Lucius Fox (New Earth)

Lucius Fox is the CEO of Wayne Enterprises and a renowned businessman known throughout the corporate world. Privately, he is Bruce Wayne's personal business manager, and Batman's money man and armorer.

History

Early Life

As a young man, Lucius Fox became a member of La Resistance during World War II on behalf of the Office of Strategic Services, later called CIA. During this time, Fox worked with the legendary French hero Mlle. Marie.^[1]

Later, Lucius graduated magna cum laude from the Morton School of Business. After school he took a position at Atwater Air and saved it from near bankruptcy to success.^[2]

At some point, Lucius Fox married his wife Tanya Fox with whom he had two daughters, Tiffany and Tamara and a son named Timothy.

Wayne Enterprises

Lucius first met his future employer Bruce Wayne in Paris, when Wayne saved him from a group of muggers. To repay Wayne for saving his life, Lucius offered to buy him dinner, which Wayne accepted.^[3]^[4] The two became fast friends, and Bruce invited him to help him start a charity organization that later became known as the Wayne Foundation.

Lucius was hired in the financial division of Wayne Enterprises, where he was in charge of dealing with the company's financial and stock management.^[5] However, Bruce soon recognized Lucius's strong business knowledge and ethics, and Fox was promoted to Bruce's personal assistant and financial advisor.^[6]

One of Lucius' first private assignments for Bruce was to make a background check on a new investor called Selina Kyle.^[7] Eventually, Lucius met with Selina but made the mistake of telling her about the background check, which caused Selina's anger towards Bruce Wayne, shortly after they had started their relationship. The mistake caused Lucius to lose concentration on his daily chores and he lost a big deal for Wayne Enterprises.^[8]

Lucius was soon approached by one of Gregory Falstaff's men. Falstaff was the primary competitor of Wayne Enterprises and he wanted to make a deal with Lucius.^[9] Despite his best judgement, Lucius agreed to meet with Falstaff^[10] and after listening to his job offer, Lucius turned him down in favor of keep working for Bruce at Wayne Enterprises.^[11]

Due to the stress of his position and troubles in his personal life, Lucius had a breakdown and tried to resign, but Bruce gave him a leave of absence until he found a solution for his troubles.^[12]

While away from work, Lucius learned that his son Tim was involved with some street gangs. Lucius tried to confront the thugs but he was badly beaten and taken to the Gotham General Hospital to recover.^[13] After his recovery, Lucius told his son the truth about his "friends" and a regretful Timothy apologized to his father.^[14]

CEO

When Bruce decided to resign to his position as CEO of Wayne Foundation and Wayne Enterprises, he handed the job to Lucius, who was shocked at first, but was grateful for the trust.^[15]

As a renowned public figure and close to Batman's affairs, Lucius Fox was target of several criminals.

While working late one night at Wayne Enterprises, Lucius was attacked and kidnapped by the Mad Hatter, who used Lucius to claim a two million dollar ransom. However, Hatter was not going to return Lucius safe and sound, but instead, he would've wiped out his memories using a special machine of his own device. Lucius was saved by Batman's arrival.^[16] A short time later, Lucius was attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan, who were unleashed by the magic of Dr. Zodiac and Madame Zodiac.^[17]

After a while, the members of the board at Wayne Enterprises suggested that Lucius run for Mayor of Gotham City and he considered the option, which would mean he would have to stop working for Bruce Wayne.^[18]

While traveling through Europe, Fox was kidnapped by Baron Bedlam in Markovia. Batman asked the Justice League to launch a rescue mission, but they refused because it would violate U.S. diplomatic policy. Batman quit the League and launched his own rescue mission with Black Lightning posing as Fox's brother.^[19] They break Fox out of his cell, and leave him with a gun to take charge of the prison guards. This mission caused Batman to create the Outsiders.^[20]

Lucius Fox was eventually kidnapped by Black Mask and forced to reveal information about Bruce Wayne, until he was saved by Bruce himself, disguised as "Skullface".^[21]^[22]

A short time later, Fox was targeted by Cypher, a criminal with hypnotic powers that wanted to sabotage a project in which Fox was involved.^[23] Cypher hypnotized Fox and commanded him to jump off a brige and commit suicide, but Fox was saved by Batman, Robin and Jean-Paul.^[24]

Lucius next attented a Charity Function at Gotham's Civic Center, where he was joined by Leslie Thompkins, Sondra Kinsolving and Bruce Wayne. Lucius asked Bruce about his absence from business, but before they could talk more, Lucius and all the people at the event were hypnotized by Poison Ivy. Ivy kidnapped all the men from the event and took them to her secret greenhouse in order to take away their wealth and their lives. She was about to give Lucius her deadly kiss when Batman saved him and stopped Ivy.^[25]

He suffered a stroke,^[26] which forced him to temporarily step down as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. He was replaced by Celia Kazantkakis until her crimes led her to resign and disappear. Bruce took over until Lucius recovered.^[27]

Superhero Business

After Black Mask became the undisputed crime lord of Gotham, Wayne Enterprises was the target of a hostile takeover that caused the Research and Development Division to be sold to a foreigner company and Bruce Wayne was removed from the board of directors. Lucius tried to tell Bruce about the situation, but he was always unavailable and Alfred would make up stories for Lucius to stop calling. However, when Fox researched one of Alfred's lies, he learned that Bruce wasn't out of the country and he went to Wayne Manor and told the whole story to Bruce Wayne.^[28]

Some time later, after Bruce's disappearance, Vicki Vale approached Lucius asking for Bruce, and he managed to avoid giving her a straight answer. This is most likely because even he didn't knew about Bruce's whereabouts.^[29]

When Bruce returned after his long absence, he approached Lucius and informed him of an official partnership between Wayne Enterprises and Batman. Wayne told Fox to start the development of technology to help the crime fighter on his crusade and Fox started working on remote control androids and high-tech mechanical suits for Batman and Robin.^[30]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Business Management: Lucius Fox is unparalleled in the world of business and finance.
Leadership: He commands the respect and attention of those under his charge and is largely responsible from rescuing Wayne Enterprises from ruin and forging it into the multinational corporate giant that it is today.
Military Protocol: Lucius Fox has mentioned serving active duty in the U.S. Military during the Korean War.^[20]

Other Characteristics

Detoriating Health: Lucius's health has greatly deteriorated after suffering a stroke.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.