Saturday, April 13, 2019

Lex Luthor Vs. The Kingpin



I have been surprised by Jon Cryer's performance as Lex Luthor on Supergirl.  Despite the actor's comedy roots, he plays the malevolent mogul deadly serious.  Plus, the battle armor suit looks pretty cool on him as well (even though it's one of those magic Iron Man/Black Panther  armors that seem to magically appear out of nowhere).  I'm not crazy the he kept his goatee for the role, but otherwise he is a huge improvement over Jesse Eisenberg.

15 comments:

det_Tobor said...

Jon Cryer's comedy history camouflaged his serious role playing abilities just like Michael Keaton's did when he was announced as Batman in the late 1980s. The extra note of interest here is that he played Lex's nephew (?) in Superman 4.

As to the "odd couple", I know Fisk was strong enough to take on Spidy, but Lex's suit and tech as well? That IS an upgrade.

Rob aka Mediancat said...

Fisk has always been portrayed as just an exceptionally strong baseline human. The reason he could fight Spider-Man was later revealed to be Spidey avoiding using his full strength against normal humans, for fear of killing them.

Not that long ago there was a comic where the Kingpin had royally ticked off Spider-Man, and Fisk waded into a battle thinking it would be even, like always, and Spidey handed him his ass.

Luthor wouldn't have the same qualms Spider-Man would. It's likely Fisk caught him by surprise, but unless Fisk has some super-powered backup nearby he's about to get his teeth kicked in.

jTh. said...

The greatest flaw in the Superman films has almost always been playing Lex for laughs, so I'm glad if they're finally getting away from that (as they did in Smallville, of course).

KKWRBruce said...

To be honest, neither of these follicly-challenged gents are the type to argue their business across a board room table...

jack-el said...

first, it is Jon Cryer...
you have Lon Cryer up there, Ross....
great cover as per usual....
i would like to reiterate my suggestion of The Kingpin and The Whale....

Carycomic said...

@Rob the Mediancat: Kingpin probably went to the Power Broker immediately _after_ the ass-handing incident in question. Either that, or we're looking at a Kraalian Skrull in disguise.

@Ross: Love that title! It's your best one, to date. X-D

Anonymous said...

Dear Ross: How about a cover-sim featuring Adam Strange trying to rescue Adam Warlock's green-skinned girlfriend from the mind-controlling clutches of M.O.D.O.K's female counterpart? You could call it...

"S.O.D.A.M. & GAMORRA"

Bob Greenwade said...

Item by item:

The fight - I agree with the assessments given so far. It's most likely that Fisk caught Luthor off guard, and is just throwing him off balance for a follow-up, which likely includes three superpowered and/or power-suited hirelings (just off the top of my head, I'd guess Rhino, Electro, and Tombstone, but others can probably come up with a better trio).

The title - No, it's not your best title, though it's probably in the top 20. My favorite is still "Wakanda Fool Am I?"

The goatee - At least one version of Luthor has sported a goatee in the past, though that was the heroic Alex Luthor of pre-Crisis Earth-Three. The part that bothered me was that Jon's beard was left brown, rather than colored the now-traditional Luthor bright red.

Luthor portrayals - I don't really think of Gene Hackman's Luthor as "played for laughs" as "played with a darkly comedic edge," in a manner appropriate to late-70s sensibilities. Jesse Eisenberg is the only problem portrayal that I can think of, and at that he seemed to pull back somewhat closer to tradition in his Justice League post-credits cameo.

S.O.D.A.M. & Gamorra - Seconded.

Bob Greenwade said...

PS: I had to read up a bit on Perry White for something unrelated to this blog, and I suddenly imagined an exchange between him and Maxwell Smart:

"I'll get right on it, Chief!"
"Don't call me Chief."
"Right. Sorry about that, Chief."

jTh. said...

I think of Hackman's Luthor as played for laughs largely because of his ridiculous henchmen. A properly sinister genius wouldn't hire such dolts.

Jim Burrows said...

It was really good to see Otis and Miss Tessmacher played seriously, too.

Bob Greenwade said...

Otis isn't completely played seriously on Supergirl. He's still only slightly smarter than the average rutabaga. The silliness is just toned down to better fit the show's tone.

Brother Kellymatthew said...

If that's the original pre-Debacle Armor Fisk better hope Lex has needs of him to live. BZZZZAP!

Anonymous said...

Made me laugh

Anonymous said...

@Bob Greenwade: Let's split the difference and say one of the Top Five.

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