Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

DC Comics is going all in with their new direction of villains reigning supreme this summer. In their 25 cent comic, DC’s Year of the Villain Special, readers get a taste of what is to come across multiple storylines including the Legion of Doom, Batman, and Leviathan. In a rather big twist, Lex Luthor makes the grandest gesture ever.

Opening the issue, Lex has taken over the White House, taken out Amanda Waller, and shown Brainiac why his plan is going to work. Telling Brainiac to bugger off, Lex begins the first part of his plan.

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Then, as heroes encircle his building….

Lex does the unthinkable.

Blows himself up. He’s dead, folks. Or, later as we learn, maybe only his body is dead. In the closing pages of the issue, we get a short scene with the new big bad in the DC universe known as Perpetua.

She isn’t talking to Lex, is she?

Very interesting indeed. Apparently, she’s growing a new Lex Luthor. One has to presume this god of creation is making him more powerful than ever, but we’ll have to keep reading these books to find out!

That’s only a fraction of the story and I highly recommend you read DC’s Year of the Villain Special today. It’s free on Comixology!