Customer Reviews

Superman Vs. Lex Luthor

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The editors of this collection really picked some of the best stories for Luthor's characterization, explaining what makes the Man of Steel's arch-nemesis tick.

Luthor's Silver Age origin story, "How Luthor Met Superboy" (by Jerry Siegel himself) is clearly a product of its era, but it's still very good--and it lays the groundwork for all of the cool stuff Elliot S! Maggin would later do with the ruined friendship between the characters in stories like "The Luthor Nobody Knows" and "The Einstein Connection." It's a pity that the sequel to "The Einstein Connection," called "The Ghost of Superman Future" isn't also included, but I guess you can't have everything.

The classic "The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman" introduces the planet Lexor, whose inhabitants hail Luthor as a hero. Its tragic sequel from decades later, "Luthor Unleashed," tells of Lexor's ultimate fate--and also introduces Lex's suit of power armor.

I've never been a fan of the post-Crisis "evil businessman" version of Luthor--he's a radically different character who should have simply been given a different name and introduced as a separate villain, rather than supplanting the classic supergenius Lex--but I have to admit that the editors picked good samples of him at his rotten best, even if they are pretty dark for my Silver Age tastes. "Metropolis 900 Miles" paints him as a complete monster, toying with people's lives for his own sick amusement. "Checkmate" explains the post-Crisis version's backstory and how he got to be the way he is; it takes what I think is usually the best approach with a villain, to make the audience understand and even pity him a little while never losing track of how horrible his actions are.

Rounding out the story is Luthor's Golden Age first appearance by Jerry Siegel; an early Silver Age story where Luthor steals the world's great monuments (hey, Luthor doesn't think small!); the first post-Crisis appearance of Luthor; and a biography of the post-Crisis Luthor leading up to his presidential administration (yes, Lex was President at one point!).

The only one I didn't care for is "The Army of Living Kryptonite Men," a Silver Age story that's a little too goofy even for my tastes.

Overall, I give this book a definite thumbs-up.

I was expecting to have to deal with the "first apperance" story; that's par for the course in these compilation albums and I was ready for the poor writing of the 1930s, what reasly surprised me was the haphazzard way that the stories for this collection were picked. There wasn't much of a rhyme or reason. Unless they were going for "the most boring Luthor Stories Ever Told".
No mention of the alternate Lex Luthor who is a superhero.
An incompleate reprint of Lex becoming a bussinessman in the 80s.
None of the great team up stories with Brainiac.
However you will find way too many of the camp Superboy stories and the juvenile origin of the Lex Luthor feud with Superman.
If Lex is a sociopath bent on world domination I saw no evidence of it here and if I was new to comics and had no other reference poin than this book I would (eroneously) think "wow, what a boring character this Lex Luthor is".