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175-641: Prior to the Blackest Night event, Black Hand ("leader" and the first member of the Black Lantern Corps) had already been established as a villain within the pages of Green Lantern . Writer Geoff Johns revisited his origin and expanded upon certain aspects of it during the Green Lantern: Secret Origin story arc (2008). During the arc, Hand's energy-absorbing weapon (previously thought to be an original invention)

350-596: A Black Lantern. The black rings are unable to revive dead characters who are at peace, such as former Dove Don Hall , even as his partner Hawk and his brother Hank rise. In Gotham, Hal Jordan and Barry Allen are confronted by several Black Lanterns, including Ronald Raymond . Hal, the Atom and Flash battle the Black Lanterns when the Indigo Tribe appear and use their Indigo power with other rings to obliterate

525-891: A Lantern, which fully empowers the Black Lantern power battery. Barry arrives in Coast City , where Scar has teleported with the Black Central Power Battery. Black Hand then summons Nekron, who revives the residents of Coast City. The JLA, Wally West , the Teen Titans, and Bart Allen fight the Coast City Black Lanterns. Dove can destroy Black Lanterns with her presence. Hal and Lantern Corps members Carol Ferris , Sinestro , Atrocitus , Larfleeze , Saint Walker , Indigo-1, Ganthet , and Sayd return to Earth and attack Scar while she

700-500: A car accident so he can inherit their life insurance and create a better life for himself, creating LexCorp. He marries and divorces several times and desires a romance with Lois Lane. When Superman appears, Luthor takes advantage of a terrorist attack to see the hero in action and then attempts to make him an employee. But the Man of Steel, acting as a special deputy of Metropolis, arrests him for endangering people by not warning authorities of

875-441: A combination of Earth and alien technology (including tech from the other-dimensional world Apokolips ) and armed with different forms of kryptonite in the gauntlet. Lex Luthor of Earth-One teams up with Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two. It is shown that Alexei is arguably colder and more villainous, perfectly willing to destroy all of Earth in order to prove his superiority, whereas Lex hesitates to do so because he had no desire to rule

1050-431: A complex frame. Soon after Luthor discovers evidence that leads him to conclude Clark Kent is Superman, the 2001 Our Worlds at War saga begins, in which Topeka, Kansas is destroyed in an attack by the alien Imperiex . Luthor is warned of the impending attack beforehand but alerts no one so Earth can enter a great war and he can prove his leadership to the world. Luthor coordinates the U.S. Army, Earth's superheroes, and

1225-491: A creates a kryptonite ring for himself. He wears the radioactive ore around his finger as a symbol that he is untouchable, causing the Man of Tomorrow pain and weakness whenever he approaches. Not realizing humans can be affected by severe or long-term meteoric radiation exposure , Luthor eventually suffers from Kryptonite poisoning. He had his right hand amputated to prevent the cancer's spread, and not long afterwards, said kryptonite ring (which he kept in cold storage prior to

1400-519: A detonation using the combined energy of their rings. The energy explosion also affects The Book of the Black , which disappears in a rainbow light, leaving only behind the rings of the six trapped Lanterns. The book is later seen on Oa while it forces the captured Lanterns to relive their lives prior to acquiring their current rings. After the defeat of Krona and the release of the New Guardians,

1575-427: A distant arid planet orbiting a red star, Luthor challenges Superman to a fight since Kryptonians lose power when exposed to red sun radiation. Befriending the planet's inhabitants, Luthor aids them in rediscovering lost technology that restores the water supply and helps the society rebuild. As a result, Luthor becomes a hero in the eyes of the planet, whereas his enemy Superman is detested as a villain. The people rename

1750-555: A fake while Batman keeps the actual ring. Superman, upon learning that Lex Luthor was about to be elected president, flew off in a fit of rage and split one of Saturn's small moons in half with one fly through. Before he takes office in the White House , Luthor cuts ties with his own company LexCorp, turning over leadership to Talia al Ghul , using the alias Talia Head, daughter of international terrorist cult leader Ra's al Ghul , one of Batman's greatest enemies. Luthor's popularity

1925-563: A far greater role in the Blackest Night" than anyone thinks. At the end of the issue, it is shown that Black Hand uses the skull to produce new power rings at will, creating two rings for the newly deceased Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders . In Blackest Night #3, Indigo-1 describes the premise behind the Black Lantern Corps' fictional relationship with the universe. She explains that the darkness in existence before

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2100-412: A fire in his lab and he calls on Superboy to save him. The Boy of Steel puts out the fire but, in the process, accidentally destroys the artificial life form and the years of research notes that led to its creation, while fumes from the chemical fire cause Luthor's hair to fall out. Unwilling to hold himself responsible for the lab fire and the destruction of his own life's work, Luthor decides that Superboy

2275-770: A focal point of the stories immediately following it. He is shown making repeated attempts to court her during The Man of Steel , though Lois plainly does not return his feelings. In the Superman Adventures comic line based on the TV series of the same name, Luthor's backstory is identical to that of the Post-Crisis origin with slight changes. Luthor is shown originating in Suicide Slum, his intelligence outshining other children, fueling his ambition to have all of Metropolis look up to him one day. Luthor's baldness

2450-411: A god and just be a man. Soon afterward, Superman's confronts the telepathic Manchester Black . Realizing Superman is a true hero and therefore true heroism is possible, Black decides to make up for his actions against the Man of Steel and Lois Lane by removing Lex Luthor's knowledge that the Man of Steel is Clark Kent. Following the publication of Superman: Birthright in 2003–2004, Luthor's history

2625-492: A joyful reunion. Hawkgirl recalls her past lives, removes her helmet to reveal that she is again Shiera Hall and embraces Hawkman. Superman expresses his happiness that J'onn has returned. Firestorm forcibly separates into Ronald Raymond and Jason, the latter is angry that Ronald has killed his girlfriend. As Mera comforts Jason, Ronald is confused and asks Atom what is happening and where Professor Stein is. Guy lets Lord, who

2800-426: A lifeless world and doesn't want his sister to die. They even extend their alliance to Ultraman when Earth-Three's Lex Luthor is a good guy. All three villains were defeated by Superman of Earth-One, Superman of Earth-Two, and Lex Luthor of Earth-Three. During the 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths , Luthor allies himself with fellow Superman foe Brainiac to recruit an army of supervillains spanning

2975-534: A limited series written by Mark Waid in 2004, offers an alternate look at Luthor's history, including his youth in Smallville , and his first encounter with Superman. The story has similarities to the 2001 television series Smallville , which follows Clark Kent 's life as a teenager and into early adulthood. One plot element shared by the comic and the show is the problematic relationship between Lex and his father Lionel . Along with this, Birthright restores

3150-475: A mystery." Johns identifies the power of the Black Lanterns as not necessarily being evil, but not being good either. During his initial creation of the new Corps, Johns drew from information he had collected on light while taking physics classes. With the Corps of the emotional spectrum personifying life, he knew that this Corps would need to represent death. Black being an absence of light, he chose Black Hand as

3325-572: A new, powerful version of the Justice League of America, Lex decides this is Superman's direct challenge to his own power, so he creates a new Injustice Gang in response. Along with his new teammates, Lex acquires a powerful artifact known as the Worlogog, which can warp space and time. The Injustice Gang kills several people while attacking the League then lures the heroes into a trap, but then

3500-580: A number of tie-in issues. Blackest Night involves Nekron , a personified force of death who reanimates deceased superheroes and seeks to eliminate all life and emotion from the universe. Geoff Johns has identified the series' central theme as emotion. The crossover was published for eight months as a limited series and in both the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps comic titles. Various other limited series and tie-ins, including an audio drama from Darker Projects, were published. The storyline

3675-453: A number of untrustworthy alien forces to battle the main villain of the story arc. Although Lex Luthor is able to devise a plan to destroy Imperiex's body, the plan is subsequently hijacked by Brainiac 13, requiring Superman to propose a new plan where Darkseid and Luthor coordinate their efforts to defeat Imperiex by sending him back in time. Following the battle, Superman retrieves Lena and returns her to Lex, advising Luthor to stop trying to be

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3850-538: A personal connection to the most powerful members of the five remaining Corps). The story unfolding in Green Lantern depicts Jordan and Indigo-1 recruiting Carol Ferris , Sinestro , Atrocitus , Larfleeze , Saint Walker , to their purpose. In Blackest Night #5, the team assaults the Black Central Power Battery with the opposite results intended. Nekron is strengthened and able to recruit living characters reanimated from death to his Black Lantern Corps. Although

4025-506: A plane crash in the Andes and secretly has his brain transferred to a cloned body, one younger, taller, with full hair, and more physically fit. With aid from trusted assistants, the now physically 21-year-old Luthor presents himself to the world as his own hitherto unknown, illegitimate son and heir from Australia , Lex Luthor II , who only wishes to do good and can't be judged by the actions of his father. He quickly manipulates and recruits

4200-568: A possible 10. In Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Blackest Night , an alternate outcome to Blackest Night is depicted where Sinestro's ego refused to release his control of the Entity, with the result that all life was destroyed by the Black Lanterns. By the time of the storyline, a few weeks after Nekron's attack, the only living beings in the universe are Sinestro , Lobo , Dove , and Mister Miracle, and Sinestro

4375-527: A powerful alien is around to protect them and solve problems. During the Blackest Night crossover, Wonder Woman restrains Luthor with her magic lasso and under its spell of truth he confesses he secretly wants to be Superman, revealing that beneath all his blustering, Luthor covets Superman's powers for himself. When Superman was out of sight for a year, Luthor used the time to create the "Everyman" project intending to create new superheroes to replace

4550-468: A promise of payment of some kind), Lex only finds friendship with Clark, impressed by the young man's knowledge though also finding him naive. Luthor discovers kryptonite meteors in Smallville and uses the radioactive mineral as a power source for his experiments. When Clark sees the machine and feels ill from proximity to kryptonite, Luthor mistakes his reaction to mean the young man doesn't believe in

4725-462: A relic from Lexor's lost age. After one of Luthor's still-active satellites threatens the people of Earth, he concludes Superman will soon come to Lexor to take him back to Earth authorities. With the underground lab's resources, he spends weeks creating a "warsuit" — highly destructive, flight-capable power armor — to finally match the Kryptonian in physical combat and counter his powers. To test

4900-536: A roving army of soulless, renegade Manhunter drones, have been systematically wiped out by Nekron and his forces. Of the 2,793 remaining sectors left, at least half of them have come under attack from the Black Lantern Corps. In the possible future of Futures End set five years later: Blackest Night " Blackest Night " is a 2009–10 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics , consisting of an eponymous central miniseries, written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Ivan Reis , along with

5075-410: A scientific genius in the 1990s in stories such as The Final Night . By 2000, it was said that Luthor's genuine accomplishments in several scientific fields is what helped create LexCorp and make it so successful so quickly (in early Post-Crisis stories, Byrne suggested that Luthor was recognized as a brilliant inventor and great scientific mind, but had largely withdrawn from his laboratory in favor of

5250-450: A son by Ardora, Lex Luthor Jr. He spends the next several weeks with his new family before discovering Lexor suffers from the same planetary instability that destroyed Krypton. While creating a "Neutrarod" tower to stabilize the planetary core, Luthor's pathological hatred for Superman resurfaces and he reflects on feeling unsatisfied in life without their conflict. The villain then unearths an ancient underground laboratory of great technology,

5425-889: A specific emotion and empowered by a specific color of the emotional spectrum, leading to a "War of Light" that would subsequently destroy the universe. Johns says the prophecy has its origins in the story "Tygers" by Alan Moore , which touches on the rising up of the Guardians' enemies the Weaponers of Qward , Ranx the Sentient City, and the Children of the White Lobe, the destruction of the Green Lanterns, and shows Hal Jordan, Sinestro, and Mogo dying. Both Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver said that Blackest Night

Black Lantern Corps - Misplaced Pages Continue

5600-590: A stepping stone to dominating the universe, believing a man of his intellect deserves such power. On several occasions he joins forces with Superman's enemy Brainiac (though the two often betray each other as well). Lex is repeatedly imprisoned, but his genius allows him to routinely escape. He also makes it a point to be out of prison on the birthday of Albert Einstein, regarding it as a holiday. A famous non- canonical "imaginary story" from 1961 entitled "The Death of Superman" has Luthor finally succeed in killing Superman after pretending to reform and befriend him. On

5775-725: A studio artist who illustrated for the Superman dailies during this period. One hypothesis is that Nowak mistook Luthor for the Ultra-Humanite , a recurring mad scientist foe of Superman who, in his Golden Age incarnation, resembled a balding, elderly man. Other evidence suggests Luthor's design was confused with that of a stockier, bald henchman in Superman #4 (Spring 1940); Luthor's next appearance occurs in Superman #10 (May 1941), in which Nowak depicted him as significantly heavier, with visible jowls. The character's abrupt hair loss has been made reference to several times over

5950-431: A weapon from the U.S. Army capable of causing earthquakes. Superman battles and defeats Luthor, then destroys the earthquake device. The scientist who made the device commits suicide to prevent its reinvention. In a story in the same issue, Luthor creates a city on the sunken Lost continent of Pacifo and populates it with recreated prehistoric monsters he plans to unleash upon the world. Superman thwarts his plans and Luthor

6125-464: Is Superman and almost always he denies this possibility, unable to imagine a man of such power spending half his time pretending to be average since in his mind, such a possibility would be too humiliating to bear. In stories appearing in JLA and 52 by Grant Morrison , Luthor cannot bring himself to believe Superman is truly altruistic and deeply cares about a planet that is not his native world, concluding

6300-534: Is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics . The character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster . Lex Luthor originally appeared in Action Comics #23 (cover dated: April 1940). He has since endured as the archenemy of the superhero Superman . Lex Luthor was depicted as a narcissistic and egotistical mad scientist from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. Since

6475-441: Is a mad scientist, corrupt businessman, or both, Luthor's ego is a defining trait in all his incarnations; he believes he is entitled to both popularity and power. While each incarnation initially wants the adoration of others and control over either Smallville or Metropolis, the goal eventually rises to control over Earth and possibly universal domination. Luthor's other defining trait is his obsession to destroy Superman and humiliate

6650-474: Is a sign Luthor does not truly desire the deaths of innocents and still has the potential to be a good man. Luthor marries Contessa Erica Alexanda Del Portenza, a near-immortal and formidable woman with her own agenda. After the birth of their daughter Lena, Luthor attempts to raise the girl without her interference. After several clashes, Luthor has the Contessa seemingly killed by a missile barrage. Later on,

6825-598: Is alluded to in several comics and "Origins and Omens" backstories that it is the Anti-Monitor's desire for the end of humanity that made him the primary candidate to become the Battery's power supply following his betrayal and subsequent murder at the hands of Superboy-Prime during the Sinestro Corps War . In a climactic battle with all the collective Lantern Corps, the Anti-Monitor is nearly freed from

7000-463: Is altered (and the new canon is quickly referenced in both Superman comics and the series Superman/Batman that begins in 2004). In the new history, Luthor is only a few years older than Clark Kent and his family moves to Smallville when he is a teenager. Possibly abused by his father Lionel, and alienated from others by his intelligence and his ignorance of certain social cues and behaviors (he does not understand why gifts are given on birthdays without

7175-745: Is assisted by the extreme unpopularity of the previous administration's mishandling of the Gotham City earthquake crisis (as depicted in the No Man's Land storyline in the Batman titles), and his own seemingly heroic efforts to rebuild Gotham before it rejoins the United States. Batman learns Luthor attempted to take control of Gotham by forging deeds for its lands in his own name. This results in Bruce Wayne severing all commercial ties between

Black Lantern Corps - Misplaced Pages Continue

7350-529: Is at fault, renewing his need for vengeance. In his subsequent stories, he regularly uses the Lexorian warsuit. The warsuit was designed by George Pérez as part of the Super Powers toyline in the early 1980s before being introduced into the comics in 1983. The suit vanished in 1986 after Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted DC Comics continuity, but was reintroduced in 2004, now said to be built with

7525-424: Is attacking Wally West. Nekron has Batman's corpse—later revealed to be a clone briefly reanimated to gain a necessary connection—and sends rings to Superman , Wonder Woman , Superboy , Green Arrow , Kid Flash, Donna Troy , Ice , and Animal Man , previously killed and revived into Black Lantern members by Nekron as Hal and Barry try to outrace their rings. Allen time-travels himself and Jordan two seconds into

7700-483: Is controlling his mind, escape. Jade kisses Kyle, unaware he is in love with fellow Green Lantern Soranik Natu . Osiris is confused and says he wants to go home. Superboy and Kid Flash, who only knows him by name, try to figure out who he is. After Professor Zoom flees into the past , Flash knocks out Captain Boomerang, while saying bloody hell to him. Barry notes that Ralph and Sue Dibny have not been revived. Deadman,

7875-557: Is created by genetic manipulation, essentially giving him 50% Superman's DNA and 50% DNA of a human being, revealed years later to be Luthor himself. Luthor's clone body eventually begins to deteriorate, causing him to lose his hair and age at an accelerated rate, a side-effect of a disease affecting all clones. Lois Lane discovers proof of Luthor's clone harvesting and false identity and exposes him with help from Superman. Desperate to evade arrest, Luthor activates technology left on Earth by Brainiac, destroying large sections of Metropolis in

8050-455: Is defeated. The Joker gains control of the Worlogog, but is then telepathically attacked, becoming temporarily sane and remorseful. Before the killer's mind reverts, Luthor has Joker use the Worlogog to revise history so that those killed no longer died. With the deaths removed and little physical evidence linking him to any wrongdoing, Luthor is free to go. While Batman concludes Luthor simply used Joker to avoid murder charges, Superman believes it

8225-668: Is depicted as a diabolical genius and is referred to only by his surname. He resides in a flying city suspended by a dirigible and plots to provoke a war between two European nations. Lois Lane and Clark Kent investigate, which results in Lois being kidnapped. Luthor battles Superman with a green ray but he is ultimately defeated, and Lois is rescued. Superman destroys Luthor's dirigible with him still on it, implying Luthor may have died. Stories ending with Luthor's apparent death become common in his earliest appearances, with him turning up alive later on. Luthor returns in Superman #4 and steals

8400-582: Is depicted with the colors of the spectrum in the background. The asteroids, which are apparently the remains of the planet Xanshi, are shattered and a large quantity of black power rings move through them. In Gotham City , Black Hand removes Bruce Wayne 's skull from his grave and carries it with him, and a Black Lantern power battery begins to charge. The Guardians of Oa observe the War of Light and realize that Ganthet and Sayd are correct, but are kept from intervening by Scar, who swiftly kills one and imprisons

8575-463: Is kind of the beginning of that emotional conflict and terror that you'll see throughout Blackest Night . So the black rings are, again, seeking out the dead that matter to our heroes. During the creation of Blackest Night , Johns (not being interested in, or frightened by, zombies ) wanted to bring back the deceased characters in a way that seemed horrifying and emotionally disturbing to the living characters they encountered. To accomplish that effect,

8750-476: Is like Parallax and Ion and needs a guide, and tries to merge with it, but is blocked by Sinestro, who is unhappy that Hal recently reused Parallax, who Sinestro feels he deserves. Sinestro demands the Entity's power, emerges and is told "Thaal Sinestro of Korugar. Destiny awaits". Sinestro is promptly killed by Nekron, but the White Ring revives him. Sinestro retaliates and kills Nekron, but Nekron's scythe

8925-434: Is never explained, save for a brief depiction of him with blond hair in childhood; it is assumed the hair loss was natural. Luthor's parents die during his teenage years, however, their deaths are indeed accidental. Lex uses the insurance to pay for his tuition to MIT and then founds LexCorp. His hatred of Superman is explained as the citizens of Metropolis have admired the Man of Steel more than him. Superman: Birthright ,

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9100-516: Is not his enemy. When questioned about that, it reveals that Jordan will be the greatest Black Lantern. After Black Hand is imprisoned in the Chamber of Shadows, the Book of Black is retrieved by Green Lantern B'dg. However, the book sucks B'dg and Simon Baz into it and returns to Black Hand. The book's prophecy is revealed to be true when Hal Jordan transforms into a Black Lantern as a means to escape

9275-525: Is only half-alive because the Entity keeps him going even as he wears a Black ring at the same time. Mister Miracle is able to find a means of channelling the Source Wall through Dove to recreate the universe, but when Nekron - now possessing Darkseid - reveals that this will literally remake the universe over, Mister Miracle kills Dove as he cannot bring himself to erase Barda from existence, which causes Lobo to kill Mister Miracle in retribution for killing

9450-543: Is overwhelmed by the Orange light of avarice. John Stewart is trying to stop the horde of Black Lanterns when the combined Six Corps arrive to join and battle the Black Lanterns. In Coast City, Dove tries to reach the Black Lantern Battery but is forced to retreat as a being from within the battery tries to escape. Nekron kills a Guardian and uses his blood to cause a cocoon to emerge. Ganthet reveals that this

9625-433: Is physically an ordinary human and has no natural superpowers, but he is a genius with a high aptitude for business, politics, science, and technology. He is typically portrayed as a mad scientist lacking a secret identity , costume, or other elements of supervillains, but he occasionally wears his warsuit, a suit of mechanized armor that gives him enhanced strength, flight, advanced weaponry, and other capabilities. While Lex

9800-573: Is physically approximately in his true age. His soul is later restored after Neron is defeated by Captain Marvel and the Trickster. Returning to Metropolis, Luthor submits to a trial. He claims all his crimes were committed by a violent clone created by renegade scientists from Cadmus Labs who secretly held the true Luthor hostage. Luthor is acquitted of all charges. He later arranges to reacquire his old kryptonite ring. When Superman and others form

9975-432: Is picked up by a Black Lantern human who transforms into Nekron and says "death cannot be stopped". Ganthet notes that Sinestro cannot properly control the Entity as it is being powered by Sinestro's ego rather than his will to live. The united Lantern Corps attacks Nekron. Deadman possesses Guy Gardner and explains that Black Hand is Nekron's tether and that he must be revived to defeat Nekron. Nekron separates Sinestro from

10150-452: Is primarily depicted as a supervillain allied with other villains, such as Metallo , Parasite and Bizarro , and frequently leading DC supervillain teams such as the Legion of Doom , he has also been portrayed as an antihero who will ally himself with Superman and other heroes against common enemies such as Brainiac and Darkseid . The character was ranked 4th on IGN ' s list of

10325-425: Is released from jail quickly and has the charges dropped, the humiliation of being publicly arrested and processed, coupled with indignation that Superman refused to work for him, results in the villain pledging to destroy Superman simply to prove his power. Despite general acceptance of Byrne's characterization, which led to its influence in media adaptations, DC Comics writers began bringing back his quality of being

10500-597: Is revealed to have been constructed by Atrocitus , enemy of the Guardians of the Universe and future founder of the Red Lantern Corps . Atrocitus comes to Earth and approaches Hand, recognizing him as a "doorway to the black" that possesses the power to bring about the Blackest Night. Hand manages to escape and pockets the weapon as he flees. The possession of this weapon soon leads him to become an enemy of

10675-507: Is seemingly killed by the dinosaurs he created. Luthor returns in Superman #5 with a plan to place hypnotic gas in the offices of influential people so he can throw the nation into a depression with the help of corrupt financier Moseley. The story ends with Superman defeating him. In these early stories, Luthor's schemes are centered around financial gain or megalomaniacal ambitions; unlike most later incarnations, he demonstrates no strong animosity toward Superman beyond inevitable resentment of

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10850-498: Is shown that Alexei is arguably colder and more villainous, perfectly willing to destroy all of Earth in order to prove his superiority, whereas Lex hesitates to do so because he had no desire to rule a lifeless world and doesn't want his sister to die. Years later, Lex Luthor and the villain Brainiac recruit an army of super-villains during Crisis on Infinite Earths , including Alexei Luthor from Earth-Two. When Alexei argues that

11025-518: Is simply an amoral and brilliant man driven by a simple desire for power, the Silver Age incarnation was given a more developed personality and backstory. Teenage Lex Luthor is an aspiring scientist who resides in Smallville and greatly admires its local hero Superboy . After Lex saves him from kryptonite , the Boy of Steel builds him a private laboratory in gratitude. After "thousands of experiments,"

11200-413: Is something he would never do himself, Luthor dismisses the computer's findings and concludes both the machine and its programmer are at fault. As a nod to the previous continuity, Luthor has his lab create high-tech armor that resembles the Lexorian warsuit. Rather than act directly, he has an employee don the armor and attack Superman for him. The man is defeated and cannot testify against Luthor because

11375-517: Is the White Light Entity that triggered existence and that life actually began on Earth, not Oa, and that the Guardians upheld the lie to protect the Entity and justify their power. Nekron stabs the Entity, causing living beings across the universe to feel pain, and Sinestro surrenders to his anger at Abin Sur 's death and stabs Ganthet , much to Hal Jordan's chagrin. Hal realizes the Entity

11550-479: Is the third part of a Green Lantern event trilogy that began with Rebirth and continued with "Sinestro Corps War". In a December 2007 interview with IGN, Johns stated that he had the monthly Green Lantern book plotted up until issue #55. More details for the event were revealed in DC Universe #0, which depicted Black Hand discovering the black power battery on the planet of Ryut. Blackest Night #0

11725-410: Is unable to control it. During the Blackest Night panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2009, Geoff Johns was asked whether the revived corpses of the Black Lanterns were speaking for themselves or if they were being controlled by an outside force. Johns declined to answer, implying that the question would be answered during the Blackest Night storyline. Similarly, while being overcome by a black power ring,

11900-550: The DC Multiverse . Alexei Luthor is present and complains this army does not need two Luthors; Brainiac kills Alexei in response. At the conclusion of the series, reality is altered so that each of the different universes converge into one. Luthor is subsequently returned to prison with all his memories of the Crisis forgotten. This incarnation of Lex Luthor met his end in the non-canonical two-part story " Whatever Happened to

12075-539: The Manhattan Project . In 1956, DC Comics reimagined the Flash with a new secret identity, costume and origin. This led to the new Silver Age of Comics and the first DC Comics reboot, with characters across the board being reimagined or having their histories and nature redefined. The earlier Golden Age stories of Superman and Batman were later said to have taken place on Earth-Two , a parallel universe that

12250-565: The Shade , who is truly immortal and thus cannot die, and Osiris, whose magical nature allowed him some semblance of control over the ring. Don Hall (the original Dove) was immune to recruitment into the Black Lantern Corps as he was "at peace", which destroyed the Black Lantern Rings that attempted to recruit him. Another vulnerability of their rings' power is that the odd physics behind magical power can dumbfound their abilities, as

12425-542: The Silver Age concept of Luthor befriending Clark Kent as a young man. The two find a kinship in both feeling like outsiders and sharing a wish to explore outer space and discover alien alife, despite one resenting humanity and the other hoping to understand and be accepted by it. Lex discovers kryptonite samples in Smallville and uses them as a power source for a machine he hopes will pierce space and time so he can communicate with Krypton . When Clark falls ill approaching

12600-785: The Spectre declares that he "will not be used." Prior to the Spectre's conversion, Black Hand makes note of the Shadowpact members Zatanna and Blue Devil being surrounded by an aura of life. Upon scanning the Phantom Stranger , Black Hand remarks that the Stranger is "neither living nor dead", and notes him as a person of interest to his Corps. Though an exact list of the former Green Lanterns reanimated by black power rings does not exist, Kyle Rayner 's ring states that all of

12775-536: The 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Elliot S. Maggin 's novels Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday . The Golden Age version of Luthor appears again as a villain still alive and well on Earth-Two . To distinguish him from the modern-day Lex Luthor, the original incarnation is shown as having kept his red hair and is retroactively given the first name Alexei. In DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (1982), Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two and Lex Luthor of Earth-One team up. It

12950-828: The Antimatter Universe. Black Hand regurgitates a cluster of white rings that destroy Nekron. The rings bring only 12 Black Lanterns back to life: Maxwell Lord , Jade , the Hawk, Captain Boomerang , Firestorm (Ronald Raymond), the Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman , Hawkgirl , Osiris , Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash , and Deadman (Boston Brand). Upon seeing Aquaman alive, Mera's love causes her ring to depart and shatter, sending her into cardiac arrest . Star Sapphire and Saint Walker join their powers together to restore her, and Aquaman and Mera share

13125-568: The Black Dibnys. Mera finds the new (still human) Firestorm and Gehenna , who merge to create a new Firestorm. Indigo says that the Lantern Corps must unite to defeat the Black one. The Indigo Tribe depart with Hal and leave the other heroes to fight the invading Black Lanterns. Black Lantern Firestorm separates Jason and Gehenna, kills Gehenna, while taunting her how scared she was, and absorbs Jason's consciousness. Black rings revive

13300-463: The Black Lanterns have personalities and actively seek out those who will be most affected by their appearance. A prime example of Johns' use of personality distortion with the Black Lanterns is the Elongated Man (typically depicted as being a "light" character that uses his detective skill to "smell" when something is not right) looking upon his victims and remarking to his undead wife: "I smell

13475-625: The Black Power Battery - destroying it in the process. It was the Anti-Monitor's physical corpse, coupled with Black Hand's presence as the entity of Death, that served as the full source of the Black Lantern Corps' power. Black Lanterns are able to read the emotions as colored auras that correlate to the Emotional Spectrum. Multiple emotions read as a multi-colored aura, while unreadable emotions come out as white. Furthermore, demonic and underworld dwellers (such as Etrigan

13650-403: The Blackest Night . Written in corrupted blood by the traitorous Guardian of the Universe, Scar, the book contains prophecies. The prophecies indicate which Earth heroes have the abilities to weather the Blackest Night and ensure the survival or destruction of the universe. Also within its pages is all the forbidden history of the Guardians of the Universe, and in an effort to protect its secrets,

13825-523: The Book is taken by Lyssa Drak. She is later confronted by the now Green Lantern Sinestro who tracked her with the aid of an energy-manipulating alien hero he fought while in the Sinestro Corps. Contact with the Book of the Black reveals the Guardians' plan to replace the Corps with the 'Third Army'. Subsequently, the book returns to Black Hand's possession as it is sought by the Guardians of the Universe. The book reveals to Black Hand that Hal Jordan

14000-534: The Book of the Black has stated that Hal Jordan will be the greatest "Black Lantern" in the beyond. When trapped in the Dead Zone (a realm between life and death) and deprived of his ring, Hal contemplates suicide as it was the only means to harnessing the power of the remaining Black Lantern ring and using it to escape the Dead Zone and stop the First Lantern. After seeing the inhabitants of Korugar enter

14175-565: The CEO Luthor would be easier for readers to recognize. In Birthright , Luthor remains a wealthy corporate magnate; in contrast to Byrne's characterization, however, LexCorp is founded upon Luthor's study of extraterrestrial life, thereby providing a link between him and Superman. In the retrospective section of the Superman: Birthright trade paperback , Waid explains: Despite my own personal prejudices, I say we leave Lex

14350-405: The Corps , Blackest Night: Superman , Blackest Night: Batman , Blackest Night: Titans , Blackest Night: Wonder Woman , Blackest Night: Flash , and Blackest Night: JSA . Ethan Van Sciver had planned to work on the opening book, but because of his work on The Flash: Rebirth miniseries he was not able to complete both effectively. Van Sciver and Ivan Reis, as well as Joe Prado created many of

14525-652: The Dead Zone as his green ring returns to him, restoring him to life and membership in the Green Lantern Corps. During the war between the New Gods and the various Lantern Corps, Black Hand reanimated the various Source Titans (including Relic) that were impeded within the Source Wall as Black Lanterns. However, after Highfather 's misuse of the Life Equation , they are fully resurrected. In

14700-576: The Dead Zone, Hal finally makes the ultimate sacrifice and jumps off the Cliff. Hal claimed Black Hand's power ring and rises as a Black Lantern, which in turn reduced Black Hand's body to dust. With the help of the Indigo Tribe, Hal escapes from the Dead Zone and uses an army of Black Lanterns against Volthoom, but the undead legion is easily destroyed. Hal then proceeds to summon Nekron, who finally kills Volthoom. Hal then sends Nekron back to his tomb in

14875-529: The Dead Zone. Hal then summons Nekron in order to defeat the First Lantern, Volthoom. After his defeat, Hal is released from being a Black Lantern and returns to life as Green Lantern once again. The Black Lanterns are corpses reanimated by black power rings, which are fueled by the power of death. Corpses reanimated by black power rings are reconstructed if damaged, keeping the body in working order at all times. Black power rings are capable of regenerating typically fatal injuries inflicted upon their users (including

15050-580: The Demon ) are read with a black aura, apparently as unreadable as the white one due to their dead nature. A state of profound suspended animation is enough to fool a Black Lantern by making the target of suspended animation invisible to the senses of the Black Lantern. Emotionless hearts such as the Scarecrow's render their bearers equally invisible to the Black Lanterns. When facing beings with warped mental states, or otherwise addled minds (such as Bizarro ),

15225-470: The Dove's immunity to the black power rings: "You'll learn more about this as we go forward. But really it speaks to the nature of Don Hall. He can't be desecrated by the likes of these things. He's untouchable in death and at total peace more than any other being in the universe." Reflecting on the limitations of the rings, Johns goes on to state that, even though magic is a "joke" to the black power rings (though

15400-647: The Entity and Hal says that Nekron opened the door to death but it was the decision of the heroes to live. Hal merges with the Entity and transforms himself and the Black Lantern heroes into a White Lantern Corps , who restore Black Hand to life. This causes Black Hand to regurgitate a White Ring which revives the Anti-Monitor trapped in the Black Lantern Power Battery. Nekron briefly fights the Anti-Monitor and banishes him to his home in Qward,

15575-402: The Green Lantern Corps, as he now feels a need to extinguish the light of the emotional spectrum. While being transported to prison, Black Hand experiences a sudden power surge that kills his captors. Xander roams the desert, hearing a voice instructing him to reclaim the souls of characters who were reanimated. Hand murders his family and commits suicide. The Guardian Scar arrives, and creates

15750-482: The Indigo Tribe once again, a Black Power Ring emerges from his corpse, reviving him as a Black Lantern once again, although this did not restart the Blackest Night , possibly because Nekron was imprisoned in the Dead Zone at the time. Black Hand returns to Earth and reanimates his family and various dead in the graveyard around his house, but Hal Jordan and Sinestro were able to defeat these "zombies" by detonating Sinestro's old yellow power battery. They are unaware that

15925-448: The Kryptonian, then later attacks Metropolis with a long-buried Kryptonian warship. Returning to action, Superman points out that Luthor had a year to prove his old argument that he could help others and improve Earth if Superman didn't interfere with his life, but instead of curing disease or making technological breakthroughs, all he did was focus on increasing his power and finding "a big destructive machine so [he] could break things." In

16100-496: The Lantern Corps must be discussed. Saint Walker notices that the Indigo Tribe and Black Hand are missing. On the Indigo home world, Black Hand is now a member and prisoner of the Indigo Tribe, and is chained to an indigo power staff. Hal and Barry realize that because Black Lantern Batman was a fake, Bruce Wayne is still alive somewhere. Barry wonders what became of the Entity; Hal says it is still out there, urging them all to move past

16275-528: The Man of Tomorrow? " that closed out the Pre- Crisis Superman continuity of the Silver and Bronze Age. Luthor finds Brainiac 's robotic head, hoping to revive the villain for a new team-up. Instead, Brainiac takes control of Luthor's body, forcing him to be a host as he attempts to destroy Superman. Luthor later begs a superpowered Lana Lang to kill him, who does so. Brainiac retains control of

16450-483: The Medusa Mask to destroy two Black Lanterns by forcing them to experience the full force of the Emotional Spectrum, irritating their black power rings enough that they remove themselves from their bearers and flee. The Black Lanterns are also vulnerable to Wonder Woman 's Lasso of Truth . The "touch" of a Black Lantern, typically used to remove their victims' hearts and drain them of emotional energy, can also sever

16625-465: The Orange Light of Avarice. The series and its tie-in issues have been collected into a number of volumes : The series has received generally positive reviews. Comic Book Resources gave the first and third issues in the series 5 out of 5 stars , and the second received 4.5 stars. IGN also reviewed the series favorably, and rated the first three individual issues between 8.7 and 9.3 out of

16800-488: The Power Battery and revealed to have only succumbed partially to Nekron's influence (manifested by the visual Black Hand symbol seen on every Black Lantern only being half completed), demanding that he be freed so that he could exact revenge on Nekron for his imprisonment. As part of the final 'coup de grace' against the Black Lantern Corps, the Entity also commands "Anti-Monitor of Qward - Live" , which frees him from

16975-490: The Star Sapphires - they are nearly thwarted when Nekron digs up the Entity, the first life in the universe, and attempts to kill it. After Sinestro attempts and fails to merge with the entity similar to Hal's bond with Parallax - Sinestro powering the entity with his ego rather than his will to survive - Hal takes control of the Entity himself, noting that the heroes still chose to return to life even if Nekron gave them

17150-487: The Superman comics and the series Superman/Batman made references to the canonicity of the new origin series. But after Infinite Crisis ended in 2006, new stories discredited parts of it and it was officially replaced by the 2009–2010 series Superman: Secret Origin . Superman: Secret Origin revised Lex's backstory so that he now again had a sister Lena. While he knew Clark as a teenager in Smallville, he rejected

17325-478: The Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time and as the 8th Greatest Villain by Wizard on its 100 Greatest Villains of All Time list. Luthor is one of a few genre-crossing villains whose adventures take place "in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended". Scott James Wells , Sherman Howard , John Shea , Michael Rosenbaum , Jon Cryer , Titus Welliver , and Michael Cudlitz have portrayed

17500-477: The U.S. government and his company, Wayne Enterprises . In response to Wayne Enterprises severing ties with his government, Luthor arranges the murder of Wayne's lover, Vesper Fairchild , and frames Wayne for the murder (as seen in Bruce Wayne: Fugitive ), the plan being more successful than Luthor anticipated when his chosen assassin of David Cain realizes Wayne's identity as Batman and sets up

17675-529: The United States , winning the election on a platform of promoting technological progress. His first action as president is to take a proposed moratorium on fossil-based fuels to the U.S. Congress . On the night of the election, Batman threatens that Luthor can keep the kryptonite ring or the White House but not both. Later on, Superman, Batman and Lois Lane seemingly try to steal the ring only to be thwarted. In actuality, they manipulated Luthor into retrieving

17850-522: The Universe. Shortly after being released, Nekron used his dark powers to create the Black Lantern Corps using the corpses of the Green Lanterns and countless other lifeforms that have fallen before him. Like in the original DCU, Nekron is leading his Black Lanterns on a quest to eradicate all life in the universe. As of now, over 200 of the Sectors under the jurisdiction of the Guardians of the Universe , save for those that have already been rent asunder by

18025-606: The White Lantern, he, along with Firestorm, are transported to Qward in the Anti-Matter Universe by the Anti-Monitor, revealed to be behind the returns of the 12 Black Lanterns. However, they are all destroyed when Ronnie and Jason teamed up, thus allowing Ronnie's labor to be accomplished and for him to be returned to life by the White Entity. Following Black Hand's suicide to escape being inducted into

18200-493: The alien hero, either by displaying his own superiority by achieving victory without the benefit of superpowers or to prove the Man of Steel is motivated by selfish desire rather than altruism. Many times, Luthor has claimed he could create a better way of life for the entire human race if not for Superman's interference with his work; he has even argued that the Man of Tomorrow's presence not only invites danger, it actually encourages human society not to strive for greatness because

18375-449: The armor's neural control unit destroys his mind. Along with this, Luthor participates in the creation of two Superman villains, Parasite (indirectly) and Bizarro (a failed attempt by Luthor's scientists to clone Superman). When Superman fights the cyborg Metallo , Luthor intervenes. In Superman (vol. 2) #2, discovering Metallo is powered by a 'heart' of kryptonite that can hurt and potentially kill Superman, Luthor steals it and

18550-458: The army doesn't need two Luthors, Brainiac agrees and executes him. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986), DC rebooted its universe yet again, creating the "Post- Crisis " reality. In the 1986 limited series The Man of Steel , John Byrne redesigned Lex Luthor from scratch, intending to make him a villain that the 1980s would recognize: an evil corporate executive . Byrne intentionally chose to base this new depiction of Luthor on

18725-477: The authorities, Superboy declares they are even now and expresses hope Lex will "straighten out" and use his intelligence to help humanity rather than try to prove his superiority or waste time seeking power and vengeance. Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #23 (1961) reveals the Silver Age Lex Luthor parents are Jules and Arlene and that he has a younger sister Lena. When Lex becomes a criminal,

18900-443: The avatar of Death he is also the only key to defeating the Black Lanterns permanently. Using the White Lantern power of Life, Hal Jordan commands "William Hand of Earth - Live" , resurrecting Black Hand and removing him as the Black Lantern Corps' primary power source - which deals a crippling and eventually fatal blow to the Black Lanterns. Hidden within the vaults of Oa is a massive black tome known as The Ultimate Facilitator of

19075-459: The bite of a Black Lantern induces a slow-acting necrosis that eventually turns the victim into a fellow Black Lantern. It is unknown if this power can work on any living being, or only those characters who have been reanimated from death before (such as Superman , the Green Arrow , and Donna Troy ). Nekron uses the Anti-Monitor as a physical power source within the Black Power Battery. It

19250-429: The black emptiness of space which represents death and therefore does not belong to the Emotional Spectrum, Black Hand is revealed to be the physical embodiment for these corps, in the same manner that Ion is the embodiment of willpower for the Green Lantern Corps. During the climax of Blackest Night #8, Boston Brand tells the Corps' leaders that Black Hand is the "tether keeping Nekron within our world", and that as

19425-413: The boardroom). Regarding the character being a corrupt billionaire rather than a mad scientist, author Neil Gaiman commented: It's a pity Lex Luthor has become a multinationalist ; I liked him better as a bald scientist. He was in prison, but they couldn't put his mind in prison. Now he's just a skinny Kingpin . Luthor's romantic aspirations toward Lois Lane, established early on in the series, become

19600-423: The body for a short period of time before rigor mortis sets in, then abandons it, running out of power shortly afterward. As part of the continuity changes which followed The Man of Steel and Superman: Secret Origin , Alexander "Lex" Joseph Luthor is a corrupt businessman profiting from many hidden criminal operations. This Luthor grew up a poor child alongside Perry White , later causing his parents' death via

19775-422: The body of the Dove (Don Hall) , only to be prevented from disturbing his grave by an invisible barrier. As they collide with the barrier, the rings' typical command ("Rise") is interrupted; the rings instead respond: "Don Hall of Earth at peace." This is the first depiction of the black power rings failing to recruit a member for the Black Lantern Corps. In an interview with IGN, Johns provides an explanation behind

19950-513: The book, takes it to the Dead Planet of Ryut. There, after detecting the "New Guardians", it opens its pages to unveil the history of Krona. They are soon afterwards attacked by the book's keeper, the former Sinestro Corps member Lyssa Drak. She is capable of trapping Sinestro himself, Carol Ferris, Indigo-1, Atrocitus, Saint Walker and Larfleeze inside the book. However, Sinestro is able to prevent her from capturing Hal Jordan as well, by causing

20125-478: The businessmen Donald Trump , Ted Turner , and Howard Hughes as well as Satan . Initially brutish and overweight, the character later evolved into a sleeker, more athletic version of his old self. Luthor is no longer recounted as having lost his hair in a chemical fire; rather, his hairline is shown to be receding naturally over time. Marv Wolfman , a writer on Action Comics who had one conversation with Byrne prior to Luthor's reboot recalled: I never believed

20300-537: The character in television series, while Lyle Talbot , Gene Hackman , Kevin Spacey , and Jesse Eisenberg have portrayed the character in films, and Nicholas Hoult is set to play him in the upcoming film Superman . Several actors have provided Luthor's voice in animated adaptations, including Clancy Brown , Mark Rolston , James Marsters , Giancarlo Esposito , Marc Maron , and Max Mittelman . In his first story appearance, Action Comics #23 (April 1940), Luthor

20475-439: The citizenry's scorn, Lex's hate for Superboy only grew in rationalization of his failures. This revised origin makes Luthor's fight with Superman a personal one and suggests that if events had unfolded differently, Luthor might have grown to be a more noble person. Luthor's ego preventing him from personal growth and the tragedy that he and Clark could have been a force for good together are played up in various stories throughout

20650-600: The complete dissolution). The rings generate black tendrils to "root" themselves into the corpses, making it impossible to remove them by physical force. The first black power rings possess no charge, but each time a Black Lantern kills someone and removes their heart, .01 percent power is restored to every ring in the Corps. In Blackest Night #3, Indigo-1 solidifies this theme by explaining that those who rise feed off emotion. Even at low power levels, black rings enable their user to fly and create black energy constructs. They are also unaffected by magic. In "classic" zombie fashion,

20825-435: The connection between other Black Lanterns and their black power ring. Barry Allen was able to deactivate the black rings that were 'targeting' him and Hal Jordan by using time travel, jumping two seconds into the future so that the rings would shut down when they could not sense their 'assigned' wearers. One common way of stopping a Black Lantern is to injure them faster than their ring is able to regenerate their body (such as

21000-544: The correlation between the emotion detected and the actual color that the Black Lanterns see is inverted. In addition to the abilities granted to them by the rings, Black Lanterns retain any skills and superpowers they may have had in life. Black Lanterns are vulnerable to white light and a combination of green light with another Corps' light. Once a black power ring is destroyed, the corpse it animates becomes inert. Kimiyo Hoshi and Halo can completely destroy Black Lanterns by using their light-based powers. Conner Kent used

21175-559: The course of his history. In 1960, writer Jerry Siegel altered Luthor's backstory to incorporate his hair loss into his origin. During World War II , the War Department asked for dailies of the Superman comic strip to be pulled. The strips in question were created in April 1945 and depicted Lex Luthor bombarding Superman with the radiation from a cyclotron. This violated wartime voluntary censorship guidelines meant to help conceal

21350-423: The creation of the universe is what powers the Black Lanterns. Banished at the dawn of time by the white light of creation, its fighting back causes the white light to be fractured into the emotional spectrum. The events transpiring throughout the titles of Blackest Night are a result of the darkness, once again, fighting back against creation. She goes on to describe how a combination of all seven lights can restore

21525-463: The criminal businessman he's been for the past 17 years. The Lois & Clark producers liked it, the WB cartoon guys liked it ... so clearly, it works on some level. My concern is that, at least in my eyes, the fact that Luthor's allowed to operate uncontested for years makes Superman look ineffectual. Birthright was initially intended to establish a new origin for Superman and Luthor. Immediately,

21700-643: The deceased Green Lanterns within the Oan crypt in Green Lantern Corps (vol. 2) #39 were transformed into Black Lanterns. As with the other Lantern Corps, Black Hand devised an oath for the Black Lanterns: The Blackest Night falls from the skies, The darkness grows as all light dies, We crave your hearts and your demise, By my black hand, the dead shall rise! While the Black Lantern Corps are powered by

21875-546: The designs for this storyline. Green Lanterns Ash and Saarek find the Black Central Battery at a reportedly classified location within Sector 666. After touching the battery, Saarek reports that their presence has awakened something. The two are killed when two monstrous hands emerge from below them as the battery calls "flesh". In Green Lantern Corps , a field of asteroids in an unknown region of space

22050-429: The events of the Blackest Night. Elsewhere, on a distant road, a White Power Battery is found in a crater. Following the end of Blackest Night , DC launched Brightest Day , a 25-issue bi-weekly comic book written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi . Also, Action Comics features a story arc in which Lex Luthor starts a universal quest to locate the power sources of the Black Lantern Corps after being infused with

22225-484: The experiment, that he also thinks Lex is lying or "crazy" as others do. The machine then explodes and Luthor survives but loses his hair as a result of radiation. Years later, his scientific research, largely based on his ideas about alien life, results in a small fortune that he uses to create LexCorp. When Superman appears in Metropolis, Lex is angered the man won't bow to his control and takes it very personally that

22400-490: The family moves away from Smallville and changes its name to Thorul (an anagram ) to start a new life free of him. Lena Thorul is a toddler at the time and grows up not remembering her real last name, while her parents say her older brother died in a mountain climbing accident. Lex later watches over the adult Lena, making sure she does not discover her connection to one of Earth's greatest villains. As an adult, Lex Luthor's driving ambitions are to kill Superman and rule Earth,

22575-460: The fire, Luthor concludes Superboy intentionally sabotaged his work, jealous of the young scientist's achievements, and swears revenge. Luthor creates grandiose engineering projects to prove his superiority over the superhero, but each one fails and causes problems that Superboy then solves. Luthor then makes his first attempt to murder the Last Son of Krypton and fails. Instead of bringing him to

22750-495: The first black power ring, which reanimates Black Hand. She reveals that Hand is the physical embodiment of death, and serves as the avatar of the Black Lantern Corps in the same manner that Ion , Parallax , and the Predator are for willpower, fear, and love respectively. Hand later digs up Bruce Wayne 's corpse, removes his skull, and recites the Black Lantern oath for the first time. Soon after, black power rings descend upon

22925-530: The fourth issue, which takes place over a year after Superman's arrival in Metropolis. Terrorists seize Luthor's yacht, forcing Superman to intervene. Satisfied at the hero's performance, Luthor attempts to hire him, admitting he knew about the incoming attack and allowed it to occur so he could see how Superman responded (assuming that the Man of Steel would arrive in time). Enraged, the Mayor deputizes Superman to arrest Luthor for reckless endangerment. Although Luthor

23100-629: The future and disables their rings. Mera and the Atom arrive. John Stewart warns Hal that every Black Lantern in the universe is heading for Earth. Jordan says they need the entire seven Corps to unite to produce White Light. While they summon the seven Corps to Earth, Ganthet duplicates the seven colored rings present and deputizes non-Corps members Ganthet as Green, Barry Allen as Blue, Lex Luthor as Orange, Scarecrow as Yellow, Atom as Indigo, Mera as Red, and Wonder Woman as Violet after separating her from her Black Ring. The Corps Leaders and deputies fight Nekron but cannot stop him, partly because Luthor

23275-423: The growing Black Corps. The Atom is tricked into visiting Black Lantern Hawkman, and Deadman is the first to realize the dead superheroes are not their true selves when his physical body revives as a Black Lantern while he is still free. Aquaman and his Black Lantern family, including Tempest, attack Mera , who flees. A black ring strikes the Spectre , binding the spirit Aztar and reviving Crispus Allen as

23450-534: The harm he has caused them. During the battle, Luthor releases an energy salvo that accidentally overloads the Neutrarod, resulting in the complete destruction of the planet Lexor and all its inhabitants, including Ardora and Lex Jr.. Similar to how he reacted after the destruction of his lab in Smallville, Lex is unable to process his grief and accept his responsibility for Lexor's destruction. He psychologically blocks part of his own memory to convince himself Superman

23625-458: The hero's constant interference with his plans. Luthor's obsessive hatred of Superman came later in the character's development. In Luthor's earliest appearances, he is shown as a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair. Less than a year later however, an artistic mistake resulted in Luthor being depicted as completely bald in a newspaper strip. The original error is attributed to Leo Nowak ,

23800-495: The hero's good deeds are often actually passive-aggressive ways of flaunting his power and popularity to Lex. When the hero joins forces with others to form a new, powerful version of the Justice League of America, Lex decides this is Superman's direct challenge to his own power, and establishes an "Injustice League" composed of various supervillains to rival them. While the Golden Age Luthor (later named Alexei Luthor)

23975-490: The impending terrorist attack. Humiliated, Luthor swears revenge, repeatedly letting Superman know about his criminal schemes but never leaving him enough evidence to bring the man to justice again. Luthor becomes obsessed with Superman and gathers all information on him and his associates, leading a computer analysis to conclude Clark Kent and Superman are the same person. Unable to believe someone as powerful as Superman regularly hides his powers and pretends to be average, as that

24150-510: The leader of the Corps both for the character's name and also because of how much he enjoyed revamping villains while writing for Flash . Like the other members of the Black Lantern Corps, Johns wanted to take a different approach in his portrayal of Black Hand. Whereas other villains may have a particular motivation, Hand is meant to be depicted as a character who is clearly insane and whose presence makes others uncomfortable. In Blackest Night #2, multiple black power rings attempt to reanimate

24325-483: The love of the public, Luthor swears vengeance. Following changes to continuity in 2016's DC Rebirth , the history from Superman: Secret Origin is still largely intact, though it has also been revealed that for a time Lionel Luthor worked as a scientist for Vandal Savage and that this led to a brief friendship between Lex and J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter , when both were children. Whether he

24500-412: The machine, Lex mistakes his reaction as doubt in the young scientist's ability and sanity. Feeling betrayed, Lex continues the experiment but an explosion erupts, the radiation blast causing his hair to fall out. Luthor leaves Metropolis and years later his scientific work, largely based on his ideas about alien life, results in a fortune he uses to create LexCorp. When Superman appears, Lex is angry that

24675-420: The mid-late 1980s, he has more often been portrayed as the power-obsessed CEO of LexCorp . He wishes to rid the world of Superman, ostensibly because he views Superman as a threat to humanity, but in reality because he envies Superman's popularity and influence. Given his high profile as a supervillain, however, he has often come into conflict with Batman and other superheroes in the DC Universe . Lex Luthor

24850-405: The new Supergirl (a protoplasmic being), who falls in love with him due to his resemblance to her lost love and creator, the Luthor of a parallel Earth. When Superman is seemingly killed by the living weapon Doomsday , the genetic research facility Project Cadmus creates a seeming clone of the hero called Superboy (Kon-El) . As Earth science cannot perfectly replicate Kryptonian DNA, Superboy

25025-490: The newspaper almost bankrupt. Superman's arrival challenges Luthor's image and brings renewed interest to the Planet when he does exclusive interviews with their staff. Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen, and Lois Lane work together to oppose Luthor's power and Superman tells the public they should strive to achieve great things themselves and not wait for others to be their saviors. Angry at Superman's interference and blaming him for losing

25200-405: The only one of the resurrected still wearing a White Ring, is stunned to realize he is alive and something is wrong. Larfleeze returns an unconscious Lex Luthor stripped of his ring, who briefly realizes that he has given something away, and demands that Sayd honors her debt to him. Ganthet protests but Sayd tells him all is well and believes she can somehow help Larfleeze. Sayd says the future of

25375-550: The only thing in the universe he considered "pure". As a last resort, Sinestro uses Lobo to channel the life energy into the universe, but this only results in the creation of a more twisted form of 'life' that follows Lobo's example by trying to destroy all remnants of the old existence and their own enemies, leaving Sinestro fighting to escape this world even as higher entities keep him contained so that he cannot contaminate other realities. Lex Luthor Alexander Joseph " Lex " Luthor ( / ˈ l uː θ ɔːr , - θ ər / )

25550-529: The opportunity. With this behind him, Hal merges with the entity and frees the reanimated heroes from Nekron's hold, creating the White Lantern Corps in the process, and subsequently reanimates Black Hand and the Anti-Monitor to deprive Nekron of his tether in the living world and his power source respectively. The White Lanterns used the power of the White Light to finally vanquish Nekron and

25725-535: The original Luthor. Every story would begin with him breaking out of prison, finding some giant robot in an old lab he hid somewhere, and then he'd be defeated. My view was if he could afford all those labs and giant robots he wouldn't need to rob banks. I also thought later that Luthor should not have super powers. Every other villain had super powers. Luthor's power was his mind. He needed to be smarter than Superman. Superman's powers had to be useless against him because they couldn't physically fight each other and Superman

25900-473: The other boy's attempts to form a friendship. Resentful toward his alcoholic and abusive father, Lex arranges his parents to die in a car accident and uses the insurance money to leave Smallville and start a better life. After studying under the villains Ra's al Ghul and Darkseid , he founds LexCorp and uses his PR, resources, and media control to set himself up as a near-savior in Metropolis. The Daily Planet opposes Luthor and he retaliates in ways that leave

26075-792: The pages of Dark Nights: Death Metal , Batman was revealed to have been killed during the battle against Perpetua and the Dark Knights from the Dark Multiverse which would explain his Black Lantern Ring. He later uses the Black Lantern rings to revive Air Wave, Animal Man, Anthro, Atom, Bat Lash, Black Condor, Blue Beetle, Claw the Unconquered, Dan the Dyna-Mite, Dove I, Enemy Ace, Fate, Hawk II, Hourman, Human Bomb, Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, Red Bee, both Red Tornadoes, Sandman, and TNT. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2009, Geoff Johns

26250-418: The planet Lexor and it becomes a regular home base and retreat for Luthor in-between his efforts to fight Superman and take over Earth. He later meets a local woman named Ardora (first called "Tharla" but renamed "Ardora" in later stories as well as the reprint of her first appearance). The two eventually fall in love and marry. Deciding to retire permanently, Luthor returns to Lexor and learns he has fathered

26425-407: The plasma that a Red Lantern vomits out, a mutated pitcher plant with strong digestive liquids, or the intense heat at Mogo 's core). Others that have proven resistant to the Black Lantern rings are either those who have wielded a power ring before or generally otherworldly beings such as Etrigan the Demon, who lacks a human heart and human emotions, Atrocitus, whose heart was replaced by his ring,

26600-473: The power meter is filled and Scar is able to transport the Black Central Power Battery to Coast City, and the true mastermind behind the Black Lanterns is able to step into the main DC Universe: Nekron . After being introduced into a primary role within the Blackest Night event, Indigo-1 recruits Hal Jordan to gather a team capable of recreating the white light of creation (chosen for having

26775-453: The powerful alien, the kind of companion he'd often hoped for, looks on him with disapproval and openly disrespects him in front of the media. For this and his interference with Luthor's criminal operations, the scientist businessman decides to humiliate and destroy the alien. Waid's original intention was to jettison the notion of Lex Luthor being an evil businessman, restoring his status as a mad scientist. He ultimately conceded, however, that

26950-451: The process. In the end, Luthor becomes a prisoner in his own body, unable to move or even blink, internally swearing vengeance on Superman. During the crossover Underworld Unleashed , the demon-lord Neron offers Luthor full health and vitality in exchange for services and his soul. Not believing in the existence of souls, Lex agrees and is restored, regaining the physical fitness of his Lex II body but again lacking head and facial hair, and

27125-417: The rest. Thousands of black rings assault the Corps' crypt, creating a Black Lantern Corps . Hal Jordan and the newly revived Flash investigate Bruce Wayne's grave and are attacked by Black Lantern Martian Manhunter . On Oa, the Green Lanterns are met by all of the resurrected Lanterns, now reborn as Black Lanterns. Hawkgirl and Hawkman are killed by Black Lanterns Elongated Man and Sue Dibny and join

27300-448: The rogue Guardian was forced to imprison the Sinestro Corps talekeeper Lyssa Drak inside the book. After Scar's true death and the end of the Blackest Night, The Book of the Black is found by Ganthet, who notes it retains much forbidden knowledge within its pages. He decides to keep it a secret from the other Guardians and entrusts Guy Gardner with the secret. The book is later taken by Krona who, after releasing Lyssa Drak from inside

27475-723: The seven Corps representatives attempt to summon aid by recruiting temporary deputies until the rest of their Corps arrive - Ganthet joins the Green Lantern Corps, Barry Allen joins the Blue Lanterns, Lex Luthor is inducted into the Orange Lanterns, the Scarecrow joins the Sinestro Corps, the Atom joins the Indigo Tribe, Mera joins the Red Lanterns, and Wonder Woman is saved from her Black Lantern identity to join

27650-402: The storyline "The Black Ring", Luthor is endowed with cosmic powers that could enable him to bring peace and bliss to the entire universe and therefore achieve his dream of being more respected than Superman, but he ultimately chooses to renounce his new powers when he realizes that his greatest enemy would never suffer again if he used them. At times, Lex has been shown evidence that Clark Kent

27825-421: The suit, Luthor performs several acts of destruction on Lexor, feigning ignorance when he hears about the "mystery marauder" and telling Ardora he has no knowledge of the armored man. When Superman arrives, Luthor dons his warsuit and attacks, now obsessed with the need to best the hero in combat and prove his superiority. The people of Lexor are shocked to realize he is the mystery marauder and does not care about

28000-459: The surgery) would be stolen. Eventually coming into the possession of Superman, who in turn entrusts it to Batman, tasking the Dark Knight to use it if the Man of Steel ever becomes corrupt or falls under the control of another. But removing the tainted limb was a mere half measure, as his affliction had already metastasized rendering Lex's condition terminal. Luthor fakes his death in

28175-675: The threat of the Blackest Night passed with the Black Lanterns disintegrating along with their power rings. Though seemingly destroyed, an aspect of the Black Lanterns returned within Firestorm when his dark undead persona emerged - claiming the name Deathstorm. Torturing the two hosts of the Firestorm Matrix, Deathstorm later traveled to the White Lantern Power Battery where he corrupted it. Whilst initially he intended to destroy it in order to kill all life in

28350-553: The time-traveling villain Brainiac 13 infuses Metropolis with technology from the future while his ancestor Brainiac, in need of a new physical vessel, mentally inhabits young Lena's body. Brainiac 13 offers Luthor control of the technology if Luthor turns over Brainiac and hands over his daughter. He later tells Superman that he has a "kingdom" now as a result of his deal, adding "As for my princess... I can always make another." Deciding to turn to politics, Luthor becomes President of

28525-463: The undead Giovanni "John" Zatara is capable of wielding black magic), Don is quite the opposite. Similarly, Blackest Night: Titans #1 shows Black Lantern Hank Hall unable to read Dawn Granger 's emotions; her aura depicted as being white rather than a color from the emotional spectrum. In Blackest Night: Batman #1, the spirit of Deadman is unable to prevent a black power ring from reviving his remains. Deadman attempts to possess his own corpse, but

28700-532: The universe and begin reviving the deceased as Black Lanterns that attack both the heroes and the villains of the DC Universe. It is claimed the Power Battery is in Space Sector 666. Black Hand is seen holding Wayne's skull in all future appearances, embracing it in a necrophiliac manner in Blackest Night #1 as the black power rings appear from the Black Power Battery, exclaiming that Wayne's death "plays

28875-403: The universe, a voice came and commanded him not to do so. Instead, it ordered Deathstorm to bring it an army in order for it to command the power over life itself. With those words said, the White Lantern Power Battery in conjunction with Deathstorm created undead Black Lanterns of the 12 reanimated heroes and villains who had been reborn at the end of the Blackest Night . After Deathstorm steals

29050-661: The villains whose remains have been in storage in the Hall of Justice . Mera and Flash flee the Black Lanterns and use Atom's powers to escape through a telephone line. Flash leaves and gives all the superheroes in the US the key to defeat the Black Lanterns—merging lights with a Green Ring—and the Atom, Mera and the Justice Society of America battle many Lanterns together. Jean Loring kills and causes Damage to revive as

29225-427: The white light of creation and bring an end to the Black Lanterns. Throughout the Blackest Night event, each time a Black Lantern successfully removes the heart of one of their victims, a black, lantern-shaped speech balloon (used within Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps to indicate that a power ring is speaking) depicts an ever-rising power level increasing in increments of 0.1 percent. In Blackest Night #4,

29400-451: The young scientist creates an artificial life-form of "primitive protoplasm." Overjoyed, he accidentally causes a chemical fire in the lab. Superboy puts out the fire, inadvertently spilling other chemicals, destroying the artificial life-form and the accumulated research notes that led to its creation. The chemical fumes also cause Lex's hair to completely fall out. Enraged he has lost years of research but unwilling to accept responsibility for

29575-440: Was able to discuss his reasoning behind choosing Black Hand as the leader of the new Corps, the character properties of the Black Lanterns, and his own goals in writing their depictions. Commenting on the characters being chosen to reanimate during Blackest Night , Johns said: The black rings aren't about who's dead; the black rings are about who's alive. So, scenes like Elongated Man and Sue Dibny taking on Hawkman and Hawkgirl

29750-581: Was first mentioned at the conclusion of the " Sinestro Corps War " in Green Lantern (vol. 4) #25. As the war between the Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps reaches its climax, the four Green Lanterns of Earth— Hal Jordan , Guy Gardner , John Stewart , and Kyle Rayner —are told by the Guardians Ganthet and Sayd of the Blackest Night prophecy. According to the prophecy, the two existing Corps would be joined by five new ones, each driven by

29925-474: Was jealous of his intellect and caused the fire himself. Believing he's been betrayed by his hero and friend, Lex swears revenge. His first attempts at that are grandiose scientific and engineering projects around Smallville to steal Superboy's thunder. When these attempts, for which, unknown to Luthor, Superboy was supportive as consolation that Lex was at least being constructive in his vendetta, each go disastrously awry and force Superboy to intervene while earning

30100-520: Was part of the larger DC Multiverse . The Silver Age version of Luthor was introduced in Adventure Comics #271 (April 1960), now given the first name "Lex" (later said to be short for Alexis, eventually retconned as Alexander) and an origin story . Originally hero-worshiping Superboy, teenage Lex Luthor of Smallville is determined to prove he is Earth's greatest scientist by creating artificial life. His recklessness and inexperience causes

30275-400: Was released on May 2, 2009 — Free Comic Book Day — and portrays a series of events directly leading into Blackest Night #1. The standalone, self-titled miniseries consists of Blackest Night #0 and eight monthly issues. Tie-ins include issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps starting with issues #43 and #38, respectively, and nine 3-issue limited series: Blackest Night: Tales of

30450-900: Was simply not as smart as Luthor. As originally presented in the Post- Crisis version of the DC Comics Universe, Lex Luthor is a product of child abuse and early poverty. Born in the Suicide Slum district of Metropolis , he is instilled with a desire to become a self-made man of great power and influence. As a teenager, he takes out a large life insurance policy on his parents without their knowledge, then sabotages their car's brakes, causing their deaths. Upon graduating from MIT , Luthor founds his own business, LexCorp , which grows to dominate much of Metropolis. Luthor does not fully appear in The Man of Steel mini-series until

30625-516: Was the case when Arthur's daughter Serenity cast protection spells which disrupted the blackout effect of his power ring. In the Flashpoint universe, the successful murder of William Hand at the hands of the Red Lantern called Atrocitus freed Nekron from imprisonment long before several of the different colored Lantern Corps and the long-prophesied "War of Light" ever erupted across

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