WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Justice League #27, by James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Bruno Redondo, Hi-Fi and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
With the Doom War against Perpetua looming, the Justice League has assembled its largest team ever. They've convinced two of her sons, the World Forger and the Monitor, to join, and are also trying to recruit the Anti-Monitor to reform the trifecta that sealed her within the Source Wall in DC's very first crisis.
However, they barely survived that battle, and the Forger tells them they'll need all the help they can get against someone who has the power to create and destroy the Multiverse. But thanks to the Martian Manhunter's obsession with finding Lex Luthor, the League may well have found the equalizer they need to counter her destructive crusade.
Perpetua hid Earth in the Multiverse when she made it, so she could tinker and form an army to go after the Judges of the Source. This is what inspired her sons to turn on her, but the remnants of that project have seemingly made Lex Luthor her new general. When he killed himself, it was revealed that Perpetua was experimenting on him, turning him into the Apex Predator she needs to rule her soldiers. While it's not clear whether Lex will be the only warrior she'll use, or if she's creating others for him to command, Justice League #27 reveals that an army of Apex Predators exists.
When J'onn J'onzz tries to find Lex, he ends up at a secret Legionnaire's Club base, where his dad Lionel experimented with combining martian and human DNA, similar to what Perpetua did. It remains to be seen if Lionel was somehow influenced by her work or if this was just pure coincidence, but with the Manhunter incapacitated, Professor Ivo and his Amazo crew begin operating on J'onn. Lex found this project that Lionel couldn't complete, and he offered Ivo these blank Apex Predators that haven't been activated, so they could be augmented with cybernetics as well. In return, Ivo fixed Brainiac for Lex, and acted as a secret member of the Legion of Doom all this time.
The desperate Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders) ends up rescuing J'onn, and they take down Ivo's lab. However, this legion may well have a version of the very army Perpetua wanted to destroy the Multiverse. With someone like the Forger, these warriors can be repurposed to fight her, and J'onn might be able to recruit them with his telepathy and turn the battalion into a heroic one should they be activated.
J'onn's history with such experiments runs deep, since Lex freed him from Lionel's lab when they were kids to keep him from being dissected by his dad. Lex went on to be mind-wiped after this transgression, which put him on the villainous path, but J'onn still has hope he can turn the villain. Now that Lex is the the alpha of the Apex Predators and wields godlike power thanks to Perpetua, he's on a whole new level compared to these foot-soldiers. J'onn might want to save his old friend, but Lex is so strong that the entire League and the goddess' trio of sons will struggle even against him.
Given that he's also placing an offer out there to let villains join his cause, Lex's Legion of Doom is growing past its previously small roster. Lex is aiming to turn it into a cosmic annihilation wave, and the League will undoubtedly be using any warriors they get their hands on. Hopefully, J'onn and his allies can use these new Predators because the clock is ticking down, and Perpetua's appetite for destruction is growing by the minute.