Even as a kid, I thought the Silver Age origin given to Lex Luthor was pretty silly. He and Superboy were on good terms as teenagers until the Boy of Steel had to rescue him from a fire. In extinguishing the flames, the super-breath also blew some chemicals on young Lex, causing permanent baldness. Lex swears revenge and thus a life long rivalry was born! I mean, he did save your life and wigs do exist, Lex!
My guess was that his brain also took a bit of damage from said chemicals, causing him to think a bit irrationally about such matters. Then again, born in '85, I was a bit late for the Silver Age. I just enjoy lots of things older than me!
ReplyDeleteNow, THIS is funny! Bwa-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ross, for this much-needed cheer-up. :-)
Lol! And I thought I was getting sparse of hair. Luthor makes me look like I'm wearing a mullet!
ReplyDeleteA hairy situation, to be sure. As Ben W. said. It was my theory too that the chemical exposure not only cause the hair loss, but may have caused the criminality and possibly even boosted Lex's IQ from genius to super-genius.
ReplyDeleteCould a super genius scientist be able to develop a way to regrow hair? It's like Dr Doom is able to build likelike robots, time machines, and is a sorcerer but he can't repair his face?
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Ross; that is pretty silly. Then again, I've seen otherwise sensible people in real life hold grudges with more ridiculous reasoning.
ReplyDelete(And for some reason I keep imagining this being re-enacted with Michael Rosenbaum and Serinda Swan.)
In the current comics, is he as anti-ET as he was portrayed on Supergirl? I thought that not much better, however fitting it is with some current racist and anti-immigrant sentiment of recent years.
A take on Luthor I wish we'd see: He's not entirely evil, but simply driven by his avarice and greed. He even has a sort of grudging respect for Superman, despite the Kryptonian so frequently spoiling his plans, and be willing to work with him under the right circumstances. (And if I were writing this version, he'd know that Supes is Clark Kent, and be quite active in helping him protect the secret.) That, I think, would make for a very interesting dynamic.
PS: Emsley, of course, beat me to the pun. And Anon@9:54 raises an interesting point that might suggest a Silver Age teaming of Luthor and Doom. (Yes, I know they've already met a couple of times, in #491 and #2379; I mean bringing them together in a way that somehow recognizes this point of commonality.)
ReplyDeleteLike Ben W, I assumed that Lex had brain damage as well. Plus, Superboy destroyed the artificial lifeform that he had created.
ReplyDelete(Note: The artificial life form from from Adventure Comics #271 can be viewed as the prototype for the pocket universe Supergirl/Matrix created from his "protoplasmic matrix" by Lex after John Byrne revamped Superman and had him visit the pocket universe. See: https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Matrix_(Pocket_Universe).
If memory serves, the DC reference guides that came out during the year-long run of COIE, in the Late Silver Age, did hypothesize that the fumes that caused Luthor's baldness also contributed to his undying hatred of Superman.
ReplyDeleteKudos to Ben W for his Holmesian deductive powers! :-)
Silver Age DC was silly. The covers were all, Why is Jimmy Olsen beating Superman in an arm-wrestling match??? Why is Super-Lois refusing to save Clark Kent???
ReplyDelete@Alec: I guess they were simply the illustrative version of click-bait.
ReplyDelete@Bob: "In the current comics, is he as anti-ET as he was portrayed on Supergirl? I thought that not much better, however fitting it is with some current racist and anti-immigrant sentiment of recent years."
ReplyDeleteRight, Bob. Just keep watching TV.
@Daviticus: Huh???
ReplyDeleteWhat Bob said. :-(
ReplyDelete