WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Future State: Superman vs. Imperious Lex #3 by Mark Russell, Steve Pugh, Carlos M. Mangual and Romulo Fajardo Jr., on sale now.
In DC history, Superman rarely gets a big, definitive triumph over Lex Luthor. While the Man of Steel has dealt Luthor countless setbacks or gotten Lex locked up on occasion, the villain has usually been able to wield his enormous power, money and influence to rebuild himself and his reputation. Whether it's as a businessman, politician, mad scientist or as the leader of villainous groups like the Legion of Doom, Lex just keeps on coming.
However, Future State: Superman vs. Imperious Lex #3 changes that drastically, as the Man of Steel gets the ultimate victory over Lex by completely embarrassing him in the potential future., and officially ending his reign by killing his pride.
After his energy crystals were rendered null on the black market, Lex runs his planet, Lexor, into the ground. Still, seeing him crash isn't fulfilling at all, and Lois and Clark tell the United Planets this means refugees will soon be flocking to them for help. They make one last visit to convince the planet to make things right by voting Lex out so they can rebuild their home, but the alliance is clear they'll be disavowed if anything goes wrong.
To make matters worse, Lex turned on his robot, X-99, and blamed it for the crystal fiasco, banishing it to his moon. And when X-99 tried to reprogram his excavating machines there called the Reticulants, the reboot got botched and they started attacking Lexor. Lex can't believe his eyes as his inventions start killing off his citizens, leaving him looking for another scapegoat.
When Superman arrives, he's weakened by crystals, which allows an armored Lex to start beating him down. But luckily, everything falls into place when Lois sneaks into his state-owned TV station and hijacks the media feed. She addresses the public once more, and Lexor's residents turn on their leader when they realize the bots belong to Lex.
An aliens form mobs to protect the altruistic Superman, who actually saved some of them, marking the end of a tyrannical era of Luthor's rule. The gangs start destroying the crystals, which allows Kal-El to get the upper hand and finally break the brainwashing. Lois breathes a sigh of relief, as she's tried for months to end this gaslighting, and Lex is easily overthrown not that his brand and overall image are shattered.
Lex has lost his kingdom, and Superman and Lois can take solace in the fact that the entire galaxy now knows he's not as shrewd as he touted. Lex killed an economy, almost destroyed his own planet, and turned his people against him, which leaves him staring down the barrel of centuries in prison, with ironically no one except X-99 to comfort him. Now, Luthor's pride and ego are ruined, along with his reputation, which means there's no coming back from this.