Addendum to the Lethal Luthors-Deceptive Brilliance:
More than Meets the Eye
By Jason Trenner
I have to thank my various sources. Their help was invaluable in getting this together. Though they don’t wish to be named, they will always have my gratitude.
While some are willing to put a battle Superman had with Alexander Wainwright (who might be the ancestor of the Wainwright that in some distant future would build an android replica of his deceased daughter, with the android later working with Roger Smith negotiator and pilot of the giant mecha called Big O) as being an Earth bound battle with two new robot creations and a controlled Metal Man Lead, I have learned there was another event with which that incident was merged.
Luthor did create a rocket and did visit a world of advance robots. This planet was of course Cybertron, home planet of the Transformers. However Wainright/Luthor had no weapons that could destroy a Transformer. If he did, they would easily kill Superman. Though it was rumored that some plans and even a few prototypes he later created for such weapons fell into the hands of the US government.
What Luthor was able to do is hire several Decepticon mercenaries on promises of fuel (something Cybertron was in dire need of at that point). Of course one of the mercenaries was more than appeared to be, but went along with Luthor and the rest to find out what was going on and how much of a threat Wainright really was.
Luthor and the trio of Decepticon mercenaries did go on and performed acts of interstellar piracy. However fuel was a much more important target to the giant robots than anything else. The fuel was partly for themselves, and partly to gain brownie points with the Decepticon rulers of Cybertron. They would also give the Decepticon leadership star maps of places to invade later for more fuel.
It was brought up that Superman didn't know what Luthor and his Cybertronian allies were doing. However someone did know about what was going on, and that someone was an Autobot bounty hunter called Defcon. He had heard about this "Lex Luthor" working with the Decepticon mercenaries and learned about Superman though the Junkions (who even to this day quote Superman's TV shows in their TV quote based language). There were also other reasons he knew of Superman as well. My informants were very tight lipped on exactly what those reasons were.
Defcon traveled to Earth in search of Superman. He did come in contact with the various secret anti-alien watchdog groups (who had no idea they'd be dealing with the Cybertronian race very often), and did gain the aid of Superman. Given that Defcon transforms into a spacecraft and is able maintain all that is necessary for a single passenger, there was no need for Superman to ask or use any other kind of transportation.
The duo tracked down and battled Lex Luthor and his mercenaries. The Decepticons were scared of Defcon. Defcon had a reputation, and was an extremely good warrior. It also helped Superman and Defcon that one of the three mercenaries was really an undercover Autobot. He "switched" sides and helped Superman and Defcon destroy the Decepticon mercenaries, but Lex Luthor got away.
The undercover Autobot was later dubbed Scavenger in the Armada Transformers series. That would be after he had broken cover or would break cover during the minicon crisis as the Cybertronians call the events of Armada/Micron Legends. I was very cryptically informed on this subject by the message “don’t hang out with Transformers…you tend to end up tied to space mines that way”. Not many would understand that reference, other it was something that happened to one of the Transformers human allies.
Wainwright managed to get some Cybertronian technology out of those events. Technology he would of course use to control the Metal Man Lead and more likely use in other schemes. Some of this technology might have later gotten into the hands of CIALD and Tracker Industries.
The Transformers were misrepresented in the Superman story (given that they didn't transform and such). One reason for this was due to the tale being merged with the Metal Man Lead and two robotic creations Wainwright created. In fact Diamond Man and Krytonite Man were made with guesses on Cybertronian technology as much as on Lead’s internals. The other reason was due to the Transformers being unknown to the writers and such at the time. It wouldn't be until the 1970s when the Cybertronians that had been in stasis lock for 4 million years would awaken and battle their never ending war on Earth. Even then, it wouldn't be until 1984 before their origins and their story would be told (though muddled with so many versions).
Sources:
Dennis Power's Lethal Luthors: Deceptive Brilliance
Diaclone, Microman(the lines that most of the first two years worth of Transformers came from)
Transformers TV show (especially the episode "The Gambler" which was where Defcon appeared)
Transformers:Armada