Action Comics #700 (1994)

Lois Lane presents a videotape and a map to Perry White and Franklin Stern, proving that Lex Luthor has been involved in a wide array of criminal activity including attempted mass murder. She also has evidence proving that the current Lex Luthor is actually the original Lex Luthor in a clone body and not the son of Lex Luthor as the public believes. At Mount Curtiss, Superboy and Superman emerge from the ruins of Project Cadmus. A handful of Team Luthor soldiers survive as well, but Luthor condemns their failure to procure a cure to the clone plague and cuts them off. Superman and Superboy fight the Lex-Men, and Supergirl arrives and helps them finish them off. Superman grabs a helmet from one of the soldiers and takes it to Professor Hamilton who attempts to use the helmet's communication system to track down Lex Luthor. Lois meanwhile reveals her inside source at LexCorp - Gretchen Kelley. Gretchen is the one who first provided Lois with the security footage showing Lex Luthor strangling instructor Sasha Green. Superman tracks Lex Luthor to his private yacht, the Sea Queen. He bursts through the wall and finds Luthor wasting away inside his hyperbaric chamber. Luthor refuses to go down easy though. He has his hands pressed on a trigger that will release an entire stockpile of ultrasonic missiles throughout the city if Superman takes one step closer. Superman appeals to Luthor's vanity and limited sense of reason, asking him if this is how he wants the world to remember him - as a mass murderer? Luthor realizes that he is right and pulls his hand away from the switch. His assistant however, , having always been loyal to Lex, cannot understand why he would falter. Enraged, he lunges at the bed chamber and hits the detonator switch. An electric surge courses through his system, killing him. The damage is done though. The missiles have launched. While Superman races off to try and stop the missiles, Superboy takes Lex's yacht to the Bakerline Naval yard. The missiles come up from underground and begin arcing towards key points throughout the city. The first one strikes the Daily Planet building, and the giant Daily Planet globe crashes to the ground. Superman cannot stop the missile, but he does prevent the globe from crushing fleeing bystanders. Witnessing this spectacle is media magnate Collin Thornton, who now reveals himself to be the demon Lord Satanus in disguise. Satanus has his own ambitions so far as Metropolis is concerned, and he cannot allow Luthor's death wish to bring it all down. Without revealing his hand, he uses his powers to surreptitiously guide Superman to where the other missiles are located. To satisfy his own vanity though, Satanus steers one of the missiles towards the Lexcorp Tower. The infamous landmark comes crashing to the ground. Superman, Superboy and Supergirl succeed in destroying the remaining missiles, but the damage is already done. Metropolis lies in ruins. Back in Smallville Kansas, Lana Lang weds Pete Ross at the Kent Farm.