| “ | I would rather fail spectacularly than succeed minimally.
— Lex Luthor
|
” |
While Superman has gone toe-to-toe with heavily-armed robots, despotic aliens, and even gods in the past, his most constant enemy is a mere human: Lex Luthor. The two have a long history together, dating back to Clark Kent's childhood friendship with Luthor in Smallville, Kansas. A child prodigy, Luthor grew up to be a respected scientist and corporate head in Metropolis, running the multi-billion-dollar company, LexCorp. However, when Superman first appeared in Metropolis, Luthor grew jealous, and eventually hateful upon learning of the hero's alien origins. Believing humanity shouldn't rely on an alien being to solve their problems, Luthor declared war on Superman.
While constantly scheming ways to kill Superman and establish control over the human race, Lex Luthor usually remains respectable in the eyes of the public. Recently, Luthor ran for President of the United States, and succeeded. When Superman and Batman began to expose Luthor's criminal acts, he went insane with rage and attempted to kill both heroes. He failed, and was deposed. However, he later convinced the public that an alternate universe version of himself had been the criminal, and regained their trust.
Battle vs. War Machine (Comics) (by Max117D)[]
In Malibu, California, outside the Stark Industries building, Lex Luthor has managed to cripple Iron Man's suit, disabling its fight capabilities. An energy blade ignites in the right gauntlet in Luthor's suit and was about to finish him off when he hears an noise of an engine and the shaking vibration of the pavement from behind. He turns around and sees what appears to be another version of Iron Man only this one has grey color of different hues and a minigun on his right shoulder and a rocket launcher on his left.
"Another Iron Man perhaps?" Luthor sneered.
"The name's War Machine!" The figure spoke.
Luthor shouted in rage and charges at War Machine with the energy blade at the ready but he misses. War Machine fires his Minigun shoulder and machine gun gauntlets at Luthor. The bullets bounced off harmless off of Luthor's armor but one of them manages to graze his left ear and he fires an energy blast that sends War Machine hurling in the air and crashes into a abandoned bus.
War Machine fires an rocket at Luthor but he blocks it with the suit's force field.
"HA!! That's the best you can do, War Machine?!" Luthor mocked as he moves closer. Unknown to Luthor, WM has planted one of the mines underneath the rubble that stood between them, he steps over the rubble and the mine exploded, throwing Luthor into the taxi cab, damaging the suit's flight capabilities..
Luthor gets back up, furious he fires another energy blast that weakened War Machine's suit and he throws a punch, sending him flipping over the pavement and crash into another car. He gets back up and fires the Minigun at Luthor who blocks it again using the force field.
Then War Machine fires another rocket, this time it goes past Luthor and hits a building behind him and it falls down on him. Luthor manages to dodge out of the way but after he did War Machine runs up and slams his fist into Luthor's chest. Damaging the force field capabilities. Luthor ignites the energy blade and attempts to stab War Machine with it but he dodges out of the way and slams his fist into the gauntlet, damaging it and making the blade non-functional.
Then Luthor knees War Machine in the stomach and grabs the Minigun and rips it off his shoulder and slams it against War Machine's side, knocking him onto the ground and WM throws a kick that knocks Luthor back a little, enough for him to get back up on his feet. But then Luthor fires the Repulser in the chest at War Machine that sends him onto the ground, and Luthor charges the repulser to full charge to finish him off but then War Machine fires the Repulser Ray palms just as Luthor fires it. Causing the explosion that sends both in the air.
Afterwards, War Machine gets up and sees Luthor laying on the ground in the rubble, bleeding from the head but alive. Then the police came and arrested Luthor who swears revenge as he is carried away. War Machine shouts "I am the War Machine!" in the air and leaves.
Expert's Opinion[]
War Machine was determined to be a superior warrior because he has superior training to Lex Luthor, and Luthor's head was uncovered, leaving him vulnerable to a head-shot easy kill.Baldness was his downfall. To see the original battle, weapons and votes, click here.
Battle vs. Norman Osborn (by Drayco90)[]
Lex Luthor leaned back in his seat, contemplating the events of the past few weeks. The rhythmic tapping of his fingers echoed across the massive private office of Lexcorp HQ. For the past few weeks, another universe had been combined with his own, and while his greatest foe, Superman, had been missing in action since the earliest hours of this merge, he has found himself at odds with a foe just as troublesome. Norman Osborn and Oscorp. Everywhere Lexcorp was, Oscorp was right in their face. Every product release was a battle, every attempt to acquire resources and other businesses was a struggle against Osborn’s machine. It has thus become apparent- if his plans were to ever come to fruition, Norman Osborn had to be…dealt with.
Norman Osborn took a deep breath- inhaling the fumes of the calm before the storm. Because, oh yes, there was a storm brewing. Lexcorp had been putting the squeeze on Oscorp for weeks, and Osborn needed all the money he could get right now. He found an old splinter group of mercenaries that were once affiliated with HAMMER and still held to their old loyalties. Together they had planned out an intricate plan of attack on the Lexcorp headquarters in Metropolis, a plan he reviewed for the hundredth time as he slipped his weapons into his belt, and began to slide into his Iron Patriot armor. He hesitated for a few seconds as he looked into the blank eyes of the Iron helmet, before drawing a mask from his drawer. The faded green and purple colors were twisted into a familiar grin. He stared longingly at the Green Goblin mask before it seemed to speak to him.
“Norman- why are you still here?” the mask demanded. “You know what you need to do.”
Osborn ran his hand through his short red hair, struggling for a response. “I just-“
“Do what it is you do, Osborn.” The mask grinned. “Bring the HAMMER down. The Spider stood in your way, and you washed it away. When they stood in your way, you brought down the entire Skrull Empire. Today, Lex Luthor stands in your way. Stopping you. Stopping us. Do to him what you did to Asgard, and bring. Him. Down.”
Norman began to cackle at the suggestion, tucking the mask into the pocket of the business suit he wore under the armor. With that, he had his helmet on, and the Iron Patriot flew once again.
-Hours Later-
Lex was watching his fish tank with boredom, the colossal wall off glass and water had once held many exotic fish, but in the wake of the collision most of them ended up dead. Suddenly, the massive windows behind him exploded, showering his expensive Thanagarian carpet with glass. Calmly, Luthor rose to see what had happened. A massive blast had rocked the entire Lexcorp complex, and armed men outside were gunning down everyone they could find. His employees- no, his assets. He swiftly made his way to a special chamber near the back of his office, and within seconds, his jade Warsuit was on and he was ready for a fight. Osborn fired a superheated Repulsor Ray that shattered open the front doors to Lexcorp offices. The front lobby was emptied in seconds, whether from the cowards running or the bullets of the HAMMER troops running faster. All but one. The receptionist at the front desk cowered beneath it in fear, pressing the alarm button with wild abandon. Norman grabbed her around the throat and lifted her high into the air, his steel fingers crushed the life from her throat slowly.
“Where. Is. Luthor.” He growled.
“You could try looking behind you for once, Osborn.” Lex replied smugly.
Norman casually snapped the receptionist’s neck and turned to face his foe. Luthor was fully clad in a heavy emerald suit, with two massive cannons on each shoulder. The cannons fired heavy bolts of green energy that exploded around Osborn’s position, stunning him. He advanced on Norman, continuing to shell him with the energy cannons, effectively pinning his enemy in place. Lex grinned- maybe this would be easier than he thought. He advanced on Norman, still shelling him- Osborn would be a fine paste right now if not for the Iron Patriot armor he wore. With a final motion, Luthor grabbed the Iron Patriot by the back of his head and rammed it straight through the reception desk. The metal and wood desk groaned and collapsed under the weight of the iron man, but Osborn was already planning to take advantage of the cease in the bombardment.
Quickly powering on his boots thrusters, Osborn scorched Lex’s face, flying forward before making a sharp U-Turn. Speeding forward at speeds as high as he could push his suit, Osborn rammed directly into Luthor’s warsuit. The floor they were on gave way as Osborn pushed his suit farther and faster, forcing Lex downwards, colliding into pipes and support columns as they made a rapid descent downwards, into the Lexcorp R&D labs. Osborn slowly raised from the mass of metal and rubble their fall had created first, his suit’s thruster and one of his repulsors were damaged beyond his ability to repair, but the majority of the suit still functioned. Luthor rose next- a gaping hole in the shoulder of the heavy suit that ran all the way down to his chest, and one of his cannons had been torn off. As Luthor’s heavy and slower suit was getting up, Norman decided to take advantage of his momentary vulnerability- firing a Unibeam blast. The weapon knocked Luthor across the labs, but as the bald man’s scientific mind probed at the suit before him, even in free-fall, Lex discovered he was learning more and more about this Repulsor Technology.
This time, as Osborn fired his Unibeam, Lex rolled out of the way and charged, his titanic metallic fist colliding with the Iron Patriot’s faceplate. As Norman stumbled backwards, Lex drew his Kryptonite-Tipped Spear and made a powerful jab at the star-shaped plate on Norman’s chest. As the green rock sliced into the star, a hissing sound slithered into the air, eliciting a confident grin from Lex as his suspicions were confirmed. With a massive kick, Osborn was sent sprawling.
“Mr. Osborn” Lex mocked. “There seems to be an excess build-up of heat in that chest port; I take it that a Star was not its original shape? No, I do not suppose you would be smart enough to construct such a weapon on your own…”
Norman hated Luthor’s superior, mocking tone and insults, and with a roar of rage, he attempted to fire the Unibeam again, but the cracked star only hissed more violently before it went off like a grenade. The explosion tore the chest piece of the Iron Patriot suit into scrap, shredding most of the faceplate that Lex’s punch hadn’t already shattered.
“Internal cooling solutions, Mr. Osborn- you may wish to look into them.”
Osborn tore off the armor scraps in fury- leaving only his functional Repulsor on one arm. For a moment, Lex swore the skin of his enemy’s face had a green tint, but it passed quickly as the now business suited Osborn rushed at Luthor. Lex activated his wrist-mounted flamethrower one second to late, the flame burst just above Osborn’s head as he slid under the Warsuit’s legs. Charging up a blast in the Repuslor, Osborn delivered an explosive punch to the back of Lex’s leg, causing him to topple over. Before he could land face-first on the ground though, Norman grabbed the back of the suit, and with unforeseen strength, threw Luthor across the lab, slamming him straight through an observatory window into an eighteen-foot drop into an experimental chamber.
Lex grimaced as he landed in the experiment chamber. Osborn wasn’t as powerful as some of the foes he had fought, but this super strength was far from expected. He attempted to shoot his one good laser cannon through the window he crashed through, but he failed to score a hit on anything but the ground and the technology around it. Instead, a strange pumpkin-shaped piece of metal landed by his feet. Confused for a moment, Lex was unprepared as the pumpkin exploded- shrapnel embedding itself in his knee and arm. While the suit protected him from the majority of the damage, he would certainly be walking with a limp for a while thanks to the blow.
Norman leapt from the window above, landing on the massive warsuit’s shoulder. Grabbing the remaining cannon with one hand and arming a pumpkin bomb in the other, Norman laughed. “Doesn’t feel so good, does it Lexy?” He slammed the pumpkin bomb in the gaping hole in Lex’s suit, and jumped from off Luthor’s back, tearing the cannon off its’ mounting as he went. Lex knew the bomb would explode before he could remove it- there was only one logical course of action. His emerald hand shot forward, grabbing Osborn’s shoulder as he ran. At once, thousands of volts of electricity were pumped into Norman- lightning danced from Lex’s fingertips, stunning Osborn long enough that when the bomb exploded, both men were thrown to the ground with a sensation stinging pain coursing through their entire bodies.
Smoke made it hard to see, as Norman stood, wiping the steady flow of blood from his nose and mouth. Whatever pain he was feeling now, he was certain the Lex was feeling must be feeling tenfold. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted as a pair of massive metal arms tore through the smoke behind him, grabbing him by both shoulders and raising him into the air. As the dust cleared, one thing about the thing holding him became apparent- this was not Lex Luthor. He looked across the lab, seeing his real enemy riding an elevator upwards from the Lab.
“It’s a wonder hat… brilliant men, like ourselves, can do with just a little basis on other’s work, Isn’t it Norman?” Lex shouted down, clutching his side. Blood stained his once-pristine business suit, and he had a nasty looking limp. “This android is based on blueprints from the same old Justice League fighting drone- I’ve been using this lab to augment its’ design.” Luthor looked up at the robot, addressing it directly. “Amazo, deal with our intruder. Try not to make too much of a mess.”
With that, the elevator doors shut, and Osborn was alone with the android Amazo. A seering blast of heat vision burned into Osborn, sending him sprawling to the ground. Norman tried to raise his Repulsor-clad hand, but Lex’s electric blast must have shorted it out, as it would not fire. While he was distracted, Amazo lifted his metallic leg and brought it down on the smoking form beneath it, over and over. Osborn spat blood out with each impact as he struggled to grab a Razor Bat, and dig it into the hide of the robot’s leg. Sparks flew out of the wound, but it did nothing to slow Amazo down as it backhanded Norman across the lab, slamming him into a table that fell over with him, shattering glass vials and containers over his head and shoulders. As the android prepared a final heat blast, the whir of an engine could be heard, just before Norman’s old Glider rammed itself into Amazo’s back.
The Android struggled to remove the glider, but it opened fire from the wing-mounted machine guns, tearing the interior of components apart in a haze of bullets and blood-like oil that ripped apart nearly all of Amazo’s robotic “innards” and the mechanical skeleton within. Amazo crumpled to the ground, nearly bisected by the onslaught and completely nonfunctional. Osborn struggled over to the Android and used his Repulsor-clad hand to crush its’ head in his hand.
“Knew I didn’t scrap you for a reason” Osborn addressed the waiting Glider. “Now- let’s finish this.”
Riding the Glider out of the gaping hole in the ceiling their fight had caused, Osborn exited the lobby doors and began to climb, climb all the way to Lexcorp’s peak- the only place in the building a man like Luthor would ever consider home. Entering the shattered window, Osborn looked about Lex’s office.
“Oh Lexy boy? You have a very important board meeting to go to…in HELL. You don’t want to disappoint, do you?”
Osborn shuffled through the contents of Lex’s des- a picture of a young red-headed man with a goatee and a small book from someone named Hollis Mason, Under the Hood or something, fell to the ground as he roughly moved things around, before he noticed a chamber in the back of the office next to the fish tank with the door cracked open.
“Really Lex? Hiding in the broom closet?” Norman sneered. “And here I thought you were supposed to be smart!”
Dismounting the Glider to enter the small door, Osborn was surprised as he entered the chamber- it was massive beyond belief, it’s dark green walls stretched on long, though in the darkness, Norman couldn’t see how far. As he walked on inside, the door behind him slammed shut, Norman turned to see a fist collide into his face and Lex Luthor standing right next to the door. His face twisted in rage, Lex was wearing his Kryptonite Knuckles which shone a dim green on his hands.
“Do you have any idea who you’ve been screwing with Osborn?!” Lex howled with rage as he punched Norman. “You think you’re a big shot?” he punctuated each word with another punch. “I’m LEX. GODDAMN. LUTHOR!” He could feel as Osborn’s nose shattered into pieces beneath the blow of his fist, blood spraying all over his foe’s face.
Norman cursed to himself- he was stronger than Luthor, but the bald man’s onslaught was debilitating to the point that he simply couldn’t react. Another fist collided, and Norman felt his jaw shatter- if he didn’t know better, he would swear it was only barely holding on to his face still. He coughed blood up on the floor from the blow, a few teeth coming with it.
“I was the President of the entire… United States… of America!” The Kryptonite Knuckles were turning Osborn’s face into a shattered reflection of the man that was once there. “Every day I fight gods! Outsmart the most brilliant minds in the entire universe! What makes you think you could EVER kill me!?!?”
Norman suddenly broke into twisted laughter- blood coming up as he cackled making it clear that each laugh was causing great pain, but it only made him laugh harder. “Kill you? I was never trying to kill you Luthor- I merely needed to…distract you.”
“Distract me from what, you son of a-“
“While we were having our little pissing contest here, a few of my best men were making sure to reroute and steal almost all of your fortune. Thanks to you, Lex, HAMMER just received a multi-billion dollar donation, and now we can finally begin our reconstruction!”
Osborn cackled maniacally- even a rage-fueled punch that shattered his ribs did nothing to halt the laughter. A large portion of Norman’s bones were shattered- and even he didn’t believe he would be able to even stand up, much less walk away. Fortunately- he had planned for this outcome, and just before Lex could deliver a killing blow, a HAMMER extraction team burst into the room. A bullet whirred past Lex’s face, cutting open his cheek. He stumbled out of the way as the Agents grabbed their incapacitated leader and quickly whisked him away to the waiting air transport outside, which escaped into the night, leaving Lex alone in his destroyed office- bleeding, bruised and penniless. Of course, he would make most of that money back in a few weeks, but there was no doubt that this would slow his plans down immensely.
Lex limped over to his chair, pulling out his phone as he gazed into the smoke-shrouded night skyline of Metropolis. “We’ve had unforeseen events slow us down. We’re out of time. No, I don’t care if this doesn’t make sense to you, you feeble minded moron.” Lex’s voice was calm and collected, despite his harsh words and wounds. “Activate the generator- I want the Smallville Prokect running. Now.” With that he hung up and dialed one more number. “It’s Luthor. I want you to take a team and observe the footage of this fight and recover what’s left of his armor. I want improved designs on this Repuslor Tech Suit by the end of the week. No excuses.”
Meanwhile, across the same smoking sky, a stealth-fighter silently sailed away. Inside Norman was propped up against the wall- struggling to breathe. Across from him, a figure with a white and grey suit sat before Osborn. “It’s like you said- billions of dollars. All untraceable. And most of it was just sitting there in the local bank.”
“Luthor’s bank.” Norman corrected. “Under some of the tightest security in the nation.”
“It wasn’t that hard to crack.”
“Evidently not. It is a good thing you still remember who it is that turns the wheel, Ghost. Welcome back to HAMMER.”
“Long as you don’t ask me to go rough up Anubis or something, Osborn, I’ll be happy to come back.”
“No war with the Gods this time, Ghost. But there are things that I’ve left…unattended for too long. Things that need finishing- Doom and his backwater nation, The X-Men. Atlantis. Deadpool. They must all pay for standing in my way.”
Ghost leaned back. “An’ the Spider?”
Osborn merely smiled, a wicked evil grin. “When all who oppose me lay broken beneath my feet, then and only then will I turn my attention back to Spider-Man. Killing him shall be my reward for conquering everything!”
“You’re a batshit lunatic Osborn.” Ghost laughed as he turned invisible again. “Lucky your checks clear and besides…you’re more interesting crazy.”
Osborn laughed, coughing up more blood on to the floor- but it didn’t matter. HAMMER was making a come-back, and while Luthor had beaten the crap out of him today, soon he would be the one with a force that could blot out the sun, and no one will be able to stand in his way. Not Fury, or Luthor, or Rogers… and especially not any pitiful red and blue insects…
Expert's Opinion[]
Both of these genius men were determined to be even in combat due to their own strengths and weaknesses balancing each other out. Osborn had superior mobility and super human abilities, but Lex had better ranged abilities, a better suit, more protection and greater intellect.
To see the original battle, weapons and votes, click here.
Battle vs. Xemnas (by CuchulainSetanta)[]
NO BATTLE WRITTEN
Winner: Xemnas
Expert's Opinion[]
TBW