Why Lex Luthor is Awesome (Also: *cough/snort*)

[thehefner]

An excellent essay examining why Lex Luthor is utterly awesome, and may yet give the Joker and Dr. Doom alike runs for their money when it comes to the title of "greatest supervillain ever."

"Other villains fight men. Luthor is, when you get down to brass tacks, a man trying to fight God." I love it. I used to struggle in my attempts to hold Lex up as one of the true all-time greats just because of the conflicting takes on the character, but Mr. Bird makes the astute observation that those conflicting versions are all essential to the character. Amazing.

That said, he may or may not be simplistic or mistaken in his assessment of Dr. Doom. The jury's still out on that debate. Plus, I can think of a certain someone who might take issue with her Joker comments, but that's a whole other post entirely. His points on Sexy Lexy still stand.



Looks like that cold/sore throat I'd been fighting off for the past two weeks finally kicked in, just in time for me to sleep in, relax, catch up on my Netflix (on the pile today: MISHIMA, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, and POINT BLANK), and plot and plan my next big move.

Once things gel a bit more, expect a rather huge and possibly insane announcement for how I plan to spend the next four or five months. Hell, if things pull together like I'm planning, all of 2009 is going to be glorious madness on levels that would put Arkham Asylum and Sparta alike to shame.

Comments

[princessebee.livejournal.com]

yeah, but he acknowledg Joker isn't in awe of Lex.

He didn't have that much to say about Joker, really.

Personally I think Joker is at least Lex's equal. And I'll defend Mistah J all the way in all his awesome awesomeness.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I just wasn't sure if you'd take issue with the essential reductive nature of his description. But I see you found the Joker essay that inspired the Lex essay in the first place! I'm gonna check it out today.

[lairdofdarkness.livejournal.com]

THIS IS HEFNERRRRRRRRRR!

Well you got my attention.

As for Lex (and indeed the whole Superman and his supporting cast) I have only seen what he is capable of in Red Son. Other than that I havent really been impressed by his scheming.
Maybe I have just been reading the wrong comics

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

RED SON is indeed a classic. Shit, what other brilliant examples of Lex are there off-hand...?

One, have you ever seen the animated DC series' by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm? BATMAN, SUPERMAN, BATMAN BEYOND, JUSTICE LEAGUE, and JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED? Clancy Brown's (of HIGHLANDER!) depiction of Lex is one of the all-time great voice performances, in my opinion, and the character is written to perfection.

As for comics, my off-hand recommendations are ALL-STAR SUPERMAN (that issue where Clark interviews Lex in prison is gold) and LEX LUTHOR: MAN OF STEEL (from Lex's point of view, where he's the hero and Superman is the villain of all humanity).

[lairdofdarkness.livejournal.com]

My dad is in the first Highlander...admittedly as one of the extras in the battle scenes. True story.
I have seen animated Lex in Justice League and yes it is a good showing of the character but that whole show is awesome, so thats why I forgot!
All Star Supes is one I am kicking myself for forgetting. You are spot on about the prison issue. Makes me smile that All Star and Red Son are written by Scotsmen.
I havent heard of the Lex Luthor:Man of Steel book. I may have to check it out. My main problem with big blue is that I dont find him interesting and most writers seem to confirm this. I like the idea of the good/bad idea being flipped.

Thanks Hef

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

Fantastic Four fought God.
Fantastic Four WON, too.
Guthrie with head split open.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Very, very true.

If Lex had a family, to work that dynamic and get his Superman-obsession under control, I could easily see him taking on Galactus.

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

Hrm.
Maybe.

[heleneotroy.livejournal.com]

Don't forget to leave some time for meeeeeeeeeee. I still very much want you for voiceover work in my project. I'd also love it if you did some photos with us at some point for promo stuff.
Nothing especially soon, probably early springtime.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Early springtime? I should be back for that. I'm hoping to head outta here in mid October.

[pokeyburro.livejournal.com]

The last time I took a long look at something from MGK, it was for Fun From Yesterday. It's a pretty funny site...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

MGK is kind of like a comic-geek version of my favorite joyless bastard, Devin from CHUD.com: I sometimes disagree with what they say (and the *way* they say it makes me *violently* disagree, if you dig) but goddamn if they aren't witty, entertaining, and right enough of the time.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I've really been enjoying what they do with Lex Luthor on Smallville. Some of the complexity is just what happens when you have different authors writing the same character, but his story arc is vastly more interesting and insightful than anything else on the series, by a long shot.

Michael Rosenbaum's performance sure doesn't hurt. It's always difficult to separate good writing from good acting from good directing, but it's clear that the writers are able to give Lex better work because Rosenbaum can make it interesting.

Their Lex Luthor is a great foil for Superman because at least part of him really wants what's best for the world. His father did bad things and he wants to right them.

Unlike the simple moral clarity of Clark Kent, who gets only trivial "Do I save the baby or the bus full of old ladies?" problems, Luthor is more limited in immediate power. He believes that the ends justify the means, and the means of money mean taking a circuitous route. A route that both increases his personal power and hurts some people, looking exactly like the "just a bastard" supervillian while having much more interesting motives.

Clark Kent has genuinely done him some wrongs. The true genius of the series lurks in the fact that if Clark Kent were to forgive Lex and work with him, they could easily end up working together. If all the viewers think of Lex is that he's untrustworthy and would necessarily betray him, the series as a whole is vastly diminished.

The cheap ending will be to subject him to some tragedy that turns him "all the way evil", the cardboard supervillain he's often made out to be (e.g. in the movies.) It would make a fine end to the series, a transition to the movies to let that comic Lex take over from there.

Offtopic: it's not too many seasons from now that they'll need to move Clark to Metropolis and the series title Smallville has to go by the wayside. I don't know if they can tell that story, or if they want to.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with your assessments. I eventually got fed-up with the WB-ness of SMALLVILLE (and moments such as Bizarro saying things like: "I'm like you, only... bizzare.") but what kept me going for those first three seasons was purely and expressly the Luthors.

Man, if only Kevin Spacey had been given a script with that kind of Lex. By which I mean, the adult Lex, of course, the one who encompasses the Lex of that essay and also the kind of Lex that he'll grow up to be after Lionel. Just give him his own movie, I'd watch that.

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I quit when Lana didn't die (again) and then Supermodel...er, GIRL showed up.
Blech.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I keep screaming and being ready to give up because of the plot-based stupidity, and the bad dialogue, and the Clark-Lana angst, and then I keep coming back for the Lex (and to a smaller degree the Lionel). It's nice to see characters with actual dimensionality.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I know, right? Ugh. I know some folks who love SMALLVILLE, but without the Luthors, I never would have made it past season one (much less get to season three before I finally gave up). As you can see with the article, it rather nicely fits the various takes on comic Lex. A very complex and underappreciated character.

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

No Lionel, no watching. That's one of my rules.