Lex Luthor by Brian Azarello and Lee Bermejo highlights just about why the eponymous villain is not just the stereotype setter for “millionaire villain”. Going deeper than first glance and just a few pages, one would easily realise just what makes the villain compelling and why he works as an antithesis for Superman.
It presents us a Luthor who is the ultimate humanist; he who sees Superman as a hindrance to the next step of humanity, but also an attack on his personality – one who hides behind a facade of inferiority through grandiose displays of perceived superiority by playing God. In a fit of spite to prove himself more of a God than the way he sees Superman, Luthor toys around with life itself, here creating it and effectively taking it away to make a point of his superiority to the Man of Steel at the expense of his own emotions and dignity.
This book, to me, shows what BvS did right with the character – forced perspective. We do not see Superman for who he truly is, but through the eyes of Lex Luthor, a menace and a looming and overbearing shadow in the course of humanity’s progress. We see a Luthor who sees himself as the one who has to carry the burden to make this point to the Man of Steel and the only one brave enough to do it.
After all, a good villain is a hero in his own narrative. #crowcomicreviews
