| “ | You could've crushed me any time you wanted and it wasn't the law or the will of the people that stopped you. It was your ego. Being a hero was too important to you. You're as much responsible as I am. So go ahead, fix it somehow, put me on trial, lock me up, but I'll beat it and then we'll start the whole thing all over again. | „ |
| ~ Lex Luthor taunting Superman and also his last words. |
President Lex Luthor is the overarching antagonist of the Justice League episode "A Better World" and a posthumous antagonist in the second season of Justice League Unlimited.
He is an alternate universe counterpart of Lex Luthor, Superman's archenemy. However, unlike the main Lex, this Luthor managed to be elected President of the United States of America, using his position to harm the Justice League until eventually leading them to stop him for good and rise up to become the Earth's tyrannical dictators, as the Justice Lords.
Like his mainstream counterpart, he was voiced by Clancy Brown, who also played Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption, Uka Uka in the Crash Bandicoot video games, Mr. Freeze in The Batman, Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Yakone in The Legend of Korra and Gunmar in Tales of Arcadia.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- He likely committed some of the deeds his mainline counterpart did up to his election as President of the United States of America.
- As President, for unspecified reasons, he ordered the U.S. army to capture, arrest, and beat up the Flash before having him publicly executed.
- He did something that put the world on the brink of what could potentially be World War III. While he says that his plans were paradise and the people didn't realize it, these opinions are more likely nothing but delusions.
- Armed his Secret Service agents with weapons that proved useless against the Justice League when they broke into the White House to stop Luthor, proving that he doesn't care for his own men.
- Threatened Superman to push a button (likely to send missiles over the Earth) so all people would "burn" for not appreciating his genius.
- Taunted Superman by remarking how Superman could have easily killed him years ago and put an end to his plans once and for all but always refused because of "his ego", referring to the Last Son of Krypton as his "greatest accomplice" before mocking him to send him to jail again so he could restart his plans, leading a fed up Superman to finally kill him with his heat vision.
- Even after his well-deserved death, Lex's actions left long-lasting effects, like:
- Led the Justice League to rename themselves the Justice Lords and take over the Earth as their totalitarian dictators, creating an false utopia where every minor transgression was punished with jail and democracy doesn't exist.
- Had the other enemies of the Justice League, like the Joker and most of Batman's rogues gallery, lobotomized by Superman's heat vision, rendering them harmless but stripped from their free will.
- Convinced the main universe's U.S. government, coupled with the main Superman's temporal brainwashing at the hands of Granny Goodness, to authorize the creation of Project Cadmus to prevent the Justice League from defeating humanity in case they also went too far like the Lords.
- Tricked the Question into thinking that if his universe's Luthor became President, all the things this Luthor caused would also happen, leading Question to try to assassinate Luthor only to be captured and tortured by Cadmus through Doctor Moon.
- Any comedic or mitigating traits his mainline counterpart has have been thrown away by him by the time he became President.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Most of his acts aren't depicted onscreen, leading them to count as offscreen villainy. However, given that this Luthor proves to be far worse than the original, this is a minor prevention.
Trivia[]
- This version of Lex Luthor bears a similarity to another DC Near Pure Evil, namely the Injustice Joker, as both provoked their respective version of Superman into killing them and their actions posthumously resulted in the Justice League becoming the Earth's totalitarian government.
External Links[]
- Lex Luthor (Justice Lords) on the Villains Wiki
- Lex Luthor (Justice Lords) on the DC Animated Universe Wiki
[]
 Animated Universe Near Pure Evils
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