How would YOU have done the President Lex storyline?

[Vordan]

I think it's great story idea and I think perhaps it could be used to great effect between the two. Lex pushing for morally dubious means of making sure the government has a counter to superheroes if they ever go rogue while Clark and Lois try to expose him. Lex putting Waller in charge of the DEO and putting ARGUS and SHADE, as well as Checkmate, under her control could be very interesting. I think honestly it would've been great to have it run for a couple of years also as a means of letting other supervillains take the status of top dog in Metropolis while Lex is in the White House. I thought the fall of Lex was great, his own pride and arrogance plus his need to upstage Superman does him in.

[kevink31593]

Pete Ross was just as bad.

By the way, when the New 52 started, Bush was in office with no mention of anyone other than Clinton preceding him, and then we had Obama.

The current POTUS is supposed to be implied to be Trump as seen in recent issues of Suicide Squad.

When the New 52 started Obama was into his 3rd year as President, in real life. Or are you referencing some New 52 comic that showed Bush?

I'm of the opinion that current comic books should either show fictional presidents, or just a vague un-named president. So I have no problem with the President Luthor storyline. I don't like when the real current president is shown because it dates the story. But I have no problem with former real life presidents being mentioned since at that point, its just history.

[Hypestyle]

not sure-- what exactly happened during his tenure? In-universe, how long did it last? one year, two, a full term?

[Vordan]

not sure-- what exactly happened during his tenure? In-universe, how long did it last? one year, two, a full term?

I think he got two years before being impeached, with VP Pete Ross serving out the remainder of his term iirc.

[DCStu]

If I was the Kevin Feige of the DC films I would have used this as the unifying plot line for all movies. Basically, in the first Superman film establish that Luthor is running for President. Then in all the movies that follow, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman etc etc - each has an appearance from Luthor as he visits their cities as part of his campaign run. Then I'd tie it all together with a movie sort of based on Public Enemies where Luthor becomes President and issues an executive order to arrest Supes. Batman's the only guy on Supers side while the rest of them are out to capture him.
Then I'd do a follow up Justice League where Luthor brings Darkseid to Earth.

That's how I would've done it.

[DochaDocha]

I was mostly OK with it, but the conclusion of President Luthor was highly disappointing. After all that planning, he decided to put on the armor and get into a fist fight with Superman and Batman? Really?

I think the real world has shown us that under the right conditions, any rich guy can be elected to office. It's like DC's "Simpson prediction" moment. I generally liked the repercussions of Lex's election: Superman was really PO'd, and ended up with a bit of a cold war against the government under which he was a citizen. The story had potential, but didn't quite meet it.

[Adekis]

Frankly, I just wouldn't have done it. In my mind, Luthor would have a very, very dim view of politics as a means to enact meaningful change in the world, and would never once touch it with a ten foot pole, except perhaps to disguise himself as a politician for some short-term scheme, or else to bribe extant politicians. Otherwise, I don't see him getting into it.

[Kuwagaton]

At this point I think it would have been a huge mistake not to do it. Without attaching my own political connotation, the idea that he was modeled after Trump and became president as Trump actually did is just too good.

[K. Jones]

President Lex would have had to have been an Elseworlds.

In principle the concepts are cool to explore but logistically it kind of never could work or last long as a storyline. He's a known criminal with a supervillain career, and in spite of that era being pretty big on the "Lex skates by and people don't know how evil he is" tactic, it still wouldn't really work. Plus his Presidency, even in a stretchy timeline ... must have been for like ... a couple of months, tops!

Another aspect of it is just the general dilemma of ever depicting ANY President in comics that span decades (or 3/4 of a Century, like Superman). Like, you pick and choose your canon, and you take it with a grain of salt that Superman's been up to a lot of what he's been up to. But if like, every President since Superman's inception had made an appearance in the comics during "plots involving presidents", there would have been like 10 or 11 Presidents ... just since Superman first debuted! Which doesn't even work if he had a 20-Year Superhero Career.

So it's always tough to do that sort of thing, anything involving Presidencies.

I'd have probably pushed up close to that, made Lex get real involved in politics and the White House, like, Secretary of State or something. Nowadays there's a lot of story material you can mine from the notion of a billionaire industrialist getting involved in politics and "why" they might do that other than you know, altruism or good intentions. But I'll admit, "Secretary of State Luthor" doesn't have the same dramatic over-the-top comic POP! of "PRESIDENT LUTHOR" as a story arc goes.

So to go full tilt on a President Lex storyline I'd turn to the Multiverse.

Or maybe have President Superman of Earth-23 have an ultimate rival in the form of President Luthor of ... I dunno, neighboring Earth-24 or something. EARTH-24 is one of the Unknown Earths of the Local Multiverse, so it'd be pretty easy to come up with a gnarly Earth where like, Luthor is the President of the United States and what that whole world would be like.

Military-Industrial-Complex Earth is probably where I'd go with it. Like absolute total "Class Warfare Earth", where Poor characters are sort of the scrappy rebellion and Rich characters are in Control. It'd be mixed up interestingly, then, with guys like Bruce Wayne being part of the problem. PERHAPS a guy like Ollie Queen might have abandoned his billions and become a Robin Hood-type speaking out for the Proletariat. Since this world is tuned far more toward Military-Industrial-Complexes, it'll mean that Jor-El never even had a chance to speak out on Krypton or put together an escape vessel for Kal-El, so there's no proper Superman, because even Krypton was more Military-Industrial.

But General Zod survived, of course!

[kingaliencracker]

It made no sense for someone like Superman and then Batman to a lesser extent to sit by and allow Lex Luthor to be elected President. It went against everything I feel I know about those characters. So with that, it was just too hard to get behind the concept regardless how interesting it was.

[Jim Kelly]

I would not have done it in the first place, but when it was already underway I would have pulled the plug as soon as 9/11 happened. Can you imagine DC publishing comics with Luthor as the U.S. president after Pearl Harbour? It would have been unseemly.

Now with Trump as president, it's almost redundant. Trump actually makes a better villain. And it would probably be too polarizing now to have Lex in the White House--half of Twitter would be dumping on DC for disparaging the presidency while the other half would be complaining that Lex is too smart to be the president.

[phantom1592]

When the New 52 started Obama was into his 3rd year as President, in real life. Or are you referencing some New 52 comic that showed Bush?

I'm of the opinion that current comic books should either show fictional presidents, or just a vague un-named president. So I have no problem with the President Luthor storyline. I don't like when the real current president is shown because it dates the story. But I have no problem with former real life presidents being mentioned since at that point, its just history.

100% this. Seeing Superman deal with Trump, Obama, Bush.... etc. etc. To Kennedy and Roselvelt is what dates comics and paints themselves in holes. It's tedious and annoying. Unnamed presidents or fictional presidents are exactly how I prefer it to be.

Lex as president COULD have worked... but I would have preferred him to get impeached or something. Something other than the powered up insanity story that wrapped it up with. It was a weak ending. If anything Lex in charge of the world should have had him appreciate Superman saving the world all the more.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I would want Luthor to be elected as a straight up villain. He gets elected on an anti-magic platform. He and Sivana team up to imprison and chain up every demon, witch, sorcerer, and magician. He sets up a Science Autocracy that Superman and Captain Marvel take down!

[astro@work]

I didn't hate the idea of Lex as President, but felt like the conclusion needed to be played much bigger. I felt like they didn't make a big enough deal about a villain misusing the office, doing something truly horrible (and showing his true colors), and being removed from office in a big way.

I mean they KIND OF did all that, but the story came in with a bang and went out with a whimper IMO. If there had been more of an epic finale, it would probably be remembered more fondly. No doubt multiple (changing) writers prevented a better slow burn on the storyline and building it to something bigger.

[Adekis]

Now with Trump as president, it's almost redundant. Trump actually makes a better villain. And it would probably be too polarizing now to have Lex in the White House--half of Twitter would be dumping on DC for disparaging the presidency while the other half would be complaining that Lex is too smart to be the president.

I mean... during the '80s and '90s there was that whole "Luthor is Trump" thing with Luthor's Unauthorized Biography's cover being modeled after Art of the Deal and all that, but frankly I don't think Trump's overbearing and abrasive personality is all that similar to Luthor. Luthor's a smoother operator, cares more about public opinion... And frankly, has more integrity. I don't think any version of Lex aside from that brief period post-Crisis where he was a fat lecherous Wilson Fisk, actually works as a Trump stand-in. And you know, like it or not, Luthor would be seen as a Trump figure if his presidency was emphasized or retold for like, at least the next decade and a half, regardless of how ill-fitting that gets.

100% this. Seeing Superman deal with Trump, Obama, Bush.... etc. etc. To Kennedy and Roselvelt is what dates comics and paints themselves in holes. It's tedious and annoying. Unnamed presidents or fictional presidents are exactly how I prefer it to be.

What's wrong with comics being dated? They're dated inherently! I can generally tell what decade a comic is from just by looking at a couple panels, and I don't think it's exactly difficult. So why be afraid of dating a comic via the President in it?

On a side note, I just thought of a way I'd like to see Luthor running for Presidency: against Calvin Ellis on Earth 23. A version of "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies" where the emphasis is on the political process, with Superman running against Luthor, would be very interesting to me.