Lois, good to see you. As well as your other esteemed colleagues in the media. I think when this is all straightened out, we’ll find it to be nothing more than just a misunderstanding -- and I, like the people of this city, will put this little episode behind me.

I’d invite you in for a drink-- --but I imagine that someone like you doesn’t imbibe. Pity. A good stiff drink might do you some good. Long before you appeared on the scene, I was here. I built up Metropolis from an ordinary “town” into the most powerful city in the world. Enjoy the public’s little infatuation with their new mascot while you can. Fame is fleeting… …but Lex Luthor is forever.

My medical staff will handle it from here, Superman. Poor thing. Overexposure to the very virus she cured. She will be missed. A true hero. They say you can change the course of mighty rivers. But, you have so little understanding of how fragile the human condition is. How easily a life, all life, can be lost. Being the most powerful man in the world means nothing if you are all alone. No one knows that better than I. Go back to wherever you came from before you fail us all.