#Lex Luthor Revenge Squad

[evilhorse]

Superman #11

[keycomicbooks]

Superman #10 (2024) Jamal Campbell Cover / Joshua Williamson Story / Bruno Redondo Pencils / 1st Appearance of the Lex Luthor Revenge Squad: Graft, Doctor Pharm, the Chained / 1st Full Appearance of Terra-Man (Tobias Manning) 

#Superman #10 (2024) #JamalCampbell Cover / #BrunoRedondo Pencils / #JoshuaWilliamson Story / 1st Appearance of the Lex Luthor Revenge Squad: Graft, Doctor Pharm, the Chained "Chapter Ten: Into The West" THE MAN OF TOMORROW MEETS THE MAN FROM YESTERDAY! HOWDY, PARDNERS! SAVE ON SHIPPING COST - NOW AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL PICK UP IN DELTONA, FLORIDA https://www.rarecomicbooks.fashionablewebs.com/Superman%202023.html#10  #KeyComicBooks #DCComics #DCU #DCUniverse #KeyIssue #NerdyGifts

[gotham-at-nightfall]

The final plan to destroy Lex Luthor comes to fruition!

Superman #11

[splooosh]

“Revenge Squad”

Neal Adams

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

My DC Cinematic Universe: Superman (Part VIII)

Chapter Eight: Defining Opposition

I don't know about you, reader, but when I go to watch a superhero movie, the thing that gets me most excited for it are the villains. I know villains are sort of a popular thing with the millennial generation, but hey, villains are fun, what can I say? But in terms of superheroes, I think that comes down to an old expression: heroes are defined by their villains. After all, a hero is only defined by how they approach the kinds of adversity they are forced to confront. And if there's any confrontational adversity in comic books, it's supervillains.

But that said, what makes a good villain, or group of villains, for a given hero? I think we can all agree that Batman has one of the strongest rogues' galleries in DC Comics, on page and on screen. And in Batman's case, I'd say that's because his villains are dark reflections of himself. Bruce stares into the metaphorical and moral abyss on a regular basis, and just barely stops himself from diving into it. But his villains? Oh, they live there. It's like the Joker said: one bad day, and all that.

Don't believe me? Here are some examples of what I'm talking about.

Joker is madness personified, obviously. If Batman is regimented order, Joker is unleashed chaos.

Catwoman has the skill to match and outrun Batman, but uses her talents for selfish or criminal means (mostly).

Riddler is Batman's intellectual match, but used for personal pleasure rather for forensics and justice.

Penguin has the money to match Bruce Wayne, but is tainted by corruption and crime, rather than a philanthropic drive.

Two-Face is the ultimate example of corrupted justice, acting on the same side and in the same world as Batman, but then succumbing to a purely black-and-white moral mindset.

Scarecrow represents the same fear that Batman willingly produces, but unleashes it on everyone, regardless of innocence.

Poison Ivy is...well, right, most of the time, to be honest. She seeks environmental justice, but does so through morally bankrupt means.

Mad Hatter seeks to control the insane world around him, but has succumbed to the madness himself as a result.

And I could keep going...but that's for another essay series, I think. Still each of these villains serves as a reflection of Batman, and so they serve as interesting foils that allows Batman to reflect on himself and his own methods and goals as a result. But reflections aren't the only thing that make a villain interesting.

Here's another classic rogues' gallery that's criminally underused in media, the Rogues of Central City. Flash's villains, individually, aren't too difficult to defeat. Therefore, pinning them up against the Scarlet Speedster stops being interesting, when you know that the far more power Flash could just stop them immediately. So, they basically got together and formed a union, no joke! The Rogues have their own internal rules and codes, and come together to take what they want and bamboozle the Flash simultaneously. These guys are interesting not because they're reflections of Barry Allen or Wally West...they're interesting because they pose a challenge to the hero they fight.

One villain is one thing, but five? Not only can they team up, but they can split up. And fast as he may be, Barry can't be everywhere at once, especially when he doesn't know WHERE he needs to be! The Rogues are a great challenge for the Flash, and they know it. That's why they keep recruiting new members and changing their roster, which in turn changes the challenge that the Flash needs to overcome. But that's not the only thing that makes them interesting. These guys are good villains because...honestly, you kind of end up rooting for them.

You've got Captain Cold, the serious and determined leader; Heat Wave, the unstable second-in-command with a chip on his shoulder; Weather Wizard, the dangerous powerhouse with a dark past; Trickster, chaos in human form and loving it; and Mirror Master, the rule-breaker and constant trouble who's too powerful to let go, even if they should. And that's just five of ten-to-twenty people who've been a member of the Rogues. I mean, come on! They're super cool, and a good writer can make them interesting in their own right. Real talk, I would watch a movie focused upon the Rogues...and I seriously think it could work. Like a super-powered Ocean's Eleven? HELL yes, let's GO! Plus, we're really lacking a team of villains in the movies. Sinister Six in No Way Home doesn't count, because that wasn't really the Sinister Six. We need a REAL team of villains, like the Injustice League, or the Masters of Evil, or...well, I'll get to it.

So, OK, the best villains pose a challenge to the hero, are interesting in their own right as characters, and/or are a dark reflection of the hero they go up against. While these aren't hard and fast rules, I think they do work for the best villains. And, it would also explain why Superman movies can't seem to get past two villains for some goddamn reason.

Look, I like these guys, I've already talked about them both a bit, but I'm TIRED of seeing them in movies over other members of Superman's rogues' gallery. So why these two? Well, I've talked about Lex Luthor already, but he's essentially a dark reflection of Superman. While Superman is an outsider who thinks of himself as a part of humanity, Lex is a human who places himself above humanity. Superman is humble, Lex is arrogant; Superman is stronger than everybody, Lex is smarter than everybody; Superman gives, Lex takes, yadda yadda yadda.

General Zod, on the other hand, is a bit more straightforward in his relationship to Superman, as a dark reflection, and somebody who can pose a challenge to the Last Son of Krypton. Again, I have talked a little bit about Zod, but as a Kryptonian, he's automatically a threat to Superman no matter where they are. Because of that, Zod's the other common cinematic adversary for Superman. And again...it's boring. I want other villains, and there are SO many other villains. But hold on a tick...didn't I already write this essay?

In my first movie, which I'll be giving a name in the next essay, the primary antagonists are Metallo and Intergang, with both acting as challenges to the hero, to use the established categories. Metallo maybe could be considered a dark reflection of Superman, being a super-strong and invulnerable character with a chunk of Kryptonite in his body, but I wouldn't say that's the primary category for him. But that said, he should also be an interesting character. Somebody you enjoy watching, but are also intimidated by. I leave that characterization to more talented writers than I, but that should be the goal.

Intergang, meanwhile, are meant to be more of a means-to-an-end. While they are certainly a threat on their own, and while their leader should definitely be a character you enjoy watching, they definitely fall within the challenge category, while also acting as a link to future villains for both Superman, and this cinematic universe as a whole. I suppose you could also say that, like Superman, they're an Earth-bound link to the cosmos beyond, via their connection to G. Gordon Godfrey, AKA "Gordon Crown".

So, again, why am I bringing this villain stuff up if I have my villains for the first movie already? Well, for one, I like talking about villains, especially the underappreciate and underutilized Superman villains. And two, the first movie lays the seeds for future installments. And while I won't get into all of my ideas for a fully-fledged franchise here...I do have some ideas for the sequel. And that theoretical sequel revolves around some major Superman villains. And I wanna talk about it. But before I do, I have to go back to Luthor's plans with the Kryptonite.

See, when the first movie ends, Godfrey will have delivered to Luthor a hunk of Kryptonite, collected from the sites of Krypton's remains by his benefactors. Luthor will use that Kryptonite in experiments with his lab, Infinity Labs, to determine its capabilities and usefulness, as well as potentially weaponizing it for use against Superman. Between this film and the last, two things will be discovered about Kryptonite. Firstly, it works as a power source for certain electrical circuits and devices, especially something like an armor or automaton. That was proven with Metallo, although that process can't really be replicated easily. A human mind still needs to guide the automaton.

The second thing that Luthor will discover about Kryptonite is its effects on human biology, if harnessed correctly. See, Kryptonite is harmful to Kryptonians immediately, and to humans over a very long period of exposure, thanks to the radiation. But, if combined with certain mutagenic compounds, it could theoretically be used to create superpowers in every one. So, when Luthor realizes this, he develops Project: Everyman.

At this point, the Young Justice fans reading may be having a seizure, so lemme address this really quick. In Young Justice, Geo-Force decides to enforce his country of Markovia by establishing a group of experimentally-induced metahumans known as Infinity, Inc., which includes a character named Everyman. In the comics, there are a couple of Infinity, Inc. teams, with the second being made by Lex Luthor in an attempt to replace the at-the-time missing Superman as heroes of Metropolis. He had an ulterior motive here, of course, but that's a story for another day.

The point is this: in the second film of my Superman franchise, Luthor is going to make a team of superhumans that he can control, and that can come together to take out Superman at his beck-and-call. And why? Because a TEAM of supervillains poses more of a threat to Superman than just one alone. And who is in our Infinity, Inc? Well...

Toyman: Childish Chaos

I love Toyman, AKA Winslow Schott. He's on the sillier side of Superman's villains, using toys and gadgets to commit crimes and take on Superman, but I've always been charmed by this weirdo. But Toyman, by himself, is ABSOLUTELY not a villain who can challenge Superman and be threatening. In the comics, he started as a bank robber with neat toys, until being changed into a much creepier character and a...child murderer? Goddamn it, DC, really? Just let Winslow be the creepy obsessive guy who commits crimes with toys! Ugh. Annoying.

Schott's been adapted into various forms of media, but is usually a vengeful and obsessive inventor who commits deeds of crime and revenge using toys and games. And yeah, that's pretty accurate. My favorite incarnation, and maybe the most famous, is obviously the Superman: The Animated Series version pictured here. But, Toyman's made it into Smallville, Supergirl, Superman: Doomsday, the unmade Kevin Smith Superman film, and Justice League Action, so he isn't an unpopular character by any means. That said...I get why he hasn't been adapted into film. 'Cause, y'know...I like him, but...

He's a dude playing with toys going up against Superman. He is absolutely no threat to Superman whatsoever. So, how do you fix that? Well, I've been tossing around a few ideas...

Toyman is pretty clearly an opening scene villain. He's the character that opens up the movie with a crime that Superman is supposed to stop. In the time between this film and the last, Intergang's weaponry has managed to leak into the hands of people outside of the organization, and that can be very dangerous. One of those hands is Winslow Schott's, who'll be starting this movie with a good old-fashioned bank robbery. Using Intergang-powered weapons and automata (because that's what Toyman does), he'll rob the bank and face off against the Metropolis PD outside. That said, though, Schott isn't actually there. Acting through the automata from a hidden facility (an abandoned toy shop destroyed by the fight in the last film), this is the latest in a string of toy-related robberies he's committed. However, once Superman shows up, it's game over, and the robots are defeated by him after a brief, neat fight.

In the aftermath of the fight, Schott is eventually found and consulted by Lex Luthor, who's got a proposition of work for him. Schott, in this universe, was a pre-eminent engineer who had worked for a competitor of Luthor's. When Schott was fired years prior for mental instability, he retreated into a new profession: toy-making. However, Superman's battle with Metallo not only destroyed the shop, but provided the catalyst for Schott's psychotic break. Using a weapon left behind during the fight, Schott reverse-engineered it to make his signature automata, but can't find the power source for his masterpiece. Luthor wants his talent, and hatred for Superman, to help develop some of his own devices, and offers to hire Schott in exchange for some of the power source he needs. Schott agrees to these terms, and Toyman's on the team. Who's next?

Livewire: The Ultimate Shock Jock

Harley Quinn is pretty famous for making it from being a side-character on Batman: The Animated Series, to being one of the most popular characters in the DC Universe today. But she's not the only character to break free of the confines of the DCAU into bigger stardom. Enter Leslie Willis, AKA Livewire from Superman: The Animated Series. Liverwire is a fun, spunky, and electric character (PUN INTENDED NO REGERTS), and that carried her into the comics, as well as Smallville, Supergirl, DC Super Hero Girls, and Young Justice. Honestly, she's a personal favorite of mine as well.

Livewire is a character whose origin has changed only in small details. Broadly, she's a media maven who hates the Superfamily, and often blames them for her transformation into Livewire. In the comics, however, Leslie was a metahuman from the jump, and was willingly struck by lightning to enhance her own powers. But my version of Leslie is going to choose to take that power, because of a hatred of Superman. And in this case, it's because she's a glory hog.

You may have caught me name-dropping Leslie in the Metropolis essay a few days back. Well, in this universe, Leslie is a podcaster and social media maven, as well as a controversial figure in her own right. Think Joe Rogan, but focusing on hating superheroes. Wasn't always that way, but ever since Superman arrived and stole the spotlight, and since the events of the first movie, Leslie's been a little bitter towards the Man of Steel. And the more bitter she's become, the less people have been listening to her. However, she has two major fans: Lex Luthor and Gordon Crown.

So, when Lex is looking for volunteers for the Everyman project, Crown points him towards Leslie, who gladly accepts the chance to regain the spotlight, and show Superman for the fake hypocrite she thinks he is. She's given the experimental Everyman treatment, which unlocks electrical powers within her. As Livewire, Leslie is the face of Infinity, Inc., and leads the small team of three. Alongside her is Captain Incredible (actually a robot controlled by Toyman), as well as Everyman...but not Hannibal Bates from the comics. No, no, no. Livewire may be a powerhouse, as well as a major second-arc antagonist when Infinity, Inc. finally breaks bad...but she's not the biggest threat on the team.

Parasite: Power-Hungry

Rudy Jones, AKA Parasite, is possibly one of the most dangerous Superman villains, as well as the best candidate for a cinematic appearance at some point soon. A former janitor that stumbled into some radioactive chemicals, Parasite has the ability to absorb the memories, skills, and powers of anyone he comes into contact with and drains. From a purple-people eater to an eldritch abomination, Parasite's hunger has given him a lot of different forms over the years, but he's always a massive threat to the Man of Tomorrow.

People adapting him into media do seem to understand this, as he's made it into Superman: The Animated Series and the DCAU, Smallville, Superman: Man of Tomorrow, All-Star Superman, Supergirl, Justice League Action, and even DC Super Hero Girls, weirdly enough. He's a pretty popular character, but also a character that should be used cinematically. Obviously, that's because he fits within that Dark Reflection category in terms of raw power, but he's also an interesting character in his own rights. But my version of Parasite is...unlucky, to say the least.

See, Rudy Jones is a janitor for Infinity Labs, but accidentally stumbles upon Gordon Crown, secretly touring the labs and reporting to his masters on Apokolips. Gordon notices this and manipulates Jones to not only forget about what he's seen, but also convinces him that something interesting is within the barrels in the facility. Unfortunately for Rudy, the material within ends up spilling on him, and he's exposed to a reagent of the Everyman process, altering his DNA. He loses his hair, and his memory of what he'd seen about Gordon.

The next day, he's found with the reagent all over him, and in shock. Realizing the opportunity here, Luthor isolates him and tests him, eventually realizing that Rudy has the ability to absorb the life-force and memories from someone, gaining their skills and abilities. Ready to test a theory, Luthor brings him onto the Infinity, Inc. team, naming him Everyman after the reagent he had absorbed. Now, this is a reference to Hannibal Bates, as well as acting as a red herring. This backstory about Rudy won't come out until much later in the film, so we'll start out by seeing this bald dude named Everyman, tricking some ardent comic book fans into thinking that he is a villain of this film. Because, hey, who doesn't like a pleasant surprise, right? Anyway, Luthor wants him on the team so that he can absorb Superman's powers and gain information about him, but also for an ulterior motive. More on that later.

Rudy will turn purple for the first time after touching Superman, as the alien DNA doesn't mesh properly with the Everyman serum, changing Rudy's biology and making him desperate for power like Superman's, as well as preventing him from retaining Superman's memories. And by the time we reach the end of the film, one thing is apparent: Parasite is the major threat of the second movie. But he's not actually the primary villain. No, no, the primary villain of the film is, of course, Lex Luthor. And that's especially prominent given the members of Infinity, Inc.

Remember how I said a great comic book villain should be a dark reflection, a challenge, so on and so forth? Well, the three villains I chose all reflect aspects of Lex. Hear me out.

Toyman represents Lex's intellect and scientific acumen. Not only does he share this with Lex, but his devices (including the Kryptonite-powered Captain Incredible robot) will be used by Lex to form some of his armor in the last film.

Livewire represents Lex's jealousy and desire for the spotlight. Leslie and Lex both want Superman's attention, and Leslie possesses the power that Lex desires. After this film, she'll still be around to cause havoc, and get the spotlight away from Lex's attention. She should stela the screen when she's on it, and also represents some of Lex's secret bombast.

Parasite represents Lex's greed and lust for power. In the comics, Lex once was given the Orange Lantern ring, which is powered by greed. His hunger for power rivals Parasite's, even if it's more metaphorical than literal. But that said, Parasite is actually Lex's way to gather two things from Superman: readings of his powers, and some of his DNA. Both of these things will be used in the third movie, where Lex will finally fully break bad as a major villain of the film.

And there you have it; four major villains in the second film, and a solid representation of Superman's rogues' gallery. Now, with that, you may be thinking, "ARE YOU COMPLETELY INSANE? FOUR VILLAINS, AND ONE OF THEM IS FUCKING PARASITE? That's way too much for one film!" Well...maybe. But I'm not a screenwriter, am I? I think it's possible to throw this much in a movie and make it an exciting, credible, fun watch, and hopefully an actual good movie. Plus, these events open the door for the next movie...where even more characters could be introduced.

After all, I didn't even mention Bizarro, Brainiac, Mongul, Silver Banshee, Manchester Black, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and a bunch of other interesting characters you could bring up. And I didn't even go through my ideas for the plot of the second film. But at this point, I'm very much getting ahead of myself. Let's finally talk about the proposed first movie in this franchise. I'll be summarizing elements of the plot I've already mentioned, and bringing them together into one cohesive story, hopefully. Again, I'm no screenwriter; I'm just a nerd with too many ideas on his hands. So next time, I'll be presenting the story of the first film in my DC Cinematic Universe...

Superman

Yeah, by the way, there has never been a film called just Superman. The 1978 film is called Superman: The Movie. WHY HAVE WE NOT NAMED A SUPERMAN MOVIE SUPERMAN YET? Come ON, WB!

Index: Superman

Part I: Why I Love Superman

Part II: On Lois Lane

Part III: The Kents

Part IV: The 'Rents

Part V: The...Frendts?

Part VI: Lex Luthor

Part VII: The Real Villains

Part VIII: Superman's Rogues Gallery

Part IX: The Story - Act One

Part X: The Story (Acts Two and Three)

Part XI: The Story - Climax

Part XII: Epilogue (Part One)

Part XIII: Epilogue (Part Two)

[dalekofchaos]

Injustice au:Batman's regime

Been thinking of an alternate Injustice where Batman goes bad and leads an authoritarian regime.

Injustice 2 continuation.

Instead of Joker nuking Metropolis and Superman killing Lois. What starts it off is Selina is pregnant and it's Bruce and Selina's wedding. Joker shoots Selina killing her and Bruce's unborn child. Joker leads them on a merry chase to Metropolis and then the nuke goes off in Arkham.

Bruce kills Joker.

Clark, in horror. "Bruce, what have you done"

Bruce, full of heartbreak and in a fit of rage. "What I should have done a long time ago"

Bruce regroups with the only surviving members of the Batfamily. Damian and Cassandra. And decides to do what he should've done a long time ago.

Bruce seeks out Ra's and Talia. Bruce finally gives in and agrees to lead the League Of Assassins. Bruce kills Ra's and takes the LOA for himself. Talia takes Diana's place as his lover and second in command.(while Diana thankfully isn't cartoonishly evil)

Batman is known as Khuffash(translates The Bat)

Art by Richard Quintero

Bruce's plans would be what Superman was in Injustice canon. Build a better world. Cleanse crime, end war and destroy everything Batman represented and make the Bat a symbol for the whole world to fear and if the Justice League dares to stop him, he will enforce his contingency plans on a world wide scale.

Bruce's regime council would be the following

Talia Al Ghul

Amanda Waller

Lex Luthor

Lady Shiva

Damian Wayne

Cassandra Cain

Huntress

Ocean Master

Raven

Cyborg

Villains implanted with suicide squad type bombs being enforced to follow the Regime

Bane

Solomon Grundy

Black Adam

Killer Frost

Sinestro

Deathstroke

He gives the Justice League a chance. Join him and help him bring justice and order to the world or die out with the cleansing fire.

The Justice League are the insurgency. They will stop their old friend or die trying.

Unbeknownst to Bruce, Barbara survived. She's been helping the Justice League with her Oracle network. Barbara broke through to Cassandra and Cassandra has been working on the inside out to save her father from himself.

And instead of Lex always working with the Justice League, it's Amanda Waller working with the League.

Bruce has Gotham rebuilt using the Wayne fortune and Arkham rebuilt set to imprison the Justice League.

Bruce imprisons almost all of the Justice League.

Clark causes a breakout and Barbara and Waller disable the bombs in the villains, thus causing the tide to shift against the regime.

Wonder Woman defeats Talia

Aquaman stops Orm.

Cassandra defeats Damian

Eventually the whole regime is neutralized, until it's just Bruce.

The villains have Bruce at their mercy and Bane breaks him. But to their misfortune, Bruce had planned for this and had a Lazarus Pit built in New Arkham. Bruce crawls into the Lazarus Pit. Game over. He destroys them one by one.

The final fight would be between Superman and Head of the Demon Batman.

Batman has Superman where he has him. And as he has his Kryptonite sword at Clark's throat, Bruce gives him TDKR speech

"I want you to remember, Clark…in all the years to come…in your most private moments…I want you to remember…my hand…at your throat…I want…you to remember…the one man who beat you.”

And then Cassandra stabs stops him. Together Clark and Cassandra take him down together.

Cassandra Wayne dedicates her life as the new Batman to clean up her father's mess and dedicating her life to making the bat to be a symbol of hope. While Damian swears revenge for his sister's treachery.

Bruce and his cohorts is kept in the bowels of new Arkham, being insured they will never escape, while Bruce vows to come back and finish what he started, while Clark vows he will be there to stop him.

[docgold13]

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Metallo 

John Corben had been a top tier mercenary and assassin who accepted a job arranged by Lex Luthor to steal an experimental battle suit.  The suit was actually designed and built by LexCorp, yet Luthor needed it stolen so to facilitate an illegal sale of the weapon to the sanctioned government of Kaznia.  Lois Lane investigated Corben, suspecting his ties to Luthor.  Yet Corben found her out and was planning on killing her when she was rescued by Superman.  

Corben was incarcerated and soon thereafter was diagnosed with a rare and terminal viral disease.  Luther helped to facilitate Corben’s escape and offered the dying man a last chance to cheat death.  LexCorp scientists would transfer his mind into an indestructible android body made of a super durable alloy called metallo. The body possessed strength on par with that of Superman and was fueled by a Kryptonite heart. With nothing left to lose, Corben agreed. Upon the completion, Corben's android body was covered with a layer of artificial skin that resembled his original body.

Although Corben’s mind survived, being deprived of any physical sensation quickly drove him mad.  Luther promised to improve Corben’s robotic body, making it so he could feel again, but first Corben had to kill Superman.   While battling Superman Corben discovered that it was actually Luthor who had arranged his illness, manipulating him so he would be a willing test subject to become a weapon against the Man of Steel.  Coren tried to kill Luthor but was caught in an explosion and sank to the bottom of the sea.  He was presumed dead yet survived.  He cast aside his old name and became ‘Metallo.’  

The villain would resurface for subsequent battles against Superman.  He later helped to form the Superman Revenge Squad and thereafter became a member of the Legion of Doom.  

The great Malcolm McDowell voiced Metallo in his initial appearances with actor Corey Burton voicing the villain in later appearances.  The metallic menace first appeared in the second episode of the first season of Superman: The Animated Series, ‘Last Son of Krypton Part II.’  

[monoemin]

Absolutely adore the art style this comic has !

Title: Superman the Lex Luthor revenge squad strikes

[nfcomics]

SUPERMAN no.11 • cover art • Warren Louw [Feb 2024]

THE LEX LUTHOR REVENGE SQUAD ATTACKS! Superman is back from his blast to the past but finds that Mr. Graft and Dr. Pharm have gathered some of Lex Luthor's greatest enemies with a mission to wipe out Lex and everything he loves from Metropolis. Superman will fight to save Lex's life but when he learns the truth about Lex's past…will he want to?

(W) Joshua Williamson (A) David Baldeon (CA) Warren Louw

[dispatchdcu]

Superman #12 Review

Writer: Joshua Williamson Artists: Norm Rapmund & David Baldeon Cover Artist: Jamal Campbell Publisher: DC Comics Price: $4.99 Reviewer: StoryBabbler Superman and Lex Luthor are facing the Lex Luthor Revenge Squad! Comprised of the villainous brothers Pharm and Graft, along with the telekinetic Chained, and even Lex’s own mother, Leticia Luthor. While they bested most of the Revenge Squad, the…

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: Superman #12

Superman #12 preview. Superman is the brains while Lex is the brawn, as they team up to battle the Lex Luthor Revenge Squad for the fate of Metropolis #comics #comicbooks #superman

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week?

Great week this week.

Superman #11 - I was right that it was a Luthor under that armor, but it wasn't his sister Lena. Wish it was, this Revenge Squad is lame other than Pharm and Graft. Should've added Humanite to the mix. For a second I wondered if Williamson had forgotten the Bizarro tease, or if he had handed that off to Aaron, but it looks like Pharm and Graft simply got their hands on a dead Bizarro clone and used it for experiments with the Kryptonite. Guess the next issue will tell us the story of what went down between Lex and those two guys, I've enjoyed them but I'm ready to move on to the Brainiac storyline.

World's Finest #24 - A nice bittersweet note to end on. Magog kills Gog to keep the ALE out of Darkseid's hands... and thus alienates himself from the other heroes for good. Great to see Darkseid not job, but Waid hurt his takedown of Magog here by writing events in a way that makes the heroes chastising Magog for making the hard call come across as disingenuous. Darkseid crushed two Supermen with ease, no one else was close enough or able to stop him, Magog made the right call in my eyes. Our Superman is still willing to forgive David, and encourages him to seek redemption after the events of KC. I liked how Magog found that redemption by serving alongside a new generation including a new Superman (the Clark/Diana kid godfathered by Batman from the epilogue of KC). Until/Unless Waid chooses to flesh that story out, my headcanon is Magog served as the kid's mentor and helped guide him so he would avoid making the mistakes that Magog made. It's a nice note that Magog managed to forge a partnership with a Superman after all. And goddamn can Mora draw the shit out of Darkseid. Would love to see him do a Fourth World arc with the whole New Gods cast.

Wonder Woman #6 - Coolest Grail has been... ever basically? I'm a huge sucker for "the villain talks major shit to the hero before the two throw down" and I liked how Grail has a sense of honor compelling her to toss her own weapon since Diana has no sword. Grail constantly invoking her father as the source of her strength and pride vs. Diana invoking Hippolyta to the same effect feels like the first interesting thematic undercurrent between the two. Going to make a separate post on this, but finally, Grail brings something to the table beyond merely being an evil WW counterpart. Loved seeing Diana take on her entire Rogues Gallery, and while she might have "lost" (but since she took her entire Rogues Gallery down too I think we can say it was a tie), I think between Sov's narration and the Wonder Girls seemingly taking Steel off the board while keeping back, we can guess that even Diana's collapse at the end is part of her plan. Sampere is an absolute beast on art. Dude drew multiple pages that I can see becoming "iconic" down the road: Diana catching and throwing the Monument back at Giganta, Diana punching Grail in the face, etc.

GL: WJ #6 - I'm going to miss Varron man, even as a zombie he's such a dick and it's great to see him and John interact because of how much they despise each other Taking the form of John's dad is such a petty dick move lol. Hell yeah, PKJ's bringing in his Old God storylines from the Warworld Saga, I loved that stuff and am eager to see it continue. Great issue, John got to kick ass with all his constructs, and the reveal about the Revenant Queen is super messed up. She's a host for an Old God like Osul is, except she's Guardian John's wife. Could she be a Katma, or is this a new OC, perhaps even someone our John hasn't met yet? Can't wait to start unpacking all the Darkstar stuff next issue. Looks like the Darkstar is going to be revealed as an Aspect of Olgrun.

Batman #144 - Yawn. Another story where Joker tells Batman he loves Bats and Batman tells him to fuck off. C'mon, I liked how Zdarsky explained the three Jokers, but this is banal.

JLvGvK #5 - Alright we get it, Clark might be dead or maybe not, no need to keep beating us over the head with it. Next issue I want to see Lex's Mechagodzilla kick the BatMech's ass, let's see Lex finally get a big win. Then for the final issue, Superman comes back to team up with Godzilla and take Lex down.

Incredible Hulk #9 - Art did a good job of giving the whole story a macabre feel. Felt like I was reading a Hellboy story in certain parts. Damn Betty and Bruce simply can't catch a break can they? I hope we get more movement on the Eldest plotline soon, I want Betty to get freed and join Bruce and Charlie on their road trip.

Ultimate Spider-Man #2 - Hickman wrote this issue for the people who claim he's all plot and no character - this issue is nothing but character work. We get Peter growing into his own, his first fight with a supervillain, May finds out her dad is Spidey, Ben and Jonah begin investigating, and the Maker's Council pokes their head in via Captain Britain berating Fisk (or is it Captain EU given he's French?). I liked how May was scared of Peter's black suit and that's why he's going to change to the red and blue look, just like how MJ in 616 is the reason Peter switched back to his red and blue costume. I bet we get a Superman: For All Seasons moment where someone compliments Spider-Man's red & blue look and Spidey proudly says his daughter made it for him. There's an interesting parallel between Peter and Harry here. Peter keeps getting his ass kicked by Shocker while Harry keeps failing to kill Fisk. Both of them are trying to be who they're "meant" to be, but neither is great at it from the start, I really like that. Oh and while Ben and Jonah continue to be a great duo, I loved the squabbling between Richard and May while Peter and MJ were texting each other. Really want more interactions between them.

And yes of course I loved that OMD nod at the end, Marvel & Hickman know what they're doing!

I have a theory regarding Mary Jane. Here she's a businesswoman, and just like how the variant cover for issue 1 teased May finding out her dad is Spider-Man, the variant for issue 2 makes MJ out to be very successful as a businesswoman. Given this "zone" is run by the technocrats, I think we're going to see MJ get a villainous counterpart offer to what Tony offered Peter, the Maker's Council will approach her to replace Fisk after Spider-Man deposes him, or maybe even Stark later on down the road. It's made clear the the Council has lieutenants who rule their own sections of the overall domains shown in Ultimate Invasion. MJ getting her own offer of power from the opposite side is the kind of drama that could set up a nice character arc for her. I think MJ ultimately being tempted but refusing causes them to go to Harry next, who accepts.

[superman86to99]

Super Titles Round-Up (April 1994)

This month: Superboy fights an elderly person! Supergirl fights herself! Steel fights, uhh, capitalism I guess!

Superboy #3 (April 1994)

Last issue, a cybernetically-enhanced old guy called Scavenger appeared out of nowhere and stole an ancient Hawaiian spear Superboy had been trying to protect (“trying” being the keyword there). Now both the Kid and the old guy head to an archeological dig to look for a gem that supposedly gives the spear vast magical powers. When they run into each other there and start fighting over the mystical artifacts, Scavenger teleports them both inside an active volcano to give himself an advantage, since he happens to be wearing a handy talisman that makes him impervious to burning alive inside volcanoes.

Scavenger manages to nab the gem and comes close to killing Superboy with it as he rants nonsensically about some mysterious “enemy” that’s out to get him with his “secret society” (sounds like a Q guy). He also brags repeatedly about his anti-lava talisman, which wasn’t such a great idea since Superboy simply snaps it off his neck and forces Scavenger to escape while swearing revenge.

So Superboy finally retrieves the spear, but the historian who was giving him shit about losing it (Dr. Kaua) still isn’t happy, since he secretly wanted to use it to become a REAL Hawaiian superhero and he can’t do that now that the gem ended up at the bottom of a volcano. The issue ends with Dr. Kaua moping on the beach when he randomly bumps into some sort of container that says “Property of U.S. Navy Pearl Harbor,” which immediately blows up on his face. Be careful what you wish for and stuff...

This issue also ties into the Clone Plague storyline going on in the main Super-books: Superboy is constantly coughing and collapses right after defeating Scavenger. Dubbilex (who had a psychic phone call with the Guardian about the Plague earlier in the issue) thinks they should take him back to Project Cadmus for examination, but Superboy’s friends propose a better treatment: a sandwich, some time in bed, and a VHS tape with the pilot episode of Superboy: The Animated Series, which we’ll see in the next issue.

Supergirl #3 (April 1994)

The issue starts with a distraught Supergirl showing up at Lana Lang’s doorstep, saying something about how she “killed them all.” We flash back and find out that, after discovering that LexCorp’s scientists think she’s a dumb bimbo and lied about the tests they’ve been running on her, she impersonated one of them to infiltrate the main lab and saw the horrible truth: they’ve been growing mindless clones of her and, for some reason, dressing them up in S&M gear.

Supergirl fights the clones and ends up destroying the entire lab with them inside -- as well as “poor” Dr. Happersen, who was already in a wheelchair after his encounter with Bizarro and ends up buried in the rubble. Supergirl still refuses to believe that her beloved Lex Luthor Jr. had anything to do with this experiment until she remembers that he ominously told her “I wish I had a hundred of you” (back in the Supergirl and Team Luthor one-shot) right before the “tests” started.

FINALLY realizing that Lex Jr. is an asshole who’s been manipulating her all along, Supergirl morphs into an edgier new look apparently inspired by her dead S&M “sisters” and promises she’s gonna hurt him (but not in a fun way).

Steel #3 (April 1994)

John Henry Irons stops by his old employer, Amertek, and demands to know how the weapons he designed for them ended up in the hands of street gangs. The main guy there, Colonel Weston, acts dumb and says he has no idea what’s going on, so John leaves Amertek and comes back later, thus giving them ample time to get a whole squad of armored goons ready to fight him. Which was... what John wanted, for some reason?

So, Steel manages to sneak into Weston’s office and burn himself a CD full of incriminating Amertek data, but then like 20 goons show up to fight him. John puts up a good fight, but eventually his armor starts overheating from being shot with too many Toastmasters and turns yellow.

This gives Weston an idea: he has John chained up and directs all the goons to shoot him with the Toastmasters at the same time to find out what his Steel armor can withstand. That’s when a ruptured gas line causes the entire office to blow up. John survives thanks to his armor, but so does Weston, because one of the goons somehow smelled the gas through his helmet and flew him away right in time. Miraculously, that CD with incriminating data isn’t even scratched, and the issue ends with John saying he’ll use it to bury Amertek.

It’s a pretty goofy issue, and the goofiest part is that John didn’t want to believe Colonel Weston was evil and feels bad about “burying” him, even though he’s shown to be a racist dickhead who twice says John’s “kind” isn’t very clever. To be fair, it’s possible he was just talking about engineers.

Hawkman #6 (February 1994)

I missed this sizeable Eradicator guest spot in the February Super Titles Round-Up, but that works out fine because he had no appearances in April ‘94. This is part of a storyline in which Hawkman’s brain is hijacked by a guy called Count Viper, leaving Hawkman’s mind trapped in Hawkwoman’s body. Using Hawkman’s face, Viper infiltrates the Justice League of America’s HQ and hypnotizes Wonder Woman, Bloodwyn, and the Eradicator, who happened to be in the general area. Apparently, the Eradicator was extra-easy to hypnotize because Viper and him share the same patriotic ideals (they’re fascists).

Of course, the heroes (and anti-hero) eventually snap out of it and help Hawkman and Hawkwoman defeat Viper and return to their proper bodies. The Eradicator was actually used as a big cliffhanger in the previous issue when he appears as a shadowy figure and Hawkman yells “SEVEN HELLS!” (that’s “OH SHIT!” in Thanagarian). My theory is that Hawkman writer John Ostrander asked to use Superman as the third hypnotized hero and the Superman office was like “Nah, but you can have his fashy knockoff if you want.”

[gotham-at-nightfall]

Superman finds himself subjugated by the Lex Luthor Revenge Squad!

Superman #10

[thedcdunce]

Lex Luthor

“Metropolis and her people are mine -- and they'll live or die as I see fit!” - Lex Luthor

Real Name: Alexander Joseph Luthor

Aliases:

Mockingbird

Gender: Male

Height: 6′ 2″

Weight: 210 lbs (95 kg)

Eyes: Green

Hair: Bald

Abilities:

Genius Level Intellect

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)

Weaknesses:

Arrogance

Equipment:

Kryptonite

Sunstone

Lex Luthor's Warsuit

Universe: New Earth

Base of Operations: Metropolis

Citizenship: American

Parents: 

Lionel Luthor; father

Letitia Luthor; mother

Marital Status: 

Divorced (Elizabeth Perske; wife)

Widowed (Contessa Erica Alexandra del Portenza; wife)

Occupation:

Businessman

Scientist

President of the United States

First Appearance: Swamp Thing Vol 2 #52 (September, 1986)

Last Appearance: Convergence #6 (July, 2015)

Abilities

Genius Level Intellect: Luthor's intelligence is nearly unrivaled, making one of the smartest minds on Earth. Luthor has solved complicated equations in a few minutes and holds a myriad of masters and degrees. He's found cures for diseases in deep thought and found ways to better mankind while still profiting from its destruction.

Business Management: Lex Luthor is one of the most shrewd businessmen in the world, a trait that has earned him an immense fortune. Luthor is not above using cutthroat tactics, unethical practices and illegal operations to maintain the success of his business empire. Lex Luthor virtually owned every business enterprise in the city of Metropolis.

Political Science: Lex Luthor's corporate skills applied just as sharply in the political arena as they did in the boardroom. As President of the United States, he groomed the best candidates to serve as his cabinet members and knew the intricacies of bureaucratic politicking as well as any other former Chief Executive.

Leadership: Although Luthor's tenure as president ended in scandal, he successfully guided the nation during the massive alien invasion. He's led a large amount of supervillain teams and done so quite effectively.

Science: Lex has solved complicated chemical equations in seconds. He understands the variety of powers associated with the human metagene and manipulated it for his own purposes. He claims he found a cure for cancer as well as AIDS but holds them in his personal notes to better bank on it's research.

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): Lex Luthor is also trained in hand-to-hand combat, though his personal Amazon fighting instructors consider him a sub-par combatant with poor form.

Weaknesses

Arrogance

Equipment

Kryptonite

Sunstone

Lex Luthor's Warsuit

Personality

Luthor is commonly seen as a power-hungry and sadistic villain of pure evil. His sole ambition in life is to destroy Superman so that he can become humanity's rightful champion.

Luthor was already antisocial and bitter during his childhood. Having endured continuous abuse from his father and mother, Luthor murdered them and made their deaths look like an accident. Since then, Luthor has become more and more ruthless, seeing people as tools to be manipulated or as enemies to be destroyed. His hatred grew even more when Superman first appeared, as Luthor believed the people of Metropolis had replaced him for Superman as the city's savior. Swearing vengeance on Superman, Luthor has tried to destroy the Man of Steel for an eternity.

For all his attempts to destroy Superman, Luthor sees himself as a hero and Superman as a villain. He believes Superman's heroic acts are an obstacle for human progress. Luthor has stated on many occasions that after he destroys Superman, he will work towards the betterment of mankind. However, Superman has proven that Luthor will not keep this supposed promise, noting that Luthor did nothing during Superman's year-long absence after his fight with Superboy-Prime but find an old Kryptonian warship to break things.

Luthor's primary handicap in facing Superman and other heroes has always been his arrogance. As he fundamentally defines himself by his opposition to Superman, he believes that the reverse is also true, convinced that most of Superman's actions are simply to prove that he is 'better' than Luthor, incapable of recognizing how Superman and other heroes would do good for the sake of it.

Despite his crimes, Luthor has established an image as a wealthy philanthropist and manages to maintain a notable political popularity.

Early Life

Lex Luthor was born and raised in the poverty stricken area of Metropolis known as Suicide Slum, the child of abusive parents, with a fierce desire to better himself. Cunning, vengeful and ambitious even at a young age, Lex was every bit the charismatic and malicious manipulator he is in his adulthood. Such that he could enlist the ne'er-do-well's of the ghetto to dispatch bullies for him, was a habitual misogynist who was cruel to the girls of his classroom, his own teachers were even frightened by him. And as a teenager, young Lex engineered the deaths of his parents by paying off or threatening their auto-mechanic to sabotage their automobile in order to profit from a large life insurance policy he had taken out in their names, and went on to found his own company LexCorp.

Luthor the Businessman

Lex turned the company into a multi-national corporation that would ultimately come to dominate the city of Metropolis. With it he owns every media corporation in the city and uses them to reinforce his public image as a wealthy benefactor. The one paper outlet that had always stood free was the Daily Planet. One such critic was the young reporter, and Editor In Chief, Perry White. Luthor detested White, due to his outspoken attitudes and a release by the Planet condemning his actions with an outrageous editorial signed by White himself. As a result, when Clark Kent is first inducted into the Planet, the newspaper is almost bankrupt, dilapidated, and unable to afford new reporters. Luthor made many criminal connections and industries, anything to help him rise to be the unchallenged master of Metropolis. His legitimate businesses attached to LexCorp cover a variety of enterprises ranging from telephone companies to personal gaming devices. As part of his image, Lex created the illusion of being a caring philanthropist. He became the most powerful man in Metropolis, both financially and in the world of organized crime. Lex would create havoc on the streets by selling weapons to the gangs of Metropolis and using his primarily female staff of underlings to keep blackmail files on all of the major organized crime groups in the city. Lex could use them to further any schemes he had planned. However, this all ended with the arrival of Superman.

Superman Arrives

Several months after Superman first arrived in Metropolis, terrorists attacked a society gala aboard Luthor's yacht. Lois Lane, whom Luthor had tried to romance as a ninth trophy wife some time before, was present during the attack which was stopped by Superman. Luthor tried unsuccessfully to hire Superman as a bodyguard. But when he admitted that he had known the attack was to occur and had allowed it to proceed in order to see Superman in action first hand, Mayor Berkowitz deputized Superman on the spot to arrest Luthor for reckless endangerment. He avoided prison thanks to a legal technicality, but still had to endure the humiliation of being publicly led away under arrest.

Luthor vowed to destroy Superman for this humiliation, and he has since devoted much time and energy to that goal. An early attempt led to the creation of an imperfect clone of Superman meant to destroy him, but was unsuccessful because Superman's alien DNA made the clone unstable. Luthor continued his vendetta. He was a man driven to be the best, having fought his way up from lowly beginnings by his own efforts, and was resentful of how Superman was given his powers by random fate of birth. Superman survived subsequent attempts Luthor made on his life, but he had never been able to prove Luthor's role in the attacks. Aside from Lex's immense wealth and connections, he was able to weasel his way out of trouble due to the fact that Superman, being liable as a witness, would have to reveal his true identity in court to testify against him.

Kryptonite Power

Luthor soon acquired the only known sample of Kryptonite on Earth from the kryptonite-powered cyborg Metallo, whom LexCorp abducted just before Metallo succeeded in killing Superman. Fashioning a signet ring from the alien ore deadly to Superman, Luthor began wearing it constantly to ward off his enemy. Unfortunately, Luthor suffered from severe cancer in the 1990s, caused by long-term radiation exposure to his Kryptonite ring. Later, he would find a way to protect himself from its side effects. He also discovered more than one kind of Kryptonite, which he would later use in his battles against Superman.

Faking his Own Death

Luthor's hand soon had to be amputated and replaced by a prosthetic version to prevent the cancer's spread, but unfortunately by then it had already metastasized. It was eventually determined that the disease was terminal. Luthor faked his own death shortly afterward by taking his personally designed jet, the Lexwing, on a proposed trip around the world. He crashed it in the Andes of Peru as a cover for the transplant of his brain into a healthy clone of himself which he passed off as his hitherto unknown son and heir by Dr. Gretchen Kelley, Lex Luthor II. The young Luthor had apparently been secretly raised by foster parents in Australia to protect him from his father's enemies. This deception was bolstered by his new body having a full head of red hair and a beard, as well as the appropriate Australian accent created through use of audio teaching tapes.

Send in the Clone

Luthor used his new identity as his own son to seduce Supergirl and continue to torment Superman from the shadows. However, everything quickly fell apart when Luthor's new clone body began to deteriorate and age at a rapid rate. This caused Luthor to begin to slip. Lois Lane discovered proof that Lex Luthor had murdered a female LexCorp employee and framed an innocent man for the murder years earlier. This led to Lois finding the truth about Lex faking his death and being his own son. This caused Luthor to systematically destroy Lois's life and have her fired from the Daily Planet. Lois fought back, and with help from Superman, exposed the truth about Lex Luthor, his faked death, and his evil criminal activities to the public. Luthor, right before his body became so old that he couldn't move or communicate, activated a "Doomsday Plan" to destroy Metropolis. The city was burned to the ground and thousands killed as Luthor became a permanent prisoner in his cloned body. However, aid would come in the form of the demon Neron. Luthor sold his soul in exchange for Neron restoring his body to perfect health. Returning to a rebuilt Metropolis, Luthor turned himself over to the police and was put on trial. He was acquitted of all crimes when Luthor claimed to have been kidnapped by renegade scientists who replaced him with a clone responsible for all the crimes he was charged with.

Luthor the Philanthropist

Lex Luthor had cultivated a popular image as a great philanthropist. He had been instrumental in reverse-engineering alien technology for use in general consumer goods, upgrading Metropolis into a true "City of Tomorrow." When Gotham City was destroyed by an earthquake and abandoned by the American government, it was LexCorp that took up the massive task of rebuilding the city. Later, Luthor also played an instrumental role in assisting the Justice League in recharging the sun during the Final Night storyline.

Despite his hatred for Lois Lane for temporarily bringing down his evil criminal empire, Lex Luthor has an unspoken love for her. On several occasions Luthor has commented that had Superman not arrived in Metropolis, Lex would have used his time and energy to romantically pursue Lois and marry her. He has been married eight times in his life, though the first seven marriages occurred off-panel in Luthor's past sometime before Superman showed up in Metropolis. While his previous seven marriages were hinted to have been based on love, Luthor's eighth marriage to Contessa Erica Alexandra del Portenza was a marriage that was based on mutual manipulation and greed. The Contessa had bought controlling interest in LexCorp after Luthor was exposed as evil, forcing Lex into a marriage with her in order to regain control over the company. The marriage was doomed from the beginning as the two fought constantly and never loved each other. The Contessa became pregnant with Lex's child and began using the unborn child to dominate Lex into doing her bidding. Luthor's response to the Contessa's actions was to use her desire to be unconscious during childbirth to lock her in the basement of his corporate headquarters in a permanently-drugged unconscious state. Luthor took over as a single father to his daughter and vowed never to marry again, stating that he wanted to never have to share his daughter's love with anyone else. It was later implied that Lex killed the Contessa months afterward, although no body was ever found.

President of the United States

Lex became the President of the United States, winning the election on a platform of promoting technological progresses for the common people. His first action as President was to take a proposed moratorium on fossil-based fuels to U.S. Congress in hopes of putting "a flying car in every garage". Despite Luthor's more villainous traits, he was assisted by the extreme unpopularity of the previous administration due to its mishandling of the No Man's Land crisis. Ironically, Batman would ultimately learn that Luthor was involved in the mishandling of the Gotham City rebuilding process, provoking Bruce Wayne to sever all military contract ties between the U.S. government and Wayne Enterprises. Luthor responded by ordering the murder of Batman's lover Vesper Fairchild and framing Bruce Wayne for the murder.

One of the greater successes that came with his emancipation presented itself in the form of the ultimate revelation. A CIA informant presented him with the surveillance footage of an extraterrestrial object landing near Smallville, Kansas. Wishing to keep this information personal, Lex disintegrated his lowly whitsleblower while pretending it was a mess to be cleaned up as he ruminated over the epiphany of "Clark Kent is Superman". He would soon lose this information along with any memory of extra backups of it when Manchester Black, former head of his presidential sanctioned Suicide Squad, erased it from his mind moments before committing suicide.

An early triumph of his political career was his handling of the Imperiex War, in which he coordinated the U.S. Army, Earth's superheroes and a number of untrustworthy alien forces to battle the story's villain, Imperiex. However, as it would later be revealed, Lex knew about the alien invasion in advance and did nothing to alert Earth's heroes to it.

Impeachment

Lex Luthor finally accepted Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent. He had been aware of this from their earliest meetings but refused to accept it for his own personal belief that people of power always crave and reflect themselves as people of power, never as one of the masses. Thus, to Luthor, a being like Superman would never try and pass himself off as Clark Kent who was less than extraordinary. In a story published in 2002, a lowly scientist was able to get a meeting with Lex and reveal top secret government documents showing the rocket containing baby Superman crashing near the farm of Martha and Jonathan Kent. Killing the scientist, Lex surprisingly decided to keep the knowledge a secret. He did so regardless that Clark Kent took the fall for Lois publishing proof that Lex Luthor knew of the alien invasion of "Our Worlds At War," but had opted not to make any defensive plans to save the people of Kansas from attack. Clark was fired from the Daily Planet as a result of Manchester Black using his telepathic powers on an unknowing Lex to allow him to pass an assortment of lie detector tests to prove that Lois and Clark's story was a lie. When Manchester Black tried to kill Superman and his friends and family, Luthor came to Superman's aid. He admitted that he had kept Superman's identity as Clark Kent secret both out of a sense of nostalgia for their past confrontations and the knowledge that revealing the truth about Superman would endanger Lois, nearly the only woman he cared for. In the end, Manchester Black was defeated and as revenge for Lex helping Superman defeat him, Black erased all knowledge that Clark Kent was Superman from Lex's mind before taking his own life.

Later, as his success at framing Bruce Wayne for the murder of Vesper Fairchild caused him to get arrogant, Luthor once again overplayed his hand in an attempt to blame Superman for a kryptonite meteor approaching the Earth. Initially convinced that everyone would listen to his claims against Superman simply because he was President despite his failure to produce any evidence of Superman's 'guilt', he instead raised questions about himself as Superman and Batman uncovered a plot of Luthor's to further torment Batman that involved tricking Batman into thinking that Metallo was the man who killed Batman's parents. In desperation, he used a variant combination of the "super-steroid" Venom, liquid synthetic green kryptonite, and an Apokaliptian battlesuit to battle Superman directly. Unfortunately, the madness that is a side effect of Venom took hold, and he revealed his true colors during the battle. The final straw was the revelation that Talia Head, the acting CEO of LexCorp, had sold all the company assets to the Wayne Foundation. He has since gone underground, leaving the Presidency to his Vice President, Pete Ross.

Infinite Crisis

Lex Luthor had retreated into obscurity before the events of Infinite Crisis, as he prepared to try and activate the mind control programming inside the brain of then current Superboy to help him gain revenge against Earth's mightiest heroes. He was also revealed to have orchestrated, with help from the newly created robotic Brainiac, the murder of Teen Titan member Donna Troy, who is destined to play a critical role in "Infinite Crisis". He's also been carefully surveying the new Supergirl, and has plans for her involving his newly-acquired Black Kryptonite.

With Lex Luthor acting in secret, Alexander Luthor, Jr. returned to New Earth and began his own plot that was interfering with Lex's own plans. Assuming the Post-Crisis Lex Luthor's identity, Alexander began an elaborate scheme, with help from Superboy-Prime and Kal-L, to restore the original Multiverse. His intentions were not just to recreate them as they once were, but as the basis of his ultimate goal, as he told Superboy-Prime that he would help them "whether [he] likes it or not".

As one of the premier reformers of the "Secret Society of Super-Villains", Alexander Luthor, Jr. recruited Black Adam, Doctor Psycho, Calculator, Talia Head, and Deathstroke as his inner circle. The new Society exploited the villain community's fear of mind-wipes at the hands of the Justice League as a means to recruit an army of villains under the premise of creating their own "mind-wipe" device to erase the memories of Earth's heroes as payback. However, this was just another cover for his even darker scheme involving the kidnapping of heroes, each representing alternate Earths, to power the giant tower being used to alter reality. Alexander Luthor, Jr., formerly of Earth-Three, had decided to restore the previously existing multiverse as a base selection to create a so-called "perfect" universe, as the current reality seemed to be failing. It was, in Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s own words, " a world of villains". Abandoned by his allies, Alex Jr. was depowered, due to the villains that Lex assembled under his alias of Mockingbird. Lex tracked down the supposedly depowered Alex Jr. and allowed the Joker to kill him in a fit of revenge.

Lex used Alex's corpse as evidence that he had an impostor who was responsible for all his recent illegal activities. He was cleared of many of the criminal actions he was accused of.

Post Infinite Crisis Origin

The events of Infinite Crisis and Alex Luthor's attempts to rewrite history actually led to alterations in Lex Luthor's personal history. In the newly created time line, the current Luthor family has a long history with the city of Metropolis. Some of Lex's ancestors were among the pilgrims who founded the city, others were amongst the Native Americans who were there to meet them. Over the centuries, the Luthor family became wealthy and influential. Lex's great-grandfather Wallace Luthor being a millionaire industrialist at the beginning of the 20th Century. He lost his fortune though, in the stock market crash of 1929, and went to his grave a pauper after having to declare bankruptcy. The family fortune would not be rebuilt until the arrival of Lex Luthor, the son of abusive alcoholic Lionel Luthor and his wife Letitia. Lex cared little for his parents, though he did love his sister Lena. In his teens, he lived for a time in Smallville with his aunt, also called Lena, and there met the young Clark Kent and his friends Lana Lang and Pete Ross. The stand-offish and superior Lex was friendly with Clark for a time, but eventually left Smallville under a cloud of suspicion after his father died in mysterious circumstances. Leaving his sister in Smallville, Lex went to Metropolis and, as before, founded LexCorp.

Superman Arrives (Again)

In this new timeline, Luthor's first meeting with Superman was also somewhat different. As part of his philanthropic image, Luthor had taken to picking a random person from the supplicants who gathered at LexCorp's gates every morning to bestow the chance of a new life upon them. His choice on this occasion, though, was Rudy Jones who, after eating a doughnut contaminated by an unknown radioactive chemical compound, was transformed into the Parasite. Superman stopped the Parasite's rampage, overshadowing Luthor and infuriating him. Lex contacted General Sam Lane, who was convinced Superman was a threat, and informed him that Superman was an alien. He transformed one of Lane's men, Sgt John Corben, into Metallo and sent him out after Superman. However, Metallo was defeated and Superman, previously an object of suspicion in the city, feted as a hero. When Luthor came to bestow his gifts on a grateful populace the next day, no-one was there. Lex was no longer the most powerful man in Metropolis. This cemented Lex's lifelong hatred of the Man of Steel. Eventually, as before, Luthor went from hero of the people to public enemy number one.

52

Through his still impressive financial resources, Lex has engaged in a public promotion campaign to regain his popularity through the Everyman Project, a scientific process that could grant superhuman powers to non-metahumans. The first several subjects of his process became the latest incarnation of Infinity, Inc. Luthor's own body, however, was not compatible with the process, a fact which pained him greatly.

When newly minted meta-humans began falling out of the sky, the media-dubbed Fall Of The Supermen, Luthor's building was attacked by John Henry Irons and his niece. Steel confronted Luthor and was beaten, Lex having discovered a way to gain meta-powers of his own. Lex was still defeated, however, and arrested. It was later found that the Lex that was imprisoned was, in fact, Everyman. Lex was found in a hidden room still inside the Lexcorp building.

One Year Later and Countdown

One year after the events of Infinite Crisis, Luthor had been cleared of over 120 criminal counts ranging from malfeasance to first-degree murder relating to the New Year's Eve massacre from 52. However, his role in the massacre has permanently ruined his public image and, thanks to the machinations of Doctor Sivana, has lost most of his wealth and all of his control over his newly reformed LexCorp, run by Lana Lang. He blames Clark Kent for writing several articles unraveling his schemes and pledges vengeance on Metropolis after an angry mob jeers him on the courthouse steps. After amassing large quantities of Kryptonite, and kidnapping the supervillains Metallo and Kryptonite Man, Lex uses it to power a Kryptonian battleship controlled through a "sunstone" crystal, using it to lash out at Metropolis for 'forgetting' him. While giant crystal formations began to appear throughout the ground, Superman tried to save as many people as he could and find the source of the attack. He found Lex high above the city in a ship made of the crystal where he was controlling it all from. Lex turned all of the crystal into kryptonite, forcing Superman to stay away from Metropolis and the ship, but he didn't count on Superman charging him. Superman knew Luthor would have some form of personal shielding and was right as they both fell down towards the ground. Luthor had time to say one thing: “I hate you. So much.” Superman was again powerless and Luthor's shield was weak when they struck the ground. They both arose weak and injured, and Lex began to fist-fight with Superman. With each traded punch, Lex spoke of how if Superman hadn't arrived on Earth and came to Metropolis, he would have made so many scientific breakthroughs instead of trying to come up with ways to destroy him, claiming that it was all Superman's fault that Lex wasn't the top of the food chain anymore. Superman countered with the fact that he had been away for an entire year, yet Luthor had accomplished none of these things he claimed he could have done, simply finding a big machine so that he could break things. The fight ended with Superman victorious.

Luthor was subsequently abducted from prison and drafted in Project 7734 under General Lane. He had hopes of using the project to fulfill his goals against Superman, but Lane had been keeping him on topic.

Lex later sends Bizarro after the newly arrived "Superboy" only for the creature to be defeated by Superman. Undaunted, Luthor gathers together a new Revenge Squad to fight against invading Kryptonians led by General Zod, working alongside Superman only so that Superman can see that Luthor was right about the threat he poses to Earth.

In JLA, Luthor gathers together a new "Injustice League" and, outfitted in a new version of his warsuit, sets out to destroy the Justice League with them. On a related note during this section, he was responsible for creating the third Shaggy Man and the third Blockbuster.

Luthor plays a large role in the Countdown to Final Crisis tie-in event, Salvation Run. Having been sent to the prison planet after his Injustice League was defeated, Lex quickly assumes control of the amassed villains. He received competition only from Joker and Gorilla Grodd, who convince half of the villains to join them. He does fight the Joker until the battle was interrupted by an attack by Desaad's Parademons. After the attack, Luthor manages to get the villains off the planet with a makeshift teleporter, secretly powered by Neutron, Heatmonger, Plasmus, Warp, Thunder and Lightning. When called a "monster" by Thunder, Luthor claims it is the ones who sent them there who are the real monsters, and that he is the hero. He later sets the teleporter to self-destruct after he uses it, killing the attacking Parademons, and his living batteries.

Final Crisis

Luthor associated with Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains and placed in its Inner Circle. Lex Luthor wanted Libra to prove himself, so Libra sends Clayface to blow up the Daily Planet building. As Lex Luthor attempts to ambush Libra after learning that he is a prophet of Darkseid, Luthor soon ends up surrounded by Justifiers. Libra tells Lex Luthor to make a final choice... swear an oath to Darkseid or become a mindless slave. Later, Lex Luthor witnessed Libra blaming Calculator for cracking the computer codes that will help the resistance. Luthor was silent on the matter and was picked to lead the rearguard action against the heroes at Blüdhaven. He assumed it as an honor, but he didn't look very pleased. A short time later, Libra figured out that Luthor had been the mole in the Society of Supervillains. Luthor, in league with Doctor Sivana, seemingly destroyed Libra and overturned the Anti-Life Equation being broadcast into the Justifiers' helmets.

New Krypton

Luthor ended up imprisoned for his crimes, but rather than going to jail, General Sam Lane had him serve out his sentence working for the secretive Project 7734. While still forced to wear chains, Luthor was assigned the job of accessing the knowledge stored within the captured Brainiac who had recently been defeated by Superman. Luthor successfully accessed Brainiac's brain and after Metallo and Reactron were taken to Kandor as prisoners of the Kryptonians who had now settled on Earth, he used Brainiac to reactivate the Coluans ship that was also being held in Kandor. Brainiac's robots attacked the Kryptonians, providing a distraction as Metallo and Reactron used their Kryptonite hearts to kill their captors and murder Zor-El.

After his success with Brainiac, Luthor was given the seemingly dead body of Doomsday, who had been defeated by the Kryptonians, to study as it had “potential.”

Luthor later manages to use Brainiac's connection to his ship to kill the soldiers assigned to watch him. Brainiac manages to free himself from Luthor's control, forcing him onboard the ship, and the two make their escape. The two are later shown to have entered into an alliance, with Brainiac promising Luthor the Earth when he is done with it. While reading newspapers to catch up on what happened during his imprisonment, Luthor learns of the resurrection of Superboy.

Blackest Night

During the Blackest Night event, when word gets out that apparently everyone around the world are rising as undead Black Lanterns, Luthor isolates himself in his safehouse in fear of all the people he had murdered over the years seeking revenge on him. In Blackest Night Vol 1 6, it is seen that Luthor is being attacked in his safehouse by Black Lanterns, including his father. An Orange Lantern Ring arrives and attaches itself to Luthor, inducting him into the Orange Lantern Corps as a deputy member, only for him to attack Scarecrow and Mera to claim their Yellow Lantern Corps ring and Red Lantern Ring before his own was taken from him by Larfleeze, the only true member of the Orange Lantern Corps, who subsequently dismissively dropped Luthor in front of the other Lanterns.

Brightest Day

After the conclusion of the New Krypton event, Luthor grew more aggressive for the lust for power after his exposure to a power ring during the Blackest Night. After being infused with the Orange Light of Avarice, Luthor begins a universal quest to locate the energy of the Black Lantern Corps.

During the midst of the Brightest Day, Deathstroke and his new team of Titans are hired to assassinate Luthor while he is visiting Midway City with Nava Mendelssohn, his new personal assistant and bodyguard. When the Titans ambush Lex's convoy and begin killing his hired mercenaries, Nava takes him into the sewers, where she is shot and apparently killed by Deathstroke. It is then revealed that Luthor himself had paid the Titans to fake an attempt on his life, in hopes that it would draw out conspirators within LexCorp. Nava's injuries soon heal, and she reveals herself to be a shapeshifter named Facade, who had murdered and impersonated the real Nava in order to get close enough to Lex to kill him. After a massive battle, Deathstroke and Osiris are able to defeat Facade and turn him over to Lex. In the end, LexCorp scientists are shown performing experiments on the captured Facade. Luthor assembles his staff and reveals that he knows that it was one of his employees who had hired the creature in the first place. Luthor warns them not to try such a tactic again, as he will turn them into his next morbid experiment if they do.

With the aid of a robotic duplicate of Lois Lane created to give him an honest opinion on his actions, Luthor searched for the energy of the Black Lantern in space. In doing so he sent Doomsday 'clones' created from the original to distract Earth's heroes. There Luthor encountered Brainiac in while attempting to alter the last of the Black Lantern energy, acting upon an unspoken theory of his. Brainiac revealed that Loisbot was an unwilling pawn in his bid to hijack Luthor's quest. Luthor then replied that he had anticipated this for some time, he then attacked Brainiac and snapped his neck, temporarily incapacitating him. Loisbot pleaded for Lex's forgivness, and he accepted her apology. After he altered the four remaining black spheres, he opened a Phantom Zone portal which unleashed an extremely powerful, monstrously large being which intended to kill all life in the universe because the negative emotions of sentient creatures hurt it. Luthor promptly impaled Loisbot's head, allowing himself to be infected with Kryptonian technology. He used it to engage the monster on a mental plane of existence. Grappling with the creature, Luthor's body and mental essence suddenly fused with it. Luthor learned that it evolved in the Phantom Zone and now seeks to escape from the grief and anger of the Zone prisoners. Using this new power, Luthor draws Superman to him, attempting to drive Superman mad by forcing him to experience the human emotions that he believes the alien merely fakes to blend in. However, Luthor is outraged when he learns that Superman's defining moment of tragedy is the loss of his father, confirming his true identity as Clark Kent. Being unable to cope with the fact that not only was his greatest enemy an old associate who was raised by humans, but he also had a father he would actually mourn rather than the anguish Luthor endured in his own relationship with his father. As Luthor becomes one with the creature, Superman and Mr. Mind, who had been aiding Luthor's search, realize that the creature allows Luthor to create a feeling of peace and bliss throughout the entire universe at the cost of never allowing him to cause any harm to another being at the same time. Superman attempts to appeal to Luthor about the potential of doing something even he never accomplished, but Luthor is unable to let go of his hate for Superman, his subsequent attack costing him control of the entity, as well as his memory of everything he learned or did while he was merged with it. It departs for another part of the universe. Luthor is ultimately defeated when he falls into one of the Phantom Zone holes created by the creature, seemingly forever.

Fun Facts

In addition to the details of Luthor's early life and upbringing having been changed somewhat by the events of Infinite Crisis, his hair color has also changed. In the former timeline, he had red hair, but the current Luthor's hair was brown. Since his hair eventually receded leaving him bald in both versions of his history, this is largely unimportant.

Lex's birthday is often given as September 28th.

Lex Luthor self-identifies as an atheist.

Luthor wears reading glasses, as shown in "Metropolis - 900 Mi."

[lex-munro]

[Suicide Squad Scrap] Princess pt. 13

self-indulgent batjokes-flavored SS/BvS/JL, snippet #13.

the piece as a whole is rated Mature for pervasive language, varying degrees of violence, use of controlled substances, sexual references, questionable ethics, and themes of mental illness.  set from Flag’s POV, with references to Birds of Prey, but not compliant with The Suicide Squad.

***

Flag isn’t entirely sure what he’s looking at.  It seems like a mission brief, but all it’s got in it is a dossier largely composed of black ink and blank space and a blurry photograph of two men standing together.

Kane, David.  Alias “Black Manta.”  Thirty-six.  African-American, species Homo [Sapiens] Sapiens, no known metahuman traits.

“An…old acquaintance has reached out with some information,” Waller tells him.  “David Kane, last seen swearing bloody vengeance against the heir of Atlantis, is currently being rehabilitated in a not-quite-secret lab in the south Pacific.  Paramilitary, highly trained and of negotiable loyalty, just like we like ‘em.”

“Revenge is bad for business.”

She gives him a dry look.  “You think we’ll actually have to worry about him ending up face-to-face with that vapid surfer-boy?  If they happen to find themselves within arms’ reach of each other, I say let ‘em duke it out.  Curry’s a loose cannon, anyway.  The only promise better than one that costs nothing to keep is one you never have to keep.  Our public image can easily survive the death of some overblown Greenpeace cover model.  Meanwhile, Kane has access to useful intelligence and some very special technology, and ARGUS will take anything we can use to further secure the country, especially against a threat that can bring catastrophic force to bear on any coastline.”

Flag fidgets with the file.  “Rehabilitated.”

“Getting in the way of someone else’s war can be dangerous; his last encounter with Curry left him badly injured.  Normally, finding Dr. Shin’s lab would be quite hard, but a little magic can go a long way, as you well know.”

Flag feels a chill, but holds perfectly still.  “Really.”

Waller hands him another page.

Zatara, Zatanna.  Thirty-three.  Italian-American, species Homo [Sapiens] Magi.  Known associates:  Giovanni Zatara (d. father); John Constantine (ex-husband); Bruce Wayne (ex-boyfriend); Hawkgirl (alias “Shayera Hol”? unconfirmed).

The rest of the page is as unhelpful as Kane’s profile.

“A magic user, ugh.”  He makes a face.  “I fuckin’ hate magic.”

“She presented me with the location of the lab, unprompted.  No idea what she hopes to get out of it.”

Flag sighs.  “Don’t suppose you got a dossier on this Dr. Shin?”

“No need.  Garden variety obsessive crackpot scientist.  Been telling the government about Atlantis and their little undersea wars for years, but nobody wanted to hear it.”

“How’s a guy like that get a ‘secret lab’?”

Waller smiles.  “There’s the rub.  But there exist in this world a lot of people with more money than sense, and a lot of those people pick strange hobbies.  Lex Luthor is a shining example of the breed.  In any case, I’m not picky about whether we hire Kane or coerce him—as I said, I do love a promise I don’t have to keep.  Make solid contact, get us a reliable line.  Don’t take him to Belle Reve, though—we still don’t understand enough about Atlantean tech.  In fact, keep him outside our operations as much as possible.  Take someone to watch your back, and someone else to gather intelligence.”

“Maybe Bloodsport or—”

“Not yet.”

After a long pause, Flag decides she’s not going to explain.  “Okay.  We’ll be in the middle of the ocean, so what about King Sh—”

“I have other things in mind for Nanaue.  I recommend the Savant.  And maybe…Daddy’s little Princess.”

“I don’t particularly trust either one of them to watch my back,” Flag points out.

“Seemed to me the clown’s getting pretty fond of you.”

“Yeah, but he still maims and betrays people he’s ‘pretty fond of.’”

“Oh, don’t be such a candy-ass.  Fine.  Take Croc and Savant.”

He turns to leave.

“But I’m telling you:  nobody gets inside a head quite like the Joker.”

It feels like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black, but he just nods.  “I’ll consider it.”

Mostly, he’s going to consider why Waller wants Joker inside that lab.  He’s a gifted chemist, by all accounts, but Manta works with tech, not chemicals.  Could it be the people?  He reads people like books published in very large fonts.  Harley used to say it was what made him such a superlative manipulator.

Or maybe…

Flag makes a brief stop with the Geeks—Waller’s classified-level logistics team—and wheedles and cajoles and pouts until they give him the Joker’s file.  Fortunately, they’re almost all susceptible to the appropriate bribery from field agents, and Economos in particular seems to be a fan of Flag’s work.

“Remember, you didn’t get it from me.”

“Just like you didn’t get that double-guac Nachorito platter from me,” Flag agrees.

It’s another file with a lot of black stretches and cutoffs marked ‘REDACTED’ in big, unfriendly letters.  There’s a page with blacked out pictures next to Arkham and Blackgate mugshots, there’s a verbal list of known tattoos including images of the ones most commonly on display.  There’s a dental x-ray.

Back on the first page, in the general info, there’s the only truly useful shit in the file.

Joker (The).  Alias “Jack White,” alias “Mister J” (alias “Jack Napier”? unconfirmed).  Late forties (unconfirmed; active for twenty years).  Mixed-European-American, species Homo [Sapiens] Sapiens, resistant to all known poisons, resistant to all known viral weapons, enhanced healing.  Known associates:  Harleen Quinzel (alias “Harley Quinn”, ex-girlfriend), John Consantine (ex-boyfriend? unconfirmed), Tino Maroni (Maroni crime family), Angelo Falcone (Falcone crime family), Harvey Dent (alias “Two-Face”), Arnold Wesker (alias “Scarface”), Edward Nygma (alias “The Riddler”), Jervis Tetch (alias “The Mad Hatter”), Waylon Jones (alias “Killer Croc”).

John goddamn Constantine.

Does that mean Joker knows Zatanna?

“I fuckin’ hate magic,” Flag says again, emphatically.

.End.