Why did Luthor care about this person?

Question

Spoilers!

When Clark meets Bruce at Lex's party, Lex gets very excited about the prospect of "Clark Kent meets Bruce Wayne".

Why? Clark Kent wasn't known to the world at all just 18 months prior. Until then, he'd deliberately isolated himself, spending his adult life thus far in the far reaches of the US performing nothing but menial labour.

How famous a journalist could he possibly be? Why does Lex give a monkeys about him? For that matter, why was he even invited to the party?

@Bellerephon: And this didn't seem at all strange to anyone? — Lightness Races in Orbit, Mar 27 '16 at 15:47
Maybe they all just assumed Lex was a big fan of Clark Kent. — Bellerophon, Mar 27 '16 at 15:48
@Bellerephon: Mmmm maybe he's really into the DP sports column. — Lightness Races in Orbit, Mar 27 '16 at 15:49
@Bellerephon I think that's precisely the question. Why would he be a fan of Clark Kent, essentially a nobody? Wouldn't Supes and Bats find his remark puzzling? Or would they just chalk it up to just another weirdo making random comments? — Andres F., Mar 30 '16 at 16:09
@AndresF. I think that while Clark Kent is relatively unknown it is still possible that Lex would have read his newspaper articles. Bats might think that Lex was simply wanting a article on Bruce Wayne to appear in the DP while Supes will be happy to be known. — Bellerophon, Mar 31 '16 at 21:19
Supes is seen, earlier, to be arguing with his editor about the relevance and interest in the kinds of stories he likes to write. Maybe he was a little bit willingly blinded by what he wanted to see as validation of his point of view. — PoloHoleSet, Jul 07 '17 at 14:44

Praxis · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-27T16:53:50.807

17

Lex already knows that Clark is Superman and the main point of his plan is to have Superman and Batman fight to the death. He was excited that his two combatants were meeting face-to-face.

It is made clear about two-thirds of the way through the film that Lex Luthor has been running extensive surveillance on meta-humans such as Wonder Woman and Flash for years, and that he knows Superman's secret identity.

Lex explicitly admits that his plan was to have Batman and Superman combat one another. He had been manipulating Bruce Wayne for some time. To ensure Superman would fight, Lex captured Martha Kent, and this relied on Lex knowing Superman's actual identity.

You ask, "Why does Lex give a monkeys about him? For that matter, why was he even invited to the party?" Lex wanted the two men to meet and rile one another up. He either explicitly gave Clark a press pass to the event, and was thrilled his plan was working, or was pleasantly surprised that the Daily Planet had sent Kent, which brought Clark and Bruce face-to-face more quickly than he expected.

edited Mar 27 '16 at 16:53

answered Mar 27 '16 at 15:54

Praxis

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But neither Bruce nor anyone else at the party batted an eyelid. It was as if Clark was some super-famous journalist, Lex's secret secret-knowing notwithstanding. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 27 '16 at 15:54
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@BarryTheHatchet : Why would anyone bat an eyelid? It wasn't intended to be a public announcement at the party. It was really just a conversation between Lex, Clark, and Bruce. Bruce wouldn't think it was odd that Lex would know Clark's name for a variety of reasons. Updating my answer. – Praxis Mar 27 '16 at 15:58
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Meh. Works factually but not very thematically satisfying. I guess there wasn't much more to it then. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 27 '16 at 16:02
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@BarryTheHatchet : For what it's worth, I agree with you. – Praxis Mar 27 '16 at 16:03
Clark had been after Batman, Lex might have been playing on this given that Bruce Wayne is very publicly from Gotham. Also, Bruce was quite a shut-in as Lex pointed out, so a somewhat small-time, yet known, journalist meeting one of the world's elite in his party was worth pointing out and boasting about. – Möoz Mar 27 '16 at 22:21
@Praxis But this implies that Lex know about the secret identity of Batman too, do you really think this is the case that this Batman is so careless? – ABcDexter Mar 28 '16 at 11:44
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@ABcDexter : Yes, this is explicitly stated in the film. Lex was manipulating Bruce Wayne (e.g. through the returned cheques and news clippings with taunting messages) so that he would be driven to physically fight Superman. – Praxis Mar 28 '16 at 15:28
@Praxis Oh yes, those red inked letters :-) – ABcDexter Mar 29 '16 at 10:07

Why did Luthor care about this person?

1 Answers1

Lex already knows that Clark is Superman and the main point of his plan is to have Superman and Batman fight to the death. He was excited that his two combatants were meeting face-to-face.

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