Lex Luthor

Alexander Joseph "Lex" Luthor, Jr. is a megalomaniacal multi-billionaire businessman, as well as one of the smartest individuals if not the smartest in the world by far. He is the former owner and CEO of LexCorp Industries.

Lex Luthor also becomes the arch nemesis of Superman, whose potential to cause the Knightmare and more or less very existence makes Lex feel extremely threatened, which makes the relentlessly ambitious supergenius go out of his way to expose the godlike alien superhero as a fraud, and to subsequently destroy him, by first pitting Superman against Batman, and then his monstrous creation Doomsday.

Lex, however, is ultimately jailed as a supercriminal for his exposed numerous deeds of illegal natures, first in Belle Reve supermax, and then in Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane.

Following the founding of the Justice League and defeat of Steppenwolf, Lex escaped captivity, acquired a private yacht, and met up with Deathstroke to discuss their tentative, forthcoming partnership.

Early life
Alexander Joseph "Lex" Luthor, Jr. was born in 1984, in Metropolis to Alexander Luthor, Sr., an East German-born billionaire petrochemical and heavy machinery developer, and was subsequently named after his father. While the family's company, LexCorp Industries, was in fact named after Lex's father, the elder Luthor claimed at investor pitches to have named it after his son as well, while Lex himself often mused at how wealthy old women found his father "[writing] checks for Lex" adorable.

While publicly popular and affable, Luthor Sr. was a very cruel and despicable man behind closed doors, with Lex later remarking in outrage that no "man in the sky" would ever come to save him from "[his father's] fists and abominations." This induced a traumatized Lex to gain a militantly misotheistic view of God, believing that if He were omnipotent, then it would be logically impossible for Him to be omnibenevolent and vice versa, thereby solidifying his belief that power cannot be innocent (referring to the antithesis of that as the "oldest lie in America"), and that all individuals with great power and popularity must be evil by definition.

CEO of LexCorp Industries
By age 16, the wunderkind Lex was left with the legacy of LexCorp as its only heir shortly after his father passed away unexpectedly, taking control of the business and successfully transformed it from a petrochemical and heavy machinery dinosaur into a cutting-edge Fortune 500 technology giant. In fact, the very considerable business achievements of his father pale in comparison to the astonishingly prolific accomplishments of the younger Luthor, who thus became the youngest person ever to be named Fortune's Businessperson of the Year and included in Fortune's list of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders. Among other things, Lex also inherited his father's world-famous collection of meteorite crystals, which, as he would later learn, included kryptonite minerals.

Lex is known to have at one point encountered Amanda Waller and familiarized himself with her organization, ARGUS, and also learned of her Task Force X idea, as he subtly refers to all three while conversing with Ron Troupe.

Auction at the Hotel Grand Lux
Approximately two weeks after the Black Zero Event, Lex was part of a charity auction at the Hotel Grand Lux made to benefit the victims of the disaster. Lex and Mercy Graves surprised Bruce Wayne who, like Lex, would be auctioning off a bit of their time for the winning bidder. Bruce was immediately turned off by Lex's appearance. The situation only got worse when Lex's insincere condolence for the destruction of Wayne Tower focused upon the technologies that were lost in the attack, rather than the actual victims. After Bruce was promptly called off due to a developing situation, he made sure to emphasize that the winning bid for his time would garner double whatever Lex would offer.

Interview with Ron Troupe
Shortly before the release of his company's revolutionary new operating system Lex/OS, Lex Luthor was approached by reporter Ron Troupe, and agreed to meet him for 15 minutes at the opulent Royal Penthouse Suite at the Park Metropolis Downtown. Lex was then promptly interviewed on a number of subjects, including the alien hero Superman and the Gotham City vigilante Batman. Right afterwards, Lex offers to play bowling with Troupe, confident in his ability to "destroy" the latter.

Purchasing Handord’s Holdings
After Hanford Technologies was successfully exposed by Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane, Lex arrived at a construction site of the company, and announced that LexCorp Industries was purchasing all of Hanford's holdings (including the site), as well as retaining all of Hanford's employees, as he claimed that the employees should not suffer from the immoral actions of their former CEO. Lex proceeded to admit that despite his failings, Mark Hanford had been a good CEO, whose big mistake was selling illegal Kryptonian technology. Later, in the privacy of his car, with only his personal assistant Mercy Graves there to hear him, Lex finished - because there were so many more interesting things that could potentially be done with it.

Rebuilding of Metropolis
Due to Lex Luthor's prolific philanthropic efforts to help financially support the rebuilding of Metropolis (as well as his company, LexCorp Industries), local politicians and media personalities called the companies that left Metropolis traitors, while a growing number of corporations (including Kord Industries), inspired by Lex Luthor, decided to follow his example, with some of them who had previously planned to pull out of Metropolis reversing course, and others, that had never been in Metropolis at all, choosing to expand there. In addition, while funding the rebuilding of Metropolis, Lex also had the Lexor Hotel built, thus naming it after himself. Indeed, due to his actions, some even claimed that Lex was as much a hero to Metropolis as Superman himself. Lex, however, dismissed the comparison, claiming that the alien superhero was a figure too mysterious and controversial for him to be a good comparison, but in light of Superman's debut, Lex claimed that recognizing the importance of the "ordinary" citizens of Metropolis (such as rescue workers, first responders, and countless ordinary citizens, who also helped save others in the Black Zero Event) had become more important than ever.

Learning about Superman
Lex then proceeded to return to his LexCorp facility, admitting to Mercy Graves that while him not knowing much about Superman is in fact completely true, he has been "working on changing that." With those words, Lex enters a private room with CCTV screens (displaying the corpse of General Dru-Zod, the Fortress of Solitude, and a Kryptonian DNA double helix), asking Mercy to make sure he isn't disturbed, as he plans to spend the rest of the day in there.

During this time, Lex had a woman named Teri meet with Professor Garcia and another man, who discussed the video footage of Superman saving a runaway train full of passengers. Teri spoke the words spoken to her through an earpiece by Lex (who had her appear to agree with Garcia), while the latter viewed the entire meeting from another CCTV screen.

Discovering metahumans
During this time, Lex watched on as Firefly was paid to blow up a merchandise warehouse in Gotham City, in order to test out the capabilities of the infamous Batman. Lex set up another CCTV at the warehouse beforehand, in order to watch events unfold.

Hence, it would be around this time that Lex learns everything about Batman and Superman (notably their alter-egos, powers, abilities, physical and emotional weaknesses, relationships, and psychological profiles), as well as that of other metahumans: the immortal Amazon demigoddess Wonder Woman (a World War I era photo of whom, together with Steve Trevor's team, which he obtained with facial recognition software), the Atlantean Aquaman (footage of whom he found in the Pacific with the NSA's UUV drones), the speedster Flash (footage of whom he obtained from a Central City pharmacy's security camera), and the technologically enhanced Cyborg(footage of whom he obtained from a video log on the S.T.A.R. Labs database).

Framing Superman for Nairomi
In order to carry out his plan, Lex employs Anatoli Knyazev and his men, arms them with innovative alloy bullets (which his company sold to the CIA, in turn selling them to Nairomian terrorists as a weapons test), and orders them to murder all of the men of the Nairomian terrorist warlord Amajagh as soon as Superman arrives (to save a captured Lois Lane), and for Knyazev to mutilate the corpses with his flamethrower, in order to make it look like Superman had murdered them with his heat vision.

Shortly thereafter, Lex hires and blackmails a Nairomian woman, Kahina Ziri, to lie and testify against Superman's actions in Nairomi to the US Senate, giving her a specific script to follow when speaking to Senator Finch. Hence, Kahina claims that her parents were among those killed in the incident after Superman's involvement.

Meeting Finch and Barrows
Lex Luthor himself is visited at LexCorp Industries by senators Finch and Barrows, and he proposes to them the idea of using the recently acquired kryptonite xenomineral as an official "silver bullet" deterrent against Superman, to hold him in check if the alien superhero were to ever decide to turn against humanity. In order to forge such a "silver bullet," Lex requests Finch to grant him an import license for the large piece of kryptonite (nicknamed "Emerald City" by Lex) lying in the Indian Ocean (at the wreckage of General Zod's World Engine). Finch leaves, considering the request, while Barrows stays, clearly intrigued by Lex, and intent to continue a discussion.

Lex quickly manages to persuade the good-natured senator Barrows to grant him access to the Fortress of Solitude, and to the corpse of General Zod. Lex rewards the cooperative politician with the cherry-flavored Jolly Ranchers, and is quick to exploit his new access - taking a good look around the Fortress, and subtly peeling off the fingerprints from General Zod's corpse (with a kryptonite-bladed scalpel).

The Red Capes are Coming
Several days later, Senator Finch is escorted into Lex's study by his right-hand personal assistant Mercy Graves. Lex is initially excited to see her, offers her some whiskey (from her native state of Kentucky), and monologues about how he keeps everything in the study of his father, Alexander Luthor Sr., the same, musing that if he persistently did so, then perhaps his father would return. But Lex then dismisses this, as the "wistful thinking of orphan boys."

Finch promptly tells Lex that she's decided not to grant him the import license. Lex is visibly enraged and sneers, beginning to nervously tap his fingers, begins to tell her what he considers to be the "oldest lie in America," but Finch physically stops him, letting Lex know that she sees right through his altruistic façade, telling him that he can "Take a bucket of piss and call it Granny's peach tea, take a weapon of assassination and call it deterrence," but that she wouldn't "drink it." Lex gives her a sinister grin, and states that he has considered turning an old picture of his father's (depicting a battle between Heaven's angels and Hell's demons) upside down (leaving the demons above, seemingly prevailing over the angels), and enigmatically telling her that "the Red Capes are coming." Finch then promptly departs.

Meeting Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent
Lex organizes a fundraiser event at the Metropolis library, with the invited guests including Gotham City billionaire Bruce Wayne, Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent (with Lex specifically anonymously requesting Perry White that Clark be the one to attend and cover this event in the press), and Louvre Museumantiquities curator Diana Prince.

Lex, as the event's organizer, is therefore invited to make a speech. In it, he mentions the poor origins of his father, Alexander Luthor Sr. (who had once had trouble affording books in East Germany), and makes an allusion to the Ancient Greek story of how the Titan Prometheus was brutally punished by Zeus, King of the Old Gods, for enlightening humankind (much to the visible chagrin of Diana Prince, Zeus' daughter). Near the end of his speech, Lex acknowledges the "bittersweet truth" that knowledge is power, but he then suddenly stumbles over his words, internally realizing their contradiction when applied to him. Lex is then quick to end his address and excuse himself from the stage, successfully covering up his blunder.

Lex then promptly walks up to Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, interrupting their somewhat uncomfortable conversation about Batman and Superman. Lex enthusiastically introduces himself to them (aware that he is in fact speaking with Batman and Superman's alter egos), and, in order to continue slyly manipulating them into a conflict, complements the exceptional firmness of Clark's handshake, and therefore jokingly advises Bruce not "pick a fight with [Clark]." Determined to have Batman obtain the information regarding the kryptonite and Metahuman Thesis, Lex invites Bruce to visit the LexCorp Industries research and development facilities. However, at that moment, Mercy Graves comes up and lets Lex know that a governor wants to speak to him. So Lex is forced to excuse himself, with Bruce offering to possibly visit the facilities another time. Lex's plan, however, was still successful, as Bruce still obtained the information, having uploaded it unto a hacking device, though it was temporarily borrowed from him by Diana.

Smuggling Kryptonite
As a result of Senator Finch unexpectedly refusing to grant him an import license for the Indian Ocean kryptonite, Lex promptly decides to smuggle it in instead. Hence, he orders Anatoli Knyazev and his men to smuggle in the kryptonite to LexCorp Research Park (fully aware that Batman would try to intercept the transportation of the mineral as Lex intends for the vigilante to steal it). When Knyazev arrives at LexCorp Research Park with the stolen kryptonite (with this revealing that Batman had failed to steal the kryptonite although this was due to Superman's unforeseen intervention), Lex promptly examines it and exchanges a sinister sneer with Mercy Graves.

Bribing Keefe and bombing the capitol
Luthor then had Knyazev organize Cesar Santos to be murdered by his fellow Blackgate Penitentiary inmates, while Lex himself pays the bail of embittered cripple Wallace Keefe (who was in the same prison as Santos) and invites him to visit his villa. Lex wants Keefe to testify against Superman in the upcoming Senate committee, and he gifts Keefe with a motorized wheelchair (made of an innovative metal alloy) to sweeten his deal.

Right after a guilt-ridden Kahina Ziri has left the US Capitol (managing to tell Senator Finch about Lex's exploitation of her), Lex arrives (just in time to see Finch whispering about Kahina's revelation to a fellow senator), and is present when Superman himself arrives to the hearing. However, before it begins, Lex asks Mercy Graves to reserve him a seat, before speaking to Senator Finch with an air of thinly-veiled condescension. Before leaving, Lex finally tells Finch the "oldest lie in America" - the belief that power can be innocent.

Shortly after the committee begins with the address of Senator Finch, Lex still hasn't arrived. Finch then suddenly notices a jar of urine standing on her desk, labelled "Granny's Peach Tea" (an epithet that she herself had used not along ago), which visibly startles her, making Finch pause mid-speech, horrified at the realization of what was about to occur. At that moment, a bomb (secretly planted inside Keefe's wheelchair by Lex) explodes, killing all present, except for the invulnerable, yet very mortified and heartbroken Superman. Because the wheelchair was lead-lined, Superman believed that it was his fault for purposely passing it. In order to tie up the last loose end, he has Knyazev permanently silence Kahina Ziri by pushing her under an incoming train, killing her.

Later that evening, Lex arrives at his LexCorp Research Park and witnesses a considerable trail of destruction left behind by Batman (who was induced by the red notes and recent events to finally take offensive action against Superman, by breaking into the well-guarded research park). As Lex steps inside the building, he observes a CCTV recorded footage of Batman seriously injuring all of the guards (swooping down on them from above, like an actual bat) despite their tireless attempts to shoot him (evidenced by the numerous cartridges lying on the floor in the aftermath that Lex also observes). Lex then approaches the object of his inquiry, which is the empty kryptonite chamber (with a batarang left in it by Batman for Lex to see). With this acting as final proof that Batman had successfully stolen the kryptonite, Lex smiles with sadistic glee at all the pieces of his grand plan finally beginning to fall together.

As the news ponders over the tragedy of the bombing and speculates about Superman's possible involvement behind it, Lex ominously stands atop the LexCorp Tower, and looks at the setting sun with a gleeful sneer on his face.