Awesome / The Black Ring

• This is Luthor's CMOA, as he bests all comers who might try and claim his place as the greatest MB in DC Comics. When Mister Mind tries to brainwash him, he regains control of his body and kicks the worm off of a building. When Deathstroke turns on him, he powers up his armour and hits right back. When Gorilla Grodd tries to eat him, it turns out to be a robot. When Vandal Savage captures him, he chews some bubble gum...and inflates it into a force shield. And when he's confronted by Brainiac, his greatest rival for the title of Superman's archfoe, and a genuine Evil Genius in his own right, what does Luthor do? He takes him on in a fist fight and breaks his neck. He even manages to briefly claim the power of a deity, and for the first time, is not the underdog in a confrontation with Superman.
• Lex Luthor, upon being held hostage by a group of mercenaries, mocking them even as they hold him upside down over a ledge on the roof of LexCorps.
• Lex manages to survive a temporarily berserk Deathstroke.
• Lex outsmarts Gorilla Grodd.
• Lex outsmarting and giving poignant "Reason You Suck" Speech to Vandal Savage.
• Lex sees and argues with Death herself.
  • And, for her part, the Endless manages to address the elephant in the room in a surprisingly sensible and classy way: you might get extra time from getting resurrected, but to a Time Abyss, that's a rounding error. Everyone meets her eventually. And, as far as the zombies are concerned, hey, they're having fun, aren't they?

---