I’ve never been a major follower of the Superman books. I am aware, though, that Lex Luthor was elected president of the US in the DCU back in 2000. He seems to be acting pretty openly as a criminal now, though. He’s not still president, is he? And if now, how did he lose it? Did someone expose his deal with Brainiac 13 over the “Worlds at War” thing?
He went pretty thoroughly nuts in the first arc of Batman/Superman. Injecting a mixture of Venom and Kryptonite.
He publicly put a price on Batman and Superman’s heads, blamed Superman for a Kryptonite meteor that was heading for Earth, and had a public Crazy Speech/confrontation in his armour. It also came out in the process that he’d been dealing with Apokalips, and he was briefly presumed dead after a Boom Tube opened and destroyed the building he was in.
Two answers: the one given above, or “people whined too much that they wanted Superman and everything about him the way he was back in the Seventies and Eighties, so DC is buckling.”
Kinda explains all that retro stuff they’ve been introducing, lately. (Luthor’s status/armor, Supergirl, Hal Jordan, etc.)
I’m staying with the Ultimates, personally.
Is this going to affect the ‘Luthor as President’ story arc in JLU?
The comic book DCU and the cartoon JLU seem to be heading toward similar plotlines.
Identity Crisis (7-issue miniseries): The Elongated Man’s wife Sue was murdered, and it was revealed that the League “mindwiped” several villains (including Dr. Light) to turn them into incompetent idiots. They also mindwiped Batman when he found out and disagreed, possibly explaining Batman’s grim, paranoid, assholish personality for the last several years.
Countdown (one-shot), followed by The OMAC Project (6-issue miniseries): Blue Beetle stumbles upon a massive governmental conspiracy against them, thanks to an organization called Checkmate, run by Maxwell Lord. Checkmate has control of a satellite Batman created that has everyone’s secret identities, weaknesses, etc. And Batman knows what the League did to him.
Villains United (6-issue miniseries): Lex Luthor (no longer president) unites around 200 supervillains against the Justice League, rallying them together in fear of the mindwiping. He has created what may the the most powerful team in the DCU, save six villains who don’t join, since they are being controlled by the mysterious Mockingbird. Deadshot is one of the holdouts, and he used work for Task Force X (the Suicide Squad) under the control of Amanda Waller.
The ongoing plotline in JLU also has to do with the conspiracy: Maxwell Lord is involved (as shown in “Ultimatum,” the Super Friends tribute episode with the Ultimen), the Question is investigating the conspiracy (a former Blue Beetle ally, no less), and Batman has been threatened by Amanda Waller, who is overseeing the conspiracy. Batman is unsupportive of the League’s decision to banish Doomsday to the Phantom Zone, and on top of everything else, Luthor may run for president. When the new JLU episode “Task Force X” premieres in the U.S. (I’ve already seen it), you’ll see a few more key plot elements that help line it up with the events in the comics.
It runs next Saturday. Where have you seen it?
The Canadians have already seen it. If you go through cough alternative channels it’s availiable in the states.
The similarities between DC’s current crop of comics and the JLU canon are quite striking (besides the stuff mentioned above, JLA has taken a very JLU feel, with a core team but calling up any active hero as necessary). They’re coming out too close together for one to be cribbing from the other. Are they collaborating, or is this just a hell of a coincidence arising from the fact that they are working in the same current culture and market?
I don’t see Luthor’s fall as a throwback. That story arc had to end somewhere, and not with him stepping down after eight years or failing to be reelected.
I have an online friend who has sent me some of the key JL and JLU episodes on video CDs, including “Task Force X,” which he recorded off YTV, the Canadian equivalent of Cartoon Network. It is written by DARWYN COOKE, one of my favorite comic creators, and the episode is a real treat for fans of Deadshot.
OT nitpick: Our equivelant of CN is Teletoon. YTV also does live action (They’re one of two channels showing Smallville, for instance, the other being Space.).
Back on topic…
Based on a comment by Dwayne McDuffie on his webboard, the fact that the JLU and comics universes are headed in much the same direction is a coincidence. McDuffie doesn’t dismiss the idea that the comics division might be cribbing from the animated division (his opinion on that is ‘so what if they are?’), but given how long the plot’s been in the works in the comics, that’s unlikely, I’d think. And his comment makes it clear there’s been no actual communication between the divisions.
Frankly, I’d sooner expect the comic guys are scrabbling to keep up with the animated guys, who have been doing a bang-up job with JLU. This wouldn’t surprise me, especially considering how Marvel has altered its familiar comics to fall more in line with the “looks” and minor changes from their movies. I think Bruce Timm, Dwayne McDuffie, and the other people involved with JLU are doing everything so “right”–capturing everything good about the DCU and its characters for audiences of all ages, regardless of their familiarity with the source material–and that accessabilty factor has been a major problem for writers of the comics themselves for the last several years.
Yeah, what was up with that, anyway? What the hell else were they going to do with him?
Batman may be prepared, but he’s also a dick.
God only knows. Can’t imprison him. Can’t lobotomise him again - and wouldn’t that be worse? Can’t kill him - and wouldn’t that be worse still?
You know, I just watched the rest of JLU aired on YTV so far, and I find this really hard to believe. I mean, it may be true that the TV and comics aren’t in communication, but the coincidences are astounding:
[spoiler] You’ve got a government anti-metahuman plot that’s afraid of the Justice League overcrossing its bounds (Cadmus/OMAC). Lex Luthor is also involved (Luthor’s society is organized around the thread of Justice League brainwashings). The only person who can reveal the affair is a conspiracy nut unlikely to be believed (the Question/Blue Beetle).
There’s been a cataclysm on Thanagar (Alien invasion/Sent into its sun).
The magic heroes are all disabled (by Felix Faust/ by the Spectre).
The heroes are starting to cross the line, but its being treated as a bad thing. [/spoiler]
I don’t have to be the Question (or the Blue Beetle) to draw the connection here.
I haven’t seen anything past “Task Force X,” but you’re spot-on in your analysis. You’ve discovered another conspiracy! Be sure your official SDMB profile doesn’t read “DECEASED”!
I mentioned it in another thread, but it has to be setting up another showdown with Doomsday. His last line before being sent to the phantom zone was “you’ll wish you had killed me”. That, in addition to his line about not being able to beat him the same way twice - indicates a fight to the death - presumably with Superman - and a nice swing into the ‘death of Superman’ story line.