Lex Luthor Jr

Lex Luthor, Jr. is born on Earth-Three, the son of that world's Lex Luthor, who is known as "Lex Luthor", and Lois Lane-Luthor. The senior Lex is Earth-Three's only hero, fighting the Crime Syndicate, an evil version of the Justice League of America. In the 1985 DC Comics 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, a being known as the Anti-Monitor destroys innumerable universes, including Earth-Three, with an anti-matter wave. To save their son, the Luthors place him in an experimental device that carries the infant to the relative safety of Earth-One.[1] The survivors of the Crisis are about to enter into the paradise dimension. Promotional art for Adventures of Superman #649 (April 2006) cover, by Ivan Reis.Lex materializes on the abandoned satellite that was formerly the headquarters of the Justice League. Harbinger takes him in at the request of the Monitor.[2] His passage through the anti-matter storm grants him power over both matter and anti-matter, as well as dramatically accelerating his aging process. By the conclusion of Crisis, Lex is a young adult, despite the passage of only a few weeks.[3] After the Monitor's death, Lex helps lead the heroes and villains of the DC Universe against the Anti-Monitor.[4] [5]

After defeating the Anti-Monitor with the help of Kal-L, the Earth-Two Superman, and the Earth-Prime Superboy, Lex reveals that he has saved Kal-L's wife, the Earth-Two Lois Lane from being erased from existence when the multiverse was destroyed. The foursome, no longer having a place in the new Post-Crisis universe, retreat to a "paradise dimension" which Lex accesses using the last of his dimensional powers.[6]  Infinite Crisis Secret Files reveals how the four survivors spend the years since the Crisis. The survivors have power over the dimension, and it reacts to their thoughts and emotions. Lex, who has rapidly aged to his mid-30s, becomes colder and detached from the well-being of the universe's living beings. Superboy-Prime becomes frustrated, and Lex uses this opportunity to convince him to help fix reality. Playing on his anger, Lex only shows him the negatives of the new reality to convince him that it is inferior. For example, Superboy-Prime appears to be unaware that Hal Jordan and Parallax are two separate entities. Furiously trying to escape, Superboy-Prime pounds on the barrier wall of the paradise dimension but is unsuccessful. This assault on the universe causes "ripples" that alter reality, explaining in-story the real-life changes and retcons in DC continuity for the past 20 years.[7] Superboy-Prime's efforts frustrate him; he is not as powerful in the post-Crisis heaven because he has no yellow sun to power him. Eventually, Lex reveals that his own powers are returning, and the two combine forces to break through the barrier wall. Together, they set into motion the events that culminate in Infinite Crisis: Superboy-Prime pushes the planet Rann into Thanagar's orbit, destroying Thanagar's ecosystem, sparking the Rann-Thanagar War, and shifting the center of the universe away from Oa.[8] Lex poses as his father Lex Luthor and starts the new Society of Super-Villains.[9] Lex recruits the Psycho-Pirate to place Eclipso's Black Diamond in Jean Loring's Arkham Asylum cell.[10] Loring as Eclipso then seduces the Spectre into destroying all magic.[11] Superboy-Prime destroys the Justice League Watchtower and abducts Martian Manhunter.[12] Lex takes control of Brother Eye from Batman, which gives him control over the OMACs, as well as Checkmate's files on Earth's meta-humans.[13] Lex watches the events happening in the post-Crisis Earth for several years with his companions, and he eventually convinces a pessimistic Kal-L to break the walls of their paradise to intervene in the post-Crisis Earth.[14] Lex tells Kal-L and his cousin Power Girl that they can help him bring aspects of Earth-Two into predominance over the merged universes (as Earth-One had become predominant Post-Crisis), which will help Earth-Two's Lois Lane recover from her current illness.[15]

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Alexander Luthor is confronted by Lex Luthor. Panels from Infinite Crisis #3 (February 2006), art by Phil Jimenez.Lex Sr does everything in his power to find his impersonator. Taking the identity Mockingbird, he organizes the Secret Six. He spies on all of Lex's transmissions for months and finally confronts him in the Arctic. When Lex Sr asks who he is, Lex replies, "I'm you. Only better." Lex also reveals that his presence on Earth is what has been causing Lex Sr's recent erratic behavior and the interference with his thought processes. Lex Sr is almost killed by Lex and Superboy-Prime, but escapes by teleporting away.

Not only is Lex masquerading as his father Lex Luthor, he is also using the Society to construct a massive dimensional "tuning fork", like those in the original Crisis. The structure incorporates heroes and villains from the Earths that had combined to form the post-Crisis Earth, as well as the remains of the Anti-Monitor.[16] The Anti-Monitor's corpse is turned into a tower. From a panel from Infinite Crisis #3 (February 2006), art by Phil Jimenez.The device requires a vast power source to operate, which Lex generates by manipulating the Spectre into destroying magic (as seen in Day of Vengeance). The result is a raw form of magic that the device can tap into. Lex programs the tower by granting sentience to the Brother Eye satellite, allowing the system to evolve into a brain capable of directing the tower's energies.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ic4_16-0">[17]

Using the device, Lex is able to divide the universe, re-creating the multiverse. Lex appears to be successful in recreating Earth-Two (or a close facsimile); however, he notes that objective is not his ultimate one, which is to gather elements from every Earth to create one single, perfect Earth. With the parallel Earths restored, Lex combines various Earths. At the center of the universe, Donna Troy and her team see gigantic representations of Lex's hands creating a rip in space.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ic5_17-0">[18]

As Lex attempts to combine Earth-Two and Earth-Three (an act that would have killed Superman and Wonder Woman), Firestorm converts all the energy the heroes are firing at the rip into raw positive matter, which destroys Lex's right index finger. Immediately after, Nightwing, Wonder Girl and Superboy arrive at the tower and free the captives. Superboy-Prime enters the fray. His fight with Conner destroys the tower, and the multiple Earths collapse into a single "New Earth".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ic6_18-0">[19]

His plan foiled, Lex decides that if he can not create a perfect Earth, then he will take this Earth by force and shape it as best he can. To that end, the Society gathers in Metropolis to decimate the remaining heroes, with Doomsday as their champion.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ic7_19-0">[20]

[edit] Death
Alexander Luthor, Jr. is killed by the Joker as Lex Luthor watches on, in panels from Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006), art by Phil Jimenez and Jerry Ordway.After losing the battle- during which he seriously injures Nightwing with a blast that apparently drains his power-, Lex is held at gunpoint by Batman for severely injuring Nightwing and causing the death of Superboy. However, Wonder Woman stops him, telling Batman that Lex isn't worth it, and Lex flees, proclaiming that this doesn't mean that Wonder Woman is 'better'.

Lex Sr and the Joker find him hiding in an alley in Gotham City. The Joker mutilates Lex's face with his acid-flower and lethal joybuzzer, while Lex Sr taunts his enemy for his various mistakes, including underestimating him and excluding the Joker from the Society (the Joker was the only major villain not offered membership in the Society, due to his highly unpredictable nature). The Joker then shoots Lex point blank in the head with a shotgun, killing him, while LexSr mockingly asks, "Now who's stupid?".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ic7_19-1">[20]

In 52 Week Three, the Gotham City Police Department find a body in an alley that looks like Lex Sr. John Henry Irons examines the body at S.T.A.R. Labs and notices that contact lenses were inserted post-mortem to make the blue eyes appear green, like Lex Sr's. Lex Sr barges in with a throng of reporters, claiming that the body is that of an impostor from another Earth, the man truly responsible for his various crimes.

Though Lex's body had a missing finger and a different genetic make-up from Lex Sr's, 52 editor Stephen Wacker has confirmed that the body found in Gotham is indeed Lex, and that Lex Sr had altered it before the police had discovered it.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20">[21]

The Death of The New Gods mini-series (2008) reveals that Lex was subtly manipulated by the Source into recreating the Multiverse. The Blackest Night storyline, Lex Luthor Sr has been identified as one of the deceased entombed below the Hall of Justice.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bn1_21-0">[22] Alexander's corpse is revived as a Black Lantern during the Blackest Night event.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bn3_22-0">[23] Gathering a group of black rings, he sends himself to Earth Prime. Once there, he tracks down Superboy Prime, giving him a copy of his old battlesuit, and prepares to kill him. Lex also brings forth those that Prime had killed during Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, using the rings to reanimate them as Black Lanterns, to aid him in defeating the insane Boy of Steel.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23">[24] The Black Lanterns overwhelm Prime, who voluntarily puts on a black ring. The ring reacts to Prime's mixed emotions, cycling through the power set of the Emotional spectrum, resulting in a burst of rainbow-colored energy that destroys Lex and his fellow Black Lanterns.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24">[25] Lex's greatest talent is his genius-level intellect, which he uses to manipulate other characters, to outwit his enemies, and to engineer the Multiverse Tower. The circumstances of his escape from the doomed Earth-Three give him power over matter and anti-matter, which he can use offensively as bursts of energy or to form and control dimensional portals. However, it would appear that over-use of his power can drain him, as, following his attempt to restore the Multiverse and a subsequent attack on Nightwing, he was left apparently as vulnerable as a normal human, seemingly afraid of being shot by Batman and subsequently killed by the Joker. In a Newsarama interview with Wolfman about writing Infinite Crisis Secret Files, Wolfman said:

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