The Cadmus Project was a government-funded genetics laboratory. In its early days, one of its scientists, named Dabney Donovan, had created a horde of creatures which had subsequently escaped and were living underground in Metropolis. These DNAliens were growing sick, wasting away from an illness which they believed had been delivered to them by the men at Cadmus. Enraged, they declared war on Cadmus and on the surface world.

Lex Luthor II, himself a clone, was also falling ill. He supplied arms to the DNAliens in their war against Cadmus. Meanwhile, Luthor and the Cadmus scientists were each trying to find a cure for the strange disease which was killing the clones.

The Cadmus scientists were able to develop a cure, but by then it was too late. Most of the DNAliens had died, and Lex himself was fast slipping into a catatonic state. Metropolis, meanwhile, had become a war zone.