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As the battle lines are drawn in DC vs. Vampires, this vision of the DC Universe’s greatest source of survival comes from an unlikely figure.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for DC Vs. Vampires #1, on sale now from DC Comics.
While the Justice League and Legion of Doom have always been at odds, they have occasionally set aside their differences temporarily to band together against a common threat, most recently in the crossover event Dark Nights: Death Metal. The new comic book miniseries DC vs. Vampires has an undead menace rise up from the shadows to target the entire DC Universe, with heroes and villains unsure of who to trust and who has already been transformed into a ravenous vampire. As the first casualties already fall victim to the bloodthirsty hordes of vampires, the world’s last chance at survival may fall in the hands of one of its greatest villains, Lex Luthor.
There has been a sharp shift in the balance of power among the vampire community, with longtime leader Mary, Queen of Blood, deposed by a new, violent faction of vampires seeking to band together and completely subjugate humanity. As part of the vampires’ master plan, they decide to launch a preemptive strike on the heroes and villains before the super-powered figures are aware of what the vampires are up to, with the Legion of Doom among the early targets. The vampiric hero Andrew Bennett sets out to warn the heroes and villains of what is transpiring in the shadows but quickly discovers in DC vs. Vampires #1 (by James Tynion IV, Matthew Rosenberg, Otto Schmidt, and Tom Napolitano) that he is already too late to save the villains from the undead.
Bennett travels to the Hall of Doom to warn the villains of what is coming their way only to discover that the vampire army has already beaten him to the punch. The Legion of Doom has been completely massacred inside of their own headquarters. Among the villains that haven’t been killed or converted into a vampire is Luthor, who remains defiant to the last. Before Luthor has Bennett finish him off rather than let him transform into one of the undead, he gives the heroic vampire a note and a serum to impart to the heroes. As Bennett makes his escape from the Hall of Doom, he is intercepted by the Riddler, now a vampire himself. Bennet uses a portion of the serum to destroy the undead Batman villain before managing to escape.
While it appears that Bennett’s final destination, with Luthor’s parting gift in tow, is the Hall of Justice in order to warn the Justice League, Bennett has a different stop on the way instead. Alfred Pennyworth reveals that a mysterious package was left at Wayne Manor, giving it to Batman who reads Luthor’s farewell letter and receives his serum that can evidently destroy the undead in seconds. Bennett is unable to elaborate on Luthor’s warning further, intercepted at the Hall of Justice by one of the vampires’ secret converts and destroyed before he can warn the Justice League of the plot steadily moving against them.
During Death Metal, it was Luthor who led a ragtag group of heroes to overthrow the Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua from plunging the DC Multiverse into eternal darkness. In DC vs. Vampires, Luthor and his Legion of Doom have already been taken off the board in a decisive, preemptive strike by the vampires. But not before Luthor was able to develop a serum capable of destroying the undead menace. In this DCU, Luthor may be dead and gone but he may also go down as the one person to save the world. And for a longtime supervillain with a decided messiah complex, Luthor probably wouldn’t have had it any other way.
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