How Luthor Goes About Getting His Own Lois

Before Paul Cornell's run on Action Comics started, DC, as they tend to do, ran previews for it in the back of several of their other books. In the preview I saw, Luthor wants more power for his "find Lantern rings" project, and after an employee tells him no, Lex promptly fires the man, and makes it clear the former employee will never find work again. Said, employee flips out and hits Luthor. That evening, after giving it some though, Luthor calls up his chief of security, and tells the man to have that former employee killed. He gives this command in front of his dinner companion, a woman named Lois.

That honestly surprised me, because this is a Superman book, so a person named Lois is most likely Lois Lane, and I couldn't believe Luthor was stupid enough (or arrogant enough) to order a murder in front of her. I figured that was part of the hook DC was using to get people to buy the book, and there'd be an explanation later in the actual comic. The conclusion I came to was Luthor had hired a woman to play at being Lois. She's a constant thorn in his side, probably as much as Superman in her doggedly investigative way, and he'd probably enjoy having someone resembling her who would blindly obey his commands. It was also creepy*.

Turns out Luthor's Lois is actually a robot, similar to Lois except the robot doesn't hate Luthor's guts. Which is interesting, since it suggests Luthor respects Lois for her acumen, persistence, bravery, etc., but perhaps wishes she'd see more eye-to-eye with him. Or he simply recognizes someone who constantly insults him and looks for evidence to trigger his downfall wouldn't make good company. In a way, it's what I should expect from Lex Luthor. He wants things his way, and he makes them so himself. He's not going to rely on other people - like some woman playing a role - when other people are inefficient and foolish, and not always willing to follow his will. It's also pretty creepy, though. One wonders what Lois would say.

I can't decide which is worse, hiring a woman to pretend to be Lois for him, or building his own. The person he hires would be making their own decision (assuming Lex didn't kidnap/brainwash/purchase them), while the robot has no choice. Depending on how well it's built, the robot probably can't be considered alive, or sentient, in which case, provided he doesn't use it to wreck Lois' or someone else's life, it doesn't affect anyone but him. A person hired would no doubt be changed from prolonged exposure to Luthor's worldview and the stuff he gets up to, and they couldn't tell anyone, since Luthor would no doubt disapprove of their blabbing about activities the authorities might deem questionable. But Luthor might be brilliant enough to create a robot with a soul, in which case he's created a new life, and is likely warping it into who knows what, and it still hasn't had any say in the process.

* I probably should have been more bothered by his casual order to end another man's life, but I'd figured that man was living on borrowed time from the moment he attacked Luthor, and probably from when he told Lex "No". That Luthor would order such a thing didn't surprise me in the least.