A lot of questions were raised by the end of the movie Batman V Superman, what was Lex Luthor babbling about? Why did Batman threaten Lex at the end of the movie? What happened to the Mother Boxes? And how much of it would be shown in Justice League: Part 1.
We saw Lex babbling to Batman about the bigger threats that would come to enslave the earth after the fall of Superman, hinting towards Darkseid and the mother boxes. In the deleted scenes we see Lex standing in the Kryptonian birthing milieu and “communing” with a demonic alien type creature which we are guessing is Steppenwolf, holding three boxes.
Towards the very end of the movie we see Lex coming out of a trance like state which we presume is the visions transmitted by Darkseid, sent to those who are susceptible to his wicked ways. And who better than sociopathic Lex.
Apart from Darkseid, Parademons, and the Apokolips, Darkseid would be the ultimate threat in the movie. Though he would not be the real big bad guy of the Justice League: Part one film until the very end of the movie. But instead, it would be Steppenwolf.
Darkseid would instead appear in a prologue since we know Zack Snyder loves to do prologue for all his movies. Taking over a major role in Justice League: Part two.
In the prologue, we would actually get to learn about Darkseid’s first war that took place 30,000 years ago with Ancient Man, the Amazonians and the Atlantian’s who fought off Darkseid and he’s been gone ever since. So the reason Lex Luthor is seeing these three mother boxes here is because he is hearing this prologue.
The 3 mother boxes left behind by Darkseid belonged to the Atlantian, Amazonians and the Ancient Man – red, beige and white box. In the deleted scenes of Batman V Superman, Steppenwolf is seen levitating these boxes and in another scene, it is shown Cyborgs recording when Wonder Woman plays the file on her computer.
According to Deborah Synder, these boxes are perceptive supercomputers that were created by an Apokoliptian scientist. Which explains the search by Darkseid’s minions to track them down in Justice League – only to reclaim the powerful technology that originated on their planet.
From what we know, the Mother Box that was handed to humans ended up in S.T.A.R Labs, which is why Steppenwolf and the Parademons are searching the earth for these boxes and kidnapping scientists.
Here’s what we’ve captured for afterthought:
“Gordon has called in Batman to help with the disappearance of eight missing scientists in Gotham and Metropolis that have all been kidnapped by creatures from another world. Actually, make that nine scientists, as Fisher’s Cyborg reveals when materializing separately from the other three heroes, much to Wonder Woman’s surprise and delight. He mentions a ninth disappeared Ph.D. of obvious personal importance since he was stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs [where Cyborg’s parents work, and where they saved him from death via mechanical enhancement]. In this moment, Wonder Woman knows well about the insectoid beasts responsible, and the Jack Kirby-styled MacGuffins that they seek: Mother Boxes.”
In the original comic book series, Steppenwolf belongs to an exclusive military of aliens who do the evil behest of an even bigger baddie – Darkseid (just like Apocalypse from X-Men, Darkseid too is an immortal “New God” from the planet Apokolips, who wants to rid the universe of free will).
There were certain hints in the movie Batman V Superman about Darkseid, where we saw the official symbol of omega which belongs to Darkseid and also the winged Parademons in Bruce Wayne’s dreams, right before Flash showed up.