Batman and Superman’s Worst Enemies Combine to Form the Ultimate DC Universe Threat

Is there anything worse than Batman and Superman’s greatest enemies teaming up? As it turns out, the only thing worse than a partnership is a complete fusion of the two. For years, Batman has been haunted by the Joker’s deranged shenanigans, while Superman has had to deal with Lex Luthor’s insidious machinations. More than any other villain in their nemeses’ respective rogues’ gallery, these two foes are threats unto themselves. And despite usually preferring to handle their business solo, Joker and Lex aren’t above teaming up to get one over on Batman and Superman.

It’s hard to imagine an egomaniac like Lex or a psychopath like Joker working together, but it’s happened surprisingly frequently. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest has written in many lesser-known parts of DC history, including Joker and Lex’s first team-up and their brief time as part of the villainous team Inferno. But all of their prior team-ups pale in comparison to what Lex and Joker have just done. Now they’ve got a combined form that makes them more than the sum of their parts and a danger to the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight.

Joker and Lex Luthor Combine to Take Down Batman and Superman

Bad news was inevitable with Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #45 by Mark Waid, Adrián Gutiérrez, Norm Rapmund, and Tamra Bonvillain. Joker reaches out to Lex with the offer to steal a powerful alien relic known as the Absorbascon, which can supposedly instill the user with infinite knowledge. Intrigued by what the cosmic object offers, Lex begrudgingly agrees to help, and the two head out to Midway City to steal it from a museum guarded by the curator, who just so happens to be the brutal superhero Hawkman, who immediately attacks the duo.

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Lex fights Hawkman, who’s joined by Superman and Batman. But Joker manages to steal the Absorbacon and create a distraction so the evil duo can make a brief escape. However, Lex predictably tries to betray Joker and steal the Absorbacon for himself. Superman and Batman arrive just in time for an explosion of light to engulf Lex and Joker. And what walks away from the two is a terrifying fusion of the two, who uses intangibility tech on the World’s Finest to prevent them from stopping the amalgamation’s upcoming reign of terror.

Only a Batman/Superman Fusion Can Stop a Joker/Lex Luthor Combo

Fans of Batman/Superman: World’s Finest are no strangers to characters being smushed together, as the first arc in this series debuted Super-Bat, a Clark and Bruce fusion. I’m kind of surprised it took Mark Waid this long to circle back to that idea and do it with Lex and Joker. After all, Super-Bat is one of the most well-known icons from this series, so naturally, we’d need to see it happen with Batman and Superman’s biggest foes, right? More importantly, we need to see Joker and Lex’s unholy fusion go toe-to-toe with Super-Bat!

Now, a combination of Superman and Batman is good, but let’s not undersell how dangerous Lex and Joker’s fusion is. Lex is one of the DC Universe’s smartest people, smart enough to be a threat to the strongest hero alive. And the Joker is wildly unpredictable, thinking up devious and sick ways to hurt people in ways normal minds can’t comprehend. Remember how bad things got when the Batman Who Laughs was made? This is almost as bad because Lex is nearly capable of what Batman can do, and this combo could easily destroy the world if he wanted.

Of course, this series is all set in the past, so we know that Batman and Superman will get out of this. But even merged, Super-Bat is going to have a tough time defeating this new combination of the two most sinister DC villains. Will Super-Bat’s might be enough? Or are Bruce and Clark going to have to get even more creative to take down this malicious merged menace? However they handle this situation, it’s going to be wild seeing Superman and Batman try to take down a combination of Joker and Lex.

What do you think of Lex and Joker’s new combined form? Let us know in the comments or on the ComicBook Forum!