Superman: Lex Luthor's Warsuit Explained By A Comic Book Expert

As "Superman" winds down its $600+ million gross theatrical run, writer-director James Gunn has finally confirmed a sequel is in production. Currently titled "Man of Tomorrow," Gunn is returning to write and direct this film, which is set to soar into theaters in 2027.

Naturally, few details have been revealed thus far. One part of the film's story that this announcement did confirm is that Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is coming back. Good call! Lex isn't just another villain; he's a vital part of Superman's ensemble cast.

Gunn, Hoult, and Superman actor David Corenswet all shared Instagram posts announcing "Man of Tomorrow," with illustrations of Superman and Lex drawn by comic artists Jim Lee, Mitch Gerads, and Jorge Jiménez, respectively. (See below.) These images indicate Lex is getting an upgrade for his battle against Superman.

DC Studios/Jim Lee

DC Studios/Mitch Gerads

DC Studios/Jorge Jiménez

In "Superman," Lex was a mastermind who relied on his henchmen like the masked Ultraman and the Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) for brute force. He even boasted to Superman that brains will always beat brawn. But based on these photos, he'll be suiting up in bulky green battle armor in "Man of Tomorrow." In the "Superman" comics, this suit has been Lex's go-to for directly fighting Superman since the 1980s. Take the 2013 fighting game "Injustice: Gods Among Us" — Lex is a playable character, but only in the suit, because how else could he fight any of the superpowered characters?

Originally created by writer Cary Bates and prolific "Superman" artist Curt Swan, the warsuit was first depicted as coming from planet Lexor, an alien planet where people revered Luthor. The suit is mostly green because that's the color of Kryptonite, Superman's greatest weakness, so thematically it makes sense for green to be Lex's color too. 

The suit gives Lex the abilities that he so envies Superman for: super-strength, super-durability, flight, and energy blasts that counter Superman's heat vision. Unlike Superman, though, Lex only achieves these through a device of (usually) his own making, whereas he's always sneered at Superman for not "earning" his powers. 

Note too that, based on the promotional "Man of Tomorrow" art, the suit makes Lex taller than Superman. Given Lex's ego and insecurities, that is definitely not a coincidence. Similarly, why doesn't the suit have a helmet? As Deathstroke surmised in the comic "Forever Evil" (by Geoff Johns and David Finch), Lex wants people to know it's him in the armor.

James Gunn's "Superman" pulls quite a bit from John Byrne, who in 1986 rebooted "Superman" comics with "The Man of Steel." Like Byrne's Superman, Gunn's Clark Kent is truly a dorky farm boy who sees himself as human first. Byrne is also the one who reinvented Lex into a business mogul jealous that Superman's abilities dwarf his own accomplishments; Hoult's Lex is the first onscreen to accurately adapt that characterization.

In "The Man of Steel" #5, the green suit appears as a Lexcorp-built armor; it wasn't long before Lex himself would begin wearing such a suit to fight Superman.

Millennial/Gen Z fans might also remember Lex's green suit from the DC Animated Universe. That Lex (Clancy Brown) spent "Superman: The Animated Series" as a "legitimate" businessman, but his crimes were exposed to the public in "Justice League." So, he became an open super-villain, wearing the warsuit to even the playing field between himself and seven superheroes. In "Justice League," the armor wasn't just a "warsuit," though.

In the episode "Injustice for All," Lex learns he has terminal blood poisoning from constant Kryptonite radiation. The armor is also designed to keep his disease from progressing any further; he literally needs to wear it to live.

I'm not sure if "Man of Tomorrow" is going to include Lex's Kryptonite cancer. However, "Superman" ended with him being carted off to prison. Maybe his arc will go like Brown's Lex's did; he's been exposed as a super-villain, so he embraces it. But will Lex stay a villain?

Remember, in "Superman," when Clark called his humanity his strength, he told Lex: "Some day I hope, for the sake of the world, that you realize it's yours too." Was that more than just a hopeless plea of optimism from Superman? As some have noted, the title "Man of Tomorrow" could refer to both Superman and Lex. Lex is humanity's best and brightest, with the capacity to make a better world if he could get over himself. (Compare Marvel's greatest driven-by-envy villain, Doctor Doom.)

One theory is that the different art pieces represent how Superman and Lex's relationship will evolve over "Man of Tomorrow." They start at odds (the Gerards drawing), team up against a common foe (Jiménez), and settle as friendly-ish (Lee).

The design of Lex's warsuit is also subtly different in each of the three promotional drawings, which indicates the movie has not locked down a design for it, yet. Whatever the final look is, though, expect to see Hoult's Lex in green very soon.

"Man of Tomorrow" is scheduled for theatrical release on July 9, 2027.