The DCEU Discussion – Part II: Lex Luthor
- Luke Evans
- Jan 6, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 5, 2021
The Man of Steel and BvS posts ran pretty long, so I have decided to put this one up as a separate post.
-Pic: MTV.com - Jessie Eisenburg as the DCEU's Lex Luthor.
So... We are about to move on to Man of Steel and then Batman v Superman. To start with, I want to say that I am actually a big Superman fan. While I lean toward Marvel for ongoing series reading, I have loved Superman since the first days I picked up a comic. My first comics were black and white ‘70s and ‘80s Superman and Batman comics.
I do love these characters so much. I have put up my articles on the Importance of Comics and you’ll see how much Superman means to me in there. So what comes next in this series on the DCEU, is said with love from the heart and soul of a life-long fan…
And I loved Man of Steel... And then Batman v Superman came out and we met:
Lex Luthor.
The BvS version of Lex is so bad...
Here is why...
Warning: SPOILER heavy article to follow!!!
As I have said, I loved Man of Steel. Since I was a little kid, no one had taken comics as seriously as they were beginning to be taken after 2000's X-Men and 2002's Spider-Man. It was beginning to become a serious medium and one that was made for adults just as much as - if not more than - for kids.
Superman... Well, Superman movies were so corny and campy they harkened back to the '60s Batman days. Superman Returns in 2006 was another crack at the characters, but they intentionally choose to run it on as a sequel to 1980's Superman II and so they carried over a tone from the original series. While I appreciated some aspects of that - such as the hard work that they put in to make the characters of Clark Kent AND Superman so distinct from each other, in an attempt to make it so that you could believe they were not the same man - other aspects fall way, way short of my hopes for the story.
And at the heart of this was the character of Lex Luthor. In both the original movies and the 2006 follow-on, Lex was played for laughs. He was a cheesy maniacal villain who had ridiculous plans and bumbling sidekicks and we never really got to see a good motivation for what he did.
I might need to rewatch them all too, to be fair… but I think my point of view here will hold strong. Maybe when I finish my evisceration of the DCEU I might try to go back... probably not...
What am I talking about, you might be led to ask? Here's a couple of strong examples as to why I object to the previous portrayals of Lex Luthor:
* Superman I - Blowing up the San Andreas Faultline to separate the West Coast of the US from the mainland to in some sort of maniacal real estate plan?
Oh my God – please stop!!
* Next comes Superman Returns (2006). As I noted, they had followed on as a soft continuation of the Christopher Reeve films, taking up after the story of Superman II. Again, their version of Lex Luthor was a shallow caricature, a larger-than-life corny villain with ridiculously over-the-top plans. His hatred of Superman seemed to stem from their constant battle of wills, where Lex was consistently foiled by the Man of Steel. And yet again… another real estate scheme!! Yawn…
- Vid: Superman Returns - Wrong!
I also grew up with the romantic comedy/drama of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and I liked this one just fine. Again, there were super-corny aspects of this show. Like the '60s Batman, they knew what they were doing and they never took themselves too seriously. While it was billed as a drama, they definitely acknowledged the romantic comedy side of what they were making. Their Lex Luthor was still full of huge plans and melodrama, but at least they took the character somewhat seriously… for a romantic comedy show!
I get the urge they felt to keep aspects of the movies light and kid-friendly. That's fine, but we are talking about Superman - he's a god among men. His arch-nemesis has to be a match for him- and Lex is just a smart, rich guy - so you have to make him a serious threat. How do you do that if you make him a clown?
Well, for starters, crap like this doesn't help:
-Pic: From Lex Luthor/Porky Pig #1 by Mark Russell and Brad Walker.
© DC Comics and Warner Bros. 2018.
What did you say??? Lex Luthor and... Porky Pig!!!!
To be fair, I haven't (and won't) read it...
Moving on...
I liked the Superman: The Animated Series - that sprung from the Batman: The Animated Series - as well, and I liked the Justice League animated show that followed. Again, while their Luthor was full of plans, they took the character seriously.
Other animated versions build on this dynamic between Lex and Superman and the reasoning behind Lex’s hatred of Superman:
These versions took both Superman and Lex seriously in a way I hadn’t seen before. This I loved.
I also loved Smallville, the first of the new age of superhero TV shows, which paved the way for Arrow and its spin-offs. It was great. And like the animated series, they took the character of Lex Luthor seriously, this time attributing his turning into a villain as the product of a deeply disturbed childhood, an abusive father, and a growing fear of super-powered individuals from outside of humanity. The xenophobia was a great angle. It provided an awesome reason at last for his hatred of Superman that went past “evil villain plotting” and frustration at constantly being foiled by Superman and gave it some heart. It also made Lex somewhat redeemable. He was not evil beyond saving. I loved that. There were reasons why he was the way he was. And chief among the reasons was his hurt that Clark had not trusted him.
From the Arrowverse came the Supergirl series and they have their own version of Lex. I approve of him too. He is perhaps psychopathic or sociopathic, but he's not batshit crazy like other live-action versions. It's a cold and calculated madness - and that I buy so much more.
Lex: We must put faith in ourselves, but instead we look up to him, with big, glassy eyes, because we think he's invincible. But it's my duty to dispell the world of that notion. And when he dies, they will finally wake up and see him for what he really was - a false god. Lena: At least he's a good man. Lex: HE IS NOT... A MAN! I was the Man of Tomorrow, not him! Not him!
- From Supergirl: Season 4 Episode 15
That's a madness that works on the screen.
In May of 2005, the definitive comic version of the character, in my opinion, had his own series. It was titled Lex Luthor: Man of Steel and it was written by Brian Azzarello and beautifully penciled by Lee Bermejo. This is definitely one to shout out to the colourist too - which is Dave Stewart.
Pic - Lex Luthor: Man of Steel #1 by Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo, and Dave Stewart
© DC Comics 2005.
Pic - Lex Luthor: Man of Steel #1 Page 11. By Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo, and Dave Stewart
© DC Comics 2005.
Pic - Lex Luthor: Man of Steel #1 Page 17-18.
By Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo, and Dave Stewart (© DC Comics 2005).
Like the Smallville and Supergirl TV shows, they chose to really go deep into the character. What makes a man hate another person on sight? Why does Lex Luthor always try so hard to beat Superman? What is it that sets him apart from other "human" villains? He can't just be nuts. That's not enough. He has to have a reason to hate. Hatred is an ugly, powerful emotion. It does not come lightly.
And if you are making one character hate another, you need to show me how that came to pass AND why it came to pass.
And at the end of the day, this is where Batman v Superman fails as a movie. Because they didn't show me why Batman hated Superman. They started to, at the very beginning, and then they lost it in all the complicated nonsense.
I just had an epiphany while I was writing... I went to lump Lex in the same pile as Batman in the above statement. But that's not fair - they did show why Lex wanted to destroy Superman. And it was like the comic above. He feared the coming of the demons from outside. They actually covered that angle perfectly. But it's lost in amongst the stupidity of Jesse Eisenburg's insane performance and the convoluted story they chose to tell overall.
To be fair, Jesse Eisenburg is actually playing a different character to all the others. He is Alexander Luthor Jr. - the son of Lex Luthor. In the film, he says that his father was the "Lex" behind "LexCorp". Alexander Luthor is an entirely different character in the comics. And for a time, that Lex Luthor had long red hair, different to the BvS version, but still:
-Pic: From Comicvine.gamespot.com (© DC Comics).
So, that's who Jesse Eisenburg is playing. Does that make me hate his performance any less?
No... it does not.
Here... Watch this... All the problems of this version of Lex are right here...
Join me for: The DCEU Discussion - Part III: Man of Steel
******
Previous posts for this series:
NOTE: The pictures and videos used here have been sourced from different internet sites, always linked to under the picture. In the case of comic panels, the original issue numbers and creators are listed, as well as the company that owns them. All rights remain with the original creators and have been used here for entertainment and educational purposes only.
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