How long can DC keep Lex Luthor as president ?

[Stupendous Man]

I have to say .. I thought DC letting Lex Luthor become
president of the United States was a ballsy editorial
decision.

It also helps cement Lex as the ultimate badass and
makes for interesting stories all around.

I liked it when they started incorporating Lex as a major
villan for Batman ...though DC seems to have dropped that
ball somewhat.

My question is though ...how long will DC keep this up?

Heres what Im getting at .... DC heroes dont age ...
we do ... supermans been 32 now for about
60 something years. DC has done a pretty good job at
continuity as far as im concerned (despite Crisis and Zero Hour)
when you take that into account.

Thats because the stories are timeless ...and twenty years off
comic stories can be attributed to one year in Supermans life.
A busy year to be sure , but hey , hes superman.

However Lex as president could be dangerous as far as aging
Superman .

Will they keep Lex in office for 8 years real time as opposed to
comic book time?

Will it be 2073 and Lex will only be in the second year of his
presidency?

I wonder how they will handle that ... it will become an issue
that could complicate Supermans continuity as DC will not
want Superman to age 8 years so it seems unlikely DC will
ever let Lex finish his budding political career .

My guess is that DC will handle this issue by having Lex Luthor
Impeached.

Its the only way to get around continuity issues and a good resolution to a Superman Saga .

It will probably be some major crossover event that will
involve every issue in the DC universe ...so start saving your
pennies today.

[Ricochet]

DC did kind of run themselves into a brick wall when they made that decision... They'll probably have another re-launch in 20 years, anyway!

[kid_flash]

The thing with Superman stories is they are always there for a hidden reason. The longest-running subplot in the Super-books is Lois Lane's secret deal with Luthor. That's been going on since SUPERMAN #151 (which was Jeph Loeb's first issue), over two years (real time). So Lex as President will probably have some large payoff (some would say the payoff came during OWAW, I'd say there's more). Impeachment seems likely.

[Karkull]

What secret deal?

[Samhaine]

Now, this is a very hard topic to talk about.

Why?

NML was a year long realtime. It was a year long in Batman time.

I think they've said that the past 2 years have also passed as 2 years.

And I know that Luthor recently said he only has about 3 years left in office, mentioning that he's been in office for a year. Remember, they also attached the B13 to Y2K, so the Superman stories become dated if they don't evolve.

Eventually, they will need to stop aging the characters. However, you have to draw a line somewhere and have them age as well, or else we have another Franklin Richards on our hands. Having Dick Grayson grow up was one of the best moves DC made.

Now if Tim would only stop being 15, as he was for well over 2 years now...

[ZorBrak]

He will be exposed and then impeached im sure of it, i bet DC planned that all along, I know the first time I heard it I thought "wonder how many issues till he's impeached?"

[kid_flash]

Originally posted by Karkull
What secret deal?

Oh, sorry, guess I didn't cover that.

Awhile back in the Superman books, Lex Luthor bought the Daily Planet for the sole purpose of getting rid of it. Then, mysteriously, the Daily Planet was sold back to Perry White for exactly $1. We find out later that issue why Lex did that. He made an agreement with Lois Lane. The agreement went like this: Because Lex sold back the Planet, Lois would have to kill one story of his choosing. I'm stealing words here, but it's so cool. It could be a weather report or the biggest story of her career. It could be next week or ten years from now. Until that's fulfilled, Lois can't quit or even be fired. The point is, any story of Lex's choosing would have to be killed.

Which I think is the big payoff of Lex as Pres. He's gonna do something horrible, way out of line, and the only person who knows about it is Lois. So that will be the one story Lex tells her to kill. At least, that's my theory.

[Karkull]

Thanks, kid_flash!

[Toddman]

Originally posted by Ricochet
DC did kind of run themselves into a brick wall when they made that decision... They'll probably have another re-launch in 20 years, anyway!

I dunno, is this any more of a brick wall than Batman breaking his back or Superman DYING? If they can fix those two problems, I'm sure there's a way that Luthor can be removed from office before the next election.

And for the record, I predict that Luthor will resign from office, rather than suffer the humiliation of impeachment (and remember, impeachment doesn't actually REMOVE a president from office anyway, that comes from a vote from congress).

In my mind the trickier problem is what to do w/vice-president Pete Ross. Whether Luthor resigns, is voted out, is assassinated, or loses a re-count to George W. Bush in Florida, Pete Ross is next in line.

Toddman

[Toddman]

Originally posted by kid_flash


Which I think is the big payoff of Lex as Pres. He's gonna do something horrible, way out of line, and the only person who knows about it is Lois. So that will be the one story Lex tells her to kill. At least, that's my theory.

I think kid-flash is right on. And this just might answer my previous question. Luthor might be able to fire his entire staff under some dubious circumstances and get Lois to bury the story. Then he can resign w/o too many questions and come out smelling like a rose.

I do think that President Luthor is a FANTASTIC story idea as well as his secret deal w/Lois. Another question, will Lois actually HONOR her deal w/him? Maybe she'll have second thoughts. At the very least I'll bet she confesses everything to her hubby.

Toddman

[Stupendous Man]

I think your confused as to what the dilema is Todd.

Theres a difference between Lex Luthor bieng president
and Superman dying.

What were discussing is the passage of time in the DC universe..
how our buddy Supes has been 32 for over 60 years.

Superman dying story ..could have happened yesterday or
3 years ago . It doesnt date Supes.

However Lex Luthor in office for eight years does age Superman
8 years. See the problem.

Its the equivilent actually of the 'Robin Dilema' for Batman.
The Robins Age Batman because hes had 3 of them ...and
Dick Grayson went from boy to man on the series.
If Dick Grayson ages ... so must Batman.

My take on this though is that DC will have Lex
thrown out of office eventually in a crossover event or
a massive Superman storyline.

But for now, Im enjoying Lex in office . It was a good
storyline, and massively improves the Lex persona.

[Toddman]

Originally posted by The Spirit
I think your confused as to what the dilema is Todd.

Theres a difference between Lex Luthor bieng president
and Superman dying.

What were discussing is the passage of time in the DC universe..
how our buddy Supes has been 32 for over 60 years.

Superman dying story ..could have happened yesterday or
3 years ago . It doesnt date Supes.

However Lex Luthor in office for eight years does age Superman
8 years. See the problem.

Cool, I see your point.

But like you said in your first post, this really only becomes a problem if they choose to address the issue in real time. If the Luthor-as-president plot device even lasts another three years, there's nothing that compells the writers to acknowledge the passage of real time. What does it matter if Luthor loses the presidency in say, the year 2008 (real time), when the writers can simply say that it was only a year and a half or whatever of comic-book time.

Toddman

[Stupendous Man]

True.

Im just curious as to how theyll handle it.
Im guessing some plotline that involves him resigning.

I also wasnt aware what the deal was that Lois made
with Lex so this was educational. Looks like they
were allready planting the seed for exactly
this kind of story.

[Karkull]

Y'know, they may have to cut President Luthor's administration short anyway. I think that they originally was able to get away with it because they had Luthor "running" against two losers. But now, with what's going on, will DC bow to history and give the Oval Office to Bush?

[Stupendous Man]

I have to say I was impressed that Smallville referrenced
the Lex as President storyline as a vision of Lex's future.

I had to field several questions from friends who
are fans of the show but no knowledge of the comics.

Here s hoping Smallville continues to please us with
clever allusions to Clark and Lex future destinies.

[Domino]

I'm sorry, but this storyline is the biggest pile of nonsense I've ever seen. It doesn't take much of a scandal to reduce a presidential candidate to a political has-been, and Luthor has more skeletons in his closet than all the Kennedys put together. The whole idea that he would maintain a reputation anywhere near as clean as it would need to be is ludicrous.

Does anyone remember Senator Joe Biden? His biggest offense was the accusation of plagiarism in college and that effectively lost him the nomination. Gary Hart had an alleged affair, and look what happened to him.

Now, if Bibbo had been elected, that I could have believed. It's not too different from the situation we have in the real world.

[X-human]

Now, that all depends on damage control, and Lex Luthor has the greatest spin doctors in history. He's a billionare after all his attempts of mass murder, land grabs and mass monopolization, and yet can be elected president. I'm not so sure there's much of a smoking gun that could hurt this guy.

Just look at Bill Clinton, this man was impeached, and repeatedly blatantly lied to the public, and a month or so ago he appeared on the VH1 WTC fund raiser special and received loud applaused. His wife, who came on later, was actually boo'ed. It's all about having the right people who can keep a good public image afloat after the media has had their way. I think Lex's public image consultants can handle almost anything.

I think they best way to handle Luthor as president, is to have him become bored of the job and title. Have him hate flying to Russia every other week for meetings, and traveling cross country to visit schools and shake hands and B.S., B.S. and B.S. some more untill he just can't take it any more. He'll decided he'd have much more fun with allowing the Vice President to run for president in the next election and use him as a puppet. Not very dramatic, I agree, but it would seem to me to be the most logical turn of events. I always thought Lex was much to smart to do something so stupid as running for president. Even Frank Miller had Lex using a CGI puppet as president in DK2 and not be commander in cheif himself, it just seems so much more like his style (even if he looks like a shaved gorilla in Miller's pictures).