Warning: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #5 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.

Dark Nights: Death Metal, along with all its tie-ins and crossovers, has been an intense ride. One of the more interesting character arcs, which started long before Death Metal began, has belonged to Lex Luthor. Over the course of this "Anti-Crisis Event," Luthor has been humbled and humanized. After being roused and inspired by Wonder Woman in Dark Nights: Death Metal #5, Luthor reveals a story from his childhood that humanizes him even further as well as provides a possible way to beat Perpetua and The Darkest Knight.

Luthor has always been one of the DC Universe's most devious criminal masterminds, with an above-genius intelligence and an amassed fortune, Luthor has the means to pull off any large-scale scheme he could think up. After saving the surviving heroes during their battle with Castle Bat, Luthor offers them sanctuary within the Legion of Doom's walls. He tells them that it's "time to end things once and for all" in their battle against Perpetua and The Darkest Knight, and launches into a story from his childhood that offers fresh insight into why Luthor is the way he is.

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Luthor suggests that in order to beat The Darkest Knight, they need to stop thinking big and start thinking small. In Luthor’s hometown of Smallville, there was a planetarium that played a film, "The Great Beginning," detailing the life cycle of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Big Crunch. Luthor, being a scientifically-minded child, loved the film and watched it many times. One day the projectionist loaded the film wrong and it played backwards. "Everything was unmade," Luthor told them, "human life, the Earth, the galaxy--until there was nothing left but a speck."

Watching the universe being uncreated and unmade spooked a young Luthor, making him feel small by reminding him of how insignificant he was. The stars used to make him feel like part of a story, but now, as he says, "The story was too big, and would go on without me." Luthor had an existential crisis where he now felt small and insignificant. Luthor didn't like this feeling at all, and the experience was instrumental in shaping him into the man he is today.

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The incident at the planetarium explains Luthor’s motivations. Every plan he devises is big in some way, be it a plan to ruin Superman or become President of the United States. Luthor always "goes big," and the planetarium incident puts this into context. Luthor hates feeling small and insignificant, and numerous people have suffered because of it.

With this new perspective, Luthor tells Diana that "I am the movie I saw in the Smallville Planetarium. Everything I built is gone. All my deeds exposed." And just like in that backward film, Luthor tells them that what's currently happening in the Multiverse isn't an ending but is instead a "great beginning."

Luthor's plan to save them is inspired by his experience in the planetarium when he was a little boy. His plan to "think small" is put into action by the heroes ad villains alike, but will it be enough to save the Multiverse?

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