Lex Luthor (Superman: Red Son)

* 1980s
* 1960s
* 1950s

**Lex Luthor** is the anti-heroic deuteragonist of the 2020 film adaptation of *Superman: Red Son*.

In an alternate timeline where Superman landed in the Soviet Union, Lex remained the head of his own company while being married to Lois and leading the charge against Superman's tyranny to stop him from conquering the world.

## What Makes Him Magnificent?

* He is a literal chessmaster that used the game to represent his conflict with Superman.
* He anticipated that the Soviet Union was working on an alleged "Superman" that they soon revealed to the world in a series of propaganda films.
* He executed a brilliant gambit to prove to the West and other skeptics around the world that Superman was real by sabotaging a Soviet satellite to crash into Metropolis in order to force Superman to save it.
* His above plan also allowed him to extract Superman's DNA from satellite and successfully construct a clone to counter him called Superior Man.
* He secretly passed a confidential file of to his wife Lois so she could prove to Superman during their informal interview that Stalin was a mass murderer that operated a gulag system, so Superman would not only shutdown the gulags, but assassinate Stalin.
* He's rather progressive for his time as he supported his wife's career in journalism and casually invented the solar engine in the 50s to revolutionize the automobile industry whilst being burdened with the entire conflict of the film.
* He set up Superior Man to die by overloading him with juice in order to test Superman's limits as much as possible...as was his plan all along as he knew Superior Man only had a 12% chance of actually killing Superman.
* He figured out that red sun energy would depower Superman, something Superman himself didn't know, and secretly funded the terrorist Batman with red sun lamps to lay a beatdown on Superman and come the closest to killing him, if it hadn't been for Wonder Woman breaking free of her own lasso by exhausting all her strength.
* He reverse engineered alien Green Lantern technology and created the United States' own version of the Green Lantern Corps with Hal Jordan at the helm to combat Superman, nearly killing him once more if Wonder Woman hadn't unexpectedly returned.
* He saves the United States from collapse upon being elected president by reviving the economy and democracy, causing the turning point in the Cold War that subsequently causes the Soviet Union to decline.
* He constructs his own Lexosuit and after Lois redeems Superman, he saves her from Brainiac and teams up with Superman to stop Brainiac and save the world, using his own tech to break through Brainiac's nigh-impenetrable shields to allow Superman to put an end to him once and for all.
* Above all, Lex is a major case of adaptational niceness and heroism from the original comic. He was a genuine anti-hero/extremist with good intentions in stopping Superman's tyranny, was a loving husband to Lois and regretful of his mistakes like forgetting their anniversary or killing Superior Man once Lois rightfully called him out on it, and most of all, in the ending of the film, he's both saddened and inspired by Superman's heroic sacrifice that he steps down as U.S. president to spend time with Lois while promising the collapsing Soviet Union his and the American's people's help in transitioning to democracy. This serves in contrast to his neglectful, egotistical original comic self who ends the story by conquering the world.

## What Makes Him a Baddie?

* He secretly sabotaged a Soviet satellite to crash into Metropolis to see if Superman was real and thereby save it. While Superman luckily turned out to be real, not only would Metropolis and countless innocent lives have been destroyed if he wasn't, but even then, his actions tricked a lot of people including President Eisenhower into believing the Soviets intentionally dropped their own satellite for propaganda purposes and heightened Cold War tensions.
* He sent Superior Man to Moscow to pick a fight with Superman with zero regard to the countless civilian lives that were lost as collateral damage during the ensuing fight.
* He set up Superior Man to die a rather painful death against Superman by overloading him with the maximum amount of power, just to test Superman to his limits, though to his credit he does feel regret for this and apologize once Lois calls him out on it.
* He was secretly complicit in Batman's terrorist activities via funding him with red sun lamps to use against Superman while turning a blind eye to his more unsavory actions.

## Trivia

* He, Lex Luthor (Tomorrowverse), and Lex Luthor (DCAU) are the only versions of Lex Luthor that are MB.