You’re reading The Complete Infinite Crisis, a Comprehensive and Encyclopedic look through the universe-changing superhero event published by DC from 2005 to 2006. Shelfdust are proud to provide a complete overview of the story, and everything that happens in it. We’ve had to get some experts in though – there’s so much going on that needs to be explained!

We’ve been following the various events of Lex Luthor’s presidency recently, as described by Tim Maytom, and we’ve got to ask: what did Lois Lane make of all this? It sounds like she got really tied up in this whole thing – how did she end up taking down President Luthor? I know exactly who to ask about this – Corrina Lawson! THE foremost Lois Lane expert!

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Corrina! So it sounds like Lex Luthor become President, and he had a strange relationship with Lois Lane and Superman at the time. What was going on between the three of them during “Our Worlds At War”?

We have to go back to when Luthor bought the Daily Planet in a somewhat prescient storyline. Obviously, then Luthor dictated what the newspaper could cover. Well, he could have but instead he dismantled the entire organization and even dumped the iconic Planet building topper in a landfill. Instead, he started a new news organization that he controlled. (Any similarity to Fox News is likely not coincidental.) 

Obviously, a bad situation for any intrepid reporter. But, eventually, Lois was able to strong-arm Luthor into selling the paper—he sold it to Perry White, who eventually sold it to Bruce Wayne —but the caveat was that Lois agreed to allow Luthor kill one story of his own choosing. Lois didn’t tell Clark about this deal. There’s a longer version of this tale here.

That brings us to “Our Worlds at War,” when Lois uncovered the fact Luthor knew about the invasion ahead of time. And that’s the story Luthor wanted Lois to kill. 

Remember, at this time, if a story was killed, there wouldn’t be an alternate outlet to reach the public. No blogging, no social media. If a story was killed, it would stay buried. 

At the end of that storyline, was there anybody out there who was able to stand up to him? Perhaps a heroic journalist who uncovered his dark secret?

Lois uncovered that President Luthor had an alliance with Brainiac and thus knew about the alien invasion beforehand. She wanted to publish it but Luthor called in his marker. (May I add this is another prescient storyline with an American President allying with a known enemy and, as a result, people have died? See: Russian bounties on American troops.) 

Lois had the whole story to bury Luthor’s Presidency. But she was supposed to keep her word and kill it. 

Spoiler: She did and she didn’t. 

What happened after she published the story? Who got the last laugh, in the end?

Lois gave the story to Clark instead, skirting the deal, and it was published under Clark’s byline. But Luthor claimed the story was false and seemed to prove his case in an under-handed Luthor way, and Clark was fired. 

Or was he? Nope, he was fired publicly but was under orders from Perry to keep digging to bring down Luthor. And so he and Lois eventually did. 

I suppose Lois got the last laugh in the end but Luthor never really goes away, does he? And then the world gets rebooted and he becomes some sort of god avatar and the world ends again and…I’m not sure where we are with DC continuity at the moment. 

Except that I’m sure, at some point, Lois will be back doing her job.

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Thanks Corrina! Now we seem to have a pretty good understanding of President Luthor and everything that went on… oh, except for that “Manchester Black” thing Tim mentioned. That sounds super weird! I wonder who’ll be able to help explain that for us?

 

Corrina Lawson is a writer, reporter, and editor who has written everywhere, including Barnes & Noble, CriminalElement and GeekMom, for which she was a founding editor. You can find her website here, and follow her on Twitter here!