Future Batman and Lex Luthor Timeline
- Encountering an Exobyte breaking into one of his secret labs, Lex Luthor meets and makes a pact with Brainiac to destroy Superman.
- Sharing his data and resources with the galactic conqueror, Luthor waged war against the world's heroic populace, uniting the villain community under his leadership, while Brainiac secretly used his Exobytes to steal the abilities of the world’s heroes and villains.
- The constant years of battle saw to the deaths of numerous heroes and villains and the destruction of Metropolis. While Superman went into exile in the sun’s core, Earth’s remaining champions launched a final campaign against Luthor’s forces in the ruins of Metropolis. With Luthor watching over the battlefield alongside Deathstroke and Circe behind a shield on top of what remained of the Daily Planet Building, Batman led the remaining heroes on the ground with Cyborg as support.
- The ruins of Metropolis
- With Poison Ivy and Green Arrow already dead, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan); with his arm in a sling due to a previous injury, quickly dispatches Giganta before being confronted by Black Adam as Batman launches a missile attack against Luthor's shield after telling Cyborg to concentrate fire on him. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman dispatches and decapitates Metallo before Deathstroke assails her; stealing her Golden Lasso as Circe moves to also assault her.
- From atop another building, Joker (wearing the bullet-riddled vest of James Gordon) and Harley Quinn (wearing Robin's torn cape) arrive to further escalate the situation; using a missile launcher to attack the Flash (Barry Allen) as he races to aid Hal Jordan who is being dominated by Black Adam.
- Noticing the incoming assistance, Adam uses his Word of Power to call down magical lightning just as Hal Jordan musters the willpower in his Power Ring and Barry Allen opens himself to the Speed Force. The resulting explosion as the three cosmic powers collide breaches Luthor's shield, kills Harley Quinn and Circe, disintegrates Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, and devastates what remains of the battlefield.
- As the smoke settles, Batman emerges from the wreckage only to be lassoed by Deathstroke, using Wonder Woman's golden lasso, and hung from a piece of wreckage for the villain to beat him to death. Seeing this, the Joker falls into a tantrum and fires the rocket launcher at the both of them; exclaiming that nobody kills the Bat but him.
- Death of Wonder Woman and Superman
- Sifting through the rubble, Luthor finds and manhandles Wonder Woman; ordering her to call Superman before proceeding to electrocute her. Hearing her screams, Superman awakens fully charged and flies to the battlefield. Confronting Luthor and calling him a madman, Luthor summons Adam to attack, however, the Kryptonian's power was too great for the magic-powered champion and Superman overpowers him, firing his Heat Vision into the villain's face before turning to throw Luthor across the battlefield.
- Superman's anger quickly turns to sorrow, however, upon seeing Wonder Woman's body lying on the ground. As Superman knelt to cradle her, Luthor had desecrated her body; hiding deposits of Kryptonite in her mouth. As Superman was quickly weakened by the radioactive rock, Luthor returned to stand over his long-time nemesis; claiming triumph as he drove a kryptonite-point spear through the hero's heart.
- Immediately upon Superman’s death, Brainiac, with all opposition dispatched thanks to Luthor, commenced his invasion of Earth.
- Sometime later, Luthor allies with Batman (who had survived the battle and returned as a cyborg) and forms a plan to save the world by using the Exobyte data Brainiac had taken on the powers of the hero and villain community during their war to create a new army of meta-humans to oppose Brainaic's invasion forces. Successfully testing the process of bestowing powers upon a non-powered individual on a man code-named Fracture, Luthor and Batman realized that the state of the world in their timeline was irreparable and sought to travel back in time to a point where an army could make a difference in changing their fate.
- The Fortress of Solitude under attack
- Sheltering within Superman’s Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, Batman attempts to code a portal to the past as Luthor and Fracture fight off Brainiac’s Eradicators. With the portal successfully activated, Batman moves to hold off the invaders while Fracture enters the portal. However, Luthor betrays the other two; killing Fracture and taking the Exobytes for himself.
- As Batman promises vengeance upon the villain, and confidently, Luthor enters the portal to the past alone leaving Batman apparently "dead".
Source wiki detail links (31)
Exobyte · Lex Luthor · Brainiac · Superman · Metropolis · Deathstroke · Circe · Daily Planet Building · Batman · Cyborg · Poison Ivy · Green Arrow · Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) · Giganta · Black Adam · Wonder Woman · Metallo · Golden Lasso · Joker · James Gordon · Harley Quinn · Robin · Flash (Barry Allen) · Word of Power · Power Ring · Speed Force · Harley Quinn · Heat Vision · Kryptonite · Fracture · Fortress of SolitudeGame Story
- Arriving in an abandoned alleyway, Future Lex Luthor meets with present Lex Luthor and forms an alliance to take advantage of the coming invasion by Brainiac and the unleashing of the Exobyte technology.
- As before, the intergalactic conqueror Brainiac unleashes a sudden invasion on Earth in pursuit of the secret of the Multiverse. Acting quickly, the conqueror begins bottling buildings in both Metropolis and Gotham City as the Justice League of America rally their forces to prevent further destruction.
- At this time, Future Lex Luthor appears before Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman with a warning of what their future could become should certain events come to pass. Unable to penetrate the "bottle" force fields and hopelessly outnumbered by Brainiac's invasion forces, the Trinity (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) bring Luthor to the JLA Watchtower to hear his plan on preventing these events from occurring only to bear witness to Luthor activating and dispersing Exobytes around the globe; explaining that it is part of his plan to create an army for the heroes to oppose Brainiac with.
- As they were programmed, the microscopic Exobytes begin to infect countless citizens on Earth, altering their DNA and giving them extra normal abilities; bestowing them with Magical knowledge, Technological prowess or Metahuman ability similar to the super-powered beings already in existence.
Source wiki detail links (16)
Future Lex Luthor · Lex Luthor · Exobyte · Brainiac · Multiverse · bottling · Metropolis · Gotham City · Justice League of America · Superman · Batman · Wonder Woman · JLA Watchtower · Magical · Technological · MetahumanSurvival of the Fittest Arc
- Gorilla Grodd leads an invasion force towards Little Bohemia in Metropolis. They are using devolution units and neural arrays to turn citizens into apes under Grodd's command. S.T.A.R Labs, along with the help of the new metahuman heroes, assist in finding a way to revert the devolution process. Later, the Heroes, along with The Flash, manage to thwart Grodd's invasion and defeat Grodd himself in his own lab.
- Later, Grodd then launches an attack on S.T.A.R. Labs to regain his lost technology, resulting in millions of dollars in damage and multiple casualties in the process.
Avatar of Tech and Meta Arc
- Brainiac's primary targets are soon revealed as a mass-reading of the villain's forces are detected beneath Gotham City. Oracle marshals a group of New Heroes as Calculator marshals a group of New Villains and they both move to investigate the area, quickly discovering access to the Outer Caverns of the legendary Batcave. As their respective "guides" are shut out due to the cave's digital defense systems, the groups are assailed by the cave's robotic guardians; who have been reprogrammed by an unknown entity to use lethal force.
- Making their way deeper inside the caverns and into the facility, they are momentarily assisted by Nightwing, Robin, Batwoman and Huntress until the revelation that the cave had been invaded by Brother Eye, on Brainiac's orders. With the four members of the Bat Family infected with the OMAC Virus, the groups proceed into the facility as they were protected from the nanovirus by the Exobytes within themselves.
- The Avatar of Tech and Brother Eye
- Making their way through the cave's inner sanctum, dispatching the OMAC-controlled robots as they were encountered, the groups eventually meet and assist Batman in freeing the cave's systems from Brother Eye's control only for the hero himself to become infected and depart into a deeper part of the caverns.
- With the cave freed and Brother Eye momentarily defeated, the groups follow the infected Batman into the caverns to discover that Brainiac had begun secretly assimilating the caverns in order to gain control the "Nexus of Knowledge" that was the Bat Computer. Clearing the area of Brainiac forces, the groups manage to free Batman of Brainiac's control and together they destroy Brainiac's Avatar of Tech; which was built specifically to command and control the nexus.
- As the Avatar of Tech falls, Brainiac sends another force to invade the next Nexus within the Fortress of Solitude in the arctic circle. While Supergirl, Power Girl, Krypto and even Bizarro move to free the fortress, Brainiac manages to gain control of the Sunstone Crystals within the fortress and defeats each of the kryptonians.
- Luthor and Superman united
- Recognizing the threat should Brainiac gain control of the metahuman technology stored within the fortress, Superman and Lex Luthor unite their forces to break Brainiac's blockade to gain entrance; encountering robotic crystal creations and the now-mind-controlled kryptonian heroes along the way.
- Coming upon the Phantom Zone generator, Luthor releases General Zod from captivity, despite Superman's warnings, to aid in destroying Brainiac's Avatar of Meta and together the heroes and villains confront and destroy the avatar before it could gain full control of the meta-human technology. However, the victory was short lived as Zod immediately betrayed the alliance and turned to the crystal matrix to release his forces from the Phantom Zone.
- Following after him, Superman and Luthor lead their New Heroes and New Villains against Zod's army and manage to return the General and his army back into the void.
Source wiki detail links (23)
Calculator · Outer Caverns · Batcave · Nightwing · Robin · Batwoman · Huntress · Brother Eye · inner sanctum · Batman · assimilating · Avatar of Tech · Fortress of Solitude · Supergirl · Power Girl · Krypto · Bizarro · Sunstone Crystals · blockade · Phantom Zone · General Zod · Avatar of Meta · crystal matrixStory reading order
- This reading order follows content releases. Original mentor paths and classic arcs run in parallel; it is not a universal journal mission order.