Lex Luthor was witness to the Martian invasion.
History
Doctor Lex Luthor was visiting his colleague Professor Ogilvy when a Martian cylinder crash landed near Woking. He and Ogilvy were at the site of the crash and organized workmen to uncover it. Luthor and Ogilvy were then interviewed by Lois Lane and Clark Kent, in which the former was very reluctant and indifferent to share their business with the reporters. When the cylinder opened and revealing the Martians, Luthor warned Ogilvy not to make peaceful contact with the aliens but his warnings were ignored. Very shortly after, Luthor's warnings were proven when the Martians killed Ogilvy and begin slaying onlookers.
As the chaos unfold, Luthor was heading back to his car to escape the conflagration between the Martians and the U.S. Army where he runs into Lois Lane, who needs a ride back to Metropolis. Luthor agreed, but can only take her outside of the city as he needs to salvage some of his experiments in his laboratory on the way. However, they encountered Martian tripods on the highway in which Lex's hair is burnt before being captured.
Within three weeks of Earth's fall to the Martians, Lex was kept alive and, deciding that humanity is finished, collaborated with the Martians through understanding the Martians' rune-script and telepathy. Recognized by his genius, Luthor helped the invaders in finding an immunity to the Martians' physiology in which scores of Martians are dying from Earth's diseases. Through his efforts, he studied a captured Clark Kent due to his inhuman powers. At Luthor's request, Lois had been kept alive, mostly to keep Clark in check. Lex then deduced that Clark's Kryptonian biology is canceling the deadly effects of Earth's bacteria, which is why the Martians around him are not sick. He then successfully replicate Clark's antibodies which would be enough to eliminate all but the most advanced cases. At this point, the Martians gained the needed information and saw no use for Luthor, and turned against him. Luthor was quickly saved by Lois and reneged of his betrayal to humankind. He and Lois helped Clark to escape and freeing human prisoners. Thereafter, Luthor bear witness to Clark valiantly destroying arriving tripods before dying from exhaustion.
Humbled by Clark's heroism, Lex, acting on Clark's insight, quickly found a way to destroy the remaining Martians on Earth by duplicating the disruption of the Martians' antigravity and allowing to bring down the Martians' tripods. Following Earth's reconstruction from the invasion, Luthor married Lois Lane and becoming Vice President of the United States under President John Nance Garner.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Related
- 1 Appearances of Lex Luthor (Earth-1938)
- 3 Images featuring Lex Luthor (Earth-1938)
- Quotations by or about Lex Luthor (Earth-1938)
- Character Gallery: Lex Luthor (Earth-1938)
Footnotes