Darkseid arrived in full force intent on claiming New Genesis. He was met by a resolute force headed by Orion, Big Barda and Mister Miracle and shored up by Superman, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Hercules and the Mighty Thor.

Darkseid fumed in dissapointment and threatened to make Asgard and Themiscyra pay.

Darkseid decided to retreat rather then face that group at that time.

Once he'd backed down, Thor, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and Superman needed to return to their homes or realms while Hercules and Mary Marvel chose to stay and help guard New Genesis.

Day 52: Noon in the Wakandan jungle on a replicated Earth in an alternate reality.

The four original Challengers Of The Unknown had come out of retirement to help out due to so many missing heroes. They were all flying in a jet piloted by Ace Morgan. They were on their way to Alaska where reports that Multi-Man was taking advantage of the absence of so many heroes and villains to make his own bid for power.

However, a rift in reality appeared before the plane and Ace was unable to evade it.

Joe Chill; the man responsible for the creation of the Batman, was absolutely terrified. So terrified at suddenly being transplanted into some unknown jungle, he didn't realize he'd been rejuvenated to the exact age he was when he slew Bruce Wayne's parents.

When the Challengers emerged from the rift in reality they were used to strange things happening to them so Ace had the presence of mind to notice that the jet suddenly had only enough fuel to make an emergency landing.

Ace issued an immediate mayday to which Wakandan authorities responded.

Suddenly part of the jungle seemed to roll back revealing a pristine runway for Ace to land the Challengers Jet,

Prof was the first to notice that somehow each of them had been rejuvenated to the age they were when they became Challengers of the Unknown.

Ace swiftly landed the jet before the remaining fuel could run out.

Joe Chill pulled his 45 and nervously began to move through the jungle jumping at every sound. He'd heard the sounds of an overhead jet but the jungle canopy hid it from his view.

This gave him some hope that there was some sort of civilization nearby, but being unnaturally transplanted from his normal surroundings was giving him trouble with his sanity.

The Midnight Rambler was forced to step in, remove consciousness from Chill and teleport him to Gotham City, depositing Chill in his one room apartment. The Midnight Rambler then implanted memories of Chill having arrived with the first wave of Gotham City residents so that Chill could cope with his new reality more easily.

Ace Morgan landed the jet expertly and the Challengers were greeted by Wakandan airport officials along with Batman and Storm.

Prof Haley, Rocky Davis, Red Ryan and Ace Morgan stepped out of the jet inquisitively.

Joe Chill came to his senses shortly after the Midnight Rambler departed. He walked to the mirror and looked at himself. He was pleased to see that he was somehow years younger.

"Ah this crazy planet." He thought to himself. "At least Batman still hadn't learned he was alive and out of the hoosegow."

Maybe he oughta relocate ta Metropolis so's Batman doesn't catch wind of him. Joe Chill knew Batman's secret, He knew who Batman was. Batman thought Chill was dead but somehow, some way, Joe Chill was alive!

Batman's identity was valuable information. However Chill was so completely frightened of Batman finding him again and Chill was so afraid to draw Batman's attention to himself that Chill was loathe to try to capitalize on it. Chill looked in his fridge. Nothin'. Just some beer.

Chill was hungry and decided to go to the corner diner.

After the Challengers were debriefed the Wakandans refueled their jet and they were sent on to London with Guy Gardner and John Stewart escorting them in case Gorilla Grodd or Black Adam decided to intercept them.

Although Phantom Stranger was deeply concerned about Cthulhu, he decided to hunt out and locate the Midnight Rambler and Captain Beyond. He located the Midnight Rambler right after the latter had left Joe Chill.

The Midnight Rambler saw that the Phantom Stranger had enough power to possibly root out the unknown entity that was behind all of this so he decided to lure the Phantom Stranger to get the same treatment Mxyztplk received but the Phantom Stranger sensed the deceit behind the Rambler's intent and declined the Midnight Rambler's invitation.

Next the Phantom Stranger confronted Captain Beyond. Here, he was not faced with deceit. True, Captain Beyond was not free to divulge the identity of the entity behind all of the kidnappings but he was the yin to the Midnight Rambler's yang and where the Rambler was obliged to aid the villains, Captain Beyond was tasked with aiding the heroes when necessary.


Both entities were to provide support when necessary. Since the heroes were more unified then the villains, Captain Beyond was less busy then the Midnight Rambler.

The Phantom Stranger saw that because of their assigned tasks, each entity displayed characteristics of their charges. The Midnight Rambler was deceitful whereas Captain Beyond was noble.

The Phantom Stranger decided not to try to confront the entity directly. He had visited Myxyztplk and learned what had happened to him.

He decided to return to the Oblivion Bar and consult with this Dr. Strange from the Marvel Universe.

The Phantom Stranger was starting to realize he had more autonomy in this reality then he had in his own reality. He didn't want to be reckless with his sudden freedom.

The Time Trapper considered what Nightmare had said. It was true. The Time Trapper needed to look more closely at the overall picture in this reality.

Still, if Kang managed to destroy some Legionnaires before the Time Trapper looked into things, that couldn't really hurt anything could it?

Dream Girl had dreamt that a very deadly threat was coming and that was a key reason why all of the Legion that had appeared up to this point were in Wakanda along with all the Justice League. The Fatal Five would have to wait.

The Challengers Jet landed safely in London and was refueled.

Worries about Magneto and the Brother of Mutants, often called the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants because of several acts of terrorism, meant that the Challengers needed their Green Lantern escorts to cross the Atlantic safely.