Lex Luthor To Lead Justice League This April

Lex Luthor is a lot of things, millionaire, genius, businessman and criminal among them. But come April, he’ll be able to add one more prevously unthinkable role to that list: leader of the Justice League.

Strange as it may seem for Superman’s most famous foe to be heading up DC’s premier team of super heroes, that’s exactly what’s going to happen starting with “Justice League” #30. At the conclusion of the current “Forever Evil” crossover, something occurs that leads to Luthor and Flash villain Captain Cold joining the League to keep it at seven members along with Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and Shazam.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Superman and Flash are absent from the lineup. Writer and DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns isn’t saying exactly why the unlikely roster change is taking place for fear of ruining the end of “Forever Evil,” but he did have this to say to Comic Book Resources about his motivation:

"“I wanted a character that could come in and ask these really, really hard questions about the team and want to tear the team up, and that would have a presence that would feel legitimate.As I started thinking about what character I could bring on the team that would completely disrupt it and completely challenge everyone on it — it was just Lex Luthor. His ambition is laced with ego and manipulation, but his level of ambition is something you can insert and spread across that team, and it really starts to alter what the Justice League is.”"

Batman and Luthor have already found themselves uneasy allies in “Forever Evil,” but seeing strong-willed heroes like Wonder Woman and Aquaman taking direction from Luthor is hard to picture. We’ll see how it all plays out in a few months thanks to Johns and artists Ivan Reis and Joe Prado.