<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0
transitional//en">The Lethal Luthors:
A Deceptive
Brilliance
PART TWO: THE SECRET FOUR
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Alexander
Luthor caused his parents, his mother especially, many headaches. He had been a
mischievous youth, but after his brother
Following his release, he followed in his father's footsteps and became an accomplished grifter. Using the name Alexi Luthor he created an accent of indeterminate European origin to give the impression that he was a foreign national. Unlike his brothers, Alexi claimed that he had not started to lose his hair, but had devised a chemical treatment that prevented hair loss. He did possess a full head of read hair; however, this was probably merely a very good wig created from his own hair.
Like his
father before him, Alexi was a master of disguise and had carried out various con
jobs and grifts before getting caught. In
After he was there for six months, he was contacted by a man claiming to be his lawyer. This was Louis Piquett[3], a lawyer specializing in underworld cases. Piquette offered Alexi Luthor the chance at an early release from prison; however he would have to become the laboratory assistant/valet of a elderly scientist crippled by arthritis. Alexi jumped at the chance to leave jail, even if it meant working for a crippled old man.
Alexi’s release did not come about through legal means as he had been led to believe. One night after lock down, a guard came and took Alexi from his cell for disciplinary action in the parlance of the jail. Alexi had been selected to get beat up by the guards. Once they were out of the cell block, however, the guard took Alexi into a storage room and exchanged clothes with him. After giving Alexi directions on how to escape, the guard had Alexi tie him up and knock him out.
Wearing the guard’s uniform Alexi escaped from the penitentiary during the duty shift. He went to a car left in the guard’s parking lot and drove to a phone booth. The phone rang giving him directions to his new employer’s residence.
Alexi
recognized the crippled old man immediately, believing at first that this was
an elaborate disguise. Alexi was shocked to discover that his quadruplet
brother Lawrence had truly been aged by his evolution advancing serum.[4] Alexi forced
One of the brothers' first schemes was to create a robot to rob a bank. The robot was more along the lines of a vehicle in which Alexi rode, guiding all of its movements through a complicated system of wires and levers. The robot was stopped through the efforts of The Bat and Superman.[5] This scheme set the tone for those that would follow as Superman thwarted their plans. Alexi was arrested, convicted, and sent to prison. His brother the Ultra-Humanite arranged for his escape.
Alexi
Luthor and his brother Lawrence Luthor, the Ultra-Humanite, were partners in
crime until 1939; during this time they had two run-ins with Doc Savage and
several encounters with Superman.[6] At that time Alexi
learned that his brother, the Ultra-Humanite, wished to transplant his brain
into a younger, healthy body; a body with very little chance of rejection, such
as with the body of an identical twin brother. Alexi decided to travel to
While in Europe Alexi investigated his family tree to see if there were any truth to their father’s tales of the family being heirs to the crown of Lutha. From information that his father occasionally left in written documents, which Alexi had made the habit of reading, he was able to discover that his father had once used the names Finglemore and Clayton. Armed with this information, he was able to discover that Paul Finglemore was the notorious Colonel Clay and the illegitimate son of Sir William Clayton. The connection to Lutha was very tenuous, but one did exist. Sir William Clayton's grandmother had been Hilda Rubinroth, the daughter of Major Bolko Rubinroth. This was a branch of the royal family that had given up its titles in the Thirty Years War.
Alexi Luthor had little doubt that his father had heard about Leopold, the heir to the throne of Lutha, being shut away in a madhouse in 1901. Paul Luthor probably would have used the genealogical connection to the throne for some scam or another had his sons not scattered to the four winds. The current King of Lutha was an upstart American whose mother had been the last Princess of the Rubinroth line.[7]
The
Although
Lutha's four principalities had been considered fairly good buffer states in
the twenties, political realities had changed by the thirties. Most of the
Eastern European nations became fascist and were influenced by
In 1933 the principality of Calbia revolted. This revolt was spearheaded by a man using the alias Conte Cozonac.[10] The rebels had obtained a super weapon, an aerial torpedo guided to a target by heat emissions. Conte Cozonac was in the employ of the Romanians, who had also supplied him with members of the Iron Guard for his "revolution." Carol II, the new King of Romania, was making his first attempt at intrigue and territorial acquisition.
With the aid of Doc Savage, King Bernard Custer was able to negate the threat of this new weapon and end the revolution in Calbia. He failed to bring Conte Cozonac and his partner the Luthian Captain Flancul to justice. Cozonac and Flancul tried to escape in a plane when their plans were exposed. They fired an aerial torpedo at the King and his party. Doc had previously treated the plane that Cozonac and Flancul were flying with a material that emitted a high infrared radiation. The torpedo was attracted to this plane and it exploded in flight, killing everyone on board.[11]
Despite
weathering this crisis of 1933, King Bernard's reign of Lutha was not an easy
one, despite his personal popularity with much of the yeoman and aristocratic
class. Even Lutha was subject to the economic depression that struck much of
the
Things
came to a head in late 1938 when Calbia and Toron, two of the provinces of
Lutha, went to war with each other. Part of the conflict was political; the
Calbians were heavily influenced and supported by
Like the perennial bad penny Superman showed up to ruin Alexi's plans. Superman joined in the fray by aiding King Bernard's forces and destroying the weaponry of the two opposing sides. Neither of two rebel generals of the conflict wanted to admit blame for the conflict, nor did they wish to reveal their true foreign backers. They compromised by blaming Alexi as the war profiteer responsible for the conflict. They told Superman where he could be found.
Although Superman had previously thwarted the schemes that Alexi undertaken with his brother Lawrence the Ultra-Humanite, this was the first time that Superman had ever confronted Alexi face-to-face. Alexi abandoned his headquarters and destroyed the advanced weaponry that his brother William had been selling to the Calbians and the Toronians.[12] Alexi was not going to let them have any weapons without payment, even if it meant destroying the lot. He escaped in a dirigible, but Superman smashed the controls of the dirigible, causing it to crash. Alexi was presumed to have died in the explosion.
Alexi
returned to the
Alexi
took up residence in
Alexi
decided to steal this machine and use it to blackmail
Luthor
kidnapped Dr. Martinson and tried to make him reveal the principles behind his
invention. He had Dr. Wainwright pose as Martinson so that no one would
discover Martinson’s absence. While Wainwright was doing so, a snoopy reporter
named
Luthor had been communicating with Wainwright via television. Spotting Superman enter the window, Alexi informed him that he had kidnapped Dr. Martinson but Martinson had proved recalcitrant, so Luthor was going to steal the plans for the earthquake device from the Army. Superman hurried to the army camp and scared away Alexi Luthor's planeload of thugs. Superman chased the plane, but Luthor caused it to explode in mid-air.
The plane was a remote controlled decoy, no henchmen were actually killed.
At the crash site Luthor projected an image of himself on a tree and challenged Superman to a contest. If Superman's muscle defeated Luthor's science then Luthor would admit defeat, otherwise Superman would retire and leave Luthor to his plans.
Superman agreed to the challenge. In the first contest Superman had to race a plane. Superman's leaping ability and speed outstripped the plane.
The next contest was to see who could rise the highest above the earth and still return safely. Superman once again outclassed the plane.
Although the comic book depiction shows a modern plane, the plane that was used in this contest was an old bi-plane. Superman was faster than it, and the plane stalled when it climbed too high.
The next contest was to see who lift the most weight. In the comics Luthor used a scientific device to nullify gravity and picked up a huge boulder. Actually the device Luthor used was not so elaborate, it was just a more efficient crane designed to pick up five tons. Superman was able to pick up the six-ton boulder in one hand and the plane in the other and win this contest.
The next part of the contest was vulnerability. Luthor tossed a grenade, shot a cannon, and tossed poison gas at Superman, who survived all. When Superman tried to also test Luthor's vulnerability, Luthor conceded the contest and released Professor Martinson to Superman.
These challenges were not truly geared for Luthor to win, rather they were a clever way of testing and gauging Superman's power levels. Martinson had proved too stubborn and intractable to be of use to Luthor. He used Martinson as a distraction.
The contest between Superman and Luthor was also a ruse; Luthor had kept Superman occupied while Luthor’s men stole the invention from the Army.
Alexi shook
Alexi Luthor did not start out as a murderer, but association with his brother the Ultra-Humanite did have an influence on him. Also as his schemes were continually thwarted by Superman, he became frustrated and angry. He truly believed that his ultimate plan to establish a technocracy ruled by scientists was for the greater good. To this end sacrifices were often necessary. It was later revealed by Alexi Luthor to Doc Savage that Martinson had not committed suicide but had died under torture after revealing the location of an Earthquake machine prototype.
Alexi
Luthor's next scheme was to control the world petroleum market, starting with
the American market. He began targeting oil wells in
In
December of 1939
According
to the comic book version, one of the men who
Gregory
expected
What
really transpired was not so dramatic. Gregory called to inform his superior
that
He
overheard the businessmen talking about how they were making a financial
killing on the local depression. He learned that Alexi Luthor was behind the
scheme.
Extracting himself from the bent blades of steel, he walked down a corridor and was deluged with acid. This had no discernible effect on him.[18] Superman threw the vat that had held the acid against the steel door, knocking the steel door inwards. Beyond the door was a room where Mosley was talking to Luthor on a television screen. Sprinting towards Mosley he was hit by a bolt of electricity shot from a security device. As Superman reached for the television it exploded. Superman shielded Mosley from the fragments. A sudden series of explosions began to collapse the cavern and Superman ran from the collapsing cavern with Mosley in his arms. In return for Superman having saved his life, Mosley told him that the safe in his office contained a list of all the men who had been made into slaves by Luthor through the incense.
Supermen went with Mosley back to his office. Mosley opened his safe which was in fact a wall vault large enough for a person to enter. Once Superman had entered it, Mosley shut the door. Superman smashed through the vault door and read Mosley’s papers. Superman made Mosley call one of Luther’s henchmen to inform them that he had escaped the cavern cave-in and would attend the meeting. He then jumped out of the window, forcing Superman to save his life once again. Superman rendered him unconscious with a neck pinch possibly learned from James Clark Wildman Jr. Superman disguised himself as Mosley and went to attend a meeting of the men on the list.[19]
At the meeting each of the enthralled financiers gave reports on how their profits were rising. When it became time for Mosley to make his report, Luthor told him not to bother. At his signal a group of armed guards rushed into the room. Luthor knew that Mosley was actually Superman in disguise. He requested that Superman to join him in his quest to bring order to the world, otherwise he would order the other men at the meeting shot. Their deaths would then be on Superman's conscience. Superman used his speed and strength to turn the table over and used it as a shield for the financiers. He then took out the armed guards. As Superman fought the guards, Luthor disappeared. A plane took off from the roof, Superman tried to stop the plane and it crashed into the river.
This was the end of Luthor, or so Superman thought.
The businessmen were cured of their thralldom to Luthor, which seemed to have been accomplished by using incense created from the deadly Black Lotus plant.[20]
The next depiction of Alexi Luthor’s career occurs in “The Beasts of Luthor, Superman 12 (September-October 1941).[21] In real world chronology it probably occurred in February of 1940.
A
synopsis of the published version is as follows: a man came to the offices of
the Daily Planet and attempted to tell George Stevens, editor-in-chief,
of a menace that threatened humanity. Stevens believed he was a tramp and threw
him out.
Clark and
Lois were intrigued by the story. They gave Barnes enough money to check into a
hotel and told him they would meet him in two hours. They tried to convince
George Stevens that Barnes’ claims were worthwhile avenues of investigation but
he would have none of it. Instead he sent them to interview Allan Masters,
multimillionaire and big game hunter, who had just arrived back in town.
Clark and Lois told Masters that whatever big game he had hunted before was not
anything like the game on
Lois and Clark agreed to meet Masters back at his mansion and then go see Dudley Barnes. When all three of them arrived at Barnes room, they found Barnes dead. A doctor who examined the body discovered that Dudley Barnes had been poisoned by a huge amount of the natural poison secreted by ants, which would have taken thousands of ants to manufacture. Masters agreed that this seems to indicate the existence of a giant ant.
George
Stevens said that since Masters was footing the bill
What
happened after the submarine reached the Baracoda Islands demonstrates that
when running an organization shrouded in secrecy, fueled by paranoia, guided by
duplicity, and using internal dissension to keep your underlings at bay, one
must not become distracted and let things go their own way. The man who
controlled the
Superman
changed back into
Grimes sent armored vessels to hunt the submarine down. He had them drop depth charges. The comic book depicts Superman as once again exiting from the bottom of the submarine by way of his secret air lock, then swimming over to one of the enemy ships, puncturing an oil drum and tossing it over board so that the ships would believe that the submarine was destroyed.[24]
After
surviving this obstacle, the submarine was attacked by giant octopus, which
Superman had to dislodge from the submarine.[25] Finally
reaching
The crew of the submarine mutinied while Masters was on the island. As the submarine sailed away without authorization, the shore batteries opened up and sank the fleeing submarine.
Cardine showed his guests the giant animals and told them that the animals were created by omega rays. After the tour, Cardine then introduced them to the supreme ruler of the great scientific endeavor, Alexi Luthor.
Luthor had them seized and placed in steel cells.
Superman escaped and confronted Cardine, asking how he could work for such a man as Luthor. Cardine explained that Luthor promised to let Cardine rule the scientific civilization they would create. Superman found Grimes and Von Harbitz in Luthor's headquarters and proved to Cardine and the rest that Luthor had made empty promises to all of them. They all agreed to help him bring down Luthor.
With the
small band behind him, Superman broke into Luthor's laboratory. Cardine told Superman
that if he smashed an apparatus that generated the omega waves that the animals
would be dead in a few hours. When Superman started to do just that, Masters
suddenly pulled a gun out and held Lois hostage. Masters revealed that it had
been he who had killed Barnes and that he had financed Luthor. Luthor paralyzed
Superman with a green ray. This weakened Superman, who was thrown out into the
jungle to be eaten by the jungle animals. Luthor had his former allies escorted
into the jungle. Lois was held to be his guest. Superman's paralysis did not
wear off in time for him to save the others. When Luthor saw that Superman was
still alive, he caused an explosion that brought down a portion of his
building, burying Superman in rubble. Superman extricated himself and burst
into Luthor's laboratory. Luthor pressed a self-destruct mechanism to destroy
the island. Superman jumped off of
Superman returned to Metropolis in a matter of minutes. As he arrived, a giant monster was attacking Metropolis. Luthor had dispatched it to Metropolis moments before the other animals were destroyed. Superman broke the monster's spine and tossed it into the ocean.
One of the major flaws in this story is very obvious, which is if Masters was working for or with Luthor all along, why did Bill Grimes and Von Harbitz capture Masters and confiscate his submarine? Why after Masters escaped, did they try to destroy Masters and his submarine? Either Luthor kept his various lieutenants in a sort of spy cell structure so that they remained unaware of the others’ existence or else there was a sort of internal power struggle going on.
The gigantic animals that we are shown during the course of this story are a giant octopus, a pair of giant lions, and a giant reptile. The amount of ant venom that killed Barnes indicates that there are also giant ants.
As shown
in the Lawrence
Luthor article, Alexi Luthor had visited
He
visited the island once again, circa 1937, and once again took a few specimens
of young animals. He did not carry out his experiments on
Alexi
could not find answers as to the gigantism of many of the species on the
island. He did believe that they could not have evolved naturally on this
island or anywhere else on earth as even a moderate but growing population of
these animals would vastly alter the food chain. He believed that some
artificial substance was the cause of the gigantism, but he could find no
traces of it within the soil of
Searching
for other clues, he discovered during a trip to
Luthor
discovered that in rural
Her
Majesty’s government, through either the auspices of the League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen or the Diogenes Club, kept a close watch on the farm,
however, and did not allow any Herakleophorbia to leave the country. When it
was learned that children who were not given Herakleophorbia directly but ate
meat from the giant animals also developed gigantism, the farm was quarantined.
Children who were unfortunate enough to have eaten the flesh of the
Herakleophorbia-enhanced animals were also sent to live on this farm.
Herakleophorbia was seen as a great threat to the ecology and economy of not
only
As the giant children entered their late teens, they rebelled at their confinement. Several left the village and disobeyed instructions to return to the farm. They were hunted down by the British Army and killed.
The giant teenagers seized control of the village and prepared for war with the little people, forging swords and metal armor.
This rebellion gave government firebrands the excuse they had been wishing for, and the British Army wiped out the village of the giants. All of the existing Herakleophorbia was burned, as were Bensington and Redwood's notes and records.
Through
contacts in the
Luthor
experimented first on an ant queen, producing a colony of oversized ants, and
then on several mammalian species on Baracoda island including lion cubs. Most
of the large creatures, however, had been imported from
The green ray that Luthor used to paralyze Superman and render him powerless may have been the first use of "kryptonite" against Superman, although the substance did not make its appearance in the comics again until 1949 (Superman 61, November-December 1949). It is quite possible that Luthor did not realize the origin of the substance he used to power the paralysis ray. The ray had probably been created to subdue the gigantic beasts. This function was probably not related to the “kryptonite” radiation it also emitted. Had the paralysis ray not contained "kryptonite" it probably would not have had much of an effect on Superman.
Masters, Cardine, Grimes, and Von Harbintz may have also been subjected to the vapors of the black lotus plant, which Luthor had previously used, and so became Luthor's willing accomplices in the plan to dominate the world.
When Superman was able to defeat the giant lions that had killed the other men Luthor had sent out in the jungle with the unconscious Superman, Luthor directed some of the armaments of the island to shoot at Superman, and in doing so accidentally wrecked part of his fortress and buried Superman in rubble.
When Superman once again reached Luthor's fortress, Luthor did indeed announce his intention to destroy the island and then pulled a switch that caused explosions in the bottom of the fortress. Superman grabbed Lois and jumped for safety; content to let Luthor destroy himself and the animals he had "created" After Lois and he were far from the island, the fortress exploded. Of course he must have realized that there was a good chance that Luthor did not perish in the cataclysm.
Although
the comic book states that Superman reached Metropolis in a matter of minutes,
this is pure hyperbole. Superman could jump 1/8th of a mile on the
land; jumping up and down in the ocean is much more difficult and would have
been much more dangerous for Lois, so Superman was forced to swim. Even at 86
mph it would have taken Superman days to reach the Western American coast and
then it would have taken about ten hours at a fast, sustained run from the West
Coast to the East Coast of the
Although
the comic book shows
The part
of the comic book version in which the gigantic monster attacked Metropolis
seems to have some basis in fact, although it took place approximately one
month after
Observing
the effect of his paralysis ray on Superman, Alexi Luthor used it as the basis
for his next line of research—the study of light and optics and their
application to neuroscience. He devised a blinding white light that would
paralyze anyone who viewed it. He also combined the white paralytic ray with a
multihued prismatic ray that placed the subject in a state of deep hypnosis,
making them his willing minion. With these two devices, Luthor believed he
could dominate the
In June of 1940, a
populist senator named Billingsly planned to give a speech. He had been
threatened by someone named the Light who had sent him a message that he would
never give that speech.
He arrived at the spot in the road where the senator's car was stopped. According to the driver, a sedan with blinding white lights had driven straight towards the senator's car. The senator's car stopped and the driver and everyone in the car must have been paralyzed for the senator was gone when the light disappeared. The senator's guards blamed the arriving Superman for the Senator’s disappearance. As they shot at him he bounded down the road, chasing after a racing auto and finally jumping in front of it. The car increased speed and aimed the blinding light at Superman. Superman somersaulted over the car and landed on its back. He tore into the metal at the back and disabled the guards holding the senator. As the car careened out of control, Superman seized a tree and held onto the car, stopping it cold. He then carried the car back to the senator's guards.
At the meeting hall, a bright light paralyzed the audience and then a message appeared on the wall, written in blazing light, stating that while the senator might have escaped there would be other victims.
Calling
into the Daily Planet, Clark
As Lois
and Clark were driving back to the Daily Planet their car was stopped by
a sleek sedan, which pointed the paralytic white light at them. Agents of the
Light kidnapped Lois and Clark because the Light considered them dangerous.
They were taken to an out of the way building, where the Light’s agents used a
telephone to call for further instructions. The henchmen were told to rub the
reporters out. In the comic book depiction rather than overtly save Lois and
risk exposing his secret identity,
This entire charade was created by Siegel to maintain the fiction that Lois Lane did not know that Clark Kent was Superman. But by June of 1940 Lois Lane had known about Clark Kent's secret identity of Superman for some time and helped him to maintain his dual role. In 1940 Jerry Siegel had written a story that depicted what may have been Superman’s first real encounter with the substance called kryptonite, but this was suppressed by Siegel’s editor. So in the comics Kryptonite would not appear for another nine years and it would be decades before Lois would figure out who Superman really was.[27]
What probably occurred was that Clark Kent threw his voice, and while the hoodlums turned to investigate, Kent moved at his enhanced speed to knock them all out.
Lois herself told the police that Clark had been standing beside her and Superman had arrived to take care of the hoodlums. This was to reinforce Clark's mild-mannered pose.
At the Daily Planet Clark and Lois learned that the Light had threatened the governor.
Clark changed into his Superman guise and went to the governor's mansion. He noticed that one of the guards posted around the governor's mansion was one of the suspicious characters he had seen at the hall where Senator Billingsly was supposed to speak.
Grabbing the guard, Superman juggled him around and jumped up, dropping him from a great height, only to catch him at the last moment.
The henchman confessed that they were going to overpower the governor's guards and take him to the Light's hideout in a cavern beneath Barrows Ridge. Superman arrived back at the governor's mansion too late.
While Superman sped to the Light's hideout, the Light subjected the governor to his hypnotic ray treatment, enthralling him.
The Light was made aware of Superman's arrival and subjected him to the hypnotic light treatment in concert with the green ray he had previously used. Weakened by the kryptonite and the power of the prismatic ray, Superman succumbed to the brainwashing. The Light directed him to destroy any military materials that might be used against him.
Superman traveled to the nearest armory and was about to destroy it, but by this time the kryptonite had worn off. In the comics Lois Lane happened to be driving by this armory at the same time Superman landed and she talked him out of his mental fog. This depiction has a grain of truth to it. In Superman's mental confusion, his mind focused on the one constant since he began his life as Superman, Lois Lane. By this time Clark and Lois were had been a "dating" couple for some time. They had begun dating even before she had discovered his secret identity. Although she had been constantly irritated at Clark's seeming cowardice, she had seen him do many brave things and then dismiss them as accidents. Although she unfavorably compared Clark to Superman in public whenever possible, this was an inside joke between them. It also helped Clark's milquetoast image to be dating a woman who publicly humiliated him.
Lois helped him clear his mind and he hurried back to the Light's hideout. He arrived in time to stop the Light from brainwashing some other victims. The Light revealed himself to be Luthor, who once again tried his patented “I will destroy us all“ routine. Superman was faster, however, and stopped Luthor from triggering the button on the floor that would have blown up the hideout. Luthor order his henchmen to kill Superman and then made his escape while Superman was occupied.
Alexi Luthor was disappointed that his mental thralls soon came to their senses without continued treatments of the hypnotic rays. He continued his study of optics, seeking to discover how John Hawley Griffin and William Carpenter had achieved their invisibility successes.[28] Although he could not replicate their methods or even their mode of invisibility, his multidisciplinary approach found an odd answer in annual of cryptozoology. There was a natural form of invisibility achieved by legendary beasts the Yeti, Sasquatch, unicorns etc. Even without a sample of the fluid that an ancient Tibetian text alluded that the animals exuded, Alexi was able to formulate a chemical substitute once he knew that invisibility by chemical means could achieved. The chemical had the ability to bend light waves around an object, but it had a short duration. As he tested its duration and flexibility of use he also found means to enrich himself or at least enough to keep his experiments going.
He sprayed an autogyro with the chemical, then sprayed the Metropolis Trust building with the chemical from the hovering autogyro. He had several of his henchmen don suits that were then sprayed with the invisibility chemical. The bank building then became invisible for a few moments. Inside Luthor's invisible men committed a robbery of millions of dollars.
Clark Kent investigated the invisible robbery and told editor George Stevens about the incident. Ever the skeptic, Stevens disbelieved Kent. After using the restroom Kent noticed that there wasn’t any water. He heard cries of “no water” from all over the city.
The comic showed Superman ripping a fire hydrant out of the street to ascertain that there really is a water shortage. Being a good citizen Superman probably did not do this, he merely opened the valve with his fingers and closed it when no water flowed.
An autogyro boomed out a message over the city telling them that if they wanted their water back, they would have to pay for it. Superman jumped up at the autogyro but it disappeared in mid-air. Yet the loudspeaker spoke to Superman. The voice told Superman to return at the same time tomorrow with one hundred million dollars or the city would remain dry.
Clark Kent visited the mayor and told him the message that Superman had received. The city government believed that Superman was behind the whole scheme. The Mayor agreed to give Kent one hundred million dollars to pay the ransom. As he left the office Clark overheard them planning to substitute fake money for real.
According to the comics the water plant was unable to function because certain important pieces of equipment had vanished. The implication is that it had been rendered invisible by Luthor. Yet as previously seen the chemical he used was of a short duration. The equipment seems to have vanished literally. Probably Luthor's invisible henchmen sprayed the machinery and disassembled it while it was invisible and carried it off.
Superman noticed an autogyro hovering above the plant. Yet as he neared it became invisible once more.
The next day Superman carried the fake ransom to the hovering autogyro. The autogyro led him to an area outside the city where there were some bluffs alongside the Hudson. He was directed to enter the Cave of the Winds and deposit the money.
A figure in a body suit with a square glass face plate came forward to collect the money. Although the comic calls this an asbestos suit, it was probably also one of the suits that had been sprayed with the invisibility chemical. Ripping the hood off of the suit, Superman revealed the face of Alexi Luthor. Several of Luthor's men began firing at Superman. Luthor wrenched free and the henchmen threw hand grenades at Superman, sealing the cavern. After digging himself out of the rubble, Superman tracked Luthor. Luthor shot Superman with a gun that discharged an electrical bolt powerful enough to wreck a battleship. This is probably an exaggeration on Siegel's part, however it was powerful enough to knock Superman out.
Since Superman had not been killed by the electrical bolt, Luthor's henchmen grew nervous and wished to divide the money immediately. Angered by this Luthor stunned them with the remaining charge of his gun.
At the center of the cavern was a man who waited for Luthor. The man was Bob Dunning, a highly regarded stock broker who had been involved in stock fraud with Luthor. Although Dunning's relatives would later claim that Dunning had been enthralled by Luthor using the black lotus incense, there is no evidence for this. It seems to be Dunning's own greed that caused him to go into partnership with Luthor.
There was also a large device at the center of the cavern that Luthor claimed was the device that had stopped the water from flowing into New York City. Yet he also claimed it had the power to destroy New York City. Although the claim to this being the device that stopped the water flowing seems to have been a lie, that it could destroy the city or at least cause it a great deal of damage seems to have been a possibility. The device could create a vast amount of electricity. It was connected to the water station and would send an enormous electrical current into the water supply, which would then be carried through the metallic water piping of the city, wreaking havoc, or so he hoped.
After Luthor discovered that the ransom was a fake, he decided to test his device. Dunning attempted to stop him. Superman broke into the area in time to smash the machine. Luthor escaped and Superman took Dunning into custody.
It would be almost a year before Alexi Luthor and Superman would once again clash.
In April 1941 occurred the incident of the Powerstone, (Superman Vol. 1 #17, July-August 1942, "When Titans Clash"). The first part of the comic book depiction of this event concerns Alexi Luthor regaining his electrical superpowers that were portrayed in the comic book tale “The Powerstone,“ (Action Comics #47, April 1942). As discussed in the Lawrence Luthor article, Alexi Luthor never actually had the electrical powers ascribed to him. These were actually possessed by Dan McCormick the Electrical Man. However Alexi and his brother were deeply involved in McCormick's saga and so Siegel condensed the matter for dramatic effect.
The first section of the “The Powerstone”, which shows Luthor being electrocuted and regaining these powers, was fictional in regards to Alexi Luthor.
Alexi Luthor, however, did want the Powerstone. He attempted to kidnap Lois Lane to use her as a hostage, but his henchmen botched that job and Lane was saved by Superman.
Luthor tried a new tactic, actually an old one for himself and one perfected by his father. To get his hands on the Powerstone, which was kept in the New York Metropolitan Museum under heavy guard, he decided to run a confidence game. He spent six months setting up the identity of Carlyle Allerton, a prominent authority on ancient stones and their mystic powers. He became an expert on gems and gem folklore to carry out the disguise.
To make certain that he would not be recognized Alexi went to the length of shaving his head, although most people believe he merely removed a red wig.[29]
After proving his nearly encyclopedic knowledge of gemstone and their folklore, the curators of the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History allowed Carlyle Allerton to examine the gems from the Denhem expedition with the stipulation that Superman must act as a guard.
Alexi Luthor's disguise fooled even Superman. Alexi spent nearly an hour examining the various gems of the exhibition until he had discovered the one he sought. This Powerstone was one of those relatively rare stones that responded to mental commands. It had been part of a set given to an elite guard in ancient Lemuria. It was geared for defense and had the ability to generate a forcefield around the person who wore it. The forcefield created defensive shield which protected against it projectile and energy weaponry. This shield also enhanced the strength of the wearer and could provide camouflage, allowing the wearer to blend in with their environment. Another function of the powerstone was that it could also enhance the telepathic abilities of the wearer, enabling them to broadcast information to other people; this was used in Lemuria for silent communication among the Lemurians and also for a psychic defense as false information or terrifying visions would be broadcast to enemies.
Luthor was fortunate enough to trigger a “help file” in the memory of the crystal, which enabled him to learn its operation almost immediately.
He revealed his identity to Superman and then picked Superman up and threw him against a wall. Luthor jumped out the window, the forcefield saving him from being smashed on the sidewalk. When Superman followed Luthor, Alexi expanded the force field to its greatest extent and used the camouflage function to create a giant image of himself. It appeared as though a giant Alexi Luthor was attacking Superman. He used the forcefield to smash into a viaduct and brought it down on Superman. Although the comics show Luthor tearing up a large suspension bridge, none of the major bridges in the New York area are reported to have suffered damage on that scale even for a few days.
He then used the hypnotic function of the gem to implant the suggestion in Superman that he had lost his super strength. One of the reasons that this hypnosis was so effective was that it tapped into one of Superman's deepest desires, the desire to be normal. Superman's unconscious wish to be normal caused him to deliberately use his strength at its lowest level and to ignore any accidental uses of super strength.
Unable to pursue Luthor because Superman could no longer use his leaping ability, Clark Kent returned to the offices of the Daily Planet.
According to the comics Luthor snatched many of the nation's greatest leaders. He kidnapped many of the key people on the New York Stock Exchange
Although Lois wanted to pursue this story, George Stevens sent her and Clark Kent to do a story on the old Mogul factory since it was about ready to be turned into a munitions plant.
As coincidence would have it, the old Mogul factory is where Luthor was stashing the prominent men he had captured. Two of Luthor's henchmen captured Clark and Lois. Unable to use more than normal strength, Clark could not fight off the two henchmen. They threw him down a shaft in the factory while Lois was tied to a pole. Clark fell down the shaft, ripping his clothes as he did. He grabbed onto the sides of the wall, certain that the great fall would kill him. It probably would not have, even without his strength his dense muscle and bone structures would have prevented injury.
Clark saw that his Superman suit was exposed, so he discarded his outer clothing and dressed as Superman went to rescue Lois. Upon seeing Superman the henchmen ran away. Superman untied Lois.
After Lois was untied Luthor appeared stating he was glad that he had arrived in time to prevent her escape.
She laughed at that, asking what chance he stood against Superman. Luthor boasted that he had stolen Superman's powers and could tear him apart. He picked up the powerless Superman and began throwing him about the factory. In the comics Superman challenged Luthor to duplicate one of his super stunts, which was to run around a room at superspeed including across the ceiling. As Luthor raced across the ceiling he the chain holding the Powerstone fell from about his neck and into Superman’s hands.
Because Superman did not wish for many true details of this incident of the Powerstone to be released, a semi-fictionalized account of how Luthor was defeated was depicted in the comic books.
Once again it was Lois who made Superman come to his sense. When he was untying her she asked him why he did not just rip the ropes apart as usual. He told her that Luthor had stolen his super strength. She told him that was ridiculous, he had just survived being thrown into a shaft and his clothes had been shredded by the sharp hooks that lined the walls of the shaft. If he had not retained his invulnerability he would have been slashed to death, since his invulnerability like his super strength was derived from his dense bone and muscle structure, his super strength could not be gone. She concluded that Luthor must have used the gem to hypnotize him.
When Superman realized that she was correct, the mental block faded. Luthor walked in on Lois and Superman as they were kissing. He was enraged. One of Alexi Luthor's primary motives in kidnapping Lois Lane several times was his infatuation with her. He was jealous of Superman on this account but believed until that moment at least that he could woo her away from Superman with his superior intellect.
Not knowing the full extent of the Powerstone's abilities, Superman did not want Luthor to know that he had recovered his super strength lest he try something else.
Superman allowed Luthor to toss him about but somersaulted and hooked his legs onto a pipe on the tall ceiling and hung upside down. He challenged Luthor to come and get him. Fortunately Luthor was by then worked up into such a rage that he was not thinking straight. He used the Powerstone's forcefield to jump at Superman, each bounce taking him higher and closer to Superman. He had increased the field about his feet and legs to give him extra bounce and made it thin about his upper torso so that he could feel his hands crush the life out of Superman. The conditions were thus right for Luthor to be taken totally off guard by one of Superman's full out punches to the face. Luthor flew back, smashed against a wall, bounced off, and slammed to the floor. The combination of the three terrific blows in quick succession to his thin forcefield was enough to stun Luthor.
While it would be nice to credit Superman for having anticipated this outcome, it was actually a combination of luck with Luthor's arrogance and desire at that moment to kill Superman that preventing him from using the Powerstone effectively. Had Luthor maintained his forcefield to it greatest depth, a protracted battle between Luthor and Superman would have raged. This was one of the main reasons that Superman had the writer of the comic story downplay the confrontation between him and Luthor, else Luthor or someone else get the bright idea to more effectively utilize the abilities of the gem.
While Luthor was stunned, Lois grabbed the Powerstone and ran away with it. Luthor's henchman pounced on her, and Superman jumped down to her aid. Luthor regained consciousness and pulled an emergency switch in the wall. A series of explosions sounded as incendiaries planted throughout the building ignited, setting the factory on fire. Superman and Lois ran to the cells where Luthor's prisoners were held. Superman freed them, and using a section of wall he carried everyone to safety.
Superman decided that the Powerstone was too powerful a weapon to be allowed to fall into the wrong hands and so told the Museum it had been destroyed in the factory fire. He actually took it to his Secret Citadel, which was then located in the Catskills. This most recent defeat of Alexi Luthor by Superman embittered him, especially when he had seen first hand that Lois Lane was wholly enthralled by the muscle-headed do-gooder, much like girls in school had gone for the athletes instead of the scholars.
Alexi Luthor, who once had defied his brother over useless killing, now planned to kill Superman, Lois Lane, and any inhabitant of New York who dared defy him.
In late January of 1942, the city of New York experienced a sudden heat wave of over one hundred degrees.
The Daily Planet sent Lois Lane and Clark Kent to investigate a mysterious occurrence at a farmer's field outside of Metropolis. Scorched into the field was a message, stating that the heat wave was not a natural event. New York was to be evacuated in 48 hours or anyone left in the city would be burned alive.
Although the comic book depiction shows the Daily Planet printing this story, they were requested by the Office of Censorship not to run it. The War Department was uncertain if this was an enemy attack or a hoax, but believed that the story would spark a panic. The city would be chaotic and difficult to defend should some attack be forthcoming.
Lois Lane received a note telling her that if she wished to learn what caused the heat wave to come to the edge of the Digby woods near Fellows Avenue. Once Lois arrived at the location she was held at gun point by two men. They lead her deeper into the woods and locked her in a steel-barred cage. The two men contacted Alexi Luthor on a radio unit, telling him that the reporter had been captured.
Luthor wanted Superman to come to her rescue so Luthor could dispose of his enemy once and for all.
The cage holding Lois was hoisted over a pit by a chain connected to a mechanism that slowly lowered the cage into the pit. Below her Lois could see a horde of hungry lions.
One of the henchman climbed a telephone pole and contacted the Daily Planet. Editor George Stevens refused to believe the story that Lois only had five minutes to live. Clark excused himself and ran as fast as he could to Lois' apartment. Letting himself in, which demonstrates how close their relationship was at that point, he discovered the note telling her to go to the Digby Woods. Superman ran as fast as he could and located Lois’ place of captivity. He arrived just as the cage to her door opened. Superman jumped down and fought the hungry lions. He knocked two of the lions unconscious and threw one out of the pit straight at one of the henchmen, who was firing at them. When the lions failed to dispose of Superman, the henchmen poured a vat of molten metal down the pit. Superman burrowed into the pit wall pulling Lois behind him. He burrowed up to the ground's surface.
The henchmen made a futile attempt to capture Superman. The air became hot and the ground began to smoke. Once of the henchmen shouted that Luthor had double crossed them. Concerned for Lois' safety, Superman picked her up in his arms and sprang as far away as he could. He returned to the area of the wood where the two henchmen should have been only to find a charred circular hole about a half of a mile in diameter.
The published record of this event in The Heat Horror (Superman 18, September-October 1942) depicts Clark Kent reading an item in the newspaper about an astronomer named Professor Glenn Calloway who claimed that a giant meteor had entered the solar system. Clark Kent went to visit Calloway on the off chance that the meteor was connected to the odd heat wave. Calloway showed Clark Kent the meteor, but Kent ascertained with a look that the meteor had nothing to do with the heatwave. What was left out of the published record was that Calloway had remarked on a possible side effect of the meteorite’s approach, that it had possibly caused an anomaly that Calloway’s telescope had picked up—an odd cloud formation or possibly a reflection of the meteor registering on the clouds
When Clark Kent visited Dr. Calloway and had viewed the object through his telescope. He also looked for the cloud anomaly. It looked like a stationary cloud formation but with odd protuberances.
As Clark Kent left the observatory was taken over by some of Luthor's men. They had been watching him and when Kent had gone to the observatory, they knew he was getting too close to the truth. They tied up Kent inside his car and then pushed it over a ravine into a lake below. Superman exited the car and swam away. He followed the henchmen's car to Luthor's current hideout.
In the published account of “The Heat Horror”, Superman discovered that Luthor had a rocket, which took off just as he arrived. Superman hitched a ride on the rocket, which traveled out of the stratosphere. The rocket's destination was an orbiting space station, which was built to resemble a meteor. The meteor was large enough to admit the rocket with ease.
The henchmen exited the rocket and reported to Luthor. Superman revealed himself and Luthor stopped him cold with a freeze ray. Luthor looked down on New York and saw that the city had not been evacuated. Three giant lenses slid out from the side of the artificial meteor and began to focus the sun’s energy on New York.
Superman recovered from the freeze ray, knocked out Luthor, and destroyed the lenses. Exiting into the vacuum of space, he sabotaged the artificial meteor so that it would fall back to earth. The falling meteor hit the rocket in which Luthor was escaping. Luthor, however, was seen escaping the wreckage of his rocket.
Professor Calloway would have realized that the meteor was not approaching the Earth but was in orbit and so would not have called it a meteorite but rather a new satellite. While Alexi Luthor may have had the inventive genius to develop both a rocket and an orbiting space station, to think that he could have done in a few months—with pre-World War II technology—feats that took the most brilliant minds in the world years to accomplish—defies belief. Even if he had based his rocket technology on Dr. Zharkov's designs, the building of the orbiting space station in a few months time is incredulous.[30] What Luthor had created was ingenious, but it was not beyond the realm of contemporary science.
As for what did occur, Superman saw an autogyro departing with the henchmen on board and hitched a ride on it. The autogyro flew straight for an odd cloud formation. As the autogyro approached a cloud formation, Superman saw that it was not a cloud formation after all but three giant dirigibles. Each dirigible was completely white, circular, and had what appeared to be tubes jutting about their outer diameter. These were also painted white. The three dirigibles were tethered to one another, spread out like a large flower. Each of the dirigibles had a gondola, one of them very large. As the autogyro approached, a bay opened on one of the gondolas and the plane landed inside it.
Luthor spotted Superman almost immediately and shot him with what he believed to an improved version of the ray he had used on him before. Superman was affected by the ray, but not as much as he had been before. However, he acted as though he were paralyzed in order to learn Luthor’s plans.
Luthor intended for New York to be evacuated so he could loot the city without interference, following which he would destroy it. Since the city had not been evacuated as ordered, Luthor prepared to destroy it with the people still in it.
Superman noticed that the center ring of each of the circular dirigibles was composed of glass. The dirigible complex was kept hovering above New York City by a series of powerful air jets. When the three lenses were spread out in a flat design it created a heat ray that covered a wide area, which was rather weak but effective as it moderated the effects of winter by raising the temperature in a limited are by several degrees. When the lenses were placed in a stacked pattern, they created an intense beam of heat that could incinerate a small area, as Luthor had done in the Digby woods. Luthor ordered the dirigibles to hover above each other and the three rings of glass were positioned so that a beam of sunlight would be turned into a beam of deadly heat that would lance down to New York City and begin the process of incinerating it section by section.
Having heard enough of Luthor’s plans, Superman threw off the effects of Luthor's weaker ray, even to the point of ignoring another blast to wrench the device from Luthor's hand. Superman broke through the gondola's window and onto the skin of the dirigible; he began ripping the tethering cords out of the dirigibles and pulled them out of alignment, stopping the heat beam. He began punching holes in the skins of the dirigibles. One of Luthor's henchmen fired a gun at Superman, which caused one of the dirigibles to burst into flame as the hydrogen ignited. The falling burning dirigible clipped the autogyro in which Luthor was fleeing and the plane spun out of control towards the ground. Superman rode the sinking dirigibles to ground. Once on the ground he destroyed them by igniting the remaining hydrogen in the gasbags.
Alexi Luthor did survive the plane crash, but he was severely injured. It is fortunate that he happened to crash in upstate New York, not too distant from the complex that was dubbed the Crime College by Doc Savage’s biographers.
The Crime College had a staff of highly trained surgeons, so Alexi Luthor was saved from near death by their capable hands. He was recognized as Alexi Luthor and this information was relayed to Doc Savage. Doc Savage personally took charge of the operation to remove Alexi Luthor's criminal tendencies.[31]
Doc removed Alexi's memories, as was the common practice, but believing that Alexi's natural genius could be beneficial for humanity he was extremely careful not to tinker with the cognitive sections of his brain.
Alexi graduated with honors from his rehabilitation program with the new name of Archimedes Goodman. Doc Savage felt that Alexi's past actions needed more redemption than other former criminals and so sent him to rectify a situation that his previous actions had caused.
Archimedes Goodman was sent to infiltrate occupied Yugoslavia, with the main goal of liberating the royal family of Lutha.
Although King Barney Custer had weathered Alexi Luthor's attempt to destabilize his country during the Toron-Calbia war, he could not hold back the German Army in 1941, when they occupied Yugoslavia as a means of securing their rear while advancing towards Russia. As it turns out their rear was anything but secure as partisan resistance developed.
After arriving in Lutha, Archimedes Goodman discovered that King Barney and Queen Emma were imprisoned by the Nazis and sentenced to death for crimes against the Aryan Peoples of Lutha. Archimedes Goodman organized a resistance group that freed the King and Queen. There was, however, a quick counter strike and Goodman had to decoy the Nazis away from the royal family. Using his gift for disguise, he pretended to be the King and allowed himself to be captured. He was tortured to reveal the location of the royal family. When he was near dead, the Nazis flung him into solitary confinement to die. Inexplicably he escaped from their prison.
For the remainder of the war, Archimedes Goodman was the leader of a partisan band that kept the Germans occupied and guarded the Royal Family of Lutha. His risky missions of espionage and sabotage had more success than failures. Because he was seen as a gambler he acquired the sobriquet Zar, which means “dice” in Romanian. Using forgotten skills, he often posed as a vagrant who eked out a meager living running a variation of the pea-and-cup monte game, he used a single die and paper cones. He also acquired the nickname Zarcon, “dice cone.”
His partisan band also had some displaced Greek Macedonians who thought that Zarcon meant Archon, which is Greek for “leader” or “prince.”
At the war's close, King Barney and Queen Emma remained alive, but barely so. Their children had been killed, including their daughter Gusta who, along with her husband Prince Michael of Graustark, had been executed by Titoist partisans near the end of the war. The royal line had only a twelve-year-old boy as heir.
Archimedes Goodman was involved with the post-war negotiations concerning the fate of the far-flung provinces of Lutha. Lutha did possess one commodity that was quite rare, its mountains contained a rare element that the United States felt needed be kept from Stalin. The independence of Lutha became a key point of the Yalta conference, with Stalin pushing for it to be absorbed into the Federation of Yugoslavia under Tito.
In the end Lutha was able to retain the provinces of Lutha and Noventia, but Calbia and Toron were absorbed by Yugoslavia. Lutha also had to pay a yearly tax to the Federation of Yugoslavia, and was placed under the condition that should the royal family die out, the kingdom would revert to the Federation of Yugoslavia.
King Barney installed Archimedes Goodman, who was also known as Archon Zar and Zarcon, to the throne of the vacated Principality of Noventia and appointed him Prince Regent. Prince Zarkon was regent of Lutha until 1954 when Prince George reached his maturity.
After George's coronation, Prince Zarkon announced he was going to travel. His yacht was lost off the coast of Australia, or so it was believed. He turned up a year later floating in a raft off the coast of Pohnpei. He was tanned, in very good health, and seemed to be years younger.
Prince Zarkon stated that he had been the only survivor of his yacht and had been fortunate enough to land on a small island. He eventually built a raft to escape from the island.
Only a few people would learn that truth about the missing year of Prince Zarkon's life.
He and his crew were slated to die when the yacht sank. Instead they found themselves brought forward to the future, the far future—one million years in the future.
The earth was a nearly a dead world. Life was almost extinct. "Unbridled pollution of air and water, uncontrolled wastage of natural resources, endless millennia of warfare and ecological depletion had left the Earth exhausted, sterile, very nearly uninhabitable."[32]
A domed city in the arctic named Polarion was the only remaining inhabited city on Earth. Polarion was ruled by the Great Brains, a collection of computer intelligences. These computer intelligences had once been men whose great intellects had been uploaded into an artificial intelligence matrix.
Beyond this last remnant of civilization were savage humans and animals, most of which were diseased and prone to genetic abnormalities. Although the Great Brains of Polarion possessed prodigious skills in medicine, genetic enhancement, and biological modification, most of the inhabitants outside of the dome of Polarion were affected with a genetic virus that would have necessitated completely debugging every cell in the body. This was beyond even the Great Brains’ abilities.
The Great Brains tried to emulate the Arisians who had previously guided mankind through their earliest years. When the Arisians left the galaxy in the 30th Century, they left their guardianship of the galaxy to mankind. Yet even without Eddorian interference or influence mankind had failed to conquer its less savory attributes and once again became a violent, conquering force in the galaxy.[33]
In the late 32nd Century a despot by the name of Killer Kane had successfully been revived from a millennial slumber.[34] He launched a sneak attack on the small core of Lensmen who were all that remained of the Galactic Patrol. The Patrol had become complacent from nearly six hundred years of peace and Kane exterminated them. The immortal Kane ruled the galaxy with an iron fist for six millennia until a successful rebellion by the outer worlds drove his forces back to Earth. Earth became the final battleground and was devastated by the war. Kane disappeared and his empire fell.
Earth was kept in isolation and left to its own devices. Kane had used the Earth savagely, bleeding it dry of resources and poisoning it with various forms of pollution from his great factories. One theory was that he was punishing the Earth for having cursed him with long life. In the final battles against Kane the infrastructure of Earth's civilization, including Kane's great factories, had been destroyed.
The Great Brains guided the remnant of humanity that remained free of disease and genetic malformation. They also sought solutions to reclaim and redeem the Earth.
In their attempts to reclaim the earth, they used one of the few time travel devices that remained after the scourging of Earth. They saved people who were recorded lost in disasters and brought them forward to the future to restock the genetic pool of humanity.[35] From these saved people they also selected certain individuals who they believed could aid them in their most ambitious plan to redeem the earth.
The select individuals became their agents and were given biological modifications, and training in various technologies, sciences, and arts and sent back to past to steer the world away from the historical path that led to the devastated world of Polarion. Although the Great Brains’ research indicated that time was immutable, that any action that they took in this direction was futile, and that history would resume its course despite temporal interference, they hoped that with enough temporal agents in the past changing things for the better that the Polarion would disappear and a better world take its place. A similar theory posited that each action that diverged history created an alternate timeline so despite their agents’ efforts Polarion would continue to exist in at least one timeline. The Great Brains decided that even if this were the case, the effort would be worth making since their actions could reduce the number of timelines fated to become like Polarion.
In giving the man called Archon, or Zarkon by some, his modifications, they noticed previous brain damage that they repaired as a course of action. This of course was the brain surgery given to Alexi Luthor to cure him of his criminal tendencies. And so once this was corrected Archimedes Goodman recovered his lost memories of being Alexi Luthor. The Great Brains biosculpted his musculature to have more strength, stamina, and endurance. After returning his body to the physical state of prime maturity, they slowed down his aging process. In addition to having made adjustments to his sensory system, they modified his body so that like all of the inhabitants of Polarion he could draw sustenance and energy from solar radiation. At least one of the modifications to the eyes was necessary, as were the adjustments to his skin. These modifications were received by every person brought forth from the past. Most of the harsh solar radiation was filtered through the dome of Polarion, but even so the lack of an ozone layer made the level of solar radiation ultimately fatal for any person from the past without the modification to their skin or eyes.