Skip to main content

dc - How does Lex Luthor know Superman's identity?


In the recent movie Batman V Superman, the antagonist Lex Luthor




kidnaps the mother of Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman, so he can threaten him and make Superman fight Batman.



He mocks Superman by calling him "Clark Joseph Kent". I read somewhere, that Lex Luthor already knew Clark Kent’s identity at the party, where he was "so" excited that Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne met.


How and/or when does Lex Luthor find out Superman’s identity? From my point of view, it is not really obvious in the movie.



Answer




How and/or when does Lex Luthor find out Superman’s identity? From my point of view, it is not really obvious in the movie.



When: After the Black Zero Event (the attack in Metropolis) and before the discovery of a large chunk of Kryptonite in the Indian Ocean.


How: After the Black Zero Event, Lex has an existential crisis (tech billionaires are far from immune from these, Elon Musk has them towards everything from virtual reality, to artificial intelligence, to extraterrestrial life; mitigated only by the fact that none of these exist on a level to crack him yet). In his comparative and relative powerlessness (neither he nor Bruce are powerless, but they feel relatively powerless compared to an alien capable of state-level interventions and destruction), Lex clings to the only power he can accumulate: knowledge.



Lex says this explicitly during the fundraiser speech.


The files recovered by Bruce and Diana aren't just plugs for the Justice League but key insight into Lex's motives and knowledge. He combed through illegally acquired data with facial recognition algorithms allowing him to catch Wonder Woman in present day. That same mountain of data and software would fairly easily see through Superman's disguise or Batman's background. By the time the story starts in earnest, Lex has already uncovered everything about everyone.


The fact that there is no file on Batman or Superman (yet a file on Kryptonite!) in the files stolen is a huge hint.


In fact, Lex offers Bruce access to his R&D, essentially opening an alternative legitimate avenue to the same materials Bruce stole. Lex WANTS Bruce to have those files.


In some sense, this is the "what if" from the 1980s Man of Steel run where Lex decides to actually LISTEN to what his computer revealed about Superman's secret identity, rather than ignore it as impossible due to his own hubris and projections of who Superman would be, layered with an existential crisis.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more