10 Times Lex Luthor Outsmarted Everyone
7. When He Launched, And Then Crashed The Everyman Project
One of the biggest reasons Lex hates Superman has to do with the fact that Supes' has superpowers, and he doesn't. Being the smartest man alive, he always felt he could have done more with the powers Superman supposedly takes for granted, which is why he decided to launch the Everyman Project.
The project's goal was to give average people superpowers, and because he wasn't willing to test the gene therapy he created on himself, he put together a team called the new Infinity Inc. What they didn't know was that he included a kill-switch within the genes, which enabled him to turn off the powers whenever he wanted.
The Everymen seemed like a great new project for humanity when they debuted, and Lex was seen as a visionary, but it didn't last long. Lex learned that his genes were incompatible with the therapy, which led him to cancel the project. Did he decide to cut funding, shut down research, or conclude product testing? No, his reaction was far more villainous.
Lex simply shut off the superpowers he gave to normal humans, and while this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, he didn't exactly put out a notice letting the Everymen know. The ones who were flying through the sky at the time plummeted to their deaths, and while he managed to fool most of the world with the project, Lex really only showed how callous and indifferent he was towards human life.