| “ | I did love being a hero... but if this is where it leads, I'm done with it. | „ |
| ~ Superman before he murdered President Lex Luthor with his Heat Vision. |
| “ | I've done a lot of things I thought I'd never do these last two years... One more won't hurt. | „ |
| ~ Superman showing his true nature to the Flash. |
Superman of the Justice Lords, was one of the most frightening aspects imaginable - the unstoppable power of the Man of Steel turned mad and warped into a ruthless and magisterial dictator who gladly crushed his enemies into a pulp in order to preserve the "greater good" and who thought that what he did was gave people peace and security (the two things that people wanted to have, but not in the vision of the Justice Lords). Though that ruthless Justice Lord had taken to using his natural Kryptonian Heat Vision to perform crude, but terribly effective lobotomies on those that threatened his rule - which made them virtually mindless drones in the process. Eventfully, he also results to ouright mudering his counterpart and the main timeline Leaguers to get his way.
Biography
Superman was also the one who tried and pushed the Justice Lords to conquer other realities, despite the fact that many in his native reality had began to question him (especially Lois Lane) - yet the Justice Lords obeyed his will regardless and soon the two teams clashed as the Justice Lords Superman tried to replace the mainstream "Man of Steel" but was clearly a more ruthless anti-villain and a potential tyrant, who lacked the restraint that Clark had (which often seemed to limit him, but in reality, may have been one of his greatest strengths as a hero).
In the end, the Justice Lords version of Superman showed just how far down the path of darkness that he was willing to go when he showed a willingness to kill the mainstream Flash (whose death in his world had caused him to become the dictator that he was) - yet, in an ironic defeat, he was permanently depowered by the mainstream Lex Luthor, who formed a brief alliance with the mainstream Superman in order to bring down the would-be-conqueror. Before he leaves, he calls out the mainsream Superman, outright stating that letting Luthor live could result in him becoming President and killing Flash like his did. The good Superman, however, retorts and states he is willing to take the risk.
Throughout Justice League: Unlimited, the government and several civilians began to believe that the mainstream Justice League could have become just like the Justice Lords, after they saw that the League had a gigantic laser gun on their Watch Tower. The Question also argued with Superman that if Lex Luthor was to become President of the United States, Superman would do exactly the same thing that his evil-counter part did, but Superman denied it. During the battle with Luthor/Brainiac (the true masterminds behind all the hysteria against the Justice League), an android of Justice Lord Superman appeared to fight the original Superman. Then, when it seemed that the Flash had perished, mainstream Superman prepared to kill Luthor, but refused, and firmly stated that he was not the monster that his counterpart was. He does, however, wished that he were, but he said he isn't.
Trivia
- The concept of an evil alternate reality Superman who would conquer the world due to the death of one of his close ones would later be revisited with Superman from Injustice: Gods Among Us. Ironically, that version would also kill that universe's Lex Luthor, although for completely different reasons (the latter was because Luthor had attempted to stop Superman after he realized that the latter went too far, and unlike the mainstream Lex, was a genuinely good person). Furthermore, this version of Superman did not stoop to the levels of his Injustice counterpart.
- That was not the first Superman to be a global Dictator over the Earth. In fact, Superman's original characterization was as a villain via the character William Dunn in the comic: The Reign of the Superman.
- He told his prime counterpart that allowing his Lex Luthor to live was a big mistake. However, he was proven wrong sometime later when Lex was a key figure in saving Earth from destruction at the hands of Darkseid and his forces when he used something he retrieved from the Source Wall, the one thing Darkseid was after and would be his ultimate undoing, the Anti-Life Equation.
