SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Justice League #1 by Scott Snyder, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Tomeu Morey and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.


Lex Luthor is a baddie again, but it’s not that simple. The events of Justice League: No Justice have given him a whole new expanded outlook on life and it’s the makings of the most dangerous Lex Luthor we’ve even seen. Allied with Sinestro, Gorilla Grodd, The Joker, Black Manta and Cheetah, Lex has a new purpose in life that directly conflicts with that of the Justice League, but in his mind it doesn’t necessarily have to be.

However, in order to get what he wants and what he needs, there’s one person standing in his way... and that person needs to be taken out for good.

Hall of Doom

While much of Scott Snyder’s new Justice League owes its origins to the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons, there’s also a heady-helping of Super Friends in there. The Legion of Doom has never really existed in mainstream continuity before; it’s always been the Injustice Gang or the Secret Society of Super-Villains, so the Legion arriving in such a major way is a big deal. And, if we’re harkening back to Super Friends, they’re going to need their iconic headquarters.

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While the Legion of Doom itself is only just getting its big debut, the Hall of Doom has appeared in comics before. It was established as the base of operations for the Injustice League post-Infinite Crisis. Nestled in the heart of Slaughter Swamp, the Hall made its first appearance during “The Lightning Saga.” It was the hiding place of Legion of Super-Heroes member Sensor Girl, and was later taken over the by the Injustice League who formed to attack the heroes of the DC Universe at Green Arrow and Black Canary’s wedding.

The Hall of Doom was reintroduced by Snyder and Greg Capullo during Dark Nights: Metal as the base of the immortal Vandal Savage during a meeting place of the Council of Immortals. Now located in lava pits in the Antarctic dubbed Finnisterre — named after Cape Finnisterre in Spain, which was once considered the end of the known world by the Romans — Vandal Savage and his army of Neoanderthals launch their attack on the world from there, only be to thwarted in their attack by the Justice League and interrupted by Lex Luthor, who wants the base for himself.

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We’re Going To Need A Legion

Lex comes to Savage and tells him the reason the immortal lost is because he chose “Justice,” but despite Savage’s incredulity, Lex is being particular with his words. The events of Justice League: No Justice saw Luthor drafted to Team Entropy by Brainiac, and by the series’ end, Lex had become convinced that entropy was inevitable, represented by the concept of “Doom.” Snyder has spoken in interviews about how the origins of the world aren’t as inherently negative as we know them to be today, and that’s where Luthor is starting from.

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“Well doom, in its original form, is just a word that meant “fate.” It implied “fate” without any connotations. So what Luthor sees is that our nature is bad, our nature is petty, predatory, we’re animals," Snyder explains of his villain's motivation. "We’re biologically at odds with this system we’ve created, so why not embrace that? Why not realize that the true heroes here are the Legion of Doom? As a reader, that’s the question: are you going to pick Justice, or are you going to pick Doom?”

Luthor feels like the concept of a Justice League is inherently flawed and that he alone can save people by offering them another option, to embrace Doom. It’s the conflict of Superman vs Lex Luthor writ large; Lex believes he’s the only that can save everyone, and the heroes are just getting in the way. But rather than focusing his attention on just one hero, Lex is now affronted by the idea of the Justice League, and in order to combat it, he needs a team of his own… The Legion of Doom.

Death of a Caveman

Lex reveals to Vandal Savage that it was Lexcorp that constructed the Hall of Doom, and as such, there are aspects of it that the immortal caveman has no idea about. There’s a monster in the basement, and futuristic weapons in the attic. However, he doesn’t need them to kill Vandal Savage, when instead he has a doorknob. A simple doorknob, imperceptible to those that lack true vision, similar to that of the ones in the Hall of Justice and made of the only material which can kill Vandal Savage, which Lex does.

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There’s a poetic irony to Vandal Savage’s murder, bludgeoned to death by what amounts to a rock the size of a fist. Among his many identities throughout his long-lived life, he was worshipped by the Religion of Crime as Cain, the first murderer, who famously slaughtered his brother Abel with a simple rock, brutally beating him to death with strike after strike. Now, thousands of years later, Vandal Savage has been killed the very same way by someone stronger, smarter and more cunning.

In killing a prominent immortal such as Vandal Savage, Snyder and his collaborators set a tone not just for Lex and the Legion of Doom, but for Justice League as a series; just because you’re used to things being one way doesn’t mean that they’re going to be that way forever.

As the life is slowly beaten out of Vandal Savage, he casts his mind out to the only person that can stop Lex and his Legion of Doom: J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter and chairperson of the Justice League. J’onn’s mind is filled with secrets of the DC Universe, hints at upcoming events in titles like Justice League Dark and Justice League Odyssey, a spectrum of light beyond the Lantern Corps that we know and a hint at the true nature of the Totality, the cosmic force from beyond the Source Wall moments away from reaching Earth. The Totality could be the Multiverse’s saving grace or it could oom the world; it’s up to the Justice League and the Legion of Doom to figure out which it’s going to be.