Alexander 'Lex' Luthor

Lex bedazzled by a chunk of Kryptonite ore found in the Indian Ocean

Alexander 'Lex' Luthor, more commonly referred too as simply 'Lex Luthor', is a central main antagonist of When Universes Collide, alongside Darkseid and Morgoth. Luthor was born in New York to an unidentified East German businessman with the same surname, whom managed Lexcorp, a highly successful and expansive conglomerate that specialised in banking and regulating international trade. After his father's death through unknown causes (it's theorised Lex orchestrated his untimely termination), Lex inherited the company and began steering it for more nefarious purposes.

In 2023, under Luthor's direction, Lexcorp became more actively involved in world affairs, offering itself a solution to regional conflicts in the Middle-East, while also simultaneously and secretly smuggling weapons into Afghanistan to continue the insurgencies there. This is because Lexcorp was partnered with Omnicorp, a private military corporation and bionics institution that sought to inflate the war economy and use it to sell products at quickened rates. This alliance proved deadly for world peace, as consistently, both companies often worked in conjunction to fund operations of terrorist factions and dictatorships across the planet that were adversaries to United Nations interests. However, an investigative journalist named Barbara Gordon seemed squared on the trail of Lexcorp's illegal activities, having already uncovered crates of Lexcorp weaponry lying around in Syria during a trip there. To stop her, Lex arranged to meet the supercriminal Joker, a mentally insane Clown Prince of Crime responsible for hundreds of deaths.

During this clandestine meeting, Luthor revealed to Joker that Barbara Gordon was the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, a close ally to Joker's great nemesis, the Batman. Immediately sold on the idea of targeting her to edge Batsy closer to insanity, the two formed a symbiotic partnership. This alliance allowed Joker bountiful access to bombs, assault rifles, and holographic maps detailing Gotham City. With all these resources, Joker managed to track down Barbara Gordon and shoot her legs, crippling the girl forever, though inadvertantly creating an even greater thorn in Lex's side in the form of The Oracle.

Despite this, Lex's illicit wrongdoings were kept safe from international eyes for now, leaving Luthor free to continue his plans discreetly. This was, however, until the arrival of another new enemy. The Kryptonian superhero Superman, whom began destroying Lexcorp shipments. Using his super-strength and intuition, Superman, and his alter-ego, Clark Joseph Kent, were able to uncover Lexcorp and Omnicorp's massive hand in much of the world's ongoing misery, but was never able to prove this bombshell report thanks to both bribed officials in the Daily Planet, and refusal of any civilians to believe his crazy theory. Unfortunately, Superman's knowledge alone greatly threatened Lex, and thus a longstanding enmity was forged between these two arch-rivals.

Decades into the future, after continuous back and forths between Superman and Lex, the super-genius had grown from an immature, egotistical, albeit grand strategist to a calm, matured, somewhat heroic even industrialist. Lex had developed a unique ideology during his many battles against Superman and the Justice League, a team of elite superheroes assembled by Batman of Gotham that included his caped menace. This ideology was 'Neo-Humanism', the believe that humanity needed to ascend into enlightened, interstellar beings if they were to survive the modern age.