Lex Luthor

"Now the Earth is doomed, and people say I'M the villain!"

- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Lex Luthor is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain that appears in the pages of DC Comics. One of the many DC characters chosen to appear in the crossover video game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, his position as Superman's arch nemesis makes Luthor a dangerous foe to anyone that opposes him. Reliant on cybernetics to face his enemies in combat, his counterpart in the crossover game is Jax Briggs.

About Lex Luthor
Raised in Smallville, Kansas by an abusive father, Lex Luthor was briefly friends with a younger boy in town named Clark Kent. Harboring resentment toward his father for his brutality toward him, Lex grew cold and severe, and severed his friendships with everyone, his own family and Clark included. When his father was killed in an auto accident, the young Lex inherited a sizable amount of money from the family's life insurance policy, for which Lex was the sole beneficiary.

What nobody knew was that Lex himself cut the brake line on his father's truck, and orchestrated his death and the insurance payout, which served as the foundation of what would become his fortune. With his genius intellect and the capital needed to create work and investments, Luthor became a billionaire and created his multinational corporation, LexCorp. With LexCorp, Luthor galvanized his position as the savior of Metropolis and reveled in his treatment by the citizens of the city as a hero. Then, Luthor's darkest day arrived when people began looking away from him for salvation, and began looking up in the sky.

Luthor perceived Superman's arrival in Metropolis as an infringement on his territory, and was further threatened by Superman's discovery of his questionable business practices and willingness to kill if it meant getting ahead. Because of this, even if Luthor's brilliance can cure all of mankind's ills and problems, Luthor has reasoned through his obsession that he must kill Superman before he can save the rest of the world.

MK vs. DC
Sometime before or during the invasion of Apokolips, Lex Luthor allied himself with Darkseid to secure his own survival. After Superman and The Justice League defeat Darkseid and his forces, Superman confronts Luthor over his betrayal in the ruins of Metropolis, just as Darkseid attempts to flee through a Boom Tube. Lex notices this first, and Superman thwarts Darkseid's escape plans by blasting him with his heat vision, causing the Boom Tube to explode.

Superman takes Luthor to the authorities, but Luthor escapes justice, claiming "the evidence didn't hold up". His scientists at LexCorp discover strange readings and Lex dons his warsuit before investigating. He unknowingly travels to the Mortal Kombat universe, where he confronts Jax Briggs at the Special Forces bases where the source of the readings are, discovering their portal technology.

Though Lex acts amicable towards Jax and desires the secrets of the portal technology, Jax unknowingly becomes infected by the Kombat Rage and defeats him in combat. Jax then imprisons him with Catwoman who was defeated earlier by Sonya Blade. Luthor and Catwoman managed to escape thanks to Catwoman, and attempt to use the portal to leave the base, but wound up getting teleported to Oa, where Green Lantern was at the time.

Lex suddenly becomes infected by the Kombat Rage and angrily demands Lantern's ring for himself, believing he doesn't use it properly and the two fight. Green Lantern defeats Luthor and Lex is momentarily freed from the Kombat Rage. After the battle, the Guardians recharge Green Lantern's ring and urges all of them to work together to save the Earth and the universe from this crisis. Green Lantern then takes himself, Luthor and Catwoman back to Earrth.

Green Lantern drops Luthor and Catwoman off at Metropolis while he goes to find the source of the world merge. With The Justice League's hands full, Luthor and Catwoman decide to band together to save Earth. They recruit Deathstroke and The Joker, who were defeated by Scorpion and Sub-Zero in Gotham, to their team. They soon run into Captain Marvel and Superman in Metropolis.

Captain Marvel tells Superman and Luthor that Darkseid has merged with another powerful being and became Dark Kahn. Luthor becomes momentarily infected by the Kombat Rage when he realizes that Superman's heat vision destabilizing Darkseid's Boom Tube was the cause of Darkseid becoming Dark Kahn but he is calmed down before fighting Superman. Agreeing to work together for the time being with the heroes, Luthor sends Deathstroke and Joker to invade the enemies universe in a wild goose chase for their portal technology, while he and Catwoman go to the real base where they were first held captive to find the portal technology.

Along the way, they are confronted by Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero freezes them both to the ground but Luthor, fueled by Kombat Rage, breaks himself free and defeats both Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Luthor frees Catwoman and they go to the Special Forces base. Catwoman does reconnaissance while Luthor uses the portal technology that to begin preparing a portal for Apokolips but is confronted by Jax once again and the two face off.

Luthor defeats Jax this time, but before he can resume working on the portal, a Kombat Rage infected Flash knocks Catwoman unconscious and attacks Luthor. The two fight and Luthor defeats Flash. The Justice League and the rest of the villains arrive and they use the portal to go to the merged Apokolips/Outworld to confront Dark Kahn.

During the final battle between the Kombatants, Luthor faces off against Jax once more and manages to defeat him, being one of the few to remain conscious after the battle. Infected and overcome by the Kombat Rage, Luthor confronts Superman, infuriated for his part in the creation of Dark Kahn and battles his longtime nemesis.

He is defeated by Superman and the Man of Steel was about to kill Luthor but is stopped by Batman who fights but is defeated by Superman, though still manages to free him from the Rage's influence. Once Superman overcomes The Kombat Rage, he goes to confront Dark Kahn. After Dark Kahn's destruction, Luthor travels to Darkseid's palace and sees Shao Kahn was left in the New God's place, though without his powers.

Bios

 * MK vs DCU: "One of the richest and smartest men in the world, Lex Luthor is motivated by bottomless ambition, an egotistical disregard for morality, and an intense hatred of Superman. Using the resources of his financial empire as head of LexCorp, Luthor has developed a high-tech suit to duplicate some of Superman's abilities. Luthor is obsessed with removing the man he sees as the main obstacle to his rise to absolute power."

Combat Characteristics
Though an ordinary human, Lex Luthor is anything but defenseless against the gods and superhumans of the DC Universe. His genius intellect affords him tactical planning and his vast resources from LexCorp allowed him to construct an armored warsuit that lets him go toe-to-toe with the likes of Superman himself. His suit affords him enhanced strength, speed, durability and limited flight along with several on-board weapons such as rockets and flamethrowers.

Special Moves

 * Hot Flames: Lex fires a burst of flames from his wrist.
 * Target Practice: Lex fires a missile to the sky which locks on his opponent.
 * LexCorp Rocket: Lex fires a missile directly at his opponent.
 * Evasive Maneuver: Lex escapes from his opponent using a rocket in a boot, sliding away from his opponent.
 * Rocket Boots: Lex spins forward in the air, rights himself, and then kicks his opponent in the face with his rocket boots.
 * Powered Palms: Lex does three thrusting palm strikes while crouching.

Other Moves

 * Free-fall Super Move: Lex curls up into a ball and spins in place before delivering a rocket powered dropkick to his opponent.

Fatalities

 * Target Practice: Lex taps buttons on his arm, then missile lock signals go across the opponent. Then missiles rain down on the enemy, burning them to death.
 * Body Breaker: Lex grabs the victim and snaps the spine, spinning the top half the body completely around in a 180 degree twist.

Endings

 * MK vs DCU: (Non-Canonical) "Using data stolen from the Special Forces, Lex Luthor constructed his own portal and breached the barrier that separated two universes. There he encountered the sorcerer Quan Chi. Their combined power, intelligence and near omnipresence will be unstoppable. Both worlds will fall prey to this Deadly Alliance."

Trivia

 * Luthor's ending is a clear reference to the Deadly Alliance.


 * Luthor seems to share several moves with Sektor; specifically the missiles and flamethrower.