Future State: Superman Vs. Imperious Lex #2 Review

Takesy Backsies

Written By: Mark Russell

Art By: Steve Pugh, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Carlos M. Mangual

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 23, 2021

Let's jump back into the year 2050 and see what happens when Lex Luthor tries to get his planet Lexor to be a part of the United Federation of Planets and what that will mean for our Man of Steel when Lois Lane has to go and be the representative to visit the planet of her husband's arch-rival. It doesn't help that Lex needs the United Planets since Superman went and destroyed all his robots that pillaged neighboring planets to secure their resources and wealth. Let's jump into this issue and see if Lex can play nice with others or if he finds another way to be independent and maybe rid of Superman at the same time. Let's check it out.

I was surprised at last issue at how much I enjoyed what Mark Russell put down because normally I'm not a fan of his style of forcing DC Comics characters into whatever topical story he wants to present and while we did get that previously to a degree, I was mostly just happy that we were bringing Lexor back.... even if it wasn't in its original way. That being said, this is an interesting idea that does continue the DC Continuity of the United Federation of Planets in an interesting way that forces Lex Luthor to call upon it looking for help before the people of his planet execute him for being a crappy leader and with that being our lead up to this issue..... it only halfway lives up to what we got previously because this issue seems to play things up for laughs a little too much for my liking. After all, it forces Lex Luthor to be a bit of a nitwit and an actual crappy leader who has no idea what he's doing.  

You see, Lois shows up to Lexor and brings a survey team to see what kind of minerals and whatnot the planet has because now that Lex wants to be a part of the Federation, he's initially sharing whatever he has with others, while the Federations shares what they have with him..... that is..... until the survey team uncover a deposit of deuterium crystals that can amplify energy. With this discovery, we end this Federation idea and go right back to despot Lex and redo a lot of what happened the last issue with the propaganda, the Superman fight, and even Superman screwing Lex out of this resource boon by making his own energy crystals and underselling Lex throughout the galaxy.  

All in all, I enjoyed the art in this issue a lot and I even enjoyed a lot of the story but it just wants to play things a little too political instead of telling what could be a really interesting story, and what I mean by that is for any of this to work, Lex has to be a dope and that feels wrong throughout and leads to a bit of comedy and while this isn't a terrible shift for this story because it does lead to something that's a fun, it doesn't feel like a legitimate continuation of our DC Universe and current timeline. Ultimately though, it's Lex doing bad in the Universe, Superman screwing Lex over in his mind, leading to Lex doing worse things and while that's been okay so far, I wonder if it will continue to be fun for the third and final chapter to this story.

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue is fun and leads to some laughs, it's bogged down with political satire that forces the characters to act in an odd way to make the story work and while it works a little..... it doesn't really feel like an actual future. The art is enjoyable throughout and there is some fun to be had here at Lex Luthor's expense but with Lex just doing bad things in a dopey way over and over I wonder if there's a need for a third issue to this series.

6.9/10