Lex Luthor (Justice Lords)

“	You could've crushed me any time you wanted and it wasn't the law or the will of the people that stopped you. It was your ego. Being a hero was too important to you. You're as much responsible as I am. So go ahead, fix it somehow, put me on trial, lock me up, but I'll beat it and then we'll start the whole thing all over again.	„
	~ President Lex Luthor's final confrontation wit Superman and last words.

President Lex Luthor is the overarching antagonist of the Justice League Season 2 episode ”A Better World”.

He is an alternate counterpart of Lex Luthor who became President of the United States in his universe despite being Superman's archenemy. However, Luthor abused his powers to have the Flash captured and executed, leading the Justice League to overthrow him and become the Justice Lords, who proceeded to take over the world under a totalitarian regime.

Like his main counterpart, he was voiced by Clancy Brown.

History[]

Past[]

Not much is known about Lex Luthor's life, but it is presumed that most of his life was similar to that of his mainstream counterpart: rising up to power as the CEO of LexCorp, becoming Superman's archenemy and eventually a nemesis of the whole Justice League. However, unlike the main universe, Luthor eventually ran for President of the United States of America and somehow managed to win. Presumably protected by his powers, Luthor proceeded with his own plans for a "paradise", though these likely didn't involve something good.

For unknown reasons, however, Luthor decided to target the Flash, possibly because he and by extension the Justice League posed a threat to his plans. The American military did so and brought the captured and beaten-up speedster before Luthor. Recorded by cameras, Luthor took a shotgun, approached the Flash and shot him dead in front of all the people watching, killing one of the Earth's superheroes. This act horrified several, including the Justice League and for some reason, the Earth turned endangered of suffering a nuclear war, maybe World War III, thanks to his actions.

Justice League[]

In the two-parter episode "A Better World", it's shown that sometime after the Flash's execution, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman break into the White House to stop Luthor once and for all (presumably while the other Leaguers are busy outside), fighting all of his men as they seek for him. While Batman and Wonder Woman stay behind to neutralize the soldiers, ignoring the latter's suggestion to wait for them, Superman finds his way into the Oval Office, where Luthor is trying to escape with some documents, complaining to himself how the people couldn't see the "beauty" of his plans. Superman enters into the room and denounces Luthor for his actions, reminding him that he let him go too far because of the law and will of people, but they are now at the brink of a war. Having lost his sanity, Luthor instead threatens to press a button that will likely send missiles all over the Earth to make people "burn" for not appreciating his designs.

Superman points out that he can stop Luthor in six different ways, for example, but Luthor tells him that they all involve deadly force and sarcastically thanks him for being his "reliable accomplice". Incensed, Superman listens to how Luthor explains that every occasion Superman had to finish him off he instead opted to stop him and hand him over to the authorities because of his "ego" of being seen as a hero by the people. He offers Superman to keep going with their charade, but that no matter whether Superman puts him on trial or locks him up, Luthor will always escape, and their feud will restart again. Fed up, rather than stopping him non-lethally as always, Superman declares that although he likes being a hero, if everything is going to be like that, he no longer will be one, proceeding to use his heat vision on Luthor and fry him alive off-screen. His teammates find out the scene shortly afterwards, but conclude that it was necessary.

In spite of his death, President Luthor's actions had a posthumous effect on the six remaining Justice Leaguers, who became the Justice Lords and took over the Earth under a totalitarian regime to prevent another tyrant like Luthor from ever rising up, doing things like choosing when presidential elections are hold or punishing people for minor offenses. Particularly, Lord Superman would go on to use his heat vision on any supervillain to neutralize them into harmless citizens, doing that to all of Arkham Asylum's inmate population, for example. Two years after that, the Justice Lords find out about the mainstream universe, kidnap the Justice League and opt to take it over in hopes of "saving" it, but the Justice League escape from their universe and recruit their own Luthor to depower the Lords with a device of his own creation. Lord Superman warns the mainstream Superman that Luthor's a danger, but Superman says that it's a risk he must take, with Luthor actually keeping his word and not turning on him, at least for the time being.

Justice League Unlimited[]

President Luthor doesn't physically appear in the show due to already being dead, but his actions and those of the Justice Lords play a role in the formation of Project Cadmus, an American government program funded by the main Luthor, who is now running for President like his counterpart did, and led by Amanda Waller to combat the Justice League if they ever go rogue, leading them to become the Justice League's main threat during the second season.

In the episode "The Doomsday Sanction", Batman finds out from Waller that Cadmus was formed sometime after the Justice Lords visited the Earth because of Superman telling about what Lord Superman did to his Lex Luthor so the American government would pardon Luthor to help them, leading officials like Waller and her Cadmus contacts to grow concerned on what could happen if the Justice League ever decided to follow in the footsteps of the Lords.

In the episode "Question's Authority", Question research about Cadmus and finds out a recording from the Justice Lords' universe that filmed how Lord Superman executed President Luthor. Concerned that the same would happen in his universe if Luthor ever decided to kill the Flash, the Question resolved to kill Luthor himself in a way that only he would be held accountable for the murder to protect Superman's image and the Justice League's reputation. However, secretly empowered by Brainiac, Luthor overpowers Question and has him tortured by Doctor Moon, who makes him see visions of his fears becoming a reality.

In the episode "Flashpoint", Superman reprimands Question for his actions, leading him to explain his reasons and how he is sure that what President Luthor did will happen too if their Lex becomes President, given all the schemes Luthor has done to provoke Superman, though Superman insists that he can shut Cadmus down without killing Luthor.

In "Divided We Fall", Luthor/Brainiac use the Dark Heart technology to make replicas of the Justice Lords, with Lord Superman's insisting Superman to become just like him, even morphing into Luthor so he can recreate President Luthor's death, but Superman resists. Then, Luthor/Brainiac has the Dark Heart technology turn into two soldiers who grab the Flash so they can execute him with a shotgun like President Luthor did to his Flash, but the Flash instead runs away and uses the Speed Force to extract Brainiac and defeat them once and for all. Defeated and thinking that the Flash isn't coming back from the Speed Force, Luthor tries to have Superman kill him like his counterpart did, but Superman, as much as he wishes he could, refrains from doing so by remarking he isn't like Lord Superman and lets the authorities take Luthor into custody after the Flash comes back, putting an end to President Luthor's influence over the mainstream universe for good.

Trivia[]

This alternate universe version of Lex Luthor is similar to the Injustice version of the Joker, as both provoked a vers ion of Superman to kill them and posthumously caused them to impose a totalitarian regime (the Justice Lords and the One Earth Regime respectively) over the world.

External Links[]

Lex Luthor on the DC Database Wiki
Lex Luthor on the DC Animated Universe Wiki

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