Lex Luthor (Pocket Universe)

Born into the realm of the pocket universe, this Lex like his Earth-One counterpart admired his native universe's Superboy from afar. But unlike the teenage Earth-One Luthor, this Luthor was never able to meet his Superboy while Superboy was alive.

Thus, this Luthor incarnation was spared the accident and disappointment that turned the Earth-One Lex against the Earth-One Superboy. After a long absence when the Kents revealed that their adopted son was indeed Superboy and assumed him to be dead, Lex finally traveled to Smallville to express his true feelings of loss to the Kents. Offering his help to find Superboy, Lex Luthor used one of the Boy of Steel's inventions inside his secret underground lab to try finding him and accidentally accessed the Phantom Zone, where he let loose three dangerous criminals who proceeded to terrorize the world.

Though Luthor found out about the hidden cannisters of Gold and Green Kryptonite in the lab, he chose not to use them due to the same pride issue his New Earth counterpart had with Superman: he wanted the defeat of the Phantom Zone criminals to be by his own hand. To that end, Luthor put his scientific genius to use in aiding the defense of humanity, creating a resistance team that included non-powered versions of Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan, and Oliver Queen. When Lana Lang died, Luthor created an artificial being made of a protoplasmic matrix that he gave powers to as well as memories and the appearance of Lana Lang. This created lifeform would become Supergirl.

Realizing that his scientific creations were not enough to stop the Phantom Zone criminals from murdering the human populace with casual disregard, even to the point where they instantly annihilated all people except those in the Smallville citadel, Lex decided to recruit the known other-dimensional Superman to aid the heroes native to his Earth. To that end, Luthor sent his created Supergirl through the dimensional void, blanking out her memories but implanting in her a compulsion to go to Metropolis where her memories would slowly return. He also transported her to appear several centuries in Antarctica, believing that Superman also had the ability to travel through time and thus would find Supergirl during his time travels. However, since that was not the case, Supergirl remained buried until a group of scientists uncovered her body in the present time, where she slowly recovered before heading toward Metropolis.

As she had a confusing run-in with Superman on her way to finding him, Matrix Supergirl would recover her full memories and transport herself and Superman back to the pocket reality Earth, where Lex Luthor filled in Superman with all the details of what had transpired. Superman along with Supergirl, Lex Luthor, and his resistance team confronted the three Phantom Zone criminals as they engaged in a battle that resulted in great disaster: the Smallville citadel is destroyed, all of Luthor's team members are killed, and Supergirl is surprisingly melted. Lex Luthor secretly told Superman to head towards Superboy's underground lab while he tended to distracting the Phantom Zone criminals. In the lab, Superman found a hidden lead cannister that contained the Gold Kryptonite and exposed Quex-Ul to its radiation. Turning the underground lab into a prison and hiding the Gold Kryptonite sample in his cape, Superman also depowered General Zod and Zaora and captured them, letting them languish while he went to find Lex Luthor, who is now mortally injured.

Before passing away, Luthor revealed to Superman two things: (1) that Supergirl was really a protoplasmic matrix that he brought to life, given powers and the memories of Lana Lang who was killed, and (2) he failed to use the Gold Kryptonite due to the same kind of pride issue that his New Earth universe counterpart has with Superman: he wanted the destruction of the Phantom Zone criminals to be by his own hand. Luthor made Superman swear that he will not let the same disaster that befell his world take place on his own, and so faced with a difficult decision of what to do with three depowered evil Kryptonians who committed genocide on a global scale, he chose to execute them by fatal exposure to Green Kryptonite, watching sadly as all three of them fell.

Lex Luthor was buried on his native Earth, and Supergirl was taken by Superman into the New Earth reality where she would recover.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

No known superhuman powers but a genius-level intellect which he used to create super scientific devices for an amazing range of effects.

Strength level

Lex possesed the normal human level strength of a human male his age who engaged in regular physical exercise.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Lex possessed hundreds of thousands of devices that he directly created himself, as well as enhanced and assisted in creating mostly from his native dimension's Superboy, including his most noted creation, Supergirl ("Matrix")

Transportation

Many extensive and exotic devices such as an interdimensional transporter.

Weapons

Extensive cache of super-science weapons that Lex used in his plans to save his universe from the three Kryptonians.

Links and References

Lex Luthor (Pocket Universe) at Wikipedia

Footnotes