What's next after Three Jokers? Three Luthors! (November 2020)

 This was just a fun pitch for a Three Luthors story I made before posting the last Three Jokers post. Made this for fun and inspired by a Three Supermen post.

Link to Original Post on Reddit

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Three Luthors

Three Luthors

Partially inspired by the excellent 3 Supermen post by u/cloudsandlightning:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/j9ss1c/discussion_3_supermen_inspired_by_3_jokers_and/

The Criminal

Alexei Luthor

Based on the original Golden Age Luthor, with red hair and without the “Lex” name (later being given “Alexei” in the Bronze Age).

Naming him the same title as the Golden Age Joker makes sense. Like him he’s very different from his successors. Not quite the mad scientist renaissance man or shady mastermind with a billionaire CEO façade. No, he’s just a criminal mastermind.

He creates and sells weapons to terrorists, profits off war, and in general just wants to use his genius for money and power for his criminal empire.

He doesn’t obsess over Superman like the others, and just hates him because he messes with his plans. Nothing personal. He could care less about him being an alien or him getting more attention.

Gene Hackman: "The greatest criminal mind of our time!"

Like how the Criminal was inspired by Jack Nicholson Joker’s gangster past and aesthetic, the Criminal Luthor is what Gene Hackman’s Luthor is very much based on.

The Donner Luthor has scientific expertise for sure, but science and inventions were never really his focus, especially in the first two films. He was more into money and real estate.

Nor does he have a façade as a businessman and doesn’t put any effort to be more than a criminal. In fact, he takes pride in being “the greatest criminal mind of our time”.

Well, he did have a fake company called “Lex Luthor Incorporated” when he bought all that land but otherwise, he’s as crooked as they come. He was even excited to learn about Zod and the phantom zone because they (criminals) were “his kind of people”.

He also wears wigs. That along with Otis his more comedic side, similar to the goofiness of Nicholson’s Joker, are different from this Criminal Luthor, however.

The Businessman

Alexander Luthor Sr.

This next Luthor would be the early modern or Post-Crisis Lex as written by John Byrne and Dan Jurgens. The capitalist entrepreneur who owns Metropolis and often gets into crime to help him stay on top.

Unlike the Criminal, he has a “legitimate” company with Lexcorp and has (or had) a decent public reputation. His criminal behavior is hidden and it’s not his true goal. He’s more Machiavellian. Immoral but doesn’t quite embrace evil as the original. The ends justify the means to him essentially.

He’s intelligent but he relies heavily on those in his employ and his vast wealth and resources. He has a legal team that keeps him out of jail and from being caught, and scientists that do all the work for him. He’s not quite a super genius, at least on his own.

Like his predecessor he sells weapons to terrorists and war criminals, but he does so in secret while selling weapons to governments that those terrorists fight against, at the same time.

This is the Luthor Lois and Clark work to take down with journalism.

Speaking of which, he doesn’t hate Superman because he’s jealous. He also tried to hire him once. It’s the fact that he can’t control him that irks him. Also, like the Criminal it’s because he keeps getting in his way. He didn’t know about him being an alien at all until after hating him.

In many ways, he’s kind of like an evil Bruce Wayne. Minus the actual skills, physical capabilities. So, an evil version of how the in-universe public sees Bruce.

A perfect example outside of media is Clancy Brown in STAS and before JL and JLU.

Clancy Brown

Last Son of Krypton, the 3 part premiere of STAS, is the perfect story for displaying this kind of Luthor. That scheme were he sells weapons to the military AND terrorists simultaneously is done here very well and he does try to control Superman here too.

The Super-Man

Alexander Luthor Jr.

The egotistical, mad scientist, astrobiologist, inventor, Super Genius Lex Luthor.

Why not “The Scientist”?

This is the Silver Age Lex…but he’s also the modern Lex as we know him.

Let me explain. First…

Pre-Crisis Lex

The Pre-Crisis Earth-1 Lex was an aspiring scientist who was a huge fan of Superboy before an incident in their childhood destroyed his hair and friendship. His newfound personal hatred for Clark is what droves him to be a villain, away from the path of being a heroic scientist.

He is capable of inventing crazy gadgets and weapons that can hurt and kill or Superman or do other evil deeds. He’s perfectly capable of embracing the sci-fi aspect of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Superman comics and has teamed up with Brainiac.

When he became the businessman, there were quite a few people, fans and writers, who missed this version and felt that the new one was less original. I’ll let Neil Gaiman’s quote here explain:

“It's a pity Lex Luthor has become a multinationalist; I liked him better as a bald scientist. He was in prison, but they couldn't put his mind in prison. Now he's just a skinny Kingpin.”

Later, writers Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Tom Peyer and Mark Waid made the Superman 2000 Pitch that would restore many Pre-Crisis elements while paying tribute to all Superman history.

They were heavily inspired by Elliot S! Maggins’ work in the Bronze Age, including his revised Lex origin, and novels Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday.

I’d explain it, but I feel like I should let their Lex segment speak for itself:

“We see Luthor playing chess with twenty grandmasters simultaneously while reading untranslated Il Principe and teaching himself Urdu via a Walkman he made for himself in five minutes back in 1962. Luthor is so smart we don't even have a WORD for what he is yet; calling him a genius is as insulting as calling him an imbecile.”

Lex's Genius

“Here’s a secret about Luthor no one yet knows. Despite his born ruthlessness, he was once salvageable, once redeemable--until Superman arrived. Though even he doesn’t consciously realize it, every iota of Luthor’s self-esteem was pinned to achieving that most lofty goal: to be considered the greatest man who ever lived. And he was on his way--until Superman appeared and outclassed him, triggering the scattershot sociopathic tantrum that is his criminal career.”

How Superman was what caused him to become irredeemable.

“Here’s another secret. Luthor's Lexcorp empire? All the corporate-baron stuff we see him doing routinely? Six minutes of his day, maybe less. He’s not the Kingpin. He only pretends to be. Luthor the businessman is the tip of the iceberg, a smokescreen generated to give the public and his enemies a false, easily digested persona which masks his true depths. In other words, Luthor conquered the financial world largely in order to project a "secret identity" designed to make people underestimate him. Lexcorp is but one of a thousand projects Luthor attends to every day.”

Lexcorp

Long story short, it didn’t work out.

But we do see elements of this Luthor in their greatest Superman works like Birthright (Waid), Red Son (Millar) and All Star (Morrison). Later writers like Geoff Johns (Secret Origin, Blackest Night, N52 JL) and Scott Snyder (Post-Rebirth JL) also build on this concept.

A super smart, scientist Lex Luthor whose riches and company are but a tiny aspect of is life. But also, a tragic Lex who could have been a good man.

Who could’ve been the world’s Superman.

Until Kal-El of Krypton came in.

He has a secret desire to be Superman (Diana’s Lasso got it out of him in Blackest Night).

It’s his pride and envy born of Superman that made him a villain.

The best scene to display this would be the end of All Star Superman.

"This is how he sees all the time, every day."

"If it mattered to you Luthor, you would’ve saved the world years ago.”

Another reason “Super-Man” is my name for him, is because he also resembles Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s ORIGINAL Super-Man concept:

"Reign of the Super-Man" where it all started

A classic Sci-Fi Mad Scientist

Overall this version of Lex is generally what we have today.

How they can all fit?

I think this is a bit easier to do without multiverse, hypertime or metaverse elements compared to Three Jokers, but at the same time could use being an Elseworlds or different continuity.

They can all be different Luthors.

The Criminal could be Alexei Luthor, his brother is Businessman Lionel Luthor, and his son and Alexis’ nephew is Alexander Luthor. Or if they all have to be “Lex”, Lionel can Alexander Sr.

Of course, Superman (and everyone) would know there are three, but there’s not much they can do about it. Alex Sr. has or had a good reputation and could have distanced himself from his brother. Maybe Lex jr. could have been inactive in the early years.

I think this could really be an interesting concept to use. Maybe it’s the influences from his family that ultimately made Lex jr. evil too. Kind of like Smallville.