A
Deceptive Brilliance <!doctype html public
"-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
by Dennis Power
Alexis Luther
1946-
The
biography that you are about to read is one that could very well cost the author
his life, as it has cost others their lives. The subject is one of the most
powerful and dangerous men alive today, yet most people regard him with awe,
envy and admiration. They think of him as a fabulously successful businessman
whose ruthless business acumen is outweighed by his philanthropies. He is
regarded on the same level as Donald Trump, Bill Gates, or Rupert Murdoch. Yet
imagine if Donald Trump had killed his parents to gain his initial fortune or
that Bill Gates routinely had people who annoyed him destroyed, humiliated,
physically tortured or even eliminated or if Rupert Murdoch secretly ran a
criminal empire in addition to his legitimate business. While Trump, Gates or
Murdoch most certainly have not committed any of these horrific deeds, Alexis
Luther has done all of these; and much more.
His
career began much earlier than has been depicted in the comics but it was not
until the mid-eighties that Alexis Luther’s skillfully created façade of a
philanthropic millionaire began to crack and his true nature began to come to
light. While it is true that for years Alexis Luther was under deep suspicion
of being corrupt by the business community, by members of the press and by law
enforcement officials there was never any solid proof against him. Unlike his
relatives he preferred to confront his great enemies by proxy rather than
expose himself.
Alexis
Luther’s life has been depicted in the comics even less accurately than some of
his relatives because the depiction of Alexis Luther in the comics was a direct
result of the Crisis. The Crisis was ostensibly DC Comics method of resolving
continuity issues that had crept in their many titles up over the years. In the
1950’s DC had started publishing biographies of second generation heroes but
even then the editorial staff had believed that it was better to start fresh
and pretend that this was a new character without any ties to previous works,
they felt this way new readers would not become confused by previous history
and the characters would remain young and fresh. Yet older fans wanted to see
the heroes that they had grown up with, so DC created another problem for
itself by designating the first generation of heroes as existing on a parallel
world. They kept adding parallel worlds whenever they wished to do variations
on their existing characters or whenever they acquired another comic book
company and added their characters to their rosters. In such a circumstance
characters published by Fawcett publications were designated as having lived on
Earth S (for Shazam). Although there was interaction between their various
rosters of heroes via inter-dimensional travel this was deemed as too
complicated for the writers and readers to follow. So it was decided that the
DC universe would be compressed into one universe and its history re-shaped to
allow for all of the characters that DC owned or had license to print to exist
in it. Towards the end of the series however an editorial decision was made to
erase the generational aspect of some of the costumed vigilantes currently
active, so the back histories of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a few
others would be totally revised so that it appeared as though their origins
were contemporary. It was then necessary to revise some of the histories of
their great enemies. This is where Alexis Luthor came in.
Although
Alexis Luthor had opposed Superman and a few other costumed villains both
openly and clandestinely for many years prior to the publishing event of the
Crisis, he was not so depicted in the comics. One reason was because his
similarly named father Alex Wainwright (Luthor) was one of Superman’s greatest
enemies. Another reason was that David Warburton and then Lionel Luthor were
the secret owners of DC comics and Alexis was in partnership with them in several
businesses, despite being outwardly rivals on some fronts. Warburton’s oil
interests under the name Haliburton worked in concert with Lexxon Oil, or as
Lexxon Oil was known in Marvel comics Roxxon Oil, to open foreign markets and
commandeer foreign oil resources. This changed as Lionel grew ever greedier and
decided to use the platform of the comics as a means to discrediting Alexis
Luther under the aegis of satire… which was protected by the first amendment.
One of
the main reasons for Alexis Luther’s not being depicted in the comics until the
mid-eighties is because his relatives, Alexei Luthor and Alexander Wainwright
Luthor were already being depicted by the comics, films and television as “Lex
Luthor” and DC did not want to confuse their readers with yet another Lex
Luthor. Also since the Lex Luthors they were depicting were convicted criminals
the comics could depict them as criminal masterminds without being sued. On the
other hand although Alexis Luther was greatly suspected of criminal activity he
had never been charged with anything other than a minor infraction of the law,
to depict otherwise could tie the company up in annoying lawsuits.
Although
the stated reasoning behind the Crisis was to make the comic universe’s history
have a cohesive and comprehensible continuity it also was a ploy designed by
Lionel Luthor to free DC comics from the contractual licenses that the company
had made with costumed vigilantes. Since they would not longer be publishing
biographies of real people but rather fictional stories, satirical perhaps of
characters that may or may not have been based on reality, they were no longer
bound to any existing contractual agreement. To back this case up he used the
fact that most of the comic stories written about the licensed characters had
not ever been factual documentaries. They were basically fictions based on the
likeness of a person. However since the identities of these persons were
unknown, deliberately unknown, and since they were public figures that DC
comics was not in the least bit legally obligated to license their images or to
allow them to have any editorial control over how that public image was
portrayed in a fictional format. In other words DC comics could and would
depicted costumed vigilantes however they liked without paying them a thin
dime. Eventually Marvel comics and other companies followed suite. The
histories of the costumed vigilantes changed and often bore very little
resemblance to reality, although to be fair, the comic book depictions of the heroes’
lives had always been wildly exaggerated fantasies. This time however the
vigilantes had little say in how they were portrayed. Stories were written that
portrayed them as buffoons, overly violent and various other subtle ways that
maligned their characters.
Although
the word is no longer to appropriate to describe a child born out of wedlock,
Alexis Joseph Luther was born a bastard and remained one the rest of his life.
Some time
in the forties, between matches with Superman Alexander Wainwright Luthor was
engaged in one of the semi-legitimate enterprises that provided him with legal
capital. This legal capital allowed him to build weapons and set up elaborate
death traps for Superman. During this time Alexander Wainwright/Lex Luthor
fathered another child. This child was born in 1946 and was the child of
Wainwright and his laboratory assistant, Nadine Dillon. Nadine left Luthor when
it became apparent that he would not marry her. She bore the child on her own
and intended to raise it on her own. She named the child Maxwell Dillon.
However a tragic accident occurred and Nadine broke her neck while taking a
bath. Alexander Wainwright Luthor took the child and had found two people name
Jules and Arlene Luther to raise the child as Alexis Luther. He had false
papers created to reflect the child's new origin and bribed the hospital
records clerk to make it appear as though baby Maxwell Dillon had died at
birth.[1]
Alexander
Wainwright Luthor felt little paternal feelings for the child but did not want
his child to grow up in foster homes. He chose Jules and Arlene Luther to raise
his son because they came from a prestigious family with an impressive
pedigree, Luther’s had been among the founders of
A couple
of years after Jules and Arlene Luther adopted Alexis Joseph Luther, their
world went to hell. Jules had tried to expand his father’s business by
speculating on a new product combining plastics and steel. He scoffed at young
Alexis’ prediction that the process was doomed to fail. When debts began to
mount, Jules tried to recoup his losses through gambling. Jules not only lost
the steel plant but became indebted to loan sharks and the Mafia. He was forced
to sell everything and still did not have enough to cover their debts.
Penniless the Luthers were forced to hide in Suicide Slum. Having lost
everything Jules and Arlene’s marriage was held together by shared misery,
loathing and alcohol dependency. Jules worked as a part time laborer and Arlene
worked at a sweatshop sewing factory. Jules also forced Arlene to prostitute
herself to pay the rent or is his bar bill. He would then beat her up as a tramp.
Since their fortunes had begun to turn about the time that they gotten Alexis,
they equated their misfortune with his arrival and so began to hate him,
ignoring him for the most part or smacking him about when he became smart
mouthed.
Young
Alexis, like many abused children, grew up mean and resentful of those around
him. He did not make many friends of his own age because his brilliance
overshadowed his classmates. His best friend in school was “Danny Taylor”[2]
whom he could convince to join him in all sorts of mischief. Two bullies,
Edward Kelly and Richard McGuire, began to torment Alexis after he had
ridiculed their science projects. When they laughed at his demands to cease
bothering him, he took matters into his own hands. Alexis had contact with several
shady characters through his father who often did side jobs for extra booze
money. Lex planned a swindle for two men in exchange for them giving Kelly and
McGuire a beating that they would remember for a long time. Kelly and McGuire
never bothered Alexis again.
Another
early incident that provides insight into Alexis Luther’s character was how he
won a school chess championship. Although Alexis was the favored to win the
chess match between his greatest rival in the school chess club, Alexis decided
to make certain of his victory. He stole his rivals’ dog, slit its throat and
planted the dog in his rival’s locker the day of the chess competition. The
rival was so upset at the death of his pet that Alexis won handily.
When
Jules took a side job running errands for a couple of connected guys, he had to
buy a car. It was however not in the best of shape. Upon seeing the condition
of this car, young Alexis began to formulate a plan to use this car to get
himself out of Suicide Slum and to separate himself from his parents once and
for all.
Forging
his parents’ signature on an insurance policy, Alexis tried to convince his
parents to take a trip to Atlantic City, that he had a sure fire way to win at blackjack.
He had to convince his father of this system first. Accompanied by Alexis,
Jules won a thousand dollars at blackjack at an illegal gambling joint. Alexis
did not really have a gambling system; this was all part of his plan. The game
was rigged with the promise that Alexis would eventually give the dealer twice
what he had given Jules. With the prospect of such great wealth before him,
Jules became riotously drunk. He began playing Russian roulette, telling Alexis
that his luck had changed. He spun the gun’s chamber and fired it at his head.
He had failed to remove all the bullets however and so shot himself in the
head. Arlene rushed into the room and saw her husband lying dead with a gun in
his hand. She blamed Alexis for Jules’ suicide and grabbed the gun intending to
kill Alexis. Alexis swung a chair at her as she leveled the gun. The gun
discharged and the bullet entered her chest.
His plan
in disarray, Alexis worked quickly. Using kitchen utensils he removed the
bullets from his parents’ bodies. He dragged the bodies to the family car and
drove to a steep hill. Placing the bodies in the driving and passenger seats
Alexis tampered with the brakes and set the car loose. Once the car was crashed
Alexis made certain that the injuries were consistent with the crash and impact
and then set the car afire, taking the bus home.
Alexis
made certain the house was cleaned up before calling the police, worried that
his parents were over due in
The
insurance pay off was 300,000 dollars, but Alexis had to wait until he came of
age to receive the money. Meanwhile the welfare services placed him in the
foster care of the abusive Casey Griggs. At the foster home Alexis met and fell
in love with fellow foster child
Since
Alexis was not allowed to gain access to the insurance money until his 21st
birthday, he needed a source of capital to fund his education and so turned to
illegal activities to do so. Under an alias he became involved in narcotics
trafficking, creating what would later become called designer drugs that were
not strictly speaking illegal, since they the FDA had yet to know about them. It was then, around age 17, Alexis started
his criminal empire. With a
flair for designing weapons, Alexis caught the eye of Wang Fong, the leader of
The Cartel, a crime ring that ran organized crime all around the city of
He began
Lexcorp as a small office in the Daily Planet building. He designed a plane
that was an early prototype of the stealth plane. To demonstrate the
feasibility of his plane, he flew non-stop from
Upon
receiving his first government contract in 1967 Alexis Luther planned out a
strategy to make his company the foremost in government contracts. He purchased
the “Daily Planet” and the building that in which it was housed. He began to
weed out the old style journalists to make his new paper more dynamic. Among the
journalists urged to go were the Editor-in-Chief
and City Editor of the Daily Planet, Clark Kent (Hugo Danner) and
Since it
was becoming harder for Clark and Lois to explain the puzzling vitality they had
for their age and since they also need a change of scenery, feeling old beyond
their years, Danner discussed the problem with his “brother” Clark Kent who
came up with a solution. Clark and his Lois are feeling stagnated in their
professional lives; the Chicago Daily Star for which they worked had been
turned into a weekly paper focusing on local news. They wanted to work on a daily metropolitan
newspaper. In lieu of taking a large lump sum to be bought out of their
contracts, Clark Kent (Danner) and Lois Lane Kent want to be allowed to hire
two journalists they felt could eventually take their places. When
Although
Alexis Luthor had no intention of making this new
A few months prior to departing
Alexis Luther was also rather egotistical, he was
certain that the absence of Superman had to do with Alexis’ new found celebrity.
Superman, like anybody else, could not stand to share the spotlight. Alexis
believed that Superman had realized that Alexis Luther could do more for
As
Lexcorp began getting government contracts, Alexis used the aerospace company
as the foundation of his expanding business empire. He bought scores of
businesses and created vast networks of dummy corporations to hide his
ownership of other not so legitimate businesses. The key to Luthor's power was
intelligence. He made it his business to know every indiscretion that his
opponents had ever made and then coerced and blackmailed them into submission.
Those that disagreed either had their public reputations destroyed or simply
vanished. A few in the media and the police suspected Luthor's methods, but he
made sure there was never any evidence of his involvement.
He became
good friends with Mayor John Lindsey and supported many of his reforms,
believing that these reforms would enrich him in the long run whether they were
successful or not. While publicly supporting the social programs, the law and
order message of Lindsey, Alexis Luthor also began to make inroads in
illegitimate businesses, making alliances with a group called Inter-gang and a
few of the Mafia families. The version in the comics books in which he became
the undisputed and unknown leader of organized crime in
Aiding
Alexis Luther in steering Lexcorp into becoming one of the largest
conglomerates in the world was Sydney Happersan, a genius in his own right who
was slightly older than Alexis. Happersan was a medical doctor, physicist and
financier and became Alexis Luther’s right hand man. He was the liaison between
the various holdings of Lexcorp and was aware of most of Luther’s business
dealings. One of Alexis Luther’s first moves was to get involved in the
petroleum business. He bought up many small oil companies and began operating
them under the umbrella name of Lexxon Oil. Lexxon Oil began to implement
innovative drilling techniques and began using satellite technology to locate
possible oil fields. Lexxon would then make deals with small nations not
affiliated with the United Nations for drilling rights. In essence they would
seize control of these smaller nations by making their nominal rulers puppet of
Lexxon Oil through bribery or extortion.
After
Jonas Cord II died of a heart attack in 1966, Lexcorp acquired Jo-Ann Cord
Parrish’s shares of the Cord holdings. Over the next year Lex played a
strategic financial war against Jonas Enrique Raul Cord y Batista or Jonas Cord
III. As Lexcorp acquired the Cord technological and industrial holdings, Luther
and Cord’s rival Howard Hughes began acquiring the Cord entertainment holdings
in
In late
1969 Alexis Luther became aware that someone was making war upon the Kingpin’s
organization. This was a new person who called himself The Schemer. Through
intermediaries, Alexis Luther made a tacit alliance with the Schemer to aid him
in his war against the Kingpin. Luther believed if the Schemer crippled the
Kingpin enough, he would be vulnerable for a take over or if the Schemer
actually did succeed in overthrowing the Kingpin, then Luther could crush the
smaller organization of the Schemer. However his alliance with the Schemer
worked even better than he had expected. Both the Schemer and the Kingpin
disappeared and their organizations began to fall apart into internecine
combat. Luther set up intermediaries such as Bruno Mannheim a racketeer and a
television executive who was called Morgan Edge by the comics. His real name
cannot be divulged since he has never been formally charged with any crimes.
This “Morgan Edge” should not be confused with the criminal named “Morgan Edge”
depicted in the Smallville television series.
The newly
restructured organization which operated through out the five boroughs and in
It was
after Alexis Luther became the pre-eminent crime boss in
Alexis
Luther came up with a simple solution to a complex problem, one that perhaps
had never been tried because it was so simple. Contain and control Superman by
putting him on the payroll.
In early
1970 Alexis Luther had a party on his yacht to celebrate the re-election of
Mayor John Lindsay. The yacht was invaded by Front de Libération du Québec
terrorists. Luther’s security forces failed to act and the FLQ took the guests
as hostages. Superman arrived and made short work of the terrorists. Alexis
Luther gave Superman a million dollar check and welcomed him to the Lexcorp
payroll as television cameras rolled. Superman declined the offer. Luther
insisted that Superman take the check, that he earned it. Superman noticed that
the check was dated from the day before and asked Luther why his security forces
had not stopped the yacht invasion. He asked Luther if he knew about the FLQ
attack beforehand. Taken aback, Luther stated that he had known that the attack
was a possibility and had ordered his men to stand down if there was an attack
so that Superman could be welcomed to the Lexcorp Security team. Superman
balled up the check. Mayor Lindsay had Superman hold Luther in custody until
police boats could arrive and take Luther into police custody for reckless
endangerment.[6]
Alexis
Luther became obsessed with having Superman under his control. He had his
scientists look into the feasibility of creating clones of Superman. The
cloning process was only theoretical and would only produce a baby copy of
Superman. However Sydney Happersan had discovered through their contacts in the
government that the government agency known as CIALD had a method of creating
identical duplicates of their agents. Luther had Happersan get the specifics of
this process and had Dr. Teng make a duplicate of Superman. A series of confrontations
was staged against Superman with the blame being laid variously on Lex Luthor,
The Toymaker or the Prankster. The purpose was to gather cell samples. Dr. Teng
and Happersan made several attempts to create a LMD from the pod plants
obtained from CIALD. However the dense tissue structure and bioengineered
cellular structure of the Kryptonians was not something that the pods could
easily copy and all of the duplicates were malformed. [7].
All LMDs eventually degraded but it took years for those duplicated from normal
human beings to degrade yet those created from Superman’s tissue samples
degraded extremely rapidly.
Alexis
Luther was impatient for the process to be perfected. When he was informed that
the duplicates could last up to two days before disintegration occurred, he
ordered that a duplicate be made. The duplicate came out of the pod perfectly
but its skin began to crystallize after a few moments. Enraged that this
process was so flawed after having spent ten million dollars on it, he had it scrapped
and all of the pods and duplicates ordered destroyed. The existing duplicate
however had many of Superman’s powers and invulnerability. He successfully
escaped and went about the city saving people as best as his ill formed mind
could manage. He then tried to go to the Daily Planet disguised as
Unable to
place Superman under his thumb or replace him with a malleable copy, Alexis
Luther decided to destroy him. His various companies began looking for devices
created by Lex Luthor or any of Superman’s enemies that had given Superman the
most trouble. He also spared no expense to locate the rarest of minerals on the
earth; Kryptonite. The search turned up three items that Luther put together in
concert to create the ultimate Superman killing device. These objects were a
small piece of kryptonite ore, the robotic body of Metallo and the head of
Brainiac. The head of Brainiac had been knocked off by Superman during one of
their fighting bouts. A quick thinking citizen had thrown the head in a nearby
container of wet cement, imprisoning the stunned head in an airtight prison of
cement. Luther had the head placed in a sealed room where remote controlled
lasers cut the cement from Brainiac’s head. As Luther had believed once the
head was free of its cement shackles, the wire net encircling the skull
disengaged and began walking about like a spider.
Luther
spoke to the net stating he knew that the neural net was supposed to be all but
indestructible but could it withstand a continual sequence of exposure to
liquid nitrogen followed by high intensity laser beams? The neural net stopped
moving which demonstrated to Luther that Brainiac was listening. He offered to
help Brainiac rebuild his cybernetic body or to give him a limitless supply of
human hosts, all he had to do was something that he should enjoy, kill
Superman. Brainiac reluctantly agreed to the bargain.
The newly
remade Metallo was covered in a synthetic skin and hair so that it looked like
a normal man. As with the previous model it was powered by kryptonite. To prevent
Brainiac from having a change of his kryptonite heart after being released to
kill Superman, Luther informed it that the Metallo body also contained several
micro-explosives that would destroy body should Metallo try to bolt. Luther’s
scientists had also rigged up a system so that Brainiac’s cognitive functioning
was dependent on the operation of the kryptonite heart. Although they did not
know all the intricacies of his neural net they had designed devices to make
the neural net’s power source dependent on the kryptonite. Brainiac would shut
down even if by some chance the neural net did come off of the head.
Brainiac/Metallo
went on a rampage in downtown Metropolis to attract Superman attention. Because
Brainiac/Metallo generated a field of kryptonite radiation Superman became
weaker and sicker as they battled. He maneuvered Metallo into an area
designated for demolition and began burying him in rubble. Leaving one of his
limbs exposed which Superman then wrenched off. At the end of the battle Metallo
was a limbless torso buried in cement and brick rubble. Metallo however
disappeared from the police evidence laboratory… being an artificial being he
was not considered a sentient being. [8]
When the
Metallo torso arrived at Lexcorp, Alexis Luther plucked the kryptonite out of
the power unit, effectively shutting down Brainiac. He had a portion of the
chunk of kryptonite fashioned into a signet ring so that Superman could never
personally manhandle him again. Part of the kryptonite was fashioned into bullets.
Over the next six months, special psychological tests were given to prospective
employees of all of the Lexcorp holdings. Once the candidate was found he was
hired by a subsidiary of Lexcorp. Robert Dubois was a young man who had avoided
the draft to Viet Nam by getting an educational deferment; however he had paid
to have his records altered to meet the requirements. His brother had not been
able to get a deferment and was drafted. He returned home without his legs.
Robert Dubois felt a great guilt at having avoided the draft while his brother
could not. He had a great resentment against those people like himself who had
so avoided the draft. Lexcorp psychologists under Alexis’ direction began to
“treat” Robert as a requirement for employment. They were able to turn his
resentment against draft dodgers against the biggest draft dodger of them all,
Superman. When he was conditioned, Robert Dubois went hunting Superman with
kryptonite bullets.
Dubois
hit Superman in the shoulder giving him Kryptonite poisoning. It took the
facilities at Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories to
remove the Kryptonite bullet. Metropolis Special Crimes Unit discovered Dubois
identity and contacted his paraplegic brother to talk him into surrendering. A bomb planted in Robert Dubois’ stomach
exploded as he was being transported to holding and killed him instantly. The
materiel that he used was reported as having been stolen from Lexcorp weeks
before. Once again nothing could be traced to Lexcorp.
Lexxon profits
dipped slightly in late 1971 Alexis Luthor knew that the although there was a
finite supply of oil in the world fossil fuel reserves were vast yet the
general belief was that there was finite amount of oil which would be running
out shortly. Lexcorp began funding environmentalists with an anti-fossil agenda
and also began to research methods for alternatives to fossil fuels. Alexis
intended to promote the idea that fossil fuels were nearing depletion to drive
up the price of oil and create a false sense of demand, at the same time he
also intended to profit from the those people who sought alternative solutions
to fossil fuels.
Arthur
Dearborn, a scientist working at the Brand Corporation, a subsidiary of Lexxon,
had the idea of creating a series of satellites that would collect solar
radiation and then covert it to energy which could be broadcast in the form of
energy waves to power plants based on the Earth’s surface. Alexis liked the
idea, but wanted Dearborn to run the main satellite array.
For this reason, Dearborn
volunteered to lead the crew of this solar space station. Lexxon placed the
first few satellites and the small manned space station in orbit. The space
station was provided with radar jamming devices to prevent intervention from
governments or rival corporations. As part of the Lexxon funding agreement
Dearborn had to use the space station’s apparatus to focus pure solar radiation
on a specific area of the nation and if possible on a specific individual. It
was well known by this time that Superman’s powers were in part derived from
his ability convert solar radiation. Alexis Luther planned to bombard Superman
with so much concentrated solar radiation that his body would overload and his
powers would go haywire. While his powers were uncontrollable Luthor would then
have Superman attacked, Superman would either be destroy and/or blamed for the
destruction that his uncontrolled powers had caused.
A bit earlier than
calculated Superman flew above the city with his heat vision seemingly out of
control, as buildings became incinerated. Alexis Luthor sent the signal and
Superman was attacked by a person in a suit of powered armor based on the Iron
Man designs (actually stolen from Hughes International) and improved by Alexis
and Dr. Dearborn. The armor was solar powered and converted solar energy into a
variety of energy forms. However Superman was feigning his trouble and soon
defeated his foe.[9]
Desperate to turn the tide of battle, Luther had his combatant flee and take
position over
Evidence surfaced that
proved that the late Sandra Vincent had acted entirely on her own and had gone
rogue to satisfy some eco-terrorist impulse.
Because the solar
radiation project was a joint Lexxon and
After three attempts were
made to kill Sandra Vincent while in protective custody, her best friend was
killed as a warning not to testify. Sandra broke out of protective custody and
stole the Stratosfire suit. [11]
With the Stratosfire suit she attacked the
In order
to accomplish several goals Alexis Luther began supplying various rival juvenile
gangs with weapons far superior to those currently on the street. He wished to
wreck the Mayoral career of John Lindsay. He wanted the various juvenile gangs
to eliminate each other so that his organization could mentor that is control
the rest of the juvenile gangs. He wanted to escalate the crime problem to such
a degree that he could convince the New York Metropolitan Police department to
buy advanced and expensive weaponry for its Special Crimes Unit from Lexcorp.
He wanted the increased gang activity to keep Superman busy and away from
Lexcorp’s other interests. Among the juveniles caught up in the gang wars was
Jerry Taylor, son of Danny and Alice Taylor who became involved with a juvenile
gang as part of his teenage rebelliousness.
Since Superman
so easily defeated Brainiac/Metallo, Alexis Luther sent Brainiac to attack a
rival company Caulder Logistics which he had tried to buy out. They had bought
some robotic servomechanisms from Lexcorp, according to some sources; Caulder
had been able to create viable humanoid robots which could function very
smoothly. Caulder Logistics refused to sell out. Alexis Luther set the stage
for a hostile take over by whipping up public sentiment against Caulder
Logistics by giving out false information as to what the company was doing and
about the toxic wastes that the company would be dumping from their production
facility. Luther hoped that the visit by Brainiac/Metallo would be a
combination strong arm tactic that would convince Arani Caulder to sell. Luther
also believed that the damaged incurred during Metallo’s rampage would further
demonstrate to the good people of
Brainiac’s/Metallo’s
attack on Caulder Logistics did not go as planned. Caulder Logistics had its
own security team of people who either used advanced technological weapons or
unbelievable as it sounded various intrinsic abilities to slow down Brainiac,
although Brainiac was able to establish an electronic lock-on to the body of
Caulder’s Robot and force it to aid him in battling against Caulder’s security
force. Caulder’s security force was aided in stopping Brainiac by Superman.
During the battle Brainiac/Metallo had his body attacked by extremes of heat,
cold and electrical energy. These overloaded the fail safes that Lexcorp had
installed into Brainiac/Metallo’s body and so when Superman knocked
Brainiac/Metallo’s head off from the body, the head continued to function and
scrambled to safety, hiding from Superman.
Metallo
had attacked Caulder Logistics using a body made of parts from Lexcorp,
although Lexcorp was certain to make certain it was known that the parts had
been stolen from Lexcorp warehouses. Even though Lexcorp bore no financial
responsibility for Metallo’s attack Alexis Luther felt quite badly and gave
Caulder Logistics computers and equipment from Lexcorp. He made a personal
visit to make certain that the parts had been installed correctly and to Arani
Caulder’s specifications. While Luther was touring the facilities a maniac with
some type of powered axe began attacking
One
inadvertent result of having sent Brainiac/Metallo against Caulder Logistics
was that it freed Brainiac from Luther’s control. The neural net sought a new
victim and found one in a drunken carnival performer named Milton Fine. When
the Black Beller neural net joined with the brain of mind of Milton Fine, it
was unable to override and erase the mind of Milton Fine, rather unholy
symbiosis was created. Milton Fine was a latent telepath as well as having
other psionic powers. His heritage is unknown he may have been an Oddian mutant
such as Odd John Wainwright or just one of those very rare people born with
psionic powers such as Jean Grey. Unlike his other victims, the extrusion of
the neural net into Fine’s brain stimulated rather than paralyzed his brain
function. The introduction of Brainiac into Fine’s mind unlocked his latent
powers. Through his telepathy Fine could communicate with the Brainiac mind.
While Brainiac could not control the body or even Milton Fine’s brain
functions, he could stimulate Fine’s pleasure or pain centers in his brain. In
this way Brainiac was able to control Milton Fine and through him Milton’s
psionic powers.
Brainiac’s
control of Milton Fine first manifested at the circus where Fine worked as a
mentalist. The Circus was currently visiting Metropolis. Clark Kent was at the
circus investigating a story of animal abuse. Brainiac recognized Clark Kent
from previous encounters and knowing of his friendship with Superman, caused a
physically abused elephant to break its chain and go on a rampage. Kent escaped
from being trampled and Superman arrived upon the scene to render the elephant
unconscious. Brainiac’s involvement was however not suspected since there were
many signs of physical abuse on the Elephant. As Superman began to fly away
Brainiac felt his rage and hatred for Superman build into a crescendo. A blast
of telekinetic force knocked Superman from the sky.
Brainiac/Fine
began pummeling Superman with psionic blasts and he battered him with large
objects such as circus wagons picked up and thrown with telekinetic force. When
Milton Fine’s girlfriend was accidentally hurt by one of these thrown objects,
Milton reasserted control. The inner struggle between Brainiac and Milton Fine
caused the body to go into a catatonic state.
Eventually
Brainiac/Fine would escape from the Mental Health facility where he was being
held. Milton Fine’s resistance to Brainiac’s control of his mind and body had
for the first time in decades caused a brain to reject the implants of the neural
net. This rejection caused for some reason Fine’s Cerebral spinal fluid levels
to drop, seriously impairing his health. Brainiac/Fine’s temporary solution to
this was to steal cerebral spinal fluid from others to off set Fine’s
condition. Being a wanted vagrant himself he preyed upon homeless people. This
brought him in direct conflict with Superman. Brainiac tried to use Milton
Fine’s abilities to take over the mind of Superman however Kryptonians had long
ago bioengineered themselves to prevent this very thing. The psionic backlash
sent Brainiac/Fine into a coma.
Among the
acquisitions that Alexis Luther made in the early 70’s were properties owned by
Scientific and Technical advanced Research Laboratories. Lexcorp made a run on
the publicly owned and privately owned stock of Star Labs and talked of a
merger this drove the price of the stock up. Luther then backed out of the
possible merger making the stock price plummet. He then acquired several of the
Star laboratory properties at a reduced rate. Among these were the sentient
robots called the Metal Men, the United States Courts continued to rule that
they were property and not individuals. Hughes Corporation had sold them to
Star Labs, which gave them quite a bit of autonomy, but to fend off Luther’s
leverage buy out, Star had to give up the Metal Men. Although they were not
polymorphic shape changers as depicted in the comics, Luther knew that they
were possessed of sentience. He had his scientific crew assemble a large
powerful robot coated with a kryptonite alloy and placed the microchips
containing the personalities of all of the Metal Men inside the robot. They
were told that unless they destroyed Superman they would never get their
original bodies back.
Superman
defeated the massive robot with the kryptonite sheath despite it being guided
by several minds. The kryptonite sheath was not enough to kill Superman just
make him ill. He fought off the illness and broke the robot into pieces. He
rescued the microchips and placed them in the Metal Men’s original bodies.
Luther fled the scene.
Alexis
Luther’s plan to foment a continual juvenile gang war continued but it did not
have the desired result of getting the Metropolitan Police Department to buy
weaponry from Lexcorp to battle the gangs. One of the roadblocks was the head
of the Special Crimes Unit who balked at buying such weaponry from Lexcorp. She
had convinced her superiors that this was just one step towards becoming the
private security force of Lexcorp. Luther had his detectives find out everything
that they could about Maggie Sawyer. When he discovered that she was a lesbian,
he threatened to expose her unless she stopped her efforts against Lexcorp.
Sawyer spat in his face.
If Alexis
Luther hadn’t had other, direr problems crop up, he would have put forth every
effort to destroy her. As it was however, Alexis Luther learned that the signet
ring with the kryptonite stone had caused bone cancer in his hand. His hand had
to be amputated to stop the spread of the cancer. This made his hatred for
Superman grow all the greater for in his mind, Superman had caused him to get
cancer by forcing him to wear the kryptonite ring.
When
Milton Fine had gone into a catatonic state following his second encounter with
Superman, Alexis Luther had immediately taken a special interest in Mr. Fine’s
welfare, getting his attorney to have Mr. Fine released to a Lexcare private
hospital so he could receive the expensive medical treatment that the state of
New York could not afford. Alexis Luther promises to use all his scientific
resources to help Brainiac eradicate the persona of Milton Fine from their
shared brain without causing the loss of the brain’s psionic abilities. To seal
the bargain, Brainiac goes after a costumed vigilante called Gangbuster.
Gangbuster kept breaking up the gang fights and destroying weapons caches in an
attempt to quell Luther’s promoted juvenile gang war. Brainiac fought
Gangbuster and broke his back, paralyzing him from the waist down.
Brainiac
returned flush with victory and tried to take over Luther’s mind. Brainiac was
gassed into unconsciousness and kept sedated.
The
Gangbuster was a youth counselor named Jose Delgado; Luther offered to repair
his broken back and paralyzed legs with mechanical implants. Unable to deal
with the loss of his legs Jose Delgado agreed. However his first order of
business as Luther’s controlled vigilante was to attack and destroy Dr. Emil
Hamilton, a scientist whose work Luther had stolen. Hamilton defeated
Gangbuster and Luther responded by disabling Delgado’s implants, leaving him
crippled once more.
Brainiac
overcame his sedation and took over the Lexcare facility where he was being
held. He also took over the minds of several of Luther’s most trusted
employees, including Luther’s right hand man, Sydney Happersan. Happersan had a
deeply buried resentment towards Luther which Brainiac uncovered and exploited,
making Happersan a semi-willing victim. Brainiac took control of Lexcorp.
Alexis Luther was shut up in a small room and Brainiac kept filling his mind
with illusions. Brainiac turned the resources of Lexcorp towards one goal to
duplicate the process in which he had created a synthetic body that would be
immortal and to find a way to either duplicate Milton Fine’s brain or to have
that brain transplanted into the synthetic body. Some of the components needed
for the synthetic body were owned by STAR Labs and they were not about to sell
anything to Lexcorp. Brainiac had several mind controlled Lexcorp employees
wearing experimental power suits break into STAR Labs to steal the components.
This brought Superman into the equation. Superman defeated the power armor
wearing individuals and then battled with Brainiac.
Superman
defeated Brainiac only to discover he had beaten an illusion. The synthetic
body and Brainiac/Fine had disappeared.
Without
the Gangbuster to quell things and with Superman temporarily out of town, the
juvenile gang war reached a crescendo.
In
addition to losing his hand, Alexis Luther also lost his son and heir. This was
again his fault although indirectly. Jerry Taylor and his friend whom the
comics call “Jimmy Olsen” were wounded in a street battle between two gangs.
Jerry Taylor died of his wounds.
Alexis
Luther learned that the cancer in his hand had metastasized and had turned into
a full blown case of bone cancer. He visited Jerry Taylor’s gravesite lamenting
on the fact that he would have no heir to inherit his empire when the cancer
did him in.
One of
the by products of Brainiac’s search for the components of the body he had
created years before, turned up some interesting items. Among them was a force
shield belt, which seemed to be of alien origin.[14]
Luther
believed that the belt could slow down the progress of his cancer but it was stolen
from the facility where it was being studied. It ended up in the hands of an
Iraqi-American teenager who used it to defend his family and neighbors against
hate crimes targeting the Iraqi immigrants. These hate crimes were instigated
by Luther out of spite for Lexxon having lost lucrative revenues when it’s oil
companies in Iraq were seized and nationalized. Luther used his influence with
the media to have the teenager labeled a soviet backed Iraqi terrorist. Luther
made a desperate attempt to regain the belt but endanger much of the Iraqi
section of New York. The teenager is forced to overload the belt to save as
many people as possible. The overloaded belt ceased functioning. The Iraqi
teenager destroyed it so that not even the non-powered belt would fall into
Luther’s hands.
Alexis
Luther’s cancer was getting worse and he searched high and low for a cure. He
was in such a desperate state that he was willing to consider Sydney
Happersan’s plan in which Alexis Luther would be forced to trust Brainiac.
Happersan believed that he had found a way to stop the cellular decay that
affected LMD’s. Happersan believed that he could create Luther a perfect body
from cell samples fed into a LMD pod. Brainiac would then use his mental powers
to transfer Alexis Luther’s mind from the cancer ridden body to a new, healthy
LMD with a blank mind. Luther agreed to the insane project believing that he
had no other available options.
They
arranged to make it seems as though Alexis Luther knowing he was dying of
cancer, had decided to replicate his early aviation success before he died. The
plane crashed en route, killing Alexis Luther.
The
actual operation took place in Australia. Brainiac was amenable to the task
once he had been given assurances that he would really receive a synthetic body
this time. Brainiac scanned Alexis Luther’s mind and replicated it onto the
blank mind of the LMD. This LMD was taller, stronger and had a full head of
hair. Alexis Luther realized once the LMD sat up that he had been tricked.
Brainiac
and Happersan were working together, Happersan still under Brainiac thrall.
They replicated Luther’s mind onto a LMD which Brainiac and Happersan
controlled through various implanted commands. Luther was taken to a safe house
in Australia where he was kept imprisoned but was well treated. He learned that
his cancer had actually not been immediately life threatening, Brainiac had
made Luther’s doctors and Luther himself believe that it had been. Luther
received treatment for the cancer during his confinement. Luther realized that
he was being held captive for the time when Brainiac and Happersan would need
to create another Luther to take over.
A cover
story was put out that Alexis Luther was older than he claimed, in his forties.
It was then later revealed that he had had a son by Gretchen Kelly his doctor.
This son had been raised in Australia by foster parents so that young Alexis
Luther II would not have to grow up with the pressure of being the world’s
richest man’s son.
Sydney
Happersan had arranged events to that Alex Luther II would be hailed as near
hero rather than immediately disliked because of his father. Happersan had
allowed crucial Lexcorp owned utility companies and companies providing goods
and services to falter due to a lack of leadership. This lead to power outages,
a great diminishment of trucking services carrying foodstuffs or picking up
garbage and the like. Alexis Luther immediately took control of the situation
and returned all power to the city and made Metropolis the primary destination
of his transportation companies until all depleted food, medical and retail
supplies had been replenished.
Alexis
Luther II was to a large extent autonomous yet ultimately Sydney Happersan
controlled him. Happersan used all of the resources available to Lexcorp to
build Brainiac a stable synthetic body, using the same technique that he had
gotten from Dabney Donovan, the renowned geneticist, to create the body of
Alexis Luther II.
Once he
had his new body however Brainiac turned on Happersan and on the Earth. He made
a mental alliance with Ming III of Mongo and with the High Council of Z’Nox to
launch an attack on Earth, convincing them that with his help victory would be
assured. Brainiac gained Ming III’s trust by getting many of Ming III’s erstwhile
enemies such as the Hawkmen, Lion Men and Clay People to not only swear
allegiance to Ming but to join in the invasion. The Invasion or Panic From the
Sky incident took place on three fronts.[15]
Mongo tried to establish a foothold in Australia. The Z’Noxians tried to
establish a foothold in Antarctica, where they had previously established an
outpost. The owners of Caulder Logistics and several of their staff were near
the Antarctic when the Invasion took place. They used the resources at their
disposal to drive the Z’Noxians away. As a result the wife of Niles Caulder
died as did one of his young aides. Another staff member was left in a coma.[16] Alexis Luther II joined in the defense of
Metropolis and suffered a broken leg as a result, yet his efforts brought him
to the attention of Supergirl.
After
Brainiac was rendered unconscious, the Invasion force fell apart as the
Mongovians revolted against Ming III and returned to Mongo to continue their
revolution. The Z’Nox also fled.
At the
time Supergirl (Kara Kent) was experiencing a break in her long time
relationship with Bruce Wayne Jr. They were both seeing other people and so
when the handsome, exotic Alexis Luther jr. began to flirt with her she
responded in kind. They began a short relationship. Superman tried to warn
Supergirl about this relationship but Kara responded angrily, believing that
her father was being overprotective and trying to control her by picking her
boyfriends. Kara soon realized that Lex was even more controlling than Bruce Wayne
jr. had been. She began to feel as though she had become Lexcorp’s private
security force. Alexis also became rather distant towards her, spending much
time away on business. She overheard a conversation between some Lexcorp
employees that made her wonder just how Alexis Luther referred to her outside
of her presence.
Supergirl
looked around Lexcorp’s main headquarters, sneaking into areas not open to the
public. She discovered a room where there were dozens of versions of her
growing in LMD pods. Sydney Happersan discovered her in the room and explained
that they had used cell samples from her skin to grow these LMD’s in an attempt
to save Alexis Luther who was dying from a rare disease. Supergirl refused to
believe this story and destroyed all her duplicates. However Happersan showed
her the dying Alexis Luther. Kara felt guilty and vowed to use all her efforts
to save Alexis Luther jr.
Kara Kent
consulted her father and her ex-boyfriend’s father, Bruce Wayne, currently head
of the government agency CIALD. Both men were very intrigued by her account of
the dying Alexis Luther jr. She was asked to describe his condition in great
detail. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent recognized the symptoms of an LMD
degradation but wondered at how rapidly it had come about on this ersatz
Luther. Wayne believed that since there were significant differences between it
and the original Luther that the tinkering involved had compromised the
stability of the LMD. Clark Kent had his wife dig hard into the background of
Alexis Luther II with the intent to expose him as a fraud, perpetuated by the
man who was now for all intents and purposes controlling Lexcorp, Sydney
Happersan.
Happersan
had in Alexis Luther’s name tried to get in contact with Dabney Donovan.
Donovan was involved in a project involving genetics through cloning and the
use of the LMD pods. The project was known as Manticore or Cadmus depending on
the source but they denied knowing the whereabouts of Dabney Donovan. When
Happersan continued to seek Donovan various Lexcorp installations on the East
Coast reported acts of vandalism, sabotage and firebombing by oddly shaped
people or animals. Happersan knew that Donovan was experimenting with
recombinant DNA, gene splicing and other Moreau type experiments and believed that
he was behind them. He had Lexcorp security forces attempt to contain and
capture any creature seen perpetrating these acts.
The “war”
between Donovan’s freaks and Lexcorp reached such a state that the Special
Crimes Unit and Superman became involved.
After
Lois Lane’s story broke which proved that Alexis Luther II was an imposter and
followed Happersan’s money trail, blaming Happersan for perpetuating the fraud,
Sydney Happersan. Alexis Luther II was arrested. Happersan eluded capture and
initiated several of Alexis Luther’s last stand devices that he had intended to
use if ever cornered by Superman. These destroyed many buildings in New York
city. Happersan perished in one of these building collapses.
Once
Happersan was dead and the imposter Alexis Luther jr. in custody, the search
for Alexis Luther began. He turned up in a sanitarium in Westchester New York.
He began therapy for his cancer which had spread during his captivity. It was
during this treatment that he made a deal with the devil. Although in the
comics, he is seen making a deal to sell his soul for a younger body to a
malevolent entity known as Neron, the real devil he made a deal with was the
group known as The Nine. Although six of the original and oldest members of the
Nine had been killed off in a war raged against them by Doc Caliban and Lord
Grandrith, two of their former Servants, the three remaining members had formed
a new Nine gathering old and new servants by promises of the elixir, a drug
that slows down the aging process to the extent you age one year for every 300.
The elixir also confers upon the recipient perfect health and the ability to
regenerate body parts. As a servant of the Nine, Alexis Luther would also gain
access to world political power. Although Alexis Luther was loathe to be
anyone’s servant, he also did not wish to die. Also with his supreme ego, he
believed that it would be only a matter of time before he was running things.
While Alexis Luther was
convalescing, receiving the elixir and having his hand regenerated, a woman
from his past, the Contessa Erica Giulietta Le Portenza re-entered his life.
The Contessa met Alexis Luther in the late sixties during a meeting about
expanding Lexcorp and Lexxon Oil’s operations to Europe, working in partnership
with some of the Contessa’s businesses. They fell into a romantic relationship
because they shared many qualities, ruthlessness, business acumen and a great
hatred for Howard Hughes. They had a brief, torrid romance
Contessa Erica Giulietta Le
Portenza’s hatred for Howard Hughes had begun in the late fifties. Upon the
death of her father Whitney Frost received a shock when the will was read. It
told her that she was in fact the adopted daughter of Byron Frost. Her true
father was Count Luchino Le Portenza, a notorious figure in international
criminal circles, and her true name was Erica Giulietta Le Portenza. The Count
told her that she had been placed with Frost for safe keeping but now that
Frost was dead and could no longer protect her, she would have to return to her
family. Although she balked at this the Count told her that he would expose her
as his daughter unless she cooperated.
The Count trained Whitney in
criminal strategy, managing underworld operations, and combat skills, all of
which she mastered rapidly. The Count was captured during one of his criminal
endeavors and Erica found herself in charge of the Camorra family, although
only nominally. Her father’s consigliore actually led the family. It was
decided by the consigliore that the Le Portenza Camorra family would do
something to set them above other criminals. It was well known that Hughes
International had designed the rocketpacks of the Air Patrol and was working on
even more high technology designs. Erica was entrusted to lead a raid against
Hughes International and steal as much of this technology as her men could
carry. Erica and her men made it into the Hughes Long Island complex and loaded
their planes with material but the planes were shot down by the East Cost
Rocketmen led by Commander Barr. Her plane was damaged and crashed over the
Atlantic crashed and Erica was horrifically injured.
She was found by one of the ships
of Golden Shipping Lines, owned by Mordecai Midas. Midas learned of her
background and arranged for her medical treatment. Her face was horrifically
scarred so Midas gave her a golden mask to wear over the injury. Midas hired
her as a criminal operative; planning and carrying out operations that would
net him gold. One of Midas’ personal plans was to have her meet Howard Hughes
get him alone and then kidnap him, without implicating Midas. Although Hughes
was a recluse he could sometimes be induced to attend certain charitable
functions for appearances sake. Midas arranged for both Hughes and Erica to be
invited to a masquerade ball. At the ball, Erica maneuvered Hughes into an
unused room. Since Hughes was a well known lothario this was a relatively
simple task. Once there however Erica allowed herself to be seduced by Hughes.
During their tryst she drugged and
captured Hughes. Hughes was then replaced by a LMD who had been conditioned to
turn Hughes International over to Midas. However Erica fell in love with Hughes
and could not be a party to destroy him. She helped his escape and the LMD was
exposed as a fraud.[17]
She terminated her employment with
Midas. Hughes however reacted with great revulsion when, at his insistence she
came to bed unmasked.
Scorned and enraged, Erica vowed
to have revenge on him. However she received word that her father had escaped from
jail and was dying. She hurried to his side. The Count was a wizened old man,
aged decades since last she saw him only a year past. The Count revealed a
final shocking truth to Erica.
The Portenzas were not like other
people. They had been cursed by a Druid back in the days when Britain had been
a Roman colony, cursed with long life, a long life that would end as abruptly
has it was given. When the life ended it would end with all the accumulated
years taking their toll in a few days and the person would suffer an incredibly
painful death. The Count and his family had been of the Lepidius family,
descendents of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, a supporter of Julius Caesar and
Octavius who had become governor of the western provinces of Hispania and
Africa. His descendents had been among the first to colonize Britain. Lucca
Lepidus had cleared a forest for the building of their villa over the
protestation of the locals. A druid priest had cursed Lucca Lepidus and his
family which included his son and daughter. His son had enjoyed being youthful
for decades when he grew depressed because his family aged and died. He joined
the army stationed in Britain but soon discovered that most injuries would
eventually heal. After the Roman’s left Britain, young Lepidus refused to go.
He instead shut himself up in a cave, awaiting for the day for Rome to return.
Lucca Lepidus learned that his son had been awakened from his hibernation in
1899 but had after a short time begun to wither and die as Lucca was now doing.
Lucca told Erica that she was his daughter and had been likewise cursed.
Erica had married at the turn of
the century and had tragically saw another husband age and wither before her
eyes. This one she had loved so profoundly that his death was too much for her
withstand. Erica had had a mental breakdown, becoming amnesiac. It was decided
that she would live with the Frosts as her daughter for her own protection
until she recovered or it was necessary to force her to remember. The Count was
only telling her this now because he could no longer protect her. The Count
died shortly after this and Erica irrationally blamed Hughes for her father’s
death.
She met Alexis Luther after she
had regained control of her father’s business interests and after her face had
healed of its horrific scarring. Contessa Erica Giulietta Le Portenza used the
pretext that after Happersan and Luther, she was the person that held the most
amount of Lexcorp stock and so took over the reins of the company in Luther’s
absence. She used Lexcorp’s resources help clean up the debris left over from
Happersan’s rampage.
In what many considered a
publicity stunt, she gave leadership of Team Luther, Lexcorp private security
force to hire Marcus Aelius, an immortal Roman from
the time of Hadrian. The comics gave Marcus Aelius, the backstory that an alien
race, the Virmiru offered to
exchange representatives between their world and the Roman Empire, Marcus was
the one chosen to represent Rome. When Aelius returned to Earth some two
thousand years later it was take his place as Earth’s protector. However Marcus was actually one of
the few Romans to escape captivity from an Alien trader who had kidnapped a
Roman Legion to conquer primitive planets for him. The Roman soldiers were
given a treatment that would prevent them from aging and were repaired when
wounded but were not allowed their freedom. Marcus Aelius survived a battle and
was picked up not by his owner but rather by one of his owner’s rivals. This
rival did not share Marcus’ owner’s point of view about enslaving primitive
populations and so when they had traveled near Marcus’ home planet they gave
him a shuttle ship to return home.[18] Although Marcus had known the Contessa Erica
Giulietta Le Portenza back when she was Julia Lepidus, neither of them
disclosed that information.
When Alexis Luther was cured of his cancer and had
re-grown his hand, he returned to New York to retake control of Lexcorp. During
his convalescence he had a planned out an agenda that would ultimately lead him
to controlling the world. However the Contessa Erica Giulietta Le Portenza did not wish to
relinquish her position as head of Lexcorp so readily. In lieu of a drawn out
corporate battle that could seriously disrupt Lexcorp, they agreed to a
partnership. She would help him attain his goals and in return Lexcorp would
allow her to obtain some of hers. Once Alexis Luther returned on the scene
Marcus Aeilius was persuaded to go to Washington, D.C. to work for CIALD.
Unfortunately he was too ethical to be a spy for Lexcorp.
The first
business that Alexis and the Contessa Erica did together was to take down their
mutual enemy, Howard Hughes.[19]
They first used their influence to bring pressure on the United States
government to get Howard Hughes back into the United States. Hughes was
purportedly living in seclusion in London, at the Inn on the Park. Hughes had
left the United States feeling persecuted and betrayed he felt that he had
bought the President’s ear by his lavish contributions and wanted an end to
nuclear testing in Nevada. When Nixon failed to acquiesce to Hughes wishes, he
felt that the United States was no longer safe for him. There were also some
legal problems such as an ongoing TWA lawsuit and lawsuits from some of Hughes
former employees that had prompted Hughes to leave the United States. Hughes
name also came up in another major legal battle in 1974; the Watergate Hotel
Break-in. Lexcorp prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to also
indict Hughes for fraud in the Air West airline acquisition. Hughes had
knowingly manipulated the stock price of Air West to force the company’s sale.
Of course this was a business practice that Luther also engaged in but any bit
of ammunition against Hughes was fair game. Hughes left London for the Bahamas
which had a non-extradition policy. [20]
Luther
also put pressure on the various city governments where Hughes had holdings in
which he was regarded as an absentee landlord. Las Vegas especially felt
slighted that Hughes after making such a huge investment in the city had just
picked up and left. Luther was able to get Hughes properties in Las Vegas such
as the Desert Inn, Sands Hotel, Hughes television station, North Las Vegas
Airport and many other properties citied for safety and building code
violations. The Internal Revenue Service also began an extensive audit of
Hughes recently formed Summa Corporation.
Luther
learned that many of Hughes papers were held in a haphazardly guarded building.
He arranged for the Hughes Romaine Street headquarters to be burglarized in
June 5, 1974. Many of the papers were released to the media to discredit
Hughes, such as Hughes involvement with the CIA however this backfired and
Hughes was regarded as a patriot for his involvement with the CIA.
Given
this it is little wonder that Alexis Luther did not release one vital bit of
information that these papers contained, a piece of information so bizarre that
Alexis Luther could scarcely credit it as being true.
The
identity of Hughes International’s protector Iron Man was none other than Howard
Hughes!
There had
been rumors for years that Howard Hughes had lost control of his empire and was
a virtual prisoner of his staff. A putative autobiography of Howard Hughes
scheduled to appear in print had been quickly quashed by Hughes in 1971. The
autobiography and subsequent rumors claimed that Howard Hughes was a drug
addict with a morbid fear of germs. He lived in a darkened room, sleeping on a
barcalounge and spent his time in a narcotic haze watching film after film. He
was supposed to be so emaciated that his bones poked through his thin skin, his
back and legs were covered with bed sores, he refused to cut his hair or his
nails and he kept his urine in mason jars. Although he lived among unclean
squalor he insisted everything that he touched had to be touched with many
layers of Kleenex.
These
stories were partially true. Hughes did live in such a state but only during
those times when his Iron Man suit was being repaired or upgraded. The suit
isolated Hughes from the rest of the world keeping him safe from germs,
radiation and contact with unclean humanity. The suit also gave him the ability
to do the one thing that he really loved to do but was physically unable to do
on his own, fly. Yet there was a price for being in the suit so long. When Hughes
had been injured in the mid-sixties the mechanics of the suit had been improved
to respond from very slight movements from Hughes, this allowed the suit to do
most of the actual moving for Hughes and a result his muscles began to atrophy.
As his body began to atrophy the suit did not fit as well yet Hughes refused to
have suit that would better fit his new form built, believing that his
underlings would screw it up. As a result padding was placed into the suit to
make the suit fit better around Hughes, this padding chafed and gave Hughes
serious sores along side his body. Hughes had become something of an addict
after a life threatening plane crash in 1946 so he used large amounts of
codeine to offset the pain that his body was experiencing. The suit apparently
had a built in hypodermic system. When it came time for Iron Man to go into
action, Hughes would add Dexedrine to his drug mixture to make him alert.
Although the drugs made him able to function through the pain, his body
continued to be damaged during his fights as Iron Man. During one such fight
despite the Iron Man armor, Howard Hughes shattered his leg to the extent that
a pin had to be put in his hip.[21]
The
stories of Hughes living in Nicaragua, London, the Bahamas and Mexico were true
to the extent that he did have his employees set up such bases for him but the
most part Hughes lived in the United States in hiding.
While
attacking Hughes on the financial front Luther also decided to attack Hughes on
a physical level by drawing Iron Man into a series of destructive battles.
He sent an agent code
named Tattoo to bring about wide spread sabotage at Hughes International’s
California Headquarters. The saboteur was easily defeated by Iron Man and as
per Luther’s usual method of operation died when taken into custody. Tattoo’s
true mission had been to place a small device on the Iron Man armor.[22]
Luther then had Jose
Delgado in a combat armor suit based on the Iron Man armor kidnap one of Hughes
old flames. Jose Delgado had sought help from Alexis Luther II to have the
implants that had given him mobility restored. Alexis Luther had restored
Delgado’s mobility but had also added implants that could control Delgado
through the pain centers of his brain, Delgado’s limbs could also be remotely
controlled, however only to a limited duration and limited extent. If that
failed there were secure locks on his implants that ceased their functions
freezing Delgado in place. Instead of using the code name Gangbuster Delgado
used Luther’s chosen code name of Force.[23]
Hughes fought Delgado and
freed the hostage. During the fight, Delgado placed another micro device on the
Iron Man armor. The hostage was Erica Portenza revealed to Iron Man that she
knew his secret identity. She attempted to break through his self imposed
isolation and succeeded in gaining visiting rights to Hughes by being allowed
to take rooms in an adjoining suite. Once in the hotel the Contessa used her
access to let in some of Luther’s technicians.
However Hughes left the
hotel where he was staying without informing the Contessa. His presence was
noted in Scotland. Luther arranged for another of his power armor suited
employees to attack Hughes in Scotland. Another micro devise was planted on the
Iron Man armor. [24]
From the Contessa Luther
learned that Hughes was learning to fly helicopters and so arranged to a
helicopter presented to him as a gift from the Contessa for having saved her
life. Hughes was nearly killed when the Luther seized control of the helicopter
by remote control and caused it to lose power in mid-air. Hughes was able to
guide the helicopter to a safe landing. [25]
Hughes battled two more
of Luther’s agents in separate incidents in the Bahamas and Nevada. Jose
Delgado, who had learned to temporarily disarm the security lock on his exo-skeleton,
visited Hughes. He told Hughes how he had been forced to attack him and told
Hughes who was behind the attacks. Hughes and Delgado were attacked by three of
Luther’s agents whose orders were to kill Delgado. Hughes and Delgado sustained
injuries. Delgado reportedly died of his wounds.[26]
Having learned who was
behind his attacks Hughes contacted Alexis Luther by telephone and told him in
no uncertain terms what he planned to do to Luther’s financial empire. Luther
laughed at this and told Hughes that he would be a poor, homeless dying wretch
when he was finished with him.
Agents of Luther caused
an industrial accident in a Hughes owned plant in Japan, which Hughes
International covered up at a great cost. By late 1975, America’s first
billionaire was having great financial strains due to the various sabotages,
lawsuits and other actions that Luther had manipulated against Hughes, his cash
reserves were ten million below the annual running costs of his various
enterprises. His personal expenses were not included in this and they were
nearly 30,000 per deim.
The constant battering of
his Iron Man suit had left his frail body in great pain, to which he responded
by increasing his codeine intake. This was so great that had he not built up a
great tolerance over the years it would have immediately killed him. He was so
doped up however that not even the Benzedrine could offset the codeine to make
him somewhat alert. He stayed more and more in the Iron Man suit and had two
more encounters with agents of Luther.
The end for Hughes career
as Iron Man came in December 1975. Hughes while heavily under the influence of
a drug concoction of his own mixture attacked a Hughes factory in California,
believing that it was the headquarters of his archenemy or the source of
radiation spawned germs. Hughes was subdued by one of Hughes International’s
other Iron Men. Had Hughes known the identity of the other Iron Man he would
have died of apoplexy and mortification. After the other Iron Man had subdued
Hughes, and went to seek help something very strange happened. Hughes’ suit
began firing its weapons at the Hughes’ suit, scoring and scarring the suit in
an attempt to destroy it. When this ultimately failed, the laser aimed at the
eye slits of the suit. The other Iron Man had returned in time to wrestle with
the hand laser, taking damage before breaking it. Having failed to cause
Hughes’ suit to kill him, Luther activated the explosive charges on the micro
devices. They shattered Hughes’ armor. Hughes was miraculously still alive
because of all of the interior padding inside the suit.[27]
Hughes was in a bad state
yet refused medical attention believing that all hospitals were now
compromised. He had his staff fly to his last refuge, the Acapulco Princess
Hotel suite in Mexico where they took the entire top floor. Having lost his one
true refuge from the world, Hughes knew that he would soon die of the vast
amounts of radioactive germs in the air. His drug intake increased, which was
one of the reasons for having moved to Mexico. He neglected his businesses and
the only calls in or out to his room concerned his last will and testament.
Luther and Contessa
Erica Giulietta Le Portenza discovered Hughes whereabouts in late March of
1976.
On
April 4th, Howard Hughes awoke to find Contessa Erica Giulietta Le
Portenza sitting by his bedside. She told him that the time for final revenge
was at hand. For his hand in her father’s death, Hughes would die in torment
and great horror. Hughes felt movement on his feet. He saw dozens of spiders of
various sizes crawling upon his bed. The Contessa informed him that the spiders
were not venomous per se, but that they had been infected with various lethal
diseases. She kissed her fingers at him and departed his room. Howard Robert
Hughes jr. found that he could not scream as the filthy germ infested spiders
crawled over his body biting and contaminating him.
On
April 5th, his staff found Howard Hughes stiff and dead, frozen in a
tableau of horror as dozens of spiders crawled over his still form.
Yet Howard Hughes had one final salvo in his battle
with Alexis Luther. Prior to his death, Hughes had caused to be planted a
series of bogus last wills and testaments that tied up his estate for years. In
the end, his largest profitable enterprise Hughes Aircraft was owned by the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Luther and the Contessa were able to purchase
bits and pieces of the Hughes financial empire but not the majority of it; they
merely had to be content with killing him. Yet eventually Luther would discover
that the reports of Hughes death were as Mark Twin said, greatly exaggerated. [28]
During his several year battle with Howard Hughes
Alexis Luther also had to deal with some other …problems.
In 1975 Wilson Fisk returned to New York City to
avenge himself on old enemies before retiring from a life of crime. Luther knew
that Fisk had gone to Las Vegas after being forced out of New York by the joint
Luther-Schemer operation but the Las Vegas venture had ended badly. Fisk killed
many of his old foes who were members of various mobs. Luther did not care
about this because it allowed him to take over these organizations. Fisk also
concentrated his hatred upon two costumed vigilantes the Spider-Man and the
Daredevil who Fisk blamed for his earlier fall, although it had actually been
through the machinations of Fisk’s son that Fisk had lost his organization.
Considered the Spider-Man and Daredevil as two minor annoyances but did not at
the time hate them with the intensity that he hated Superman. However Luther
did not care if Fisk eliminated them either. [29]
After achieving some measure of vengeance, Fisk and
his wife retire to Japan. Fisk used legitimate Hydra contacts to establish
business interests there.
Fisk was however not done with his enemies; he
planned to turn over all the evidence that he had accumulated on his former
colleagues and enemies to the United States Department of Justice. His courier
was his wife Vanessa, who he believed nobody would dare touch. He was wrong
however. Alexis Luther did not know what was in those documents and so was
concerned about their very existence. He did not know how much of his business
dealings that Fisk had known about but was not about to take the chance. He
gave orders through channels that ended up with several of his criminal
employees kidnap Vanessa Fisk from her hotel room. As planned this brought Fisk
from Japan. Luther arranged for an exchange, Fisk could have Vanessa back if he
handed over the incriminating files. Whatever else could be said about him
Wilson Fisk loved his wife more than wealth or power and so agreed to the deal.
Once the deal was accomplished, Luther had the building that Fisk and his wife
were staying blown up.[30]
Fisk survived the building collapse but his wife did
not. His wife had been the driving force behind him leaving a life of crime.
Without her he had no reason not to go back into it. He also wished to avenge
Vanessa’s death.
Having made certain that his involvement in the
assassination attempt on Fisk and his wife was kept secret, Luther ignored
Fisk’s attempts to rise to power once again and his vengeance against Daredevil
who he blamed for Vanessa’s death, although it is more likely that Daredevil
had learned of the plot against the Fisks and tried to warn them. Fisk began to
organize the small criminal organizations of the leaders he had killed into a
larger organization. However when Fisk also used his wealth to put up a
political candidate of his choosing for the Mayor of New York, Luther decided
this had gone too far. He leaked information about Fisk’s candidate’s
connection to crime. When Fisk turned his wrath on the reporter who had written
the expose, since Daredevil was guarding the reporter, Luther stayed out of
this business.
Luther heard a rumor that the Kingpin’s wife might
not be dead that she had fallen into the sewer system when the building had
collapsed and she had wandered through the sewers and began living with tunnel
derelicts. Luther sent his men to capture Vanessa Fisk, especially when he
heard that the Daredevil was also seeking her. Daredevil battled Luther’s men
and found Vanessa Fisk. He turned her over to Fisk in exchange for Fisk having
his Mayoral candidate resign and for Fisk to leave the country. He only did the
latter because Vanessa Fisk’s ordeal among the tunnel derelicts had traumatized
her and she needed a great deal of psychological help. Fisk agreed and departed
the United States once again. [31]
Luther quickly seized control of Fisk’s fledgling
crime organization. Yet he was not done with the Fisk family.
Richard Fisk hated his father’s criminal legacy and
wanted it destroyed, even if Fisk was no longer running it, he wanted it
destroyed. Richard Fisk worked his way up through Luther’s criminal
organization under the name Rose. With a turncoat long time member of Luther’s
empire named Sam Silke Richard Fisk seized control of part of Luther’s criminal
empire declared himself the new Kingpin. Fisk began warring on his father’s old
enemies with the intent of destroying them while at the same time destroying
his father’s former operation, like grinding two object together until both are
worn down to nothing. Luther intervened and brought down Richard Fisk and his
allies. Richard Fisk went into the Federal Witness Protection program for
divulging incriminating evidence about the New York crime situation to the law
enforcement officials. [32]
Alexis Luther would patiently wait to get revenge on
the Fisk family.
During his ongoing battles with the Fisks and Howard
Hughes, Alexis Luther had little time for anything else although he did carry
out the occasional plot against Superman. In one such plot shortly after his
return to New York City his security forces captured the being known as the
Parasite. In an effort to discover how it functioned, Luther had one of the
Doctors who had failed to cure him during his cancer treatment fed to the
Parasite. The Parasite absorbed Dr. Freeman’s memories and knowledge as it
digested the body. Alexis Luther then set the Parasite free on New York City, knowing
that Superman would show up to fight the Parasite. Superman defeated the
Parasite with help of Super-girl. The Parasite was deemed too dangerous to be
held in regular lock up and so was remanded to the custody of STAR
laboratories.
Alexis Luther waited a few weeks but then had a STAR
Laboratory custodian on his payroll free the Parasite and several other
prisoners held in of STAR Laboratories special prisoners’ wing.
This kept Superman busy
capturing them while Alexis Luther arranged a break in at STAR Laboratories,
which shared information with Cadmus. Although Superman returned in time to
capture the burglar, he had managed to send the information that STAR
Laboratories had gathered on Superman’s genetics. He learned something that
stunned and outraged him. He thought about exposing the Superman fraud but
realized that he could do so in a public manner that would not only expose
Superman for the fraud that he was but would literally destroy him before the
eyes of his worshipping, gullible public.
During the late seventies and early eighties, Alexis
did not have many confrontations with Superman, since he avoided having them.
However the depiction
of Wilson Fisk’s activities in New York after 1976 were actually based on those
of Alexis Luther. He encouraged the misinformation that Fisk was in New York
and carrying out these criminal deeds as one more means of shielding himself
from criminal investigation or prosecution. Alexis was busy carrying out missions for the Nine and setting up events
for his taking over governing of the planet. Since Alexis’ activities are
mostly unknown during this period, the comic portrayals of him are few and far
between and those that did occur were highly exaggerated.[33]
Alexis Luther married the Contessa Erica Giulietta Le Portenza in
1979 and together they planned for his rise to power. A wrinkle arose however
in that Erica became pregnant. Alexis was pleased to have a true heir to
inherit his empire.
As
soon as their daughter Lena was born, Alexis Luther would have no competition
for the affection of his daughter, not even from his wife. He had Erica sedated
and kept in a hospital after she gave birth to Lena. She came out of her coma in spite of the fact that she
would have to be superhuman to do so. She escaped when the hospital burned
down. In league with Dabney Donovan, she had a LMD of Superman made and as par
for the course it became a crystallized Bizarro copy. She sent it to kidnap her
daughter Lena from Alexis Luther. Although Alexis retrieved the child the Contessa
waited to strike, wanting Alexis to worry about when she would strike next.
Alexis Luther began to
plan his Doomsday plan in 1980, a plan that would culminate in destroying the
costumed vigilantes that had most plagued him in one fell swoop and clear the
way for him to have unimpeded power. To achieve this goal turned his
investigative teams loose to discover every scrap of information about those
people he wished to destroy. He also had to make hidden alliances with a couple
of criminals who were archenemies of his targets. One of these was the man whom
Alexis was convinced was his biological father, the criminal called Lex Luthor.
Another was the psychotic criminal known as the Joker. He also had to find the
whereabouts of Dabney Donovan, make amends with him and use his particular
gifts for a special project.
One of the first parts of
the project was to capture the criminal known as Mr. Hyde. Because of his
seeming resistance to injury and simple-minded brutality, Alexis Luther
believed that the criminal could be turned into a killing machine that could
kill Superman. He thought about trying to capture the legendary Hulk but
believed that being would not only prove too powerful but too intractable and
impossible to control. Donovan actually agreed to the specifications for which
Alexis Luther asked. Mr. Hyde had cybernetic implants put into his body which
would have killed a normal person. These protected his internal organs and
increased his strength and stamina. His bones were made to absorb kryptonite
and he was made to grow sharp bone spurs through out his body.
Alexis Luther’s partner
Lex Luthor had induced the Ultra-Humanite to join the alliance. The
Ultra-Humanite had brought in his grandson, Lionel Luthor. Alexis Luther found
it ironic that his rival/partner was unknowingly assisting him in bringing down
his greatest enemy.
In 1985 The Doomsday Plan
was enacted, its purpose was to eliminate and destroy Luther’s hated enemies.
Although ultimately it failed, it did achieve some measure of success. For
nearly a year Alexis Luther could glory in the fact that he lived without real
interference from Superman and his odious family, Batman and his ilk, Daredevil
and the Spider.
TO BE CONTINUED…..