It’s bad enough that Lex Luthor is one of the world’s smartest individuals, but it’s because he’s extremely rich and controls a gigantic corporation that he’s been able to realize most of his criminal plots in the DC universe. He’ll have that same wealth at his disposal next year in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and we’ve already seen him flaunt it a little bit in previews, from Lexcorp’s operations to his sprawling mansion. Now we have a better idea of how powerful he’ll really be after seeing his plans to blow Lexcorp’s competitors in the field of "high technology defense innovation" out of the water.
Much like the faux Fortune Magazine profile back in October, Warner Bros. teamed up with Wired for another Lex Luthor interview. In the midst of Lex talking about how the world has changed, there’s a graphic showing that LexCorp’s proposed 2016 R&D budget is $2 billion, which is huge given that this will be their first year in that field. Compared to other big corporations and their 2015 budgets, Kord Industries (headed by Ted Kord, better known in the comics as Blue Beetle) ranks second with $707 million and Stagg (headed by Simon Stagg, an enemy of Metamorpho) follows with $628 million.
While publicly Lex Luthor claims to be working towards the betterment of mankind with his company’s work, in secret he has sinister plans in play. Believing Superman to be a threat, he’ll use his influence to skew public opinion, but more importantly, he will use LexCorp to experiment with technology and weapons that can take down the Man of Steel. Lex’s vast resources have not only allowed him to procure a huge chunk of Kryptonite, but he also managed to seize General Zod’s corpse and somehow transform it into Doomsday, who he’ll sic on the movie’s protagonists.
It’s also worth noting that two of the lower-ranking companies mentioned in the piece are headed by some recognizable DC protagonists. Ranking last with $97 million is Wayne Enterprises, whose CEO is Bruce Wayne, a guy who likes to fight crime dressed like a bat in his spare time. It’s noted that Bruce is notorious for his "refusal to accept military contracts," though he did mysteriously spend nine figures on a prototype plane and exoskeleton tech that has yet to establish "proof of concept." Of course, we know what those will be used for. Then ranking in the middle is Queen Industries, which is suspected to also be moving away from military contracts altogether. That company is headed by Oliver Queen, a.k.a. Green Arrow, which could mean we might see the DCEU’s iteration of the Emerald Archer at some point. However, when it comes to trailblazing the defense technology path in 2016, Luthor will clearly reign supreme.
Once Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is released on March 25, 2016, moviegoers will finally see Lex Luthor’s evil scheme unfold, and while it’s guaranteed he’ll eventually be defeated, that doesn’t mean he’ll lose all that power he’s accumulated. He has a habit of avoiding too many consequences.
