This mini-series featured Brainiac, who has been collecting cities and inhabitants from various timelines that have ended, trapping them in domes on a planet outside of time and space and then opening them up to see what happens, pitting city against city, heroes against heroes. As such, this issue features several incarnations of Wonder Woman.
At the Watchtower, the Justice League is in communication with Martian Manhunter and the Justice League United, who are monitoring a disturbance at the edge of the universe. When Superman and reinforcements arrive, they discover that the disturbance appears to be a planet trying to encroach on their reality. The event has attracted the attention of even the Red Lanterns and other galactic protectors. Superman worries that they can’t merely push it back into its own reality, because the planet may be populated with people who need help. Elsewhere, even the Guardians of the Universe know that the people on that planet need help, but that it cannot be them who gives it. Worriedly, Superman determines that the best they can do right now is wait and see what happens. Meanwhile, Nix Uotan and Darkseid watch the phenomenon with considerable interest.
Meanwhile, on the planet Telos, the sorcerer Deimos has siphoned the power of the Time Masters, and now uses his magic to usurp control of the planet from its masters. He offers the people once imprisoned on the planet’s surface a choice to serve him and live on the planet together, or be destroyed. He gives only one hour to decide. As he looks over the people of the planet, he wonders what it means that there are so many iterations of the same people out there. At his side, Yolanda Montez wonders whether it is his intent to rule them. He sneers that he cannot rule them. They are uncontrollable. After referring to her as “Wildcat”, she questions him on it, and he responds that it is her true name – who she was and who she will be. He explains that his true intent is to lead the people on the planet to their deaths, and use those deaths to fuel a magic that will create a universe that will belong to him.
On the planet’s surface, The Flash carries Dick Grayson, running from city to city. On the way, Dick wonders what happened to Telos. He had disappeared when Shamballah fell, and the earthquakes began. The pair come across a man down, and wonder what side he’s on. Worriedly, Dick wonders if anyone even has a side to be on, besides their own. Jay decides that they should side with whichever side does not kill, and opts to help the Titans against the Extremists. The Extremists are powerful, though, and Jay considers retreat until Val points out that they have help coming in another Superman and another Flash. In that moment, the Extremists baulk at facing two Supermen, and retreat to seek out Deimos. In the meantime, after meeting their counterparts from other worlds, the heroes decide that they should join with each other to save their worlds.
Still, they wonder how they can fight a living planet. Dick responds that Telos has disappeared. He is not the threat they face. It was Deimos who changed the game. It is no longer city versus city, but those who will worship versus those who will not. Taking charge, the Superman native to this city urges everyone to seek out all those who will help, leaving him alone with Dick. Superman takes him aside to explain that his unique perspective may be a help. He has heard every conversation Dick had with Telos, and he believes that they will have to ally with Telos if they hope to defeat Deimos. Dick is the key to that alliance.
Jay, meanwhile, encounters a Superboy from another world, who seems somewhat impetuous, and Jay supposes that maybe now’s not the best time to convince him, as the sky has turned blood red. Unexpectedly, Jay rushes head-first into yet another Flash, this one called Barry Allen.
Dick searches for Telos, calling him out. Telos responds, explaining that with Brainiac gone, he has no answers as to where his family and people were sent. He is forever separated from them, and yet barely feels the loss, thanks to the reprogramming that was done to him. Dick senses that Telos is aware that he has a rare opportunity here to correct the mistakes that were made in the service of Brainiac. They can use his control over the planet to help fight Deimos, and hopefully learn his true name from the sorcerer in the process. Telos agrees that this plan is acceptable, hoping to save everyone who was cast aside and forgotten, so that they can fight for the future of all.
Having assembled a group of sympathetic heroes from all the other cities on the planet, Superman and company surround Deimos in the open and offer him a chance to surrender. Grinning, he responds that he’s no need to surrender. Despite being outnumbered, a great many people have already agreed to follow him, thinking their lives depend on it. He summons a group of heroes and villains from other cities; desperate, cynical, and evil individuals. He leads them in a charge, promising that if they kill all who oppose him, this world will be theirs.
