10 Insane Times Supervillains Developed New Powers
4. Lex Luthor - 52
DC Comics
52 (not to be confused with 2011's New 52 reboot), was a 52-week-long event DC published that revolved around their biggest figures going missing for an entire year. Batman's absence sparks Kate Kane's rise as Batwoman, while Vic Sage trains a reluctant Renee Montoya to become the new Question.
Apart from the Dark Knight, the two biggest absentees on DC's roster are Superman and Wonder Woman. With DC's Trinity out of action, and Lex Luthor under more scrutiny than ever, he devises away to exonerate himself from his past crimes and start up a whole new scheme altogether.
With DC's greatest heroes seemingly lost, Luthor begins administering metagene treatment to the public. In secret, he actually starts testing on himself, and when his ruse is finally uncovered, it transpires that he has all of Superman's abilities.
Luthor is defeated by Steel in the end, but for a few brief moments, he wielded the power of his greatest enemy.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
