| Synopsis
| - And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar...and the seven angels prepared themselves to sound...
Norman McCay is now seeing a vision of "seven angels" bathed in the fire of what appears to be the torch of the Statue of Liberty. He and the Spectre are taken to where the vision leads them: to the Statue of Liberty where the Americommando, a gun-toting fascist, fires upon immigrants approaching Ellis Island with his Minutemen, warning them to leave America or else. He is soon diverted by a trio of robots, Red, White, and Blue, attacking him, but their personal battle is in the middle of innocents who they care very little for. This battle is interrupted by Superman...and he isn't alone: he is joined by seven others from the Justice League who have returned to duty to deal not only with them, but also with two psionics called the Brain Trust who were using this personal battle for their own ends. They were both rendered unconscious by the appearance of Red Robin, a former partner of Batman who has also joined Superman's team.
After the successful confrontation, Superman and his Justice League allies appear at the United Nations to address the press conference gathered there that they will deal with the rogue superhumans on the loose. However, the Secretary-General of the United Nations isn't confident of Superman's means to achieve their goals, and neither is Bruce Wayne, who retired his identity as Batman but not the desire to continue working as a hero, willing to join Superman's reformed Justice League for that purpose. Nonetheless, Superman and the Justice League press forward with their intended goal, negotiating with superhumans who are willing to join the cause and using force on those who oppose them.
Meanwhile, Lex Luthor has assembled a team of retired villains, calling themselves the Mankind Liberation Front, intending to use the battle between Superman's Justice League and the rogue superhumans to their own ends and purposes. Among them, Norman McCay and the Spectre see an adult Billy Batson as a servant to Lex Luthor, pleasantly giving Lex a shave.
At a nightclub where a group of random superhumans cavort, Superman gets their attention to deliver a message: that they should willingly join the League or else they will be dealt with. As Nightstar and Avia consider taking up Superman's offer to join him after he leaves, Oliver Queen shows up to offer them an alternative.
However, Superman is beginning to see more superhumans choosing to turn against the League rather than join them, so after some failed negotiation talks with Arthur Curry and with Orion , he turns to Mr. Miracle and his wife Big Barda for the answers.
Soon they find Magog standing on what's left of the Kansas landscape, futilely trying to rebuild, and Superman confronts him for the disaster he's caused. Magog blames Superman for the disaster, saying it all started when the Joker killed the Daily Planet staff, including Superman's wife Lois Lane. As the Joker was being brought into custody, Magog killed him with a blast from his energy staff. Superman brought Magog into court for his actions, but the judge ruled in favor of Magog, considering his actions "justifiable" and acquitting him. Rather than accepting Magog's challenge to fight him, Superman simply took off and was never seen until the present time. It is then Magog knew the real reason Superman took off: it wasn't that he feared Magog, but rather he feared that Magog was the kind of hero people wanted and the kind of future he represented. As Superman mockingly says to Magog, "You must be proud", he angrily blasts Superman with his staff before kneeling down in defeat, wanting Superman to kill him or do anything to take away the voices of a million ghosts haunting him.
While Superman and the Justice League are busy building "a stronghold of justice" using plans given to him by Mr. Miracle, Bruce Wayne is seen making an unseemly alliance with Lex Luthor's team of villains.
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| Notes
| - * This issue is reprinted in the trade paperback, hardcover edition and Absolute slipcase edition.
* The Statue of Liberty depicted is defecated with red graffiti no doubt done by Lobo. Also the Statue have a large hole in where her heart is, as if an actual heart was torn out, which seems to symbolizes the poor state of America accompanied with Americommando's xenophobic rant.
* Magog's attempt to rebuild a barn mirrors Superman's retirement in issue #1. This symbolizes the similarities between him and Superman: both are the champions of Metropolis and symbolic leaders of their generations of metahumans. However, Magog tries to do too much and the wrong way, and loses his temper when he fails, destroying what he has done and symbolically demonstrating where he differs from Superman.
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