Quivering, shaved-headed minions?
From Luthor.
"Darkseid is" existential slogan?
From Luthor.
Heavily-featured, giant faces of "The Leader" everywhere?
From Luthor.
Death-dealing eye-beams?
From Luthor.
Ticking off Superman?
From Luthor.
PLUS, Luthor could do COOL stuff with visualization of vocalizations.
I simply must learn to talk that way.
Yeah, Luthor was the granddaddy of all that is evil. It's a shame he's been reduced to doing voice-overs for Lowe's commercials.
ReplyDeleteAre they ... EVIL Lowe's commercials?
ReplyDeleteIs there any other kind?
ReplyDeleteLuthor rocks. Don't really like the recent S***lville-isation seen in Birthright though.
ReplyDeleteHe should be Character Donated to Gotham, where he'd make an excellent villain for Bruce Wayne and Batman. Only in recent years have we seen Luthor and Wayne go up against each other (NML, Murderer (albeit indirectly)). Wayne's number one goal should be to thwart Luthor's machinations at a business level. I loved Batman vs. Luthor in Grant Morrison's epic "Rock of Ages" (JLA 10-15).
Please sir, can I have some more.
It always seemed to me that the Luthor-Superman struggle should have been flipped.
ReplyDeleteImagine: "One plucky scientist is Earth's Last Hope against an all-powerful alien bent on domination! The scientist, bearing the scars of his childhood betrayal by the alien, risks life and limb against the mightiest being in the universe!"
That sounds a lot cooler than "Super-powered muscley dude fights mad scientist."
I'm just sayin', is all.
To use pre-Crisis-speak, Earth-3 had it right.
well, sure, we're genetically hard-wired to root for the underdog, given th way you phrased it.
ReplyDeleteBut think on it this way:
A cancer rots the heart of the human species. The most brilliant man the world has ever known has turned his gifts against his own species and amassed enough power to make nations tremble. When all hope appears lost, a star-spawned savior, blessed with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, must take up the gauntlet and face down a brutal foe who cannot be defeated by violence, and whose arsenal includes weapons drawn from the darkest shadows of the human psyche.
It's all in how you phrase the setup, neh? I mean, I'm not knocking that the Earth-3 setup is cool, but the current setup ain't nothing to sneeze at.
Also, I'm a fan of the Birthright Supes/Lex shared history. In my opinion, it's one of the few things Smallville has gotten right. There's a lot of dramatic tension there. You get to watch how two "friends," both gifted outsiders, start in roughly the same place and end up on opposite sides of the universe, morally/metaphorically speaking. Powerful stuff -- I know it gives me goosebumps.
--Brian, defender of all things Superman (except Smallville, which is just crap).