Superman: Brainiac Attacks

Lex was also featured in the direct-to-video animated movie Superman: Brainiac Attacks. Lex's character designs from Superman: The Animated Series, his job as a criminal businessman and his bodyguard Mercy Graves were used for this movie, but this version of Lex acted similar to Gene Hackman's Luthor from Superman: The Movie. He constantly spouted one-liners and at one point threw a Tiki Torch Luau to celebrate Superman's presumed death. Lex was voiced by Powers Boothe in this movie (who would later go on to provide the voice of Gorilla Grodd in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited).

Lex's role in this movie had him forming an alliance with Brainiac (this is also treated as the first meeting between the two). He placed Brainiac in a new robot body and sent him to destroy Superman. Afterwards Brainiac would pretend to be defeated by Lex and then leave Earth to conquer a different planet, while Lex would appear as a hero to a people and then continue his quest to rule Earth. Naturally this plan failed, Lex was beaten by Brainiac in battle, and the plan ended with a usual "Lex under investigation" ending.