justice League Darkseid War: Lex Luthor #1 Comic Book Recap/Review

Darkseid War: Lex Luthor #1 Recap/Review – The Omega Judgment

justice League Darkseid War: Lex Luthor #1 Comic Book Recap

Darkseid is dead. Long live Lex Luthor.

Once, long ago, Lex’s father took him out hunting. Only a boy back then, he got lost and fell down a well. His dad did find him, but the man refused to rescue his son. Only the weak ask for help. The strong find a way to succeed. Dropping a rope down, he forced the boy to climb out of the well on his own.

In the present, on Apokolips, Luthor is led to a village by a woman named Ardora. She explains how these people have lived with nothing but despair and suffering at the hands of Darkseid. Now there is an opportunity for change. For the first time ever, her people have hope. Luthor asks what they expect him to do, and Ardora explains that while Darkseid is dead, there are still those who enforce his rule. With his new Omega powers, they can free many others, and kill anybody who stands in their way. Ardora may not believe in Lex, but her people do, and that’s enough.

Luthor asks why he needs her, when these people will follow him, but when he tries to use his powers, his body explodes, and the man nearly falls to his death. This reminds Luthor of a confrontation he once had with Perry White. He wanted the Daily Planet editor to pull a story, but Perry was not intimidated by Luthor. Lex told the editor how his father used to take him hunting, but asthma always made this an impossible task for Luthor. He couldn’t hold his breath to steady a shot, and his wheezing always scared away the animals. He then shows Perry various headlines highlighting Lex’s corporate career, acquiring, gutting, and selling off rivals. These are Lex’s conquests. These are his kills. This is how Luthor hunts. And if Perry refused to kill that story, Lex threatened to kill the Daily Planet. Unimpressed, Perry spat in Luthor’s face, and Lex, enraged, tried to strangle the editor in response. His lawyers managed to stop him and the assault led to him calling things off, but Lex is truly an angry man.

This is not lost on Apocolips, where Lex’s companion offers to rescue him. Luthor reflect on an earlier encounter with Superman, where Clark once tried to save Lex from a crashing plane. Luthor was suspicious of Superman and refused to believe that Clark would waste time helping someone like him. Everyone may ask for help, but not Lex. Not ever.

In the present, Luthor restates these words. Only the weak need help, and he refuses to take Ardora’s hand. She begs for him to let go of his anger, to let go of his past, but he struggles with this. He finally accepts her help, but it is too late. Both of them end up plummeting toward the ground. Luthor asks why she would do this, and Ardora admits that she believes in hope. They embrace, and Omega energy surrounds them. Luthor is able to fly them both to safety, and his body is left transformed. He asks what just happened, and Ardora explains that the Omega force does not judge you, it simply needs to be let in. Once you acknowledge who and what you really are, you are able to access these formidable powers. Accepting help was the first step. Ardora says she stands beside him now. They all do. Luthor’s new army stands ready.

Lex smiles, and says it’s time to get to work.

justice League Darkseid War: Lex Luthor #1 Comic Book Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island! My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review of The Darkseid War: Lex Luthor #1.

So yes, for a good while now, Joey has been covering this Darkseid War. And he’s been doing a great job, featuring reviews with excellent sound effects, editing, and some pretty stellar voice work. Overall, it’s been a thoroughly impressive effort that I personally have really enjoyed. The event itself is pretty cool too, and I’m digging the whole idea of the various Justice League members all becoming gods of sorts. Meanwhile, I’ve been mostly sitting on the sidelines, playing with Iron Man and the new Batman and on the whole ignoring this whole event. I wanted to at least have some say in this story, however, so this week I asked Joey if I could review this comic and he was nice enough to say yes.

So here I am with my first, and likely only foray into the Darkseid Wars. I have to say on the whole it has been a pretty cool and epic event, overall, even if the whole thing is one big continuity bomb. Yes, while I have defended making creative choices in the past over continuity, I do have to say that even I can’t ignore these issues in Darkseid Wars. The problem isn’t that this story is lax on continuity with other DC titles, it’s that we have all these big, cool changes happening to the Justice League which fly in the face of practically every other DC comic, especially with what’s going on with Batman and Superman in their solo series. It makes me highly skeptical that any of these changes in the League are going to last, and makes me worried that everything is going to be undone in one, big, cop out ending.

Oh well, let’s ignore the inevitable end to all of this fun and focus on the comic at hand. I did enjoy this Lex Luthor comic, but I have to say I was a bit… disappointed. This is a rather empty comic. It’s cool, and I love the new Darkseid powered Luthor, but man, does this comic feel short and simple. It’s a whole lot of flashbacks and posturing, and very little actually happens here. Now that being said, while this comic is light on content, what little content we get is rather good. Luthor’s character is nicely explored here, and it’s pretty exciting to see Luthor powered up and with an army at his disposal.

So the comic is light on anything meaningful in the larger Darkseid story but builds things up nicely and was a pleasant read regardless. If you’ve been enjoying the Darkseid War, well, I do recommend this issue. But I’m not going to pretend this isn’t something you could easily skip. Let me know what you guys think in the comments section below, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and keep reading comics.