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So Lex Luthor's post-crisis page is kind of a mess. Some things are misleading, undercited, or even straight up wrong. I can't fix everything right now, but I did some fairly intense research in attempts to fix at least part of it.
Base stats
Lex Luthor's current justification for being 9-A is "Personally trained by Amazons. Held his own against a depowered Superman". This is not a good justification because 'Depowered Superman' varies wildly, sometimes being 'only' Tier 5, and other times, being too weak to properly fight in general. However, thankfully, there are plenty of feats that I came across that puts Lex on this level anyway.
New Key: "Pseudo-Superman"
In the 52 series, Luthor gets powers from the Everyman Project. We don't see the full extent of them, but he effortlessly stomped unarmored Steel and survived his hammer attacks without any issue (52 Vol 1 40). Unarmored Steel should be 9-A because he kicked depowered Luthor's butt later (done offscreen, sadly) in the story. Since Luthor as "Pseudo-Superman" is so insanely more powerful then Steel, I suggest 'at least 8-C' for his tier.
Luthor in this form also beats up Natasha Irons (52 Vol 1 39), who is considerably stronger then a version of Steel who had superpowers, to further justify 8-C.
Note that while he is said to be "Kryptonian-like", we never see him stacked against a Kryptonian or anyone comparable. Steel is without his armor so I don't think we can scale him to his 4-B rating.
As for powers, he has Heat Vision and Levitation. Scans for both shold be in the above galleries.
Warsuits
Luthor actually goes through four warsuits in his Post-Crisis history, though we composite them all into one. His first one was never actually used as far as I remember, his second one is this weird Power Rangers looking suit from the late 80s. It has feats, but fights characters who don't currently have pages, so I don't feel comfortable giving it stats yet. His third and fourth one are the ones we'll be looking at.
We currently rate his 3rd suit at 4-B for "It is incredibly powerful, capable of going toe to toe with Superman. His warsuit was forged in the pits of Apokolips and not even Black Supergirl, an evil version of Supergirl, can damage it". There's a bunch of things wrong with this. The suit is not very strong at all. It's equipped with Kryptonite which logically is why it can fight Kryptonians (Superman/Batman Vol 1 6, Supergirl Vol 5 3). Next up is the "not even Black Supergirl, an evil version of Supergirl, can damage it" bit. This bit is actually wrong, and we see in the next page that Supergirl can damage it very easily. (Supergirl Vol 5 4). In terms of AP, this suit is borderlin featless and gets manhandled by even Batman. It does hurt him though, so I suppose 'at east 9-A' or even just Unknown. (Superman/Batman Vol 1 6) It does however have a 7-C durability feat.
As for his second armor, the one that I dubbed the 'slim armor' because it's a lot thinner. This ones a bit more complex because it has impressive feats, but is largely featless. Lex used it in his fight with Larfleeze, but he never actually hurts or overpowers him and is largely outclassed. (Action Comics Vol 1 898) and later does injure Brainiac (Action Comics Vol 1 899), so I suggest At most 4-B.
So in conclusion
So Lex Luthor's post-crisis page is kind of a mess. Some things are misleading, undercited, or even straight up wrong. I can't fix everything right now, but I did some fairly intense research in attempts to fix at least part of it.
Base stats
Lex Luthor's current justification for being 9-A is "Personally trained by Amazons. Held his own against a depowered Superman". This is not a good justification because 'Depowered Superman' varies wildly, sometimes being 'only' Tier 5, and other times, being too weak to properly fight in general. However, thankfully, there are plenty of feats that I came across that puts Lex on this level anyway.
- Beat up Nightwing and one-shot both Huntress and Batgirl (Superman/Batman Vol 1 5)
- Manhandled Batman (Justice League of America Vol 2 0) Note this is a flashback sequence and I'm not quite sure what the original story is supposed to be.
- Punched out The Joker (Action Comics Vol 1 897)
New Key: "Pseudo-Superman"
In the 52 series, Luthor gets powers from the Everyman Project. We don't see the full extent of them, but he effortlessly stomped unarmored Steel and survived his hammer attacks without any issue (52 Vol 1 40). Unarmored Steel should be 9-A because he kicked depowered Luthor's butt later (done offscreen, sadly) in the story. Since Luthor as "Pseudo-Superman" is so insanely more powerful then Steel, I suggest 'at least 8-C' for his tier.
Luthor in this form also beats up Natasha Irons (52 Vol 1 39), who is considerably stronger then a version of Steel who had superpowers, to further justify 8-C.
Note that while he is said to be "Kryptonian-like", we never see him stacked against a Kryptonian or anyone comparable. Steel is without his armor so I don't think we can scale him to his 4-B rating.
As for powers, he has Heat Vision and Levitation. Scans for both shold be in the above galleries.
Warsuits
Luthor actually goes through four warsuits in his Post-Crisis history, though we composite them all into one. His first one was never actually used as far as I remember, his second one is this weird Power Rangers looking suit from the late 80s. It has feats, but fights characters who don't currently have pages, so I don't feel comfortable giving it stats yet. His third and fourth one are the ones we'll be looking at.
We currently rate his 3rd suit at 4-B for "It is incredibly powerful, capable of going toe to toe with Superman. His warsuit was forged in the pits of Apokolips and not even Black Supergirl, an evil version of Supergirl, can damage it". There's a bunch of things wrong with this. The suit is not very strong at all. It's equipped with Kryptonite which logically is why it can fight Kryptonians (Superman/Batman Vol 1 6, Supergirl Vol 5 3). Next up is the "not even Black Supergirl, an evil version of Supergirl, can damage it" bit. This bit is actually wrong, and we see in the next page that Supergirl can damage it very easily. (Supergirl Vol 5 4). In terms of AP, this suit is borderlin featless and gets manhandled by even Batman. It does hurt him though, so I suppose 'at east 9-A' or even just Unknown. (Superman/Batman Vol 1 6) It does however have a 7-C durability feat.
As for his second armor, the one that I dubbed the 'slim armor' because it's a lot thinner. This ones a bit more complex because it has impressive feats, but is largely featless. Lex used it in his fight with Larfleeze, but he never actually hurts or overpowers him and is largely outclassed. (Action Comics Vol 1 898) and later does injure Brainiac (Action Comics Vol 1 899), so I suggest At most 4-B.
So in conclusion
- 9-A Luthor is fine but needs better justifications
- At least 8-C for a new key, Pseudo-Superman, upscaling from Steel
- At least 9-A or Unknown for Luthor's third armor
- At most 4-B for Luthor's 4th armor
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