The lasting appeal of Lex Luthor

 

Lex's speech to Amazo:

(From Justice League Unlimited, season 1/episode 8, "The Return")

They were in an impossible lattice of quantum threads and collapsing stars.  Lex Luthor stood calmly amid it, eyes sharp, "A subatomic universe," he remarked.  Atom explained why they were hiding there, "I figured the android can't kill what he can't see."

But the exponentially powerful Amazo saw everything.

He materialized like inevitability itself, his voice resonating through dimensions. "Did you really think I couldn't follow you here?  No universe, however large, however small, is denied to me."

Luthor didn't flinch, dismissive in the face of even a god. "What do you want from me?"

"You have everything humans desire. Wealth. Power. Yet you crave more.  Why?  What is your ultimate purpose?"

Luthor's gaze narrowed and got to the root issue. "What you're really asking is, what is yours?"

Lex turned, the weight of mortality pressing against his spine. "The truth is, for all my struggles to make my mark in life, for all I've accomplished, in just a few short generations, my name will be forgotten.  Even the greatest of us can't compete with time... and death." (pretty deep for a children's program, huh)

Amazo's voice replied with cosmic tension. "Then why do you go on?  Why does anyone?  Why don't I just destroy you and everything else right now?  All it would take is a single thought and---" (Atom for his part was way out of his depth here, lol)

"No!"  Luthor snapped, stepping forward.  "If you do that, you won't see the end of it!"

"The end of what?"  the android asked, his patience was growing close to an end.  Everything was riding on what Lex Luthor said next.  No pressure or anything, though.

"The evolutionary process," Luthor said, his voice steady. "You, of all beings, should know something about that."

Amazo paused. "Yes.  Yes, I'm evolving.  That's why Professor Ivo made me.  These past months I have amassed so much knowledge, and yet... I remain confused... empty.   What am I evolving into?  What is my purpose?  I must know!  Tell me!"

Luthor's voice softened, not with pity, but with clarity.  "There's no way to tell.  And that's why I stay in the game.  My purpose, if you will, is to see where it's all going."

Lex spoke on, eyes locked with the infinite. "And you, you'll live forever. You'll be able to see it all."

Amazo's glow dimmed, contemplative. "Is that my purpose?  Simply to be... a witness?"

Luthor did not waver.  "We create our own purpose in life.  Now go create yours."

The Greatest Criminal Mind of our time:

Lex Luthor just saved everything from annihilation by using his intelligence, calm voice, and logic to talk Amazo down from an existential crisis about immortality, purpose, and the meaning of life.

This was a rare glimpse into his philosophical core.  As petty and jealous as Lex was, he certainly was a "villain," driven by ego, but also curiosity, legacy, and the need to witness the unfolding evolution and meaning.  

Luthor could have gone off and been rich on some island, but he'd rather be in the thick of things in the super villain game against superheroes as gods, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the like (or a reluctant hero ally against other threats).

I was more loyal to Marvel Comics as a child; the characters and stories felt more current, DC Comics by and large coded "old-fashioned" to me at that time, but strangely I always felt like Lex Luthor was the best villain ever created in comics.  He was a proper underdog and had only his mind as his power.  

Lex Luthor would be utterly bored if he had the likes of Spider-Man or Daredevil as his arch rivals.  No offense to them.  Not because they are too "weak" ...

... rather, they were too grounded:  Marvel Comics gave us relatable heroes.  Peter Parker juggled rent and responsibility; Matt Murdock navigated justice and Catholic guilt.  Those were not things Lex Luthor would find compelling to oppose.  

What made Lex tick was going up against more powerful beings, Superman, Amazo here, Darkseid, Brainiac, and so on. 

Lex Luthor had to be up against the abstract!  These examples:

• Superman/moral clarity and infinite power

• Amazo/evolution and existential drift

• Brainiac/pure intellect without humanity 

• Darkseid/tyranny incarnate

But Lex Luthor?  He's the man who looked at these and others and said at every instance, "I can beat that."  Not because he's delusional, but because Lex firmly believed in the supremacy of human will (well, really, his human will, lol).