The Last Will and Testament of Lex Luthor

The Last Will and Testament of Lex Luthor Part 2

Throughout the oncoming weeks, Clark didn't stop thinking about Lex. Not to an obsessive degree, mind you, but he always occupied the back of his mind. The more that he thought about it, the more that he realized that there was a very strong potential that he even liked Lex. At first, he thought about what made Lex unique as an antagonist to him. Clark first started at his inherent greed. How Clark's very existence turned Lex more and more bitter by the day. He then decided to push past that initial disdain he had for Luthor. Upon further digging, Clark had realized that he admires Lex's inherent determination. While Clarks' very existence as Superman did make Lex more bitter, it also pushed him to become leagues more innovative. He even thought about how Lex even has pride in things beyond himself. He realized that the one thing they both have in common is a love of Metropolis. He really thought about how other criminals tend not to come to Metropolis. Clark realized that he hadn't seen a non-native Metropolis villain in about 5 years. Every villain that Clark had stopped in the past 5 years has either been alien, small gangs using alien tech to get big, or somebody under Lex's payroll. By the end of the week, Clark had gained a sudden admiration of Lex. That wasn't going to stop him from stopping Lex and anything else he had planned, mind you. But he hadn't really realized that admiration until now.

Upon fully finding this out, he would discuss rogues with anybody he was sharing monitor duty at the Watchtower with over the next few months, to varying results. There honestly wasn't really any common ground in regards to the league's rogues galleries and their opinions on their biggest rogues. There were people like Kyle, who didn't really have any rogues, but just kind of viewed taking in his reoccurring villains as part of the job. Arthur felt somewhat responsible for Black Manta. Then there were people like Wally, who had shared Clark's old views about Lex, but to an even more extreme degree. To be fair, having Zoom as your biggest rogue is bound to wear you down on your fondness of them. Clark became really fascinated with this and was oddly enamored as to how nobody really shared his opinion on their biggest rogue as he did with Lex. 

After a few weeks of asking random leaguers their opinions on their rogues gallery, Clark, Bruce, and Diana meet up on the same gargoyle in Gotham to have their monthly meal and meetup. 

Diana took a bite of her greasy burger on the rooftop, "Bruce, I know that Gotham is so bad that it's literally been described as cursed, but a burger like this is almost worth living here."

Bruce stood on a gargoyle, his cape flapping in the wind. It was almost intimidating until you noticed the chocolate milkshake he was drinking. Clark, sitting criss-cross in mid-air, just so happened to do so. 

"Bruce, I thought you were keto?"

Diana went to defend Bruce, saying, "Leave him alone, Clark. He literally jumps from rooftops every night and does more work than probably all of us combined. I don't think he needs a diet yet."

Clark shrugged, "I guess it's just odd to see The Batman sipping a milkshake."

Bruce quit sipping his milkshake, "Dick put me onto it. When he was a kid, we would go here on Friday nights after patrol and share a milkshake. Or to put it honestly, I watched him drink a milkshake and gave him constructive criticism on what he did wrong that night. I still come here every Friday night after patrol, sometimes Dick or Jason or any of my other kids are there, and we'll share a milkshake."

"I've been thinking about doing something like that with Jon. He's been getting into painting, which sounds like something Jason or Damian would be into. Any tips? Does that sound like a good idea?" Clark asked.

Diana interjected, "Look, I can sense where this conversation is going, but let's stop for a second before we get to a point where I can't ask my question. Clark, what's been up with you and asking everybody about their rogues?"

Clark finished his burger and came clean with his head down. "Lex has been gone for about 9 months now. I've been thinking about him a lot lately." Clark raised his head. "Honestly, I think I admire him. I genuinely think that we're a lot alike, and I kind of feel for the guy."

Bruce looked confused, "Why didn't you ask us?"

Clark put his head back down, "I was honestly a little embarrassed. I thought you guys might think I was crazy."

Bruce and Diana both laughed at the prospect. This raised Clark's spirits a lot.

Diana chimed up first, "Clark, the reason why I barely have a rogues gallery is because of that very same sentiment you have."

Bruce interjected, "Unlike Diana, I still have a rogues gallery. But, I feel the same way, too. It's helped a lot of people. Even Mr. Freeze is working at WayneTech." 

The conversation diverted from there to how Mr. Freeze got all of his charges dropped. But, when the dinner was over, and Diana flew away, Bruce stayed back to tell Clark one more thing. "Clark, I just wanted to tell you, it's a great thing you feel the way you do about Lex. Frankly, we're surprised you didn't already feel like that. When Lex re-emerges, and trust me, he will re-emerge, you'll turn him around. Because you're Superman."

Clark processed Bruce's kind words and hit him with an even harder question, "Do you think that you'll ever turn Joker around?"

Bruce paused, almost as if he never actually considered the question.

"Honestly Clark, I don't know. I speculate that one day one of us will kill the other. But every time I see him, I remind myself to keep on trying, just like you do.

Clark did one more patrol before going home. After beating a random rampaging kaiju in Angola, he went home to Lois. It was pretty late when he got there, so she was asleep in the chair in her bathrobe, already bathed, and waiting for him to come home so they could watch an episode of The Great British Bakeoff before bed. Clark picked up his wife and carried her to bed.

"Hey, I was watching that. I was just resting my eyes," Lois said, groggily, very clearly, in a half-sleeping state.

"Sure you were, hon," Clark said while chuckling. He put his wife in bed and joined her.

Lois tried fighting back the urge to sleep, "How was dinner with Bruce and Diana?"

Clark began to nod off, "Pretty good. I realized that I deeply admire Lex Luthor."

"You know, for a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, you're a really slow investigator of your own psyche," Lois responded, almost back asleep again.

Clark was almost asleep as well, "so you can crack the inner workings of my mind, but you couldn't picture me without glasses for the first 2 years we knew each other?"

As Clark fell completely asleep, Lois had one last response.

"Let's not fight, I'd clearly win. Go to sleep, Smallville."