DC's New Lex Luthor Officially Has A Heroic Mission In Dark Reboot Universe

Back in 2025, DC Comics released a one-shot called Absolute Evil. This is where the most vile villains in the Absolute Universe got together to form their Justice League. While they conducted their meeting, Brainiac was listening and formulating a plan to see how this could meet his needs.

Brainiac saw that each of the people in the conclave had someone to counter them except Jack Grimm (Absolute Joker). Thanks to getting a glimpse into another reality provided by this reality’s Mirror Master, Brainiac had a solution to this problem. He’d get the Lex Luthor of this Earth to join the Justice League. Unfortunately, during Absolute Superman: The Neverending Begins, Luthor turned him down. This led to Brainiac slaughtering Luthor’s family while he was forced to watch.

This moment reminds readers that Brainiac is an unredeemable character. He may have been abused for an untold amount of time, but that’s no excuse for massacring Lex Luthor’s family in front of him. Especially this version of Luthor, who was a family man who was content with living a quiet and peaceful life. Thankfully, some good news comes from this, as Brainiac gets his comeuppance.

Brainiac Finally Gets What He Deserves

While Superman attempted to stop Brainiac from unleashing an onslaught of his clones on the world, Lois Lane went to talk to Lex Luthor. She wanted to know what really happened to his family, and what Brainiac had to do with it. Unsurprisingly, Lex was still in shock. He hadn’t shaved and looked catatonic. What readers find out later is that Luthor may have seemed detached from reality, but he was working on his revenge.

Once Brainiac was in range, Luthor got a notification on his watch. He then shaved his head, equipped himself with two large futuristic-looking guns of his making, somehow got to Brainiac’s ship, and shot his former torturer in the head. Superman was shocked and ordered Lex to drop his weapons. Lex asked who Superman was, shot Kal-El out of the spaceship, and took off his enemy’s vessel.

It was shocking to see that Brainiac was apparently dead. He failed at making Luthor part of his master plan, instead putting a target on his own head. However, he wasn’t dead. Luthor repairs Brainiac, but only his head. Luthor says that now that he knows his enemy has a family, Brainiac will watch as he kills them. It was an understandable idea, but this may not work out the way Lex hoped.

Lex Luthor’s Next Journey May Shift Power In The Absolute Universe

Brainiac assumed that he could get away with all of his evil deeds because he was always the smartest person in the room. This was justified because, for centuries, he was untouchable. Even when he was under the thumb of Ra’s and Talia al Ghul, there was always a sense that he allowed them to think they were in charge. That hubris led to his downfall and possibly the fall of the other Brainiacs.

The question comic book fans should be wondering is what’s next for Lex Luthor. Can he succeed in killing all the other Brainiacs? If he does, what’s next? Will Luthor become like his Prime-Earth counterpart and have a vendetta against Superman? Or, and this may be the more terrifying option, what if Lex Luthor becomes the next big threat in the Absolute Universe as a new version of Brainiac? If that happens, he could become scarier than Jack Grimm, and that says a lot.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be all grim. With Absolute Justice coming up, Lex Luthor could be the deciding factor that turns the tide in the big battle. That would be a heck of a twist that no one would see coming. Imagine that. Lex Luthor, and not Superman, being called Savior of the Universe.