Story: "Apokolips, Now!" (38 Pages)

Credits: Mark Schultz (plot, script); Mike McKone (pencils); Marlo Alquiza and Cam Smith (inks); Tanya & Rich Horie (colors); Comicraft (letters); Eddie Berganza (edits)

Feature Character: Superman (also in flashback)

Guest Stars: Superboy, Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, Eradicator II

Supporting Characters: Natasha Irons, Krypto II, John Henry Irons

Villains: Darkseid, Justeen (last in Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #188; next in Death of the New Gods #2), Parademons, Mortalla, Doomsday Rex

Guest Appearance: Big Barda

Synopsis:

Determined to save his friend John Henry from Darkseid's clutches, Superman leads a group of those with Kryptonian DNA (so as not to involve Earth) in an invasion of Apokolips. Here, he fights Darkseid in single combat while his allies battle Darkseid's troops. Natasha Irons is also able to make her way to the hell planet, where she is saved from Doomsday by John Henry, using the great reserves of energy in the aegis armour. When Superman defeats Darkseid, he asks simply for the return of his friend, and vows never to tell others the result of the combat. John Henry is returned to them, on the brink of death and saved only by a transfusion of blood from his niece. They all return to Earth, while on Apokolips, a resistance movement takes an 'S' as its symbol, somehow having gained word of Darkseid's defeat.