple. In an ancient library, Hespera encountered over a thousand powerful Solomon clones, and Solomon attacked her with a Psychic Blast.

• Calypso broke down Teth-Adam's resistance by promising to resurrect Hutru and took control of him with Whispers of Chaos.
• Calypso ordered Teth-Adam to lead her and Anthea to the inheritor of the Champion Power so they could reclaim Atlas's divine power.
• Hespera split from her sisters and returned to the Rock of Eternity to find the Golden Apple, which she needed to restore the Tree of Life.
• Hespera found an ancient library filled with more than a thousand powerful Solomon clones and asked Solomon whether he was the current Wizard.
• Solomon attacked Hespera with a Psychic Blast, and Hespera raised a golden magical barrier to protect herself.

Solomon failed to break Hespera’s magic barrier, then traded her the Black Apple for an explanation of rule power. Hespera revealed that mortals must refine their accumulated power into a rule prototype to become true gods, while gods like her are born with one.

• Solomon’s psychic attacks from over a thousand Clones vanished against Hespera’s magic barrier, and she dismissed his power as shallow.
• Solomon stopped attacking and asked Hespera what Wild Gods were.
• Solomon gave Hespera the Black Apple, which she had been seeking, in exchange for sharing her knowledge.
• Hespera explained that mortals must condense rule power into a rule prototype before they can build a complete rule.
• Hespera said Wild Gods lack rule prototypes, while true gods are born with them; she had inherited an elemental power prototype from Atlas.

Solomon learned that a god’s Rule Prototype could be extracted from their remains, but rejected Hespera’s Elemental Power and condensed his own Myriad Phenomena Rule. He used its newfound power to shatter Hespera’s barrier and seize control of her divine body.

• Solomon read the magical quill’s explanation that a god’s understanding could be extracted from their remains as a Godhead.
• Hespera taunted Solomon by asking whether he planned to kill her for her Elemental Power, but he refused to follow such a narrow path.
• Solomon condensed his Rule Power into the Myriad Phenomena Rule, astonishing Hespera with his instant breakthrough.
• Solomon layered his new Rule Power over his psychic power and cracked Hespera’s golden barrier with a touch.
• Solomon overwhelmed Hespera’s mind and took control of her divine body, leaving her helpless and filled with regret.

After defeating Hespera, Solomon gained Titan physiology and elemental power, and his rule power increased as he examined the gains. Hespera's attack failed against him, and she explained how Teth-Adam had once entered the Divine Realm seeking to resurrect his child.

• Solomon checked his status and found that defeating Hespera had raised his energy and rule attributes and granted him Titan physiology and elemental power.
• Solomon recognized that Hespera's elemental power could rewrite matter through control of fundamental elements, and considered how his own power of myriad phenomena could grow into a true rule.
• Solomon released Hespera from his psychic restraint, but her elemental assault broke apart against his defenses.
• Hespera praised Solomon's strength and asked how he had entered the sealed Rock of Eternity; Solomon said he had come through two inheritors of champion power.
• Hespera identified Teth-Adam and recounted that he had entered the Divine Realm seeking to resurrect his child, leading Solomon to suspect that a Venusian Caterpillar had deceived Adam again.

Solomon learned that Hespera and her sisters had broken the seal between the Divine Realm and the Mortal World to reclaim Atlas's power, then discovered they were pursuing his friend. Meanwhile, Atlanna and J'onn reached Themyscira to warn its queen of a coming crisis.

• Hespera admitted that she and her sisters had undone the seal between the Divine Realm and the Mortal World to save the Tree of Life and reclaim Atlas's power.
• Solomon warned Hespera not to harm his friend, and Hespera hurried away to stop her sisters and Black Adam.
• Solomon returned to studying the Eternity Library while his other clones handled affairs on Earth.
• J'onn and Atlanna followed sea creatures through the magical fog and arrived at Themyscira.
• Atlanna told the Amazon sentries she had come to warn their queen of a crisis threatening humanity and hidden races, and the sentries escorted them inside.

Atlanna and J'onn asked Hippolyta to ally with them against Solomon, whom they believed threatened Earth and its hidden peoples. Hippolyta rejected their warnings, viewing Solomon as a protector and refusing to involve the Amazons.

• Hippolyta welcomed Atlanna and J'onn at the Amazon palace and asked why they had come to Themyscira.
• J'onn revealed that he was a Martian and warned that Vought's boss, Solomon, posed an unprecedented danger to humanity.
• Hippolyta questioned why Solomon should be treated as a threat when his company had stopped an alien invasion and given J'onn a public identity.
• J'onn warned that Solomon targeted ancient-blooded peoples, and Atlanna described his attack on Atlantis that killed dozens of elite warriors.
• J'onn cited Solomon's release of Sabbac and Enchantress, but Hippolyta argued that Solomon had defeated them and refused to involve the Amazons.

J'onn failed to persuade Hippolyta that Boss was evil, but Atlanna warned her that Boss might be seeking the Mother Box hidden on Themyscira. Hippolyta refused to join a war without proof, though she promised to protect the artifact if the threat proved real.

• J'onn argued that Boss had brainwashed a human who discovered his secret plan, but Hippolyta suggested the human might have deceived him instead.
• Hippolyta rejected J'onn's appeal and ordered the visitors escorted out, questioning why Boss had spared so many of his supposed enemies.
• Atlanna warned Hippolyta that Boss might return to Atlantis for one of the three Mother Boxes, including the one hidden on Themyscira.
• Hippolyta refused to lead the Amazons into war based on conjecture but promised to defend the Mother Box if the danger became real.
• Atlanna left after explaining that she had come to warn Themyscira and secure a potential ally for Atlantis.

J'onn realized Atlanna's alliance with Hippolyta was limited to protecting a mysterious object, then accepted a sealed box meant for Diana and raced toward Metropolis. On the way, he encountered Teth-Adam and Clark fighting in the mountains, with Clark wearing a new lightning-emblazoned suit.

• J'onn confronted Atlanna about the alliance, and she explained that she had warned Hippolyta to make her vigilant about a dangerous object.
• Hippolyta decided Diana needed to be warned about the threat to the Mother Box but had no way to contact her directly.
• An Amazon guard gave J'onn a sealed wooden box and asked him to deliver it to Diana.
• J'onn left Themyscira and flew toward Metropolis, carrying the box.
• J'onn spotted Teth-Adam and Clark battling in the mountains, and Clark blocked Adam's lightning-charged punch.

Clark was forced to surrender Solomon’s Champion Power to Calypso to protect Martha, but Calypso then threatened to sacrifice him and his family. Anthea objected, leaving the sisters’ conflict unresolved.

• Clark fled toward Kent Farm while J'onn engaged the mind-controlled Black Adam and struggled to slow him down.
• At Kent Farm, Clark found Calypso and Anthea holding Martha captive, and Calypso demanded Solomon’s Champion Power.
• Calypso threatened to make Martha kill herself if Clark tried to interfere, so he stayed still as she used the Staff of the Gods to strip away his divine power.
• After recovering the power, Calypso said she would sacrifice Clark and his family, and Anthea grabbed her arm and urged her to stop.

Anthea used axis power to separate Calypso from Clark and free Martha, but Solomon arrived and restored Martha’s mind. Solomon then overwhelmed Calypso and Anthea, leaving both ancient goddesses immobilized and adding their abilities to his own.

• Calypso attacked Clark, but Anthea activated axis power and displaced her into the wilderness while bringing Martha to Clark.
• Anthea urged Clark to get Martha beyond Calypso’s range, and Clark prepared to flee with her.
• Solomon arrived and used psychic power to clear Calypso’s influence from Martha, restoring her awareness.
• Calypso attacked Anthea, shattered her spatial defenses, and wounded her before turning on Solomon.
• Solomon crushed Calypso’s chaos magic and immobilized both goddesses, then gained chaos magic, axis power, and upgraded titan physiology.

Solomon’s Rule Power surpassed 100 strands, and he spared one goddess while reclaiming the Staff of the Gods and restoring Clark. He stripped Black Adam of his powers after exposing the lie that his son could be resurrected, leaving Adam powerless and devastated.

• Solomon’s Rule Power rose by 38 strands, surpassing 100 and transforming his Rule Prototype into a diamond-like foundation.
• Hespera begged Solomon to spare her sisters, and Solomon agreed to let the younger sister live but insisted Calypso must die.
• Solomon took the Staff of the Gods, returned Clark’s Champion Power, and removed Calypso’s mind control from Black Adam.
• Black Adam and Martian Manhunter arrived at Kent Farm, where Solomon scolded Black Adam and used the staff to strip him of his Champion Power.
• Hespera admitted that the gods could not resurrect someone dead for five thousand years and that Calypso had lied to use Black Adam, who collapsed in despair.