Even though longtime DC Comics villain Lex Luthor is currently working alongside the Justice League in the pages of current miniseries Justice League: No Justice, Luthor won’t be working with the superheroes for long.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, No Justice co-writer and upcoming Justice League scribe Scott Snyder reveals that Luthor eventually betrays the League and forms the first in-continuity incarnation of the Legion of Doom. And the reasons for Luthor’s return to villainy spin directly out of the events of the Snyder-penned No Justice and his previous miniseries Dark Nights: Metal.
“Part of the fun of No Justice for me is how it’s a bridge between Metal and all this new stuff in the Justice League group, so it’s going to tell you the story of why Luthor decides that maybe he’s made a mistake trying to be a hero all this time,” Snyder said. “The idea was looking at what happened in Metal with Black Manta, what happened with Sinestro when the Source Wall broke. All of these things are catalysts for Luthor to say, ‘You know what? Maybe being a hero — maybe the heroes themselves — are this fallacy. Maybe the whole thing is the wrong way for humans to be.’”
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In the climactic end to Metal, the Source Wall surrounding the DC Universe was broken open. The breach led to the arrival of world-ending cosmic entities from beyond the universe threatening to consume Earth and Brainiac’s homeworld of Colu in No Justice. The otherworldly foes force the Justice League to join forces with several of their most iconic villains — including Lex Luthor — in a desperate bid to save both worlds. This unlikely alliance, unfortunately for the League, is already slated to come undone.
“Having seen what happens in No Justice, and how strong the force of Entropy is on Earth, it really gives him a glimpse into his possible purpose in life.” continued Snyder providing further insight on Luthor’s motivations. “The story is really about why, in this particular moment, an Injustice Gang, all that stuff, would be too small. We need something as big as the Legion of Doom.”
While the concept of the Legion of Doom was first created in 1978 for the DC animated series Challenge of the Superfriends, it has yet to make a full, in-continuity debut in the comics apart from Elseworlds stories with either the Injustice Gang or Secret Society of Supervillains usually uniting the antagonists of the DCU. Snyder’s upcoming Justice League run promises to change that and raise the stakes against the team.
Justice League #1 by Scott Snyder, Jim Cheung, and Jorge Jimenez is out on June 6.