"Lex Luthor"
The film begins with a scene of eighteen year-old Alexander "Lex" Luthor celebrating his graduation from Smallville High School with his only friend Clark Kent. Lex gets a phone call and is told his parents died in a car crash. Although Clark is very sympathetic, Lex claims their memory will live on through his success. From there we see Lex Luthor inheriting life insurance from his parent's death while also informing us that he had cut the brakes to his parent's car. We see Lex receive degree after degree, become enlisted into The U.S. government's state-of-the-art lab facility Argus, and experiment on the corpses of superpowered individuals. One scene shows Argus had captured "The Superboy" and assigned Lex to head the research, but this failed and Superboy broke out of the facility and caused an explosion that left Lex bruised and bald. From then on, Lex focused on building his body to peak strength, building an empire of technology, and cleaning up the city of Metropolis, all while waiting for this Superboy to return.
In present day, Lex is in his office at MetroCorp when his assistant Mercy Graves gives him papers regarding his new project. Lex feels the need to see how it's doing himself, but remembers he has an interview. A man named Elias Orr is brought in and questioned by Lex. Orr used to be a special forces agent, he had left because of the strictness of his superiors. Lex makes one last request of Orr before hiring him as his "negotiator", he asks Orr if he prefers to be called "Otis". After this, Lex observes "Project Hope", a sentient superpowered being in a liquid casing being developed by Lex's top scientist. Doctor Thomas Marrow is highly critical of this project and mocks Hope by calling her "The Supergirl", but Lex ignores him and talks to Hope, he tells her how important she will be to this Earth. Later that night, Lex records his memoirs regarding Hope's creation. Lex believes with Superman gone, humanity can finally strive to become more than what they are, that the boulder in the path has been rolled aside and humans can create new forms of life, like Hope. Lex tenses up, as he sees Superman outside his window with red-eyes glaring down at him. "When I built this tower all those years ago, it was prove nothing could ever stand above human ingenuity" Lex says to this apparition, "but then you flew. You flew higher than any building could be made. You were above all of us and they worshipped you".
Another flashback shows Lex Luthor as the face of Metropolis, owning most of it's businesses and structures. The day Superman first showed up in Metropolis to stop a bank robbery was the day Lex had been waiting for. While Lex lied to the public about supporting Superman, he researched him from behind the scenes and sent giant robots, criminal goons, and lab-grown superhumans like The Parasite to fight Superman, to learn more about him. Lex hacked a government satellite to find a chunk of radioactive rock falling towards Earth. This "Kryponite" was the remains of Superman's planet and the only thing that could harm him, this gave Lex an edge.
In present day, Lex Luthor is at a board meeting discussing the construction of "The Science Spire" a new facility of labs stacked into a building higher than MetroCorp HQ itself. To the public, this is Lex opening up to working with fellow scientific industries, but in reality Lex needs a public distraction. The problem-as Mercy puts it-is that union workers building the spire want a higher wage, to remedy this Lex claims the spire will be "non-profit". Lois Lane of The Daily Planet is asked by Perry White not to report on this story, as Luthor owns shares of The Daily Planet and in an age of computers is one of the only people keeping this newspaper publisher alive. Lois still prints the story of the spire being non-profit, but holds back her criticisms. Luthor is again reading over the specs for Hope, but is becoming impatient with the lack of productivity going into the project. While Lex looks up an old robotics expert he used to know, Mercy comes in and shows Lex on her tablet how Project B-0 and Project SB-2 are coming along. B-0 has entered the adult phase, but after Doomsday meddled with the lab during "Superman: Doom" B-0's biology has "reversed". While pertaining some of Superman's powers, this clone of Superman has developed new powers to replace the ones he failed to develop. The SB-2 clone is in the infant phase and-like B-0-is starting to suffer from genetic breakdown. Mercy claims that while human cloning is possible from their end, cloning a Kryptonian perfectly is impossible. Lex doesn't seem to care as Hope is his main priority. Once Mercy recalls how Metallo and Doomsday ended up, Lex agrees to look into the clone projects. Mercy leaves the room, but standing in the doorway is the Superman apparition again. Lex stares back at this illusion and gets a call from Otis.
Another flashback shows Superman fighting another Kryptonian in Metropolis, while Lex Luthor gathers civilians into LexCorp to keep them safe. The enemy Kryptonian throws Superman through LexCorp and the people inside are about to be crushed. Luckily, Superman uses his strength and speed to hold up debris and give the people a chance to escape. Superman fights the evil Kryptonian in the wreckage of LexCorp, unaware that Lex has prepared a Kryptonite laser. The laser malfunctions when fired and a large energy blast knocks all three of them back. Although weakened, Superman is able to defeat the evil Kryptonian, but he glares down at Lex and now knows that Lex has been trying to hurt him. Lex claims the Earth needs protection from people like Superman, and that the evil Kryptonian is proof of that. Superman silently picks the defeated villain up and flies off, leaving Lex in the remains of his own building.
Otis holds the union worker leader over the edge of the almost completed Science Spire, the leader is tossed back on the roof floor and put on the phone with Lex. Lex claims that he knows the man has a wife and kids, just like all the workers, and that he can arrange a fate for them much worse than being painted on the pavement. The leader agrees to continue work on the spire. Lex tells Otis over the phone that he has a new assignment for him. The next morning, Lex Luthor personally visits John Henry Irons in the hospital. John of course used high-tech armor and the name "Steel" to help Superman defeat Doomsday, but suffered major injuries because of it. Lex assigns a new doctor to take care of John, the same doctor who amazingly fixed Luthor up after his fight with Doomsday. John wants to refuse, he wants to tell everyone how Lex Luthor has lied to them, he wants to finish what Superman started years ago, but Lex knows this and he knows John is not alone. John has a daughter, but Lex does not threaten his family, instead he shows John the specs for Hope and claims he will never have to worry about protecting his daughter, because Hope will. Along with protecting the city, Hope will be asked to check on John and his daughter five times a day. John is enraged, but Lex holds his offer and leaves. As he walks out, he sees the Superman apparition watching him in the sky above.
In another flashback, Lex Luthor is dining at a restaurant in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne shows up late, hang-over sunglasses hiding his eyes. Bruce comments on how quickly Lex recovered after "K-Day", but Lex is more interested in buying his company, but Bruce refuses. Lex then tells Bruce that Superman's presence has changed things for people on Earth, that his mere existence spits in the face of human strength. Lex regards how Bruce demonstrated that strength by running his company after his parents died. Lex claims the world will never know that strength again as long as Superman appears perfect. Lex gives Bruce a small sample of Kryptonite to protect himself, just in case.
Otis drags a heavy-set man into Lex's lab and takes the bag off of his head. This man is Winslow Schott, former LexCorp scientist who quit after the events of "K-Day" to first build weapons for the U.S. military, and then to be fired for his alleged cases of "pedophilia". Now, Winslow owns a repair shop called "The Toyman" and fixes toys professionally. Lex shows Winslow the work being done on Hope and requests additional help in finishing her production, as he needs her done as soon as the Science Spire is done. Winslow refuses at first, but Lex promises some funding to "make toys of his own". Winslow agrees to help. Lex goes to talk to Hope again, furthering their fascination which each other. When Lex leaves the lab, he sees Superman's ghost at the end of the hallway.
Another flashback shows a LexCorp drone monitoring the activities of Batman in Metropolis. Lex watches from his still-in-repair office as Superman floats down from the sky to talk to Batman. Superman tries to be civil, but Batman wants Superman to turn over the evil Kryptonian to the government. When Superman refuses, Batman pulls out the Kryptonite which is blown away by Superman's breath. Superman easily defeats Batman and leaves him in a pile of trash. Lex is disappointed, but amused.
At the opening of The Science Spire, Lex unveils Hope, who is now finished and ready to protect Metropolis. Steel shows up-now wearing Superman's "S"-and claims to support Hope's quest to protect the city. Scenes show us that Hope has become a corporate-sponsered superhero, turning down offers into The Justice League and committing herself to protecting Metropolis. She tells the public she was born in Metropolis and was an upstanding citizen who Lex gave powers to in order to help pick up from where Superman left off. People like Lois Lane openly bash Hope, but the general public loves her. Lex Luthor loves Hope too, and after sometime of working together, they begin sleeping together. Mercy discovers this and half-mentions it to Thomas Marrow, Otis, and Winslow. Lex lays in bed with Hope, happy to know the Superman ghost doesn't haunt him anymore.
Days later, Otis brings a package of parts to Winslow. Winslow uses the parts to build a walking, talking teddy bear. In his shop, Winslow has created doll and soldier minions. Winslow takes the bear and hides behind an ally, using a remote control to lead the bear towards a daycare center. At MetroCorp, Hope and Lex are at a meeting with the MetroCorp board when an explosion in Metropolis goes off. Hope flies out to look into it while Lex discovers Winslow walked an explosive bear into the daycare, but Lex hadn't put explosives into the next package. Winslow runs through town trying to get back to "The Toyman" as both Hope and Steel race to find him. Lex gets his hands on a control console and watches the chase. Hope picks Winslow up and flies him above the city, with civilians yelling at her to drop him. Steel tells her not to drop him, but something makes Hope lose her grip and drop Winslow. The people are cheering when they think this murderous pedophile is about to die, but Steel saves him and brings him to the police. Hope comes back to Lex's lab and discovers Lex had control of her and that she isn't an organism, but actually an android. Feeling betrayed, Hope tries to kill Lex, but is summoned elsewhere.
Lex starts to put the pieces together, if Hope was going to kill him, but suddenly adopted ulterior goals, where would that programing come from? Lex, Mercy and Otis hold guns to Lex's entire staff until they find out that Winslow programmed a backup function to Hope. As Hope breaks Winslow out of prison, Mercy explains to Lex that Winslow put a second function into Hope that would activate after she discovered she was a robot. This function was to "Find Winslow Schott and follow his orders". Winslow, Hope, and an army of robot toys take over The Science Spiral and plant bombs on it's base to make it fall over MetroCorp if necessary. Winslow demands the public assassination of Lex Luthor. Mercy and Otis protect Lex from his own less-than-loyal employees and barricade in the cloning lab. Luthor prepares his new-and-improved mechsuit and takes B-0 out of his chamber. Otis puts a gun to Lex's head, claiming if it wasn't for him this would have never happened. B-0 rips off Otis' arm and kills him with his molten breath. B-0 then mistakenly calls himself "Bizarro". Mercy gives Bizarro jeans, boots, a little red cape and a Superman t-shirt, which Bizarro puts on inside-out.
Lex and Bizarro break into The Science Spiral, with Steel joining them. Steel tries to fight Hope, but Winslow uses his tech to control Steel's suit and dump him out of the suit and out of the window. Lex commands Bizarro to fight, but the monster flies after John to catch him. Hope fights Lex and when she learns Lex had the capability to clone her-rather than making her a robot-she becomes even more mad and prematurely detonates the bombs below. Bizarro shields John from the blast and Lex uses a javelin to impale Hope onto Winslow. Lex then flies outside and uses all the strength in his suit to keep the Science Spiral from falling into MetroCorp. Bizarro flies back up and hold the building while Lex flies down and denotes the other side of the spiral so that instead of falling over, it will collapse down. He then uses the remaining power in his suit to create a forcefield around the spiral that will keep debris from falling into Metropolis. The spiral crashes down and Lex is pulled out of the rubble by Bizarro, who greets him with a hug. Lex wonders if cloning wasn't the way to go after all. Hope emerges from the wreckage, tossing the javelin and Winslow's corpse aside. Now knowing her full functions, she activates the nuclear core in her body and plans of blowing up half of the city. Lex is unable to stop her as his suit is out of power. She tries to grip him, but Bizarro grabs her from behind. Bizarro starts flying up and Lex tells him that the explosion will kill him. Bizarro smiles at Lex and yells, "Up, up, and away" as he rockets himself and Hope into the vacuum of space. Hope and Bizarro explode as Lex watches from the ground below.
A month later, Lex is seen walking down a hallway with Mercy catching him up with SB-2 and tells him that the mixing of Kryptonian DNA and human DNA successfully stabilized SB-2's growth. Lex's new "Otis" whispers to Lex a location. In front of MetroCorp, John Henry Irons and Emil Hamilton announces their partnership with MetroCorp and unveil three Superman robots who will patrol Metropolis. Public opinion is divided, but John assures Superman would want a shield over the city and that "if Lex wasn't recovering" he'd say the same. John walks off the stage and embraces his daughter, watching as one of the Superman robots nods at him. Professor Thomas Marrow is watching this event on his coach, throwing popcorn at the TV and hating on the event. The door opens and Lex Luthor walks into the room. Lex reveals he found out Marrow had given Winslow the explosives and had programmed the second function into Hope to ruin/kill Lex and take over MetroCorp. Marrow argues that Lex has more power than he knows what to do with, and that his time as Metropolis' star is long past over. Marrow then scoffs, "So what now? You fire me? You toss me in jail?" and Lex says, "No Thomas, you have more knowledge than you know what to do with". Lex knocks Marrow to the ground and rolls up his sleeves, we're shown in the shadows that Lex Luthor beats Thomas Marrow to death. Lex Luthor sits in his office that night, shredding papers about Hope and looking over the Superman robot specs, a shadow looms over Lex from outside the window. Lex looks Superman eye-to-eye.
A flashback shows Mercy and Lex talking after John Corben/Metallo's transformation. Mercy and Lex argue about Lex's obsession with defeating Superman, Mercy claims Lex could save the world if he wasn't so petty. Lex stomps out of the room, but he overhears Mercy talk to the unconscious Corben, she claims Lex could never except that Superman was Clark Kent because Lex can't psychologically accept that someone just as human as anyone else could have the power of a god.
Lex watches Superman through the window and tells him how his actions where justified. How killing Superman was like dispersing a tornado or stopping an earthquake, Lex claims because of Superman there are people who wear masks and capes and stupid costumes and keep evil alive rather than removing it. Lex says Superman is the reason the world needs a Superman, and that Lex will not stop until he makes a world that doesn't need a Superman. Lex turns his back and orders Superman (who this time turns out to be a robot) to fly away. Lex sits down again and says, "I am a man. I hope".
After the credits, the former-God Apollo wanders the Russian forests and falls into the snow. A man picks Apollo up and tends to him in a cabin. Apollo asks how he can ever repay him, and Vandal Savage tells Apollo he can help him destroy The Justice League. Apollo claims he has no god powers and that he would be useless against the heroes, but Vandal opens a file of plans and says, "Not to worry, friend. Everyone has a weakness".
Thanks for reading!
"Deadliest Shadow" will bring out the animal in Batman, next time on PBDC.
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