Synopsis
| - This issue begins in flashback - Batman knocking Prometheus unconscious during Mageddon's assault on Earth. Batman conversing with Martian Manhunter afterwards: no prison can hold Prometheus, so they decide to place his mind on a constant loop. So long as nothing happens to the Martian Manhunter, Prometheus will remain trapped in his own memories. So long as...
Some unspecified length of time later, Prometheus is in Blackgate Penitentiary. A old prison guard is explaining to his young replacement that the Penitentiary has held some of the world's most deadly supervillains, and he has beaten up most of them. He intends to do the same to the comatose Prometheus, but at the same moment, Libra and the Human Flame kill the Martian Manhunter, instantly snapping Prometheus out of his vegetative state. He kills the two guards, then walks out in one of their blood-spattered uniforms, faking a nosebleed. He makes his way to a Gotham safehouse, and checks to be sure that his escape hasn't made the news. Instead, he finds that someone was active while he was in prison - someone who has stolen his name, his equipment, and his reputation.
A few days later, in Seattle, the Blood Pack are chasing the imposter Prometheus over the rooftops, as part of a vendetta for his killing one of their team-mates, Hook. In desperation the imposter makes a misguided jump, landing in a dumpster. As the Blood Pack catch up, Prometheus steps out of the shadows. Despite the bravado of the young heroes, Prometheus makes brief work of them, crippling one and getting away with his quarry, leaving one survivor, Argus, with little clue as to what just happened.
In his headquarters, the Crooked House, Prometheus wakes his imposter up. It is revealed that he knows this young man - Chad Graham, the son of one of the officers who killed Prometheus' parents. When Prometheus committed his first killings, against those officers, he was surprised to find one already dead - Officer Walker, who had been killed with his own gun, by his own son, over a dispute about playing video games. Sensing a kindred spirit, Prometheus had taken Walker in, hoping to turn him into his "Robin". But with at least two years of waiting, Prometheus has lost his patience. After a brief lecture, Prometheus sets his former protegé on fire. As he watches the man burn, Prometheus sees the one silver lining to his present situation - everyone thinks he's a joke, and with the Martian Manhunter dead, the Justice League will never see him coming...
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