| Synopsis
| - On Earth-9, the Green Lantern is repowered by the arrival of her lantern. However, she is surprised when it is followed by Lia Nelson, Wally West and John Stewart. The Flash and Green Lantern of New Earth are surprised to be here and demand to be sent back. Saying this is impossible, the Green Lantern introduces them to Mary Marvel - one of three women who shared the identity of the Joker. Through her, we get the story of the Justice league's fight with Superman and his Firestorm Troopers, and how Mary Marvel died. Just before she died, she was psychicly interrogated by Superman, and gave him the names of the other two Jokers. She now believes they are dead.
However, at least one of them is still alive: Lori Lemaris, having just finished a stint in prison for her heroic activities, is currently attending a class at the Citizen Education Center. She is being told about the world's first hero, Arthur Thompson, aka the Atom. While Lemaris is daydreaming, she is accosted by the speaker. However, in the middle of speaking, the speaker is replaced by a long-haired blond man. Lemaris reacts in shock.
In Riyadh, Superman is informing the Saudi government of his decision to institute rollbacks on their oil production capacity, on environmental grounds; the royal family have earned enough from it to prosper, and while the populace may revolt, the royal family can deal with the situation by ridding themselves of their fortune. In the middle of the royal's response, Superman stops listening. He has sensed that our heroes are acting.
On the outskirts of New Atlantis, Manhunter and the Spectre are trying to free the Atom's grandson, also called the Atom, who is imprisoned in the facility. While Manhunter uses lethal force on the guards, the Spectre tries to free the Atom. He is accosted by two new superhumans, Obsidian and Jade, who seem to have the same aim in mind...
- While riding in a car to a mysterious destination, the weedy hacker introduces himself as Guy Garnder, secretly the computer expert known only as "Detective Chimp". His new ally introduces herself as Jennifer Hayden, and asks him to tell her everything he knows about the Metal Men - a six-man commando team who were sent into Prague in 1968, led by Marcus Moore and Sam Schwartz, to find a Soviet chemical weapon called the Red Tornado. They were assisted by a female member of the Czech resistance, Raven. When the group recovered the weapon, Moore and Schwartz had different ideas of what to do with it. The mission was to bring the warhead back, but Moore wanted to launch it on Moscow and end the Cold War for good. Moore and Schwartz would have killed each other, except Raven shot Moore in the head. The official story is that Moore was killed by Soviet fire.
In the wake of the mission, Schwartz married Raven and was elected president. Meanwhile, Marcus Moore somehow received lifesaving cybernetics, and became part of the covert agency Nightwing, which secretly runs the American government.
Years later, Schwartz sent his wife and some of his former squad-mates to China to covertly acquire the newly-gengineered Chinese superhuman codenamed "Powergirl". Powergirl decided otherwise and is missing to this day.
Gardner asks Hayden if she is working for Superman. She responds that she represents people who want to see Superman deposed. She is taking him somewhere that he can continue his work...
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