Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club

SUPERMAN & BATMAN versus LEX LUTHOR

The World's Finest Part Five: State of Siege (DC)
Where: Superman/Batman #5 When: February 2004
Why: Jeph Loeb How: Ed McGuinness

The Story So Far...
A chunk of the devastated planet Krypton is hurtling on a collision course towards the Earth! US President Lex Luthor has declared Superman public enemy number one as the man he holds responsible for the global threat!

The President sends friends & foes alike to hunt the weakened Superman, but with Batman by his side, they've evaded them all. Not that that has stopped Luthor announcing their successful capture to the world!

Believing their mentors to be held captive in the White House, the heroes' respective protégés stage a daring rescue mission that ends in their capture. Now with the world and their charges lives hanging in the balance -- Superman & Batman storm the Oval Office to confront a President on the brink of insanity!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Superman 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Lex Luthor 6 (Genius)
Speed: Superman 6 (Mach Speed)
Stamina: Superman 6 (Generator)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Superman 5 (Lasers)
Total: Superman 33 (Super)

Superman and Batman generally outclass Lex Luthor in most categories, but the genius scientist and businessman has a trump card in 2004 that can instantly render them completely impotent: He's President of the United States!

For a couple of career good guys like the "World's Finest" that presents one heckuva problem. Attacking the President means publicly assaulting the very institutions they've sworn to uphold. Luthor may be a self-serving egomaniac, but the risks of forcibly removing him from office are great and many!

At another time in his life Batman actually defended Lex Luthor, from a rogue WayneTech droid, in Batman Confidential #2. He could probably find a way to dismantle Luthor's trademark powersuit, but if he really wants to take President Luthor down, he's probably best doing it as a detective, using his skills to find the necessary evidence to warrant intervention from appropriate political institutions.

Superman smashed Luthor's armor to smithereens in Justice League of America #15, but his dedication to truth, justice, and the American way isn't likely to include assaulting the Commander in Chief, either. He too may be better suited to using his skills as a journalist to expose Luthor's political misdeeds.

Of course, let's be honest: This is the Comic Book Fight Club and we're here for a battle -- not an investigation! Luthor won't go quietly and he's got the weapons to make sure he doesn't have to!

In Supergirl #3 we saw his malice unleashed with the benefit of that iconic green & purple powersuit, and intimate knowledge of synthesizing kryptonite. That's the kind of thing that can prove a real problem for Superman, too.

In 52 #40, Luthor opted for temporary super-human augmentation to torture John Henry Irons, aka; Steel. Batman might be able to watch Superman's back, but if Luthor goes down this road, he can end Batman's assistance in an instant!

Together they've brought down Bloodsport & Deadshot, tag teamed Darkseid into submission, and helped the Justice League stop the Injustice League, Ultramarine Corps, and Mongul -- but can they bring down a corrupt government? Let's find out!

History: Superman & Batman (1-0-0)
The Tape: Superman & Batman Ranking: Batman (#1)

What Went Down...

Standing over the beaten bodies of his enemies: President Luthor rolls up his sleeves and smiles gleefully. He quotes Macbeth with a green glint in his eye, "Blow, wind! Come, wrack!" A bitter call for chaos and the unravelling of order.

As if to answer: a red and gold blur swirls around him, spiriting away the young defeated heroes at the President's feet.

He stands alone in the darkened Oval Office for a moment before a mighty backlit figure confronts him!

Captain Marvel stands silently as the President quizzes him on the disappearance of two apprehended fugitives. Luthor lords his presidential title like a weapon, warning the Captain he's "nothing" as he strides confidently toward the President.

Hoisted from the ground Luthor at last realises he is not in the clutches of Captain Marvel. He tears the lightning crest from his attacker's chest and exposes the staggering truth: the man before him is one of the missing fugitives -- Superman!

The Man of Tomorrow remembers his youth spent on the farm, and an adopted father who taught him the necessity of killing a fox who enters the chicken house lest you risk the deaths of more chickens. His eyes glow red with restrained heat.

Staring death in the face, Luthor bargains for his life by preying upon Superman's better nature. He warns of grave consequences. Not only a hunt to bring down Superman, but a bitter distrust that will effect all allied super-heroes.

At that moment a shadow separates from the darkest corner of the room.

The Batman will not stop Superman if he chooses lethal force. The weight of Luthor's evil is too great. The Dark Knight Detective even offers an antidote to the President's threats: "There are ways we could make it look like an accident. Or better still -- as if he'd disappeared without a trace."

President Luthor nervously calls it a bluff. Batman sternly suggests otherwise.

Superman asks if their comrades are safe. Batman confirms the youthful heroes and Krypto have been successfully freed and evacuated. That's enough to satisfy the Man of Steel, who hurls Luthor across the tainted Oval Office.

Superman and Batman make a silent exit, but for The President of the United States the battle is not over. He snarls his title with widened furious eyes and indignant entitlement. For him, this is far from over...

The Hammer...

In review this is really more of a prelude to the battle that unfolds in the following issue. President Luthor is poised to blow his stack big time, and this incident is the trigger that finally pushes him past arrogant hubris into all-out insanity.

As soon as the heroes are out of the building he's injecting himself with a glowing green concoction of venom & kryptonite, and suiting up for a very public battle!

Does today's feature really constitute a fight? Yes & no. We clearly see Superman has Lex dead to rights almost immediately, but chooses to walk away just as fast.

It's a relatively passive outcome. Secure in the knowledge that the higher purpose of The Man of Steel's presence has been achieved. Batman confirmed the rescue of their respective youthful charges, who themselves were captured breaching the White House attempting an ill-fated, ill advised rescue of the World's Finest.

President Luthor had prematurely announced the arrest of Superman & Batman in the hopes of drawing them out. At this point Luthor had no way of knowing the duo had turned the tables on their would-be captors -- Captain Marvel & Hawkman -- some time after suffering an apparent defeat in issue #4. This allowed Superman to disguise himself when gaining entry to the White House.

Deceptive in its simplicity: Public Enemies presents a layer cake of priorities and reference throughout, offering bombastic Ed McGuinness action on the surface, in service of more intricate plotlines deeper down.

In total the story is the ultimate endgame to the Luthor Presidency, beginning with a giant kryptonite meteor hurtling towards the Earth, and Luthor's attempt to publicly & officially hold Superman accountable for the destruction it will bring.

Luthor professes to wield the truth, but is lying to the people -- manipulating the situation to pursue his own agenda & self-interests. Savvy readers knew it was always going to end something like this. It was just a matter of how far Luthor would go, and to what extent he would be allowed to abuse Presidential resources. The cost of his corruption ultimately threatens the entire world, leaving Batman & Superman to work towards an actual solution that will eventually call upon Captain Atom, and lead to the Armageddon imprint crossover series.

Nothing about this superhero story seemed overly dangerous in 2004, but when I started writing this entry in anticipation of the United States Presidential Election at the end of 2020, and continued into January, it became shockingly apparent it would take on new relevance after the attack on the United States Capitol.

I was sensitive to the fact that it had become a very serious subject. Although I'm not American, the site has a large base of American readers, so I decided to delay while we all processed what had happened. Midnight entries on a comic book blog about superhero brawls just don't strike me as a very good place for serious political discourse. Accepting that some opinions and forums simply don't matter is the kind of discerning that could probably help us all a great deal.

That said, there's also no denying the political undercurrent that runs through superhero comic books throughout history. Seminal pulp-infused heroes like The Phantom weren't entirely apolitical in their globe-trotting battles against cruelty and injustice, and if there's a single big bang event that gives us the DC and Marvel Universes: it's World War II. It was pretty much a non-stop free for all of punching Nazis from there! In fact, one of the most famous punches in comics was delivered to a very notable politician -- German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Good form, Cap!

By the mid-2000s of Public Enemies, Nazis were still evergreen punching bags, but superhero comics were also looking at contemporary concerns, exploring the political & ethical dilemmas of contentious domestic/foreign policies by President George W. Bush. Essentially 'with great power comes great responsibility' applied on a global geo-political scale.

It was that kind of thinking that informed aspects of Mark Millar's blockbuster millennium comics, like The Ultimates and Civil War, and led Warren Ellis to rather cannily make the simmering tension of domestic terror the primary antagonist of his Iron Man story: Extremis. All of these works later went on to be major influences on the Iron Man films, and Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole.

Lex Luthor actually had to defeat W Bush on his way to becoming President in the DC Universe 2000 election, but by the time it was all unravelling in '04, his efforts to vilify Superman based on a lie, and deploy heroes and villains in pursuit of violent reprisal, infused his broad comic book villainy with the subtext of Bush's war on terror, and invasion of Iraq. Both were broad mood setting influences, and common targets for critique, for a lot of American pop culture at the time.

It's become curiously common for some folks to insist that comics from this recent era, or slightly earlier, weren't "political". An unconvincing argument that usually seems to be acting as a political statement, or nostalgia for the innocence of youthful ignorance. The latter of which, admittedly, isn't entirely wrong.

Superheroes were constructed to be champions of social justice and examples for moral upstanding. Although more modern eras grew entangled in subversions, at its core the superhero is a simple premise. They adhere to selfless standards of good and decency in a world that lacks the complexities and uncertainty of reality.

We can have absolute confidence in Superman & Batman acting as heroes, and Lex Luthor a villain. The evidence for this has been provided monthly for nigh on eighty years by their creators. Our heroes' motivations are largely selfless, lacking self-indulgence or flippant enjoyment in their actions, and presumed to come with a good study of hard evidence and fact. Luthor operates on greed and spite.

Jeph Loeb appeared to dabble in extremes of superhero violence throughout this time, sometimes gratuitously, but ultimately with the thesis, as it is in Superman/Batman #5, that heroes do not kill.

Restraint is a key feature that guides them in their effort to do right. They do not enter the White House lightly. Even Batman, who is shown here flirting with lethal force in the face of dire evil, as he did in Batman #614, accepts restraint. Murder is not how you deal with a corrupt, elected official. Extreme violence is not the choice of the super-hero.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is a pretty decent work of fiction and I'm sure we'll return to some of its less contentious battles some time in the future. I would particularly like to look more at the assembly of military connected heroes, and the captured youngsters who set today's action into motion.

If you'd like to get ahead of me and see the full picture for yourself you can check out one of the available collected editions of the story. By using the Amazon purchase links provided to do any of your online shopping you'll not only find a good deal -- you'll also help support the site at no extra cost to you!

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 600 battles and ranked more than 1000 characters! You can discover them all by following links throughout this post, or by diving into the Secret Archive for a free and complete index of featured fights in order of publisher, series, and issue number!

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Winner: Inconclusive
#4 (--) Superman
#134 (+6) Lex Luthor
#1 (--) Batman [+1 assist]