Warning! SPOILERS for Titans season 4.A new theory suggests that Lex Luthor, who seemingly died in the premiere episode of Titans season 4, has found a way to resurrect himself and become Superboy, taking over the body of Connor Kent. Such treachery would be perfectly in keeping with Luthor's character, as the criminal mastermind has defied death before in multiple media and frequently manipulated Superboy towards his own ends as well. What marks Titans story as unique, however, is the fact that its version of Lex Luthor may have turned to magic to accomplish what his weird science could not.
Lex Luthor (Titus Welliver) has been a shadowy presence in the story of Titans, being responsible for the creation of the half-human, half-Kryptonian clone of himself and Superman that took the name Conner Kent. Luthor did not appear on camera until Titans season 4, episode 1, "Lex Luthor," where he reached out to Conner and claimed that he wanted to get to know the closest thing he would ever have to a son before his inevitable death from Kryptonite poisoning. While Lex was seemingly killed by the magic of Mother Mayhem and apparently died in Superboy's arms, one interesting theory suggests that Superman's arch-nemesis is not truly dead.
Lex Luthor Is Likely Not Dead Forever In Titans S4
When Lex Luthor was seemingly killed after only appearing in a single episode of Titans, viewers were quick to suspect that they still had not seen the last of the famous supervillain.Titans showrunner Greg Walker muddied the waters by saying that "nobody's truly dead," before revealing (via TV Line) that Titans was only allowed to use Lex Luthor's character for a single episode. This has prompted many to consider the possibility that Titans could follow the legal letter of the law by only having Titus Welliver play Lex Luthor for a single episode before finding another way for Luthor to appear in the guise of another character.
Luthor Planned To Cheat Death Using Superboy
This possibility was raised in Titans season 4, episode 1, "Lex Luthor," when Conner Kent agreed to meet with his biological human father in private. Conner bluntly told Luthor that he knew about his suffering from lethal Kryptonite poisoning, and that he believed Titans' Lex Luthor only wanted to meet with him as the prelude to exploiting him for a cure. Luthor agreed that was a "splendid idea," but he already knew that wouldn't work, having access to an ample supply of the same genetic material that led to Conner's creation.
Lex claimed he merely wanted to get to know Conner before his inevitable death, though he admitted he had originally created Conner as a means to fulfilling the one dream he could not realize, by making his son into the Superman he could never be. Lex spoke of a project he'd been working on, saying that "death may no longer be the foe I once thought it to be," but that he would need Conner's help in dealing with his partners. These partners were DC villain Mother Mayhem and the Church of Blood, who seemed to strike Lex down magically at that exact moment, before he could fully explain his plan.
This plot line broadly resembled a story from the Superman comics, where Lex Luthor cheated death by having his brain implanted into a clone body, after he developed incurable cancer thanks to prolonged exposure to Kryptonite. Luthor learned the hard way that Kryptonite, while immediately lethal to Kryptonians, was also lethal to humans in the long term and that his trademark Kryptonite ring had killed him. After faking his death, Luthor posed as his own son for several years, most famously during the Death of Superman storyline. He eventually reclaimed his identity and pinned his crimes on the unhinged clone "pretending" to be his son.
Superboy Embraces His Lex Luthor Side In Titans Season 4
Superboy underwent a dramatic transformation after barely surviving the same magical attack that seemingly killed Lex Luthor, shaving his head with his heat vision in the opening scene of Titans' season 4, episode 6, "Brother Blood." While Conner was far from stupid, he had always emulated Superman and been more of a man of action than a deep thinker or scientific strategist. That seemingly changed after his close encounter with death, as Conner quickly took control of STAR Labs, putting them to work on his plan to thwart the Church of Blood's prophecy, erasing "the illusion that the moon's turning red" by redirecting sunlight with hacked LexCorps satellites.
Superboy's apparent transformation into Lex Luthor Jr. worried his teammates, even before he insisted on being addressed as "Conner...Or Mr. Luthor" by STAR Labs' scientists. Conner became as cruel as he had once been compassionate, trying to convince the other Titans that the best course of action was to kill Sebastian Sanger before the Church of Blood had a chance to win him over and turn him into their dark messiah, Brother Blood. This callous attitude was obvious even to STAR Labs scientist and Tim Drake's new love interest Bernard Fitzmartin, who commented that "It's like, the "Lex" side of him is taking over..."
Theory: Lex Luthor Planned To Resurrect In Superboy's Body
The idea of Lex Luthor brainwashing Superboy recalls another storyline from the Teen Titans comics of Geoff Johns, who is one of the producers of Titans. Previous Titans storylines have drawn upon Johns' work, making the possibility of Lex Luthor turning Superboy bad all the more likely. Unfortunately, as canny as Luthor is, it is hard to see how he could be responsible for Superboy's transformation this time, given the circumstances of his violent death. Unless, of course, that was another part of his sinister plan, and indeed a pivotal part of it.
It seems likely that Titans season 4 writers could have blended the storylines from the comics, with the dying Lex Luthor taking over the body of a different clone "son," using his research into the Temple of Azarath to facilitate the transformation. While Luthor is a man of science first and foremost, he has shown a willingness to use whatever tools he can access to achieve his goals and there is little practical difference between "magic" and the advanced science of beings like The New Gods, which Luthor has exploited in the comics. Given that, it seems likely that Lex Luthor may have achieved his goal of becoming Superman after all.