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The Faces of Luthor

In tracing the transition from various "ages" of comics, some light may appear if we follow a character through these ages in his various "versions." Superman's chronic nemesis Luthor offers one such figure, in that this long-lived "mad scientist" villain has survived sixty years or so with an intact core concept that has allowed a number of widely varied takes.

Thus, in Luthor, we have the Golden Age version, or Original Luthor; the Gangster, Prison Uniform, Costumed, and Movie Luthors of (roughly) the Silver Age; and the post-Silver Age Spacesuit and Byrne Luthors. Through all these figures, we may follow a shift in motivation, from crass self-interest, to revenge, to ambition, and ultimately, an oscillation between these poles.

Luthor, Mark I - The Original Luthor

Luthor first appeared, in 1940, as a generic evil inventor. The bald, thick-set, image that characterized Luthor throughout most of his history did not define the character initially; an editorial mistake brought this about, but decades of repetition rendered the bald Luthor the "correct," canonical figure.

Luthor and His Lab Assistant

The first Luthor appeared as a youngish clean-cut redhead, able to pilot planes and create giant destructive magnetism ray machines. This Luthor would, in the great revisions of post-sixties Superman concepts, form the template for the "Earth-2" Luthor (retroactively removed from continuity in 1985), and, in the process, also affect the concept of the "Earth-3" Luthor (also removed, the same year) and the "Luthor, Jr." of the Death of Superman period. In essence, where necessity compels some kind of Luthor to appear with hair, said hair still appears in the original blood-red (a Per Degaton, rather than a Jimmy Olsen, red).

Luthor, Mark II - The Gangster Luthor

However, after Luthor's introduction, someone read his first story rather carelessly and redefined the character after the model of Luthor's dubious lab assistant, who, after all, provided a ringer for the thick-set Wayne Boring era scientist. Luthor, in such a period, would typically appear in appropriate business wear for his day until the early Silver Age.

This Luthor, although an established character of some tenure by this point, still lacked a reason behind his perverse pestering of Superman beyond the generic "badness" he thrust as an affront to Superman's "goodness." Also, this Luthor frequently operated with a pecuniary, rather than a personal, motive, as had the Original Luthor; often, his planet-destroying gadgets served as a high-tech pistol in a global holdup in which Luthor would ransom the planet.

One may, without cruelty, characterize this Luthor - the version of the fifties - as the most incomplete and least interesting.

Luthor, Mark III - The Prison Uniform Luthor

The first significant developments in Luthor's canon would bloom in the 1960s, when Luthor appeared in the Superboy stories and acquired a first name - "Lex," possibly short for Alex(ander) or Alexei - and a very silly origin. This origin attempted, unsatisfyingly, to explain both Luthor's animosity toward Superboy/Superman and his shiny nude scalp in one stroke. Therefore, the story went, Superboy and Luthor began as best friends in Smallville. Luthor, in those days, applied his considerable intellect to the betterment of his fellow man and the progress of science. However, his arrogance brought him to a fall when a lab fire started just as Luthor created artificial life; Superboy, in rescuing him, caused toxic fumes in Luthor's lab to destroy his irreplaceable synthetic life form and caused Luthor's hair to fall out permanently.

The Luthor of this period, in both Superman and Superboy stories, appeared in his Kurt Schaffenberger form, in the gray prison uniform that, for some reason, he never seemed to shed during his frequent escapes from the reformatory and from prison. Wardrobe aside, however, the editorial team controlling Superman allowed some depth to intrude into Luthor's previously nonexistent biography. Luthor had a family, including a sister named Lena; said family improbably changed their last name to "Thorul" in disgrace at Luthor's depravity, moved away, and convinced Lena that (Lex) Luthor had died. Furthermore, in a typically Silver Age role reversal story, the planet Lexor appeared, named after Luthor, who, for saving the world, became its hero and eponym.

This Luthor, at the cost of accumulating silly sixties comic book baggage, did begin to acquire some depth, and therefore set the precedent for future Luthors. No subsequent Luthor could altogether escape some explanation and exposition of how he began his feud with Superman, nor what drives him.

Luthor, Mark IV - The Costumed Luthor

By the mid-seventies, someone (tardily) became aware of the lameness of Luthor's wardrobe and the redundancy of Luthor stories and brought about some revamp of the character's visual image. Luthor then acquired his seventies look, this involving a skin-tight body suit that revealed both previously unknown muscles on his frame and how considerably bad his taste in clothing had become. Consider, first, that the combination of plum and forest green bespoke either depravity, indifference, or complete color blindness. Then, in addition, the enormous collar affixed to this atrocious outfit would date the ensemble decisively: This outfit damned Luthor to his place among the disco fashion casualties of the seventies, like many of the Cockrum (and Grell) era Legion of Super-Heroes. Nonetheless, Luthor's new attire rendered him more akin to a conventional supervillain of his period.

During the Bad Costume period, Luthor otherwise became considerably less silly overall. Certain of the more absurd elements accruing about his biography found themselves increasingly ignored by writers; Luthor's plans became more coherent and ambitious, and his arrogance and willfulness became frightening things; in a sense, personality-wise, Luthor became much more like the red-haired sociopathic genius who first bore the name. In this sense, if we ignore the wardrobe, we can find, here, one of the better Luthor concepts.

Luthor, Mark V - The Movie Luthor

Gene Hackman, in the Superman movies, provided a variant of Luthor which represents, perhaps, the scientist as he might have developed on the west coast. Ironic, sarcastic, pompous, decadent, and silly, this strutting peacock's vanity tended to undermine his otherwise menacing genius. The movie Luthor did not appear outside of the cinema. Though purists might take offense at the liberties Gene Hackman took in portraying this hot-tubs-and-large-lapels Luthor, a more generous soul might admire Hackman's ingenuity in creating an altogether different view of the character which, nonetheless, retained many salient points of the original. All in all, he did better than (say) Cathy Lee Crosby as Wonder Woman.

However, the Superman canons that develop over time typically handle comedic relief with other pieces, including, occasionally, the more absurdist villains. Readers, especially those fans we may designate "fans," sometimes take unkindly to humorous takes that undermine the dignity of their icons (consider the long-lasting animus that still lingers around the mention of Keith Giffen's comic-relief version of the Justice League, as one important warning).

Granted, no other version of Luthor would dabble in toupees or dress like a prosperous pimp (with the temporary exception of the clone Luthor prior to his exposure).

Luthor, Mark VI - The Spacesuit Luthor

In 1983, DC decided to revamp Superman's primary enemies, both to strip them of remaining fifties and sixties silliness and to render them more current. Braniac enjoyed a rather drastic restructuring that made him considerably less clownish (although DC could have done that simply by allowing him to wear colors other than pink against his glaring green skin). Luthor's change, however, involved considerably less change; DC chose, instead, to invest him with an overwhelming personal tragedy that would allow him to focus his intellectual energies almost exclusively on the destruction of Superman. Luthor lost his adopted home world (Lexor) in a global catastrophe he somehow managed to pin on Superman, and, in the same story, acquired an extraterrestrial combat suit that would allow him to play Iron Man's evil, bald twin.

If this version of Luthor held much promise, editorial decisions at DC prevented any of Superman's creative team to realize it, because the entire DC universe stood on the doorstep of the Crisis on Infinite Earths revision of 1985. After the Crisis, many characters would enjoy (or suffer) conceptual changes, either to sweep out cobwebbed continuity best forgotten, or to render them more marketable to the (potential) future audiences. Luthor, for his part, would enjoy a drastic overhaul.

Luthor, Mark VII - The John Byrne Luthor

The Superman franchise restarted in 1986, left in the hands of John Byrne (under some direction from Marv Wolfman, et al, but in his hands, nonetheless). Byrne enjoyed considerable leeway in some aspects of the character; and, unlike the debacle that attended DC's insincere assignment of Dennis O'Neil to revamp the character in the early seventies, the company, this time, stood by Byrne's decisions.

This revamp changed Superman in many ways, including the complete elimination of his Superboy career; and, no longer obliged to follow corny sixties Luthor stories for consistency, Byrne imposed his own vision on the character.

Byrne remade Luthor as a criminal working from the inside, rather than the outside, of the power channels of society. He gave him a business, a company, wealth, patents, political connections, false credibility, and a number of other tools that gave him other options besides the inevitable return to the same prison cell at the end of every story. In a sense, he gave Luthor power adequate to balance that of his rival, Superman; Superman outmatched Luthor in personal, physical abilities, but Luthor could consistently stymie the Kryptonian by means of bad press, lawyers, hired goons, political allies, plus the twisted gadgetry that had provided his sole arsenal in the fifties and sixties. To top off this mix, Byrne placed Luthor in a position so that, in essence, Superman and Luthor acted as rivals for the sympathies of the citizens of Metropolis.

Byrne definitely created a Luthor with more depth than any of his previous versions, even if some of this depth came from a stereotypical view of the evil corporate millionaire typical of anti-capitalistic Hollywood agitprop (he found the archetype useful rather than true; nothing here need suggest the unlikely notion that Byrne rejects either capitalism or democracy). However, the character occasionally rang shallow even with all of Byrne's new layering: Luthor casually, unselfconsciously killed and extorted sex from female underlings; he erupted with (sometimes) improbable fits of temper whenever questioned or challenged (yet remained considerably calm in the face of remarkable opposition from Superman); he showed an unbalanced evil that, unlike the great villains of comics, did not allow readers that necessary envy of the evildoer that makes a superlative criminal creation.

However, Byrne's vision had the necessary strength to survive until the turn of the millennium (and probably beyond), and in no way foreclosed greater possibilities for the character. This Luthor would have a purpose even in the absence of a Superman with whom to contend; this Luthor moved to serve personal ambitions greater than the one-dimensional revenge. This Luthor, all told, combined the original Luthor's abilities (and criminal soul) with those of a Professor Moriarty, a Ted Turner, and a Bill Gates.

Indeed, very few cracks seem to mar the concept. A minor difference from Byrne's original reworking of the concept appears in Luthor's contemporary willingness to act directly in some circumstances: One may find him bludgeoning policemen (when separated from the hirelings to whom he normally entrusts such everyday duties) or falling upon his own resources when caught outside his shell of underlings. In this, Byrne's Luthor sometimes resembles the seventies figure, without the awful wardrobe, redundant devices, or inevitable flight into space.

Story arcs, including the much-hyped Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen, showed variants of the Byrne Luthor. These variants either included accessorization or a physical change, but, as far as story consistency allowed, remained much in Byrne's mold.

Mark VIIa - The Steel Hand Luthor

One story arc had Luthor suffering from cancer and eventually dying from Kryptonite poisoning after wearing a Kryptonite ring to keep Superman at bay. This Luthor still demonstrated all the Byrne Luthor traits and only represents a temporary variant.

Marv VIIb - The Clone Luthor

Furthermore, when Luthor reappeared as a clone of himself -- a younger body, with all the magnificent hair intact, claiming to be Luthor's son -- this Luthor represented the Byrne Luthor in a young, healthy body and hidden beneath a phony identity. While visually very different, nothing here represented a major departure from the Byrne Luthor. If memory serves, Luthor still inhabits the body, albeit sans hair; the younger form has allowed him to shed the enormous belly, double chin, and more advanced years of the original Byrne Luthor, and, at the same time, to acquire some physical prowess (through the troika of youth, strength, and training).

This Luthor might occasionally perform a killing with his bare hands rather than delegate the task to an underling, and might, in a pinch, resort to fisticuffs in a manner altogether inconsistent with previous Luthors (with the likely exceptions of the Costumed and Spacesuit Luthors). As well, this Luthor demonstrates a greater inclination to randiness, demonstrated through a number of amours dating back to the Byrne series.

Trivia-oriented fans might remember that, back around 1979, Dr. Doom also attempted to pass off a clone of himself as his son. This strategy failed for both villains. In general, cloning provides an out for a bankrupt story line that resulted in a character's death.

The Retained Essence

One can allow some credit to Luthor's creators and handlers over the years, in that none of their revisions of the characters stripped away so much of the original that the result became unrecognizable. Compare, for instance, the Manhunter, who, between Kirby in the 1940s and Simonson in the 1970s, took on an altogether different form. Less charitably, consider some of the stylishly awful revisions contained in Marvel's recent "Heroes Reborn" titles; or consider DC's shameful destruction of Hawkman, whose trip through the grim and gritty world of imitated fashion first rendered him a drug addict, a patricide, then a character no longer mentioned within DC continuity outside of works that relate to the Kingdom Come concept.

Luthor's handlers seem to understand that Luthor must demonstrate arrogance, vindictiveness, violence, and genius, all traits inherited from his 1940 incarnation; and, after both his original and Byrne's versions, a talent at intriguing. In a sense, Luthor represents a model in how to handle a retcon properly: Understand and retain the essence of the character and resist the temptation to sink too deeply into the shifting waters of trendy characterization.