A Major Lex Luthor Spoiler for Superman May Have Just Been Revealed (With a Surprise DC Character)

Does the suit make the (super) man? The Easter egg-packed Superman trailer that was released on Wednesday revealed the herculean tasks facing David Corenswet’s Man of Steel in the new movie, including saving Metropolis from a skyscraper-sized Kaiju, battles with the mysterious Ultraman and armored terrorist the Hammer of Boravia, a Fortress of Solitude showdown with the nanobot-blooded Engineer, Angela Spica (María Gabriela de Faría), and last but not least, the multitude of challenges from the envious and xenophobic Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult).

“Super… man,” Luthor intones over footage of armored LuthorCorp guards pummeling a captured Superman, weakened by the green Kryptonite-armed Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). “He’s not a man. He’s an ‘it.’”

The Superman movie toyline has already revealed a (minor spoiler alert!) Yeti-type character and now (major spoiler alert!) what might be the film’s third act villain: Lex Luthor, clad in his green and purple battle suit.

RELATED: New Superman Trailer Breakdown: A Secret Justice League Cameo, Villains & DCU Easter Eggs Explained

Spin Master’s Superman LuthorCorp Lab set, now available exclusively at Target stores, contains a Lex Luthor action figure in “battle damage armor.” The six-figure set not only shows the Superman archvillain in his green-and-purple Warsuit from the comics, but also spoils an as-yet-unseen character: Baby Joey.

Here’s the toy’s official description, but be warned: it spoils plot details.

Dive into an epic Super Heroes adventure with the Luthorcorp Lab! This action-packed set includes 6 figures, featuring bold designs and exclusive details like battle damage armor. The lineup includes Superman, Mr. Terrific, Metamorpho, and Lex at 6-inch scale, plus exclusive 3-inch figures of Superman’s loyal sidekick Krypto and the mischievous Baby Joey. Join Superman as he takes on Lex Luthor in a daring slime-filled rescue mission! Use your Super Heroes skills to find the weak spot, break open the slime-filled cell, and set Krypto and Baby Joey free.

Lex Luthor’s Battle Armor: The Superman Warsuit

Past trailers have hinted at a battle between Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and LuthorCorp’s armored forces (seen wearing slimmer versions of the battle armor that Luthor donned for the first time in 1983’s Action Comics #544), but the action figure is the first look at Lex Luthor in the Warsuit.

In 1986’s The Man of Steel by John Byrne, a six-issue revamp of Superman’s origin story post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, Luthor created (but didn’t wear) the LexCorp-designed battle suit that had a fatal flaw: its unstable psionic control interface left anyone who wore it for more than an hour in a vegetative state.

In The Man of Steel #5, the battle suit was just the latest in one of Luthor’s many schemes to destroy Superman. (It was followed by LexCorp’s Project Changeling, Luthor’s attempt to clone Superman, who’s alien DNA caused the duplicate to devolve into the backwards, chalk-skinned Bizarro.) In 2004’s Superman/Batman #5, Luthor — then President Luthor — suited up in a battle armor forged from the firepits of Apokolips, the hellish planet ruled by Darkseid.

Who Is Baby Joey in Superman?

The green-skinned infant is Joseph “Joey” Mason, son of Rex Mason, a.k.a. Metamorpho. It seems that Lex leverages Baby Joey against his father, explaining why Metamorpho can be seen using his powers to subdue Superman with Kryptonite.

In the comics, Metamorpho is known as the “Element Man” due to his ability to transmute his body into any combination of chemical elements, which he can shape into virtually any form he can conceive. Rex saw his son for the first time in 1990’s Justice League Europe #11-12, where his archfoe and father-in-law Simon Stagg — the business tycoon father of Joey’s mother, Sapphire Stagg — used his grandson’s metamorph powers to produce a new fuel substitute.

Baby Joseph’s powers were like his father’s, but in reverse: whereas Rex’s elemental abilities allowed him to transmutate himself, the infant transmutated others with just a touch. Because Baby Joseph couldn’t control his powers, Stagg had him isolated in a specialized crib inside Stagg Industries (a building based in Metropolis in Superman).

Metamorpho traded blows with the Green Lantern Guy Gardner and then the Metal Men when he tried to free his son from Stagg’s control. It turned out that both Sapphire and her father were immune to Joseph’s transmutating touch, and the baby was left in the care of his mother and Stagg’s project canceled.

Rex was wracked with guilt over his son’s condition, and in the Mark Waid-penned 1993 Metamorpho run, Rex used his element-based powers to spring his son from Stagg. In the fourth and final issue, Joey touched a meteor fragment of the Orb of Ra, which originally gave Rex his powers. Because the boy was born with the opposite of his father’s powers, touching the meteor cancelled out the radiation — curing Joey of his condition.

Superman soars into theaters July 11.