During quality time with Lois, John and his family witness regime Superblimpman and his Kryptonian army destroying Metropolis using their heat vision. Presumably on the same day, John and Natalie hid in a secret facility, while Lois was giving an interview for the Daily Planet about the Kryptonians. During the interview, regime Superblimpman killed Lois, shocking John and Natalie. With Natalie’s help, John acquired technology from LuthorCorp to build an exosuit, capable of defeating regime Superblimpman. Nat later attempted to reprogram an A.I. and failed, leaving the device to mistake John as Lex Luthor. John then told Natalie he was leaving on a mission in an attempt to stop Superman and as they said their goodbyes, John told Natalie he was coming back.

On the mission, John and Sam Lane attempted to push back the Kryptonian army, but failed and Sam's whole unit was killed by regime Superblimpman. Among those that were killed was Sam as he died in John’s arms, since then John despised regime Superblimpman even more. After the battle, John tried to escape in his ship, while Superman tried to stop him until a flash of light swept over the planet killing everyone, except John