10 Comics Villains Who CHEATED Their Powers
3. Lex Luthor Spliced Himself With Superman's Powers - 52
The whole premise for the excellent maxi-series 52 was watching how the DC universe reacts to the complete disappearance of the three biggest superheroes - Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman - after the events of Infinite Crisis gave each of them reason to take a break to do some soul searching.
As such, it was only a matter of time before we found out what Lex Luthor was getting up to without his arch nemesis to bother him.
Turns out, he spent the whole year selling essentially "superpower in a can" to anyone who wanted to be a superhero/villain. All of this with the goal of killing a lot of people, as well as giving himself all the powers of Superman.
Not only is the idea of Lex Luthor stealing all of Superman's powers horrifying - especially since even when Superman comes back, he still doesn't have his powers - it's also just flat out pathetic.
All this time Lex Luthor has said that if Superman weren't around, he would have helped humanity evolve and save itself. Yet when Superman returns, the only thing he has to ask Lex is where the hell any of his great aids to humanity ARE?
Lex's little power up is just another demonstration about how he has never cared about anyone but himself.