Roleplay / Supervillain in The DCU CK2 Quest

Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest is an online quest on Sufficient Velocity.com created by King Crimson that set in an alternate DC universe where you play the villain.

Now Titled: Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU quest.

You are Lex Luthor: The head of Lex Corp and the man who repeatedly goes toe to toe with Superman. Lex is a self made man who cannot stand the idea of anyone being viewed as superior to him. Lex views himself as the peak of humanity and refuses to be overtaken by extraterrestrials and metahumans. With his vast intelligence and incredible resources Lex repeatedly challenges and aims to defeat those who would stand above humanity. Playing as Lex gives the user massive amounts of resources and generally good PR. However once Superman shows up Lex must take a supervillain action to try and defeat Superman in some villainous scheme. Going up against Superman is one of the hardest things you could possibly do but if anyone can defeat the last son of Krypton it's Lex Luthor.

Quest started on July/14/2019 and is still currently going.

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Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU quest contains examples of:

• Abandoned War Child: Averted, Rose Wilson is notably not this in contrast her traditional depiction in comics.
• Ability Mixing: Count Vertigo and his attempts to create super-soldiers involved deliberately mixing the Bone Growth formula and Quixium in order to create a new breed of super-soldiers.
• Above the Gods: While they haven't made a major direct appearance in the main quest yet if ever,the Endless and the Presence fall into this category just like in canon.
• Abstract Apotheosis: Both the Endless and all Gods fall under this to some extent with the Endless existing more independent of mortal conception while gods remain somewhat linked to it.
• Abstract Eater: Mr. Mind is this and Ingesting Knowledge, he can eat thoughts and memories and gain sustenance from it.
• Absurdly Cool City: Metropolis and Gotham both arguably qualify for this to varying degrees.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: The four swords Merlin created all have this as an enchantment and while the Persuader’s Axe has not shown up in the main quest in sidestories it has been shown to be this.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Gotham’s sewer system is (unsurprisingly) this full stop due to both deliberate planning on the Court of Owl’s part as well as the fact that the sewers repurposed some of the naturally spacious tunnels under Gotham.
• Abusive Parents: Virtually every Luthor in the past two generations has counted as this to at least some extent, Cassandra Cain’s biological father actively abused her and her mother abandoned her from a very young age due to wanting to murder her once she realized that she felt some sort of maternal instinct for Cassandra and immediately wanted to excise that from herself. Etrigan, Lord Scapegoat, Merlin, Rose Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Grant Wilson, Jade and Artemis Crock, Killer Croc, Roman Sionis and more all arguably also qualify as having abusive parents to varying degrees. Long story short, It almost easier to list characters in this story that didn't have one or two abusive parents. Ironically Lex seems to be on the way of breaking this trend with Cassandra.
• Academic Athlete: Cassandra has become this as she transitioned into her role as the Luthor Heiress.
• Academy of Evil: The HIVE academy which has shown up in a few non-canon omakes is this.
• Acceptable Breaks from Canon: The author/QM has admitted to making some alterations and adaptations to characters when he felt it was necessary. Most of them are rather minor things like the relative ages of characters but every so often there is a larger adjustment.
• Ace Custom: The Ravager Suit is one that exists but hasn’t really been used to do anything due to potential complications arising from discovering LexCorp has it in the first place.
• Ace Pilot: Roxy has earned the title even if she prefers to pilot a rocket over a plane and likes to deliberately place her life in danger leading to multiple instances of her deliberately crashing her rocket. The original Blackhawks also qualified as this although most of them are dead by the present day of the quest.
• Action Dad: Adopted kids for the most part but Bruce Wayne almost certainly qualifies.
• Action Girl: Name a female character and you’ve got better than even odds that they could qualify as this to at least some degree. Cassandra, Jinx, Mercy Graves, Roxy, Pamela Isley, Katherine Kane, Arisia Rrab, Diana Prince, Black Canary, Supergirl (in a non-canon omake), Selena Kyle, Barbara Gordon, Nyssa al Ghul and many more are all potential qualifiers for this title.
• Action Mom: Hippolyta arguably qualifies although she hasn’t shown up in quest beyond a few oblique mentions. Lady Shiva as always is a very dark take on this same trope.
• Action Politician: Diana Prince technically qualifies for this trope even if she is only a politician in the same sense that the head of the CIA is a politician. Selena Kyle AKA Catwoman is a notably action oriented individual and has shown an interest in getting involved with politics following the Menagerie riots.
• Actually a Doombot: There are implications that T.O. Morrow has done this although no confirmation either way.
• Adaptational Badass: Numerous Characters including but not limited to Lex himself.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Thanks to the players efforts, Pamela is far more adjusted and less Misanthropic even after gaining powers.
• Adaptive Ability: Doomsday is noted to have this but hasn’t displayed it in quest yet. AMAZO also should have the capability to do this as confirmed by Word of God but hasn’t appeared in quest either.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The pieces of perspective pertaining to the perceptions of the prince of puzzles, Edward Nygma, tend to pepper in prodigious portions of proper polysyllable paragraphs to present his presumptuous and preposterous notions of perfection.
• Addiction-Powered: Snowflame is this to a T. Blackrock is a weird example of this where he is addicted to the substance that grants him his powers but repeatedly dosing on it has diminishing returns especially as he slowly becomes no longer reliant on the substance he created to maintain his power.
• A Dick in Name: Despite generally being a pretty nice decent person Dick Grayson still qualifies as this.
• Admiring the Abomination: Dr. Moon and Karl Helfern both bonded over this to varying degrees.
• Adoptive Name Change: Cassandra has gone from “Cassandra Cain” to “Cassandra Luthor”.
• Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Atlantis, Xebel and Themyscira are all generally variations on this.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: The now deceased Dan Garrett was this. Barbara Minerva is also this as of now.
• Affably Evil: Ra’s al Ghul is notably this to the point where it was joked about that somehow a man bent on killing most of the human population is more polite than the vast majority of the cast. Killer Croc and Catwoman also manage to be variations on this generally being pleasant to be around while at the same time still being evil.
• Affectionate Nickname: Harley has the as ever iconic “Mister J”. Joker regularly comes up with nicknames for others but its unclear how much is out of friendship and how much is out of a messed up attempt at mocking others. Lois Lane still affectionately calls Clark Kent Smallville every so often. In the non-canon Titanverse omakes Jinx regularly calls Cassandra “Cass” as a sort of endearment and while the affection is genuine the nickname is at least partially for show making it an odd example.
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Implied to be what happens when Samuel Scudder wins the lottery.
• Age-Inappropriate Art: Jinx has filched a copy of a recording of Titus Andronicus to watch which is not a Shakespeare play someone under the age of sixteen ought to see.
• Age-Inappropriate Dress: Marie Louise Dahl is a weird case where she’d like nothing more than to dress like an adult but her own disability forces her to buy clothing suited for someone younger than her actual age. While this doesn’t appear wrong it is something she has complained about.
• Age Without Youth: General Immortus is this as opposed to the vast majority of other immortals in the DCQU.
• A Good Way to Die: There are implications that this is what Lady Shiva is seeking, provided whoever kills her becomes a superior “Lady Shiva” in doing so. Likely another reason she (will be) coming after Cass, if she kill her daughter, Shiva remains the strongest with no weaknesses. If not, she successfully passes the Shiva Legacy to Cass.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Currently the human-like AI LexCorp can produce go completely insane as a rule. By and large though this is averted as AI that turns against their creators like Red Tornado, the Manhunters and Brainiac tend to do so due to a mistake in how they were coded which then further evolves and is exploited to cause the AI to turn.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Downplayed and now averted as most people cannot fit in to the air vents but Janus, a lion cub, could fit into the air vents although he has since grown too big and there were measures to prevent him from moving through them freely.
• A Kind of One: Gorgon’s are arguably this in the DCQU. Similarly “Atlanteans” don’t all necessarily live in Atlantis but they are still referred to as such.
• Alcoholic Parent: Lionel Luthor was this to Lex although it hasn’t been explored much yet.
• Alien Autopsy: The corpse of Whisper A’Daire was kept for this purpose but was lost in Intergang’s attack on Metropolis before the procedure could be completed.
• Alien Gender Confusion: Hellgrammite struggles to identify differences the gender/sexes of humans. Unlike most cases of this, its less humorous and mor a sign of Hellgrammites general disdain for humanoids.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Green Lantern Corps is supposed to have something along these lines but this rule is rarely enforced or followed.
• Aliens Never Invented Democracy: Averted hard. While there are numerous alien civilizations that aren’t democracies one of the major powers in space, the United Planets, is a democracy and thus there are many, many planets that at least have some degree of democracy occurring in them.
• Aliens Speaking English: Handwaved by the relatively thorough prevalence of universal translators which have even become accessible on earth.
• All Myths Are True: Technically a part of the more general DCU setting in which almost every myth and legend is true in at least some capacity. There are often somethings that are altered (Eris is Ares’ daughter rather than his sister for example) but almost every myth exists in at least some capacity.
• All Your Powers Combined: Another ability that AMAZO would supposedly achieve.
• Alphabet Architecture: The infamous T shaped tower that serves as the Teen Titans headquarters has appeared in a few non-canon omakes.
• All According to Plan: A trope the QM utterly disdains and has attempted to avoid where possible.
• All Animals Are Domesticated: Janus (a two headed lion) and Snowy (a four armed Japanese Macaque) act domesticated even though they both really shouldn’t be if one were solely focused on presenting things realistically.
• All Crimes Are Equal: This is a critical part of the glitch Krona introduced into Manhunter programming to cause them to terminate all life in a space sector.
• Alliance of Alternates: A non-canon omake celebrating the one year anniversary of the quest was this with “the council of Lexs”.
• Alliterative Family: All of the Endless have names that begin with the letter D, the direct line of descent to Lex of the Luthor family all had members with the letter L, Leonard and Lisa Snart share an L as the first letter of their name and Lois and Lucy Lane both share names starting with L as well.
• Alliterative Name: It’s a comic book name there are too many to count although stand out examples include Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Zatanna Zatara, Katherine Kane, Mari McCabe.
• Alternate Techline: Very subtle but ever so slightly in place.
• Alternate Universe: There have been various brief informational posts about various alternate earths (including earths based on what could have happened id the thread had chosen different starting hero units) but there haven’t appeared any alternate universes in the quest proper.
• Always Second Best: Jinx has had fears of becoming this to Cassandra. Kenny Braverman is explicitly this to Clark Kent.
• Always Someone Better: This at the very least partially motivates Lex Luthor’s hatred of Superman although the full situation is a bit more complicated than that.
• Amazon Brigade: Do the actual Amazons count?
• Ambiguously Human: Cerise Orielle was considered this for a long time before she was proven to not be truly human. There are some hints that something similar might be going on with Rebecca Carstairs but it’s currently unclear quite what is going on.
• Ambition Is Evil: Yet another checkmark on why Lex Luthor is a supervillain with him regularly monologuing about wanting and deserving more than he currently has.
• Amoral Afrikaner: Metallo is very technically this although it has done little to affect his characterization in the grand scheme of things.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Both Snowy and Janus show a good deal more intelligence and reasoning than what one would expect for an animal to realistically have.
• Amusement Parkof Doom: Amusement Mile can be considered this due to having been a dilapidated and abandoned amusement park well before the Joker moved in. Of course once Joker and the various people who would be willing to work with him moved into the area Amusement Mile only got worse, to the point where only the truly desperate enter there causing a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Amusing Alien: Lobo is this for a certain brand of “amusing”.
• Ancient Tomb: The Tomb of Black Adam shows up very briefly in quest right before Black Adam is freed from his imprisonment and he promptly eradicates the Kobra trespassers.
• And I Must Scream: This is implied to be the fate of Nyssa al Ghul once she is turned over to her father Ra’s. Blindspot also suffers this as Jinx’s magic messes with his suit and causes him to perpetually fall down ever deeper into the depths of the earth due to being made permanently intangible.
• And That's Terrible: The flavor text on the action to steal forty cakes is literally this.
• Animal Lover: Cassandra Luthor is ambiguously this trope and is definitively this trope in the non-canon Titanverse omakes even if she is somewhat in denial about it.
• Animal Motifs: Batman, Robin, Killer Croc, Penguin, Catwoman, Robin, Magpie and more are all people who take up a specific animal motif and at least somewhat run with it.
• Animal-Motif Team: The gang Catwoman lead called “The Menagerie” is loosely animal themed.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: All of the above examples count with a few more like Manbat, Firefly and Killer Moth getting tossed in for good measure.
• Animorphism: Beast Boy has this as his power.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: All Gods likely qualify as this to some extent. The Endless also do for a given definition of “personification” as they’re not really people in a comprehensible manner.
• Anti-Hero: It is a superhero setting from a villains perspective. There are many antiheroes of many different flavors a lot of which ultimately is YMMV.
• Anti-Villain: Likewise this trope is also a matter of YMMV although there are numerous characters who could qualify.
• Apocalypse Cult: Kobra is an incredibly odd take on this but they still qualify.
• Apparently Human Merfolk: Most Atlanteans pretty clearly qualify as this.
• A Pupil of Mine Until She Turned to Evil: Boodika was one of Killowag’s students and someone who he thought was genuinely good and a promising young lantern. She later turned to Sinestro’s brand of extremism after spending an unspecified amount of time with him. A large part of why Killowag feels awful about it is that he didn’t catch when she turned to evil and if he had been a better teacher his pupil might never have fallen.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Professor Ivo’s denial of magic as a real thing arguably counts as this. Karl Helfern also dips into this from time to time as well but it is more predicated on the argument that people who are using magic are actually people achieving the same result through scientific feats they don’t understand who then justify their ignorance with “because it’s magic”.
• Archaeological Arms Race: Notably a fairly minor part of the background of the quest as elements of it occurred in the Cold War as various Nazi super-science and magic experiments that had been failed or abandoned in desperation were around to be picked up.
• Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Slingshot is a minor Green Arrow villain whose main claim to fame is that he manages to use a weapon even more outdated than a bow and arrow in a setting where exo-suits and laser guns are a thing.
• Arch-Enemy: Superman is quickly becoming this after finally appearing. This is Lex's story after all.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Count Vertigo is a generally vile elitist snob who rules as a regent and is brutally repressing his own countrymen, murdering anyone who can challenge him politically and willing to work with various terrorists and supervillains. He also betrays the other main encountered evil aristocrat Baron Delamb the moment it benefits him to do so. Baron Delamb has barely been encountered but his own willingness to work with an international criminal organization to further his own interests and general repulsive nature don’t exactly paint him as anything less than an evil man. Baron Blitzkreig was a supervillain in WW2 who styled himself a Baron but was not one in actuality. Lady Vic is also an aristocrat of some stripe and her expensive tastes and upkeep have caused her to turn to becoming an international assassin.
• Arm Cannon: The KGBeast has a version of this after he was forced to hack off his hand to escape pursuit.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Lady Shiva is this to a ridiculous degree. Cassandra has shown some elements of it throughout various materials although it’s much more pronounced in non-canon things.
• Artifact Domination: Both Orange and Indigo rings heavily alter the mindset of whoever uses them. Star Sapphire Rings sometimes do it as well but to a lesser extent.
• Artificial Zombie: The Blight, a race on the fringes of the mapped universe, is this.
• Assassination Attempt: Lex Luthor first encountered the League of Shadows when they failed an assassination attempt. Other failed assassinations include that of Tobias Whale (who fled Lady Vic before he could be killed) and Sonar’s attempt to kill the Markovian royal family. However, the leader of Zambesi and all of the royal family of Vlatava, besides princess Perdita, were successfully assassinated as well as various high-ranking members of Intergang.
• Assassin Outclassin': Penguin repeatedly hires mercenaries like Deadshot to ensure this is the case for him.
• Asshole Victim: Lionel Luthor can generally be agreed to be this. Additionally General Zahl (a character only notable for failing every action attempted in quest and then getting killed) is generally not missed due to being a Nazi. An amusing story that has appeared in the background of the quest but hasn’t shown up in the quest proper is that Hercules once punched Vandal Savage so hard he had to spend a relatively long period of time regenerating. Morgan Edge was a member of Intergang and a slanderer who opposed LexCorp. He ended up getting horrifically tortured and mutilated by Bane after biting off more than he could chew.
• As the Good Book Says...: Circe muses on the phrase “I am that I am” which is derived from the English translation of Exodus 3:14. Notably she gives her own take on the fact of the matter and ends up spinning it into a meaning more in line with the concept of platonic ideals and as a a way of justifying her actions.
• Atomic Superpower: Captain Atom and Reactron have been name dropped in the quest even if they haven’t properly shown up. There is also the Atomic Skull (an in universe fictional character) who inspired the name of a project done to grant other people superpowers.
• Attack Drone: LexCorp has a few variations on this, although they are generally more used for surveillance than straight combat.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: When Intergang attacked Metropolis they notably brought along multiple mechs that would fit this qualification.
• Attention Whore: Many people in universe believe Superman is this even if he’s not actually. The Joker definitely fits this trope even if he’d deny it and attempt to make himself seem more grandiose than he actually is. Edward Nygma has elements of this but generally keeps himself under control.
• Auto-Kitchen: LexCorp has marketed the first steps along these lines.
• Awaken the Sleeping Giant: Arguably what happened when the cold war conflict between the Court of Owls and Batman escalated past a certain point, the Court of Owls caught the attention of Ra’s al Ghul who then proceeded to mastermind the Menagerie Riots as a cover to begin slaughtering any members of the Court of Owls he could get his hands on and wipe them out completely.
• Axe-Crazy: Joker, Black Mask, the Great Pumpkin Killer and Mister Zsasz all count as this to at least some extent with those four being Gotham’s absolute worst examples. Metallo also arguably qualifies.
• Back-Alley Doctor: Dr. Moon is this as he absolutely does not have a legal doctorate for his surgery and pretty much anyone willing to go to him for surgery is either unaware of his reputation or doesn’t have better options.
• Backed by the Pentagon: Various Lightyear Productions shows have this in-universe.
• Back from the Dead: Notably the only character to have been noted to have outright brought back from the dead is Ubu but that can only be deciphered with information on the Lazarus Pits that Lex doesn’t have and so he thinks something else might’ve occurred rather than a straight up resurrection.
• Badass Biker: Lobo and his Spacehog naturally.
• Badass Cape: A classic part of many a superhero costume, both Batman and Superman are the biggest figures who wear one.
• Badass Creed: The Green Lanterns retain their classic one from the comics.
• Badass Family: The Luthor line naturally as is mostly detailed in the Metropolitan Clan canon omakes. The Greek gods and by extension Diana Prince and her mother (Hippolyta is Ares’ daughter) are this as well. The Waynes and Kanes also are implied to be this but they’re far more spread out than most examples of this trope (for example the family tree distantly connects both Batman and Deathstroke even if neither man would acknowledge the other as family in any way and they aren’t related by blood).
• Badass Fingersnap: Jinx likes to throw these around when utilizing her bad luck powers. While some of the badassness of the snaps have gone down due to the frequency by which she does it, whenever she pulls out that trick something starts going wrong for someone else.
• Badass Normal: Hoo boy are there a lot of them. Lex Luthor, Mercy Graves, Katherine Kane, Roxanne Sutton, Cassandra Luthor, Leonard Snart, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Selina Kyle, The Joker, Toyman, Barbara Gordon and much, much more arguably qualify for this.
• Bad Boss: Lex Luthor straddles the line on this. On the one hand working for LexCorp pays very well as compared to an equivalent position in another company. You’ll be safe ensured and well off in terms of money and so long as you are productive you’ll be treated well. On the other hand Lex Luthor personally despises failure, runs the company like a brutal police state complete with an actual secret police equivalent and actively works to terrify anyone who dares step out of line with what he wants in his company. He’s also allowed an employee of his to die when he could have otherwise saved them before but that was less for failure and more because Professor Ivo had become a liability and Lex didn’t trust him not to eventually turn on him once enough time had passed.
• Bad Guy Bar: The Iceberg Lounge is an odd case in that it has being a bad guy bar as a feature in and of itself, the rich elite of Gotham get to feel powerful and dangerous due to their close proximity to the various almost mythical bad guys of Gotham while various criminals get to indulge in luxury and fell like they’ve made it as well.
• Bad Guys Play Pool: Mercy has shown a fondness for playing billiards and is a morally dubious character.
• Bad Humor Truck: The Joker very early on in his career deliberately set ice cream trucks on fire as a warped joke.
• Bad Mood Retreat: Superman’s Fortress of Solitude started as this.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Yet another pleasant trope assigned to Dr. Moon.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Parasite is this full stop as the moment he gained his powers he immediately began attacking people. Jinx also has elements of this as well.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Ace/Wanda Wayland has the power to drive anyone who looks her in the eyes completely insane. The use of this power resulted in the death or crippling of anyone on the receiving end of it for years on end. Despite this Wanda is a kind young girl even if she is very traumatized and terrified of her own abilities.
• Bad with the Bone: Anyone whose successfully given the Bone Growth serum. This admittedly does come at the cost of appearing like a horrific skeletal monster.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: It is admittedly more of a “balance between Chaps v and Order” than one of morality as neither side is “good” by conventional morality. That being said generally mortal beings don’t want either side to win out in the end.
• Ballroom Blitz: Every time Lex Luthor has attended one of Bruce Wayne’s parties the party has been attacked (the first time it was the League of Shadows and the second time the KGBeast). Notably the Menagerie lead by Killer Croc also pulled this in the party where Lincoln March announced his intention to run for mayor.
• Banana Republic: Santa Prisca has become this under Bane’s leadership.
• Barefoot Loon: The aptly named Madness both lacks shoes and is utterly deranged.
• Bat Deduction: Averted for the most part as when characters logic is shown there is a generally solid trail of how they figured things out or arrived at that opinion.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: By and large averted, not even Superman can breathe in space.
• Bat Out of Hell: The Batclan as well as Man-Bat himself.
• Bat People: Man-Bat is this due to the serum transforming him into a monstrous creature.
• Bat Signal: There is of course the Bat Signal. Furthermore this trope was discussed and it was mentioned that Superman doesn’t have a signal that can reach him.
• Battle Boomerang: Baterangs and Birdarangs are tools of Batman and Robin respectively. Of course Captain Boomerang also makes use of them.
• Battle Couple: Pamela Isley and Katherine Kane are an aversion of this trope. While they are a couple and each one of them is capable of fighting independently of one another when they fight together they are less effective due to worrying over one another unnecessarily.
• Beam Spam: Mordru indulges in this when fighting the JSA.
• Beast Man: Circe’s various beastiamorphs although the only one who has shown up on screen was the unwilling Kingslayer.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Carol Ferris is being directed by Lex Luthor to channel some of her anger and madness towards dealing with Hal Jordan this way. In addition, Lex’s attempts to destroy Superman have elements of this in them.
• Bedlam House: Good old Arkham was deliberately designed to keep criminals in it but to keep them insane and possible to unleash at any given moment by the Court of Owls.
• Been There, Shaped History: Vandal Savage is the most straightforward example of this as someone who has been present for many events in history and at least somewhat influenced the course of it both directly and indirectly. General Immortus is an odd example as while he possible could have influenced the shape of history his deteriorating mind causes him to misremember what exactly he has done so it is unclear just how much of an impact he has had.
• Beneath Notice: While Lex Luthor has met Clark Kent before he’s thought little of him since then. Luthor is similarly dismissive to Alfred Pennyworth to the point that when the two met Lex didn’t even bother to remember Alfred’s name
• Benevolent Boss: Lex Luthor once again is this. Provided you get results and you don’t mind his rather controlling demeanor and work environment then he is a fantastic boss.
• Benevolent Conspiracy: Depending on your thoughts on the matter the now defunct DEO was this in its attempts to keep weird things out of the public eye
• Bequeathed Power: Hal Jordan gets the ring from Abin Sur shortly after the alien dies from injuries sustained in fighting Atrocitus
• Berserk Button: Lex Luthor has the idea of someone being viewed as superior to him and touching on the idea that he might not be good enough to achieve something. A lot of his hatred of Superman stems from the fact that Superman practically mashes on his berserk button. Nygma has ignoring his intellect, Pamela has disrespecting or betraying LexCorp and Carol after getting the Star Sapphire ring has mentions of Hal Jordan as the issue that sets her off. Circe notably hates Hippolyta with every fiber of her being and Oswald Cobblepot is noted in his character sheet to absolutely hate anyone who he feels is mocking him. Interestingly Cassandra has also developed a mirror to Lex’s in the non-canon Titanverse omakes where the things that set off Cassandra are failing something that she feels she should have “won”.
• Best Friend Manual: Cassandra has notably drafted a “best friend contract” to determine how she and Jinx ought to behave towards one another and what their duties and obligations as best friends are
• Beware My Stinger Tail: One of the mechs Intergang attacked Metropolis with had a stinger tail that caused the things it hit to explode
• Beware the Superman: Naturally when dealing with Superman himself such themes crop up although for the most part this trope has been averted with a lot of conflict occurring because people began preemptively being wary of Superman
• Big Bad: The Quest is fundamentally based on Lex Luthor being the Big Bad for Superman.
• Big Brother Bully: Etrigan arguably qualifies as this to Lord Scapegoat
• Big Brotheris Watching: LexCorp fosters this kind of workplace
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Hellgrammite comes from a race of these
• Big Fancy House: Wayne Manor and Shadowcrest Manor both count. Lex’s home in LexCorp tower is a zigzagged version of this as while it is where he lives it also serves as the main hub of LexCorp’s business and serves a purpose beyond merely being a place people live in
• Big Labyrinthine Building: Once more LexCorp tower
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Thawne/Allen family is this as the Thawne side of the family generally wants to exterminate the Allen side of the family
• Bilingual Bonus: The quest regularly indulges in this from writing POV’s entirely in binary, to having puns based in Latin in the title, to having the magical chants Ian Karkull uses in one of the JSA omakes be entirely in transliterated Hebrew
• Bio-Augmentation: LexCorp seems to like doing this with things like the Bone Growth Serum and the Human Plant Integration formula. Then of course there is also the Man-Bat formula
• Bizarre Alien Senses: Superman’s “X-ray vision” counts as this
• Bizarre Human Biology: Killer Croc is ostensibly human but his metahuman trait has him fairly far removed from “normal” human biology to the point where he doesn’t function like anyone else. Pamela Isley also arguably qualifies as this but artificially made herself this way. Cerise Orielle was a version where YMMV since she might not fully count as human but she had some weirdness in her biology, like the DNA in every cell of hers being exactly the same as every other cell (this is not normal as there’s generally some difference in at least some of the nucleotides and how they are expressed which she lacked)
• Black Boss Lady: Amanda Waller takes up this role
• Black Knight: Ares likes to adopt this aesthetic when he’s not playing at being someone else
• Blackmail Backfire: A zigzagged example. Tobias Whale does get blackmail on Lex Luthor and when Lex cuts ties with him, Whale proceeds to attempt to blackmail him. Lex promptly responds by quietly putting out a hit on Whale and his men which ends with Whale fleeing the city and turning himself over to the police in Gotham after his favorite restaurant is blown up by a rocket launcher. Whale then deliberately gets himself protection while in prison and switches from attempting to blackmail Lex Luthor to creating dead-man switches to prevent Lex from killing him. As such while he can still blackmail Lex he won’t since it will promptly result in his death and Lex can’t kill him or Whale will release the blackmail posthumously which leaves them in a deadlock where Whale’s initial attempt failed but his second succeeded even if it was reliant on him being in prison.
• Black Market: Bane had one for various bits of Intergang tech. Misabel Lefevre runs a continuous one exclusively for magic items in France. Oswald Cobblepot has ties to it in Gotham but has slowly moved to more legal business ventures
• Black Sheep: Amusingly enough considering his demonic nature and goat-like appearance Lord Scapegoat is this for Etrigan’s family being practically the only one of them who is kind pleasant and supportive without any qualifiers
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Various exo-suits have this as a melee option
• Bland-Name Product: Sundollars, Buggle and the L-Phone are all more or less this
• Blessed with Suck: The early iterations of the Bone Growth formula would give them superpowers but it would also warp their appearance to be utterly nightmarish, tends to react badly in some individuals and prevents the altered individual from being able to swim. Jinx’s powers early on were this as well, draining the luck of everything in her general vicinity leads to people getting hurt and dying around her which is naturally traumatizing for a child. Ace/Wanda Wayland has a similar variation only she hasn’t gained control of it and when she doesn’t have outside help to restrain her powers anyone who looks in her eyes goes insane. Metallo also arguably has this as the operation to turn him into a cyborg was extremely painful and his own lack of many basic human senses (touch, taste and smell) leave him wildly unbalanced and deranged.
• Blood Knight: A good number of them. Lady Shiva is arguably the most intense but Deadshot, Rose Wilson and Cassandra all qualify to varying degrees. Sakki was also this for the one non-canon omake he appeared in.
• Bloody Hilarious: Lobo in the omake “The Iceman Cometh and Goeth Straight to Hell” is intended to draw on this trope when brutalizing the titular Iceman
• Blow You Away: Whirlicane and Red Tornado have this as their primary powerset
• Bludgeoned to Death: How Lionel ultimately is killed by Lex
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: A whole lot of candidates qualify for this to the point where its difficult to list out. Ultra-Humanite and Mr. Frost are all lesser examples of this as their moral codes are all comprehensible if significantly diverged from what anyone might consider conventional human morality while entities like Circe and other gods, the Endless and the various Lords of Chaos and Order are at the far end of this operating on principles of morality in such a way that no human could fully replicate it. Doomsday is an example where YMMV since he’s been compared to an animal more than a fully rational human being)
• Blue Blood: The Court of Owls are a highly malicious take on this trope
• Blue Is Heroic: Superman’s costume is primarily blue and he’s generally considered to be the archetypical superhero. He’s been given various appellations like “the big blue boyscout” based on this
• Boarding School: Both Gotham Academy and The Charles Mc Nider School for Gifted Youth are boarding schools. King Crimson has also confirmed that there probably is a “Metropolis Academy” boarding school in Metropolis but hasn’t ever put it in quest to any meaningful capacity
• Bodyguard Babes: Mercy loosely qualifies as this although her job is a lot more complicated than just being Lex’s bodyguard
• Body Horror: Mordru possesses Vandal Savage in one of the JSA omakes and then proceeds to liberally play with this over and over again. Animals that take the bone growth serum arguably undergo this as they become warped and grotesque. Dr. Moon regularly likes to engage in horrifying experiments which tends to lead to this
• Body Snatcher: Ultra-Humanite is quite capable of this
• Bomb Disposal: Kingslayer at one point plants numerous bombs all around Metropolis to force people to disarm them. Of course, the entire situation gets more complicated once it is revealed that Circe got involved and enchanted things so that observing one bomb made you see many more bombs all over the place leading to people spending a massive amount of time defusing fake bombs while trying to defuse the real bombs
• Bomb Throwing Anarchist: Anarky has elements of this but is ultimately a subversion as while he does pick a fight with people when he really shouldn’t he has principles he sticks by and has a genuine rhetoric if one that’s sometimes overshadowed by his youth and impulsivity causing him to make mistakes he shouldn’t
• Bond Villain Stupidity: In the non-canon Titanverse omakes Cassandra engages in some of this when fighting against Robin out of costume
• Bookcase Passage: There is one contained in LexCorp tower
• Born in the Wrong Century: Zod is this as he’d have likely been much more successful if he’d been born during Krypton’s warmongering era as opposed to its peaceful isolationist period
• Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous: Naturally comes into play with the Lords of Order and Chaos. While individual members might be good or bad neither faction as a whole desires anything that mortals would want
• Bounty Hunter: Lobo’s a bounty hunter in space
• Brain in a Jar: The Brain is this although the jar he is in is pretty impressive all things considered as its basically a discount Dalek
• Brain Uploading: It is implied that Professor Ivo left behind instructions on how to do this before he died but it has not been found since then
• Brainwash Residue: The mind control pheromones tend to do this to people as they have long lasting effects on behavior
• Bread and Circuses: A favorite tactic of Lex Luthor’s in getting people to side with him and not want to rock the status quo
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Lex is arguably this to Cassandra although it is unclear if he’s actually fully breaking the cycle so much as he is being a better parent than his father and grandmother were
• Breath Weapon: Superman’s “freeze breath” arguably counts
• Bribe Backfire: Lex’s attempt to bribe Bradford Sackett turns into this when Bradford just pockets the money for himself and doesn’t listen to Lex at all
• Brotherhood of Evil: The actual Brotherhood of Evil for which this trope was named after have shown up in the background and while Lex has never met them face to face their schemes have somewhat affected him
• Brother–Sister Incest: Unintentionally implied by Mammoth to be his relationship with his sister Shimmer in a non-canon omake which Shimmer immediately refutes and is disgusted by the unintentional implications of his statement.
• Brother–Sister Team: Leonard and Lisa Snart can be this even if they often are not
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Superman naturally retains his iconic S-shield emblem. Lex also likes to stick L’s or LL’s on his stuff. Robin also has some R-branding and Anarky co-opts the pre-existing symbol of an A in a circle that anarchists use as his own personal emblem.
• Bullying the Disabled: Marie Louise Dahl is on the receiving end of this from more unpleasant individuals
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: A good amount of LexCorp employees are this to some degree or another with individuals like Roxanne Sutton, Carl Draper and Edward Nygma all having very odd quirks but all being very good at their job and having their quirks tolerated because of it.
• Bystander Syndrome: For the most part this is averted in quest as when people don’t get involved they oftentimes have a good reason for doing so.
• By-the-Book Cop: Most of the SCU is this to at least some degree
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Jason Blood uses a special chant to transform into Etrigan and vice versa. Black Adam also uses one but hasn’t ever been shown activating or deactivating his powers using it.
• Cain and Abel: There are hints that Barbara and James Gordon Jr. may end up developing this kind of dynamic
• Came Back Strong: This is Doomsday’s superpower
• Came Back Wrong: It is unclear just how much of an effect Lazarus pits have along these lines but considering traditional comics depiction of their effects it’s liable that they at least of some effect on people’s mental states
• Cannon Fodder: Arguably any basic unit that engages in combat from the Intergang thugs to Ra’s assassins qualify as cannon fodder to at least some degree due to a mechanical quirk where non-hero units are targeted to die before hero units.
• Cannot Cross Running Water: This is notably a weakness only a small minority of vampires have even if it is still technically present
• Cape Busters: LexCorp funded the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit to become something along these lines and attempts to make its own security forces into something along these lines
• Captain Ersatz: A joke of this stripe is made about Catman when the description for him is “Think of Batman then aim lower”
• Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Lex and Mercy broadly take on a villainous version of this dynamic but they do occasionally change things up and play different roles for different people
• Captain Superhero: Villian example, Captain Boomerang has shown up and is technically this even though in-universe it occurred because he stole his name from a toy mascot he with that name
• Captive Audience: There’s at least one Joker musical number with this in mind
• Cardboard Prison: Mostly averted except with Arkham which was somewhat designed with this in mind and has interested parties deliberately keeping it that way.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The Joker is an interesting case as he regularly acknowledges and will eagerly and gleefully remind people that he is both a lunatic and a villain but he’ll often lie about the reason why he is the way he is and has motivations beyond just For the Evulz
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Bruce Wayne, who makes himself look like a lazy jerk and even a bit of a coward. In reality it's just a cover to prevent anyone from thinking he could ever be Batman.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Cassandra is completely devoted to her new father Lex and will do anything for him.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Inverted twice, as many original universe villains have been made into (reasonably) law-abiding members of society by Lex Luthor cutting them a check. Played straight with Ultra-Humanite, who could absolutely do more good for the cause of his favored art forms by making money off of his supertech than by failing at body-swapping schemes.
• Eco-Terrorist: Ra's Al Ghul, his daughter Talia, and the rest of The League of Assassins are this just like canon.
• Evil Genius: We are playing as Lex Luther after all.
• Historical Domain Crossover: Abracadabra notably pulls multiple people throughout history in the Warriors from Forever sidestory. Notably due to how time travel works in quest this means that at some unspecified point in the quest’s timeline this archived army will show up to menace the Flash.
• Non-Idle Rich: Say what you want about Luther, sitting on his loins is something he never does.
• The Dreaded: LexCorp itself is practically this to it's enemies particularly Lex himself. However a more publicly open example would be The Joker who is just as bit as nightmare fuel incarnate just like his comic counterpart despite the lack of many appearances.
• Happily Adopted: Cassandra Cain to point where they’re now fully denounce their old father to fully become Cassandra Luthor.
• Kryptonite Factor: Being a Superman story, his weakness to kryptonite was bound to be revealed and just his canon self player!Lex has no shame in abusing it, possibly even more than his canon self actually considering he made cars powered on it
• The Reliable One: The every loyal Mercy Graves is just as bit as competent as her canon self. Luther might keep gaining more allies but he will only ever have one Mercy.
• Team Mascot: Downplayed with Janus, he a two headed lion cub,which Lex is proud to own a creature as a symbol for his power but unlike most examples lacks any real personal affection to the animal.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: For the Lex Corp family minus a few, Professor Ivo, Edward Nygma aka The Riddler and later Dr. Moon fall under this.

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