Some 25 years ago, the United States of America went through a gut-twisting presidential election, when Vice-President Al Gore faced off against Texas Governor George W. Bush. As that fateful November evening drew to a close, no one was quite sure what would happen …
… and then Lex Luthor won.
This is the story of the DC Universe’s 43rd President of the United States, Alexander Joseph “Lex” Luthor.
Now, keep in mind this is not quite the original Lex Luthor, introduced in April 1940’s Action Comics #23 by Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. For decades, that character was a criminal scientist who (in a later incarnation) had resented Superman ever since their shared adolescence in Smallville. No, this was Luthor the once-and-future Metropolis tycoon, as rebooted by John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Andy Helfer and company starting in the summer of 1986, who could not stand having to share the spotlight with some strange visitor from another planet.
Indeed, this version had certainly gone through some changes even in the 14 years between the Man of Steel miniseries and the Superman: Lex 2000 special. I’m thinking specifically of “Lex Luthor II,” when he
- a) found out he was terminally ill and
- b) faked his own death in order to
- c) transplant his brain into a younger clone which
- d) had been raised in Australia because
- e1) it was so remote and/or
- e2) maybe because of that running gag about “Luthor, Ruler of Australia” from Superman II…?
Anyway, Luthor II and his luxurious red mane lasted a shocking three years and nine months (October 1991’s Action Comics #670 to July 1995’s Adventures of Superman #525). By the time of Luthor’s election, it was well in the past but still hadn’t been retconned away. As we’ll see, it might have been one of his more benign secrets – and it was also longer than Luthor’s time in office.
Luthor was also DC’s first deviation from the line of real-world POTUSes. Just going back to the Crisis On Infinite Earths year of 1985, DC had given readers its versions of Ronald Reagan (for example, outlawing superheroes in 1986’s Legends), George H.W. Bush (dealing with the Extremists in a 1990 Justice League Europe arc), and Bill Clinton (who spoke at Superman’s funeral).
Of course, Luthor despised Superman for displacing him as Metropolis’ number-one citizen. As revealed by Greg Rucka and Matthew Clark in 2001’s President Luthor Secret Files & Origins, Luthor turned this to his advantage. Lex realized that if he were President, Superman’s loyalty to the office would override any personal animosity, and Luthor could use it as cover.
Luthor didn’t mention that strategy in his campaign announcement, depicted in August 2000’s Adventures of Superman #581. Instead, he focused on his role in rebuilding Gotham City after its 1999 earthquake, which was so devastating that the federal government literally cut it off from the rest of the country. Ultimately, it came out that Luthor was acting behind the scenes to buy up the city’s prime real estate. (Having villainous allies like Bane and the Joker probably wasn’t helpful either.) Wayne Enterprises ended all its military contracts with the government as a result, and scored its own lucrative reconstruction deals. In retaliation, Luthor had Bruce Wayne framed for murder. [That arc lasted nine months collectively, from March 2002’s Batman: The Ten-Cent Adventure to December 2002’s Batgirl #33.]
But that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves. Probably the biggest event of the Luthor presidency was the Imperiex War, chronicled in August-October 2001’s “Our Worlds At War” crossover. It featured a cosmic devourer who wanted to remake the universe with no imperfections, and it brought in the likes of Darkseid and Brainiac. However, it may be infamous in the real world for unintentionally mirroring the events of September 11, 2001. Adventures of Superman #596 came out on September 12, and opened with shots of ravaged Earth cities, including Metropolis’ twin LexCorp towers. Superman himself adopted a modified costume, with black instead of yellow highlights, to reflect the planet’s shared trauma.
Naturally, as the nominal leader of the free world, Luthor took an active role in rallying Earth’s superheroes (not to mention the American military) to repel Imperiex’s forces. Again, though, Lois Lane discovered, and Clark Kent reported (in Superman #182, July 2002), that Luthor knew about Imperiex’s plans well in advance, and chose not to share the information. Luthor denied everything and remained in office.
Shortly thereafter, though, Luthor’s presidency started to unravel. In Superman/Batman issues #1-6 (October 2003-March 2004), the government discovered that a Brazil-sized Kryptonite asteroid was headed straight for Earth. Luthor decided to blame Superman for it and declared him and Batman public enemies. Eventually Luthor just dropped all the acts and went full-on battle-suited mad scientist, owning up to his Imperiex knowledge and adding that he traded Doomsday to Darkseid in exchange for Apokoliptian weapons. (Insert Luka Doncic joke here.) While Captain Atom used a giant Superman/Batman robot to destroy the asteroid, Luthor went into hiding, and Pete Ross became President. The Luthor Era of American politics had spanned three years and seven months, from that campaign announcement in August 2000’s Adventures #581 to a very demonstrative meltdown in March 2004’s Superman/Batman #6.
Wait a second – did you say Pete Ross? The kid who knew Clark was Superboy, but Superboy didn’t know he knew? Where was he during all of this?
Well, our old pal Pete had been involved in Kansas politics for a while, briefly becoming a United States Senator in about 1992. He and Lana Lang also married and had a child, who they named Clark. (Lana later emphasized to Superman that her son was, like him, named after Martha Clark Kent.) Luthor picked Pete as his vice-president in order to return the favor for Pete’s dad being one of Lex’s dad’s only Smallville friends (see August 2004’s Superman Secret Files & Origins). Unfortunately, Pete’s marriage ended before Luthor’s presidency did. Lana got custody of their son (October 2003’s Action #806) and Pete resigned in the summer of 2004 (the aforementioned Secret Files).
From then until early 2009, the DC-USA’s 45th President was Jonathan Horne. His final appearance was in February 2009’s Superman #682; and his successor was Martin Suarez, whose election was shown in 2008’s DCU: Decisions miniseries. [That miniseries was a weird duck, written by two of DC’s most vocally political regulars, conservative Bill Willingham and liberal Judd Winick.] By 2011, however, the texts had caught up with reality, and were depicting Barack Obama as the (47th) President.
[You might have noticed that, in the crowd of people who were DC-POTUS from 2001 through 2011, none were named George W. Bush. Presumably Horne won re-election in 2004, Suarez then won in 2008, and Obama succeeded him – or, perhaps more likely, some cosmic event intervened – between then and July 2011, when the DC Wiki lists Obama’s first appearance in Action Comics #901. The younger Bush does appear in flashback in the first arc of the New 52 Justice League, but of course that is no longer the main universe.]
So what are we to make of the Luthor presidency? He did seek to keep the country safe from cosmic invaders and radioactive extinction-level space rocks; he was motivated by a certain love of humanity (although the kind of humanity native to the planet Earth); and he did have to make some tough decisions. There was a whole subplot about Luthor discovering Superman’s secret that involved the amoral telepath Manchester Black, but I didn’t mention it because it was too complicated. At one point Luthor was protecting Superman from Black, but in the end Black made Luthor “forget,” so it was all kind of a wash.
Luthor also sought to avoid conflicts of interest by resigning as head of LexCorp and putting Talia al-Ghūl in charge. His most prominent advisers included familiar faces with no particular allegiance to him, like
– Amanda Waller, Secretary of Metahuman Affairs;
– General Frank Rock, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;
– General Sam Lane, Secretary of Defense;
– Jefferson “Black Lightning” Pierce, Secretary of Education; and
– Catherine Grant, press secretary.
Ultimately, though, Luthor was a victim of his own ego. He may have picked Pete Ross out of genuine affection for Pete’s father, but he had also kidnapped and tortured Lana Lang (way back in February 1987’s Superman #2) for information on Superman’s suspected past in Smallville. Lana reminded Superman of this tearfully in the Superman: Lex 2000 special. Even with all the public-relations posturing and other assorted clone-style shenanigans, Luthor never saw the need to become better.
It was therefore unsurprising that he tried to use the vast powers of the United States government for his own personal vendettas – not just against Superman and Batman, but civilians like Lois Lane and Bruce Wayne as well. While he didn’t try openly to flout the law, his presidency ended with him in a wrecked suit of power armor, being told by Batman that all of LexCorp’s assets had been sold to Wayne Enterprises. That confrontation concluded a singular moment in the nation’s history, replete with triumph and turmoil, which many hoped would not be repeated.