Chapter Summaries

Motoko Kusanagi sent Vi to end a dockworkers’ uprising, turning her working-class past into a Vought publicity opportunity. Vi stopped Frank from attacking civilians and defeated him, but the broadcast framed the fight as proof that Vought was needed to control dangerous powers.

• At Pier 23, dockworker Frank used his anger-amplified power to lift a container while demanding justice for workers and their families.
• Motoko Kusanagi chose Vi to handle the standoff, judging that her background would make a compelling story for Vought.
• Vi tried to talk to Frank, but an accidental gunshot enraged him, and he hurled a container toward reporters and civilians.
• Vi punched the container into the sea, then fought Frank as he attacked her with metal and debris from the dock.
• Vi knocked Frank unconscious, and the suspended metal fell as she stared at him with bewilderment.
• A news anchor used the live footage to praise Vought as the force that could restrain dangerous powers.

After Vought successfully turned Vi’s dock victory into favorable publicity, Lynn rejected the company’s repetitive hero strategy and ordered Hannibal Lecter to create a real supervillain. Hannibal eagerly accepted the task, leaving Vought poised to turn a terrifying new threat into its most successful product.

• Motoko Kusanagi reported that public opinion, Vi’s approval rating, and Vought’s stock had risen after the dock incident.
• The executives presented a launch plan for Paladin, a wholesome new hero designed to appeal to conservative audiences.
• Lynn criticized Vought’s formula of destructive villains being defeated by flashy heroes and said the company needed a real supervillain.
• Lynn instructed Hannibal Lecter to create a tragic, ideologically driven villain whose artistic destruction would challenge Starlight and Vi.
• Hannibal enthusiastically described the villain as a dangerous work of art.

Lynn proposed creating a supervillain and a Vought academy to reshape heroes, then joined Howard Stark for dinner. Tony confessed his feelings to Motoko Kusanagi, who turned him down, but Lynn encouraged him to show her his inventions, leaving them headed for Tony's laboratory.

• Lynn proposed that Vought create a destructive supervillain and an academy to train and shape newly awakened teenagers into loyal heroes.
• Howard Stark invited Lynn to dinner, and Lynn brought Motoko Kusanagi to the Stark family villa.
• Tony Stark remembered his long-standing crush on Motoko, while Howard asked Lynn how he had found her.
• After several drinks, Tony asked Motoko on a date, and she refused because dating was not part of her employment contract.
• Lynn encouraged Tony to show Motoko his inventions, and Tony led her toward his laboratory.

Howard told Lynn that he suspected Hydra spies inside S.H.I.E.L.D. and asked him to protect Tony if he ever faced a mortal danger. Lynn agreed, accepting Howard’s serum research, Arc Reactor data, and Stark Industries shares as the countdown to Howard’s death began.

• Howard told Lynn that someone had been monitoring his mail, calls, and lab security logs, and said he was sure there were spies inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Howard confessed that Lynn was his only real friend and asked whether he had tampered with the Super Soldier Serum notes, then dismissed the past.
• Howard offered Lynn his new serum formula, Arc Reactor data, returned shares, and four percent of Stark Industries in exchange for protecting Tony from a life-or-death crisis.
• Lynn agreed to Howard’s request, and Howard relaxed with gratitude.
• Lynn accepted the responsibility and the offered assets as Howard’s death approached.

Hannibal searched Vought’s database for a Metahuman whose evil could become an artistic challenge to order and dismissed several candidates as shallow. He found Adrien Dubois, a grieving architect who transformed industrial ruins into a gallery of sorrow, and decided he was the soul Lynn’s plans required.

• Hannibal reviewed Evan Clark’s file and rejected the former politician as a crude puppeteer driven by obvious desires.
• Hannibal examined Irene Mason’s file and dismissed the hospice nurse as an ordinary, greedy parasite.
• After three hours of searching, Hannibal opened Adrien Dubois’s file and learned that his ability had disintegrated the opera house where his wife and daughter were attending a charity dinner.
• Hannibal watched footage of Adrien reshaping industrial ruins into sculptures of anguish, including a Weeping Madonna made from twisted steel and concrete.
• Hannibal praised Adrien’s work as an expression of tragedy and chose him as the soul for Lynn’s plans.

Hannibal Lecter visited Adrien Dubois at his industrial ruin and reframed Adrien’s grief and destruction as a form of artistic creation. He showed Adrien the plans for Vought Tower and invited him to stage another performance there.

• Hannibal arrived alone at Adrien Dubois’s industrial ruin and admired the sculptures made from debris.
• Hannibal discussed architecture with Adrien and interpreted his ruined artworks as an elegy for his lost family and shattered world.
• Hannibal argued that deliberately directing a magnificent collapse could be a coronation for fleeting beauty.
• Adrien was shaken by Hannibal’s ideas, and Hannibal revealed Vought Tower’s structural blueprints, pointing out Lynn Morris’s office.
• Hannibal asked Adrien if he was ready for his next great performance.

Hannibal manipulated Adrien into turning his grief and destruction into an artistic performance, culminating in the silent disintegration of a century-old bridge. Lynn watched a secret recording of the event and ordered Motoko Kusanagi to send it anonymously to Prophet as a warning to the rebels.

• Hannibal praised Adrien’s destructive acts as art, leading Adrien to crave his approval and deliberately create for him.
• Hannibal presented the destruction of Vought Tower as Adrien’s future masterpiece and chose a century-old Harlem River bridge for a rehearsal.
• Adrien slowly dismantled the bridge into dust and dancing steel, briefly forming images that included his wife and daughter before the remains fell into the river.
• Hannibal declared Adrien ready, while Lynn and Motoko Kusanagi reviewed a secret recording and noted Adrien’s improved control.
• Lynn ordered Motoko Kusanagi to send the video anonymously to Prophet so the rebels would understand the threat they faced.

Hannibal turned Adrien Dubois into the Deconstructionist, a destructive figure whose threat Vought recorded as unknown. As Vi questioned the consequences of her actions at the docks, the Awakened Mutual Aid Society watched the bridge’s destruction and received a call to kill the gods.

• Hannibal named Adrien Dubois the Deconstructionist and framed his destruction of structures as a mission, while Vought added him to its database as an S-level threat.
• Vi enjoyed her sudden fame but discovered that Frank and the other dockworkers had disappeared into Vought’s reeducation system and that their problems remained unresolved.
• Vi went to Starlight and asked whether they had done the right thing at the docks; Starlight admitted she did not know and comforted her.
• Haozi and the Awakened Mutual Aid Society watched a video of the bridge turning to dust and despaired at the Deconstructionist’s power.
• The Prophet updated the group’s pinned post, declaring that they had to kill the gods.

Hannibal encouraged the Deconstructionist to turn his hatred of New York into a public performance, and the Deconstructionist made a war memorial vanish from Central Park. As New York panicked and the Awakened Mutual Aid Society recognized the disappearance as a deliberate announcement, Hannibal showed the Deconstructionist a photograph of the crowded Metropolis Museum of Art.

• Hannibal reminded the Deconstructionist of the loss of his family and urged him to channel his anger into a carefully timed performance.
• The Central Park war hero memorial vanished overnight, leaving no trace except the empty lawn and a brief surveillance-camera outage.
• New York City Hall claimed the memorial had been removed through confidential maintenance, but reporters and the public remained unconvinced.
• Haozi and the Awakened Mutual Aid Society watched the press conference as the Prophet said the disappearance announced the Deconstructionist’s existence and foretold a larger performance.
• The Deconstructionist returned to his gallery after completing another creation, and Hannibal showed him a photograph of the crowded New York Metropolis Museum of Art.

Hannibal staged a new terror in New York and used the resulting panic to lure the Awakened Mutual Aid Society toward a false lead. As Haozi sent rats to search for the ghost artist, Hannibal’s fabricated Vought data convinced the forum that victims with unstable abilities were being held at an abandoned industrial district.

• A face that screamed and wept blood appeared in a Brooklyn Bridge pier, and engineers found it was made from the pier itself without altering its structure.
• Prophet warned the Awakened Mutual Aid Society that Vought was feeding a beast that would turn the city into a tombstone, but most members dismissed the prophecy.
• Haozi sensed danger, shut down his terminal, and sent swarms of rats through the city’s underground passages to track the ghost’s scent.
• Hannibal read the forum through a Vought insider and noticed Haozi’s rats appearing on underground surveillance.
• Hannibal and Motoko Kusanagi planted a tampered Vought energy-monitoring log that pointed to an abandoned industrial district and prompted members to suspect Vought was secretly holding unstable victims there.

The Awakened Mutual Aid Society sent a twelve-person team to rescue Adrien Dubois, but the Deconstructionist stripped the metal from them and turned it into a tombstone. The next morning, the New York Post recast the failed rescue as an attack on an innocent artist, redirecting the public’s fear toward Metahumans.

• Iron Armor Steel Fist led twelve Mutual Aid Society members into an abandoned smelting plant to rescue a supposed prisoner.
• The team found an exhibition of steel sculptures and encountered the Deconstructionist, who asked whether they had come to become part of the artwork.
• The Deconstructionist pulled the metal from the rescuers’ weapons, clothing, and bodies, then formed it into a tombstone bearing a warning to trespassers.
• The New York Post reported that Metahuman thugs had attacked Adrien Dubois, portraying him as an innocent artist who defended himself.
• The public’s fear shifted from the mysterious ghost artist to Metahumans living among them.

Vought’s public relations campaign recast the Awakened Mutual Aid Society as a terrorist group and Adrien Dubois as a traumatized artist acting in self-defense. After the Society’s members turned on the Prophet, he realized Vought had only needed to exploit their existing anger to make them collapse from within.

• Motoko Kusanagi directed Vought’s media campaign, branding the Awakened Mutual Aid Society as terrorists and digging up members’ criminal records.
• Hannibal Lecter portrayed Adrien Dubois’s violence as an artistic expression of trauma and the Society’s intervention as an attack on his sanctuary.
• Members of the Society blamed the Prophet for Iron Armor Steel Fist and the others’ deaths and demanded revenge.
• Haozi warned the Society that the ruins held only destruction, but the radicals dismissed him and advanced on the Prophet.
• The Prophet’s supporters fought the radicals in the tunnel as the Society descended into violence.
• The Prophet realized Vought had exploited the Society’s anger and called himself the most unpresentable Joker.

Hannibal guided the Deconstructionist toward seeking worship through a grander display of destruction, while Vought used his attacks and a failed vigilante intervention to turn public fear against uncertified heroes. Motoko Kusanagi reported that the campaign had increased support for Vought’s law enforcement powers and driven street heroes’ popularity to a low.

• Hannibal showed the Deconstructionist New York’s panic and urged him to stage a grand ceremony that would make people worship his art.
• The Deconstructionist transformed a Harlem church’s cross, while Vought declined to dispatch heroes and issued a statement about assessing the threat.
• Richie and Will-o'-the-Wisp joined forces to attack the Deconstructionist at an abandoned sugar refinery.
• The Deconstructionist disintegrated Richie’s steel cables and stripped the heat from Will-o'-the-Wisp’s flames, leaving both vigilantes defeated.
• Reporters filmed the failed attack, and the next day’s coverage used it to undermine support for street heroes.
• Motoko Kusanagi reported that public opinion favored granting Vought greater law enforcement powers and that support for street heroes had fallen to an all-time low.

Deconstructionist massacred Electric Claw’s Avengers and turned their remains into a throne before defacing the Metropolitan Museum of Art, fueling public panic and support for stricter superhuman regulation. Lynn Morris used the crisis to advance his plans and sent Hydra toward a false explanation of Deconstructionist’s power.

• Electric Claw and fifteen Avengers attacked Deconstructionist, who dismantled them and fashioned their flesh, bones, and belongings into a throne.
• Vought portrayed the massacre as infighting, while Hannibal directed Deconstructionist to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Deconstructionist altered artworks and artifacts throughout the museum, triggering panic in New York’s cultural community.
• Motoko Kusanagi reported that public support for the Mandatory Superhuman Regulation Act had risen to 87 percent as Lynn Morris prepared to sell his product.
• Ada Wong told Lynn Morris that Pierce had formed Hydra’s Ouroboros team to study Deconstructionist, and Lynn ordered her to feed Hydra convincing false leads.

Howard Stark warned Lynn that Hydra was closing in and entrusted Tony’s future to him, but the Winter Soldier killed Howard and Maria and stole the Super Soldier Serum. Meanwhile, a mysterious swordsman traveled toward New York as Peggy asked Barbara Minerva to analyze the Deconstructionist’s creations.

• Howard told Lynn that surveillance at S.H.I.E.L.D. had intensified, revealed his Arc Reactor breakthrough, and asked him to guide Tony if anything happened to him.
• The Winter Soldier rammed Howard and Maria’s car on a snowy Long Island road, killed them, and took the serum from the trunk.
• A mysterious swordsman watched a report about the Deconstructionist in a Texas tavern, then headed northeast toward New York.
• Peggy showed Barbara Minerva footage and reports on the Deconstructionist and asked what she had observed.

Peggy investigated a reality-warping power as Barbara linked it to ancient Sumerian mythology, then learned that Howard Stark and his wife had died in a car accident. Meanwhile, Yasuo tracked the Deconstructionist’s influence to the Empire State Building, where a street hero’s attempt to confront him ended in disaster.

• Barbara told Peggy that the power seemed to command matter and resembled divinity described in Sumerian texts, so Peggy ordered her to investigate the cult.
• Alexander Pierce told Peggy that Howard Stark and his wife had died in a Long Island car accident, leaving Peggy stricken with grief.
• Stories of Yasuo’s feats spread across the country, making him a celebrated figure amid the chaos.
• Yasuo saw Manhattan’s anguish flowing toward the Empire State Building, where the Deconstructionist prepared his final act.
• Chrome Alloy Comet rushed past the police cordon and entered the Empire State Building, but someone threw him from the tower onto the plaza.

Yasuo confronted the Deconstructionist atop the Empire State Building and defeated him, ending the attack on New York. After the Deconstructionist killed himself, a voice on Yasuo’s communicator ordered him to return to the team.

• Phase Walker teleported into the Empire State Building to challenge the Deconstructionist, but fused with the building and died.
• The crowd pleaded for Vought’s heroes until Yasuo, known as the Unforgiven, appeared and ran up the building’s outer wall.
• At the spire, Yasuo called the Deconstructionist’s destruction crude and resisted his attempt to disintegrate him.
• Yasuo pierced the Deconstructionist with a concentrated strike of wind, severing his power and restoring his memories of his family.
• The Deconstructionist stabbed himself and dissolved into black dust as Yasuo watched.
• A woman’s voice over Yasuo’s communicator announced the target’s elimination and told the Unforgiven to return to the team.

After Yasuo defeated the Deconstructionist, Miranda presented him as Vought’s solution to the crisis and announced that he had joined the company. Lynn watched the staged press conference, confident it would secure passage of the Mandatory Superhuman Regulation Act and give Vought sweeping authority.

• Yasuo descended from the skyscraper and landed before a crowd as Vought security and staff set up a press conference around him.
• Miranda credited Vought’s careful search for Yasuo and blamed the fallen street heroes’ reckless attacks for worsening the crisis.
• Yasuo told the citizens, “The clamor has fallen silent,” then let Miranda answer the reporters.
• Miranda announced that Yasuo had accepted Vought’s invitation, shocking the crowd that had celebrated him as a free hero.
• Lynn watched the broadcast with satisfaction as Motoko Kusanagi reported that the Mandatory Superhuman Regulation Act would pass and Vought would gain unprecedented powers.

After Howard and Maria Stark died in a car crash, Lynn became Tony Stark’s guardian and secured Stark Industries against a takeover. Tony thanked Lynn but revealed evidence that his parents’ crash may not have been an accident, leaving Lynn to face Tony’s suspicions.

• Lynn visited the grieving Tony in the workshop, spoke to him about his inventions, and promised to protect him until he could reclaim the Stark legacy.
• Lynn took charge of Stark Industries’ transition, stabilized its stock, and stopped board members from starting a corporate power struggle.
• Lynn held a solemn funeral for Howard and Maria, shielding Tony from the media and arranging a nanny and bodyguards for him.
• Tony thanked Lynn, then said the police report blamed failed brakes despite Howard’s recently installed electromagnetic braking system and asked whether Howard could have made such a mistake.

After learning that his father’s death was no accident, Tony Stark devoted himself to becoming powerful under Lynn’s protection. In 1995, Vought moved to make first contact with an alien warrior who had landed in Los Angeles, and Lynn ordered his people to help her hunt the Skrulls while observing S.H.I.E.L.D.’s response.

• Lynn told Tony that Howard Stark had been targeted and urged him to grow stronger before seeking the truth, promising to protect him.
• Four years later, Tifa reported an unexplained energy impact at a Los Angeles Blockbuster, and Lynn ordered Amanda Waller and Ada Wong to investigate before S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived.
• Nina Williams reached the impact site with Vought’s team and assessed the alien woman, who identified herself as Vers, a Kree Starforce member hunting the shapeshifting Skrulls.
• Vers warned Nina that the Skrulls had infiltrated Earth, and Nina relayed the information to Vought’s leadership.
• Lynn changed his order to capture Vers and instead directed Ada’s people to help her find the Skrulls while monitoring S.H.I.E.L.D.’s response.