Barry returned from Gotham with an umbrella that night and knocked on Lex's door.
Lex was working at his desk. Barry walked over, handed him the umbrella, and said, "The professor said you'd know what to do."
Taking the umbrella from Barry, Lex gave it some thought and more or less guessed what Schiller had in mind.
The item known as "Schiller's Umbrella" was actually somewhat awkward in terms of power. Whether it was the Life Equation or the Anti-Life Equation, both could directly affect the fundamental source of the universe—but only if the user was a scientist. This thing could basically achieve its greatest effect only in the hands of Batman or Darkseid.
But Schiller was obviously not a researcher. Even if he had acquired this thing, he could not use it for research and could only make use of its most superficial function: hard control.
Whatever the principle, under normal circumstances, intelligent beings could not look directly at the umbrella's canopy. One glance was enough to make them dizzy.
Humans would faint after one look. Kryptonians with Super Brains had a higher limit of endurance, but they would still become dizzy for a short time. Especially if caught unprepared, they might even lose consciousness for several seconds.
Other than that, though, it had no particularly special functions. Its physical attacks were not enhanced in any way, so it could not be considered a weapon.
But this thing had one enormous advantage: too few people knew anything about it. Most people had no idea what the umbrella's canopy was made of. When they saw someone pull out an umbrella, they assumed it was about to rain.
So, the umbrella was perfect for sneak attacks.
The target was easy enough to choose. Although Batman was not good at unexpected encounters,