The obvious way to update Magneto’s origin (which would also correct for Xavier & other characters whose ages have at least to some degree been pegged to his) is to have the character-defining moment in his youth be not the Holocaust, but the “ethnic cleansing” in former Yugoslavia. Give Erik a birth year of 1990, give or take a couple of years, and that gives Marvel an extra couple of generations before they’ll need to reboot again to sync up comics time with real-world time. And the world will no doubt give us at least one more horrific genocide in the next 20-50 years so that Marvel can reboot X-Men yet again.

Heck, the mid-90s had two different horrific genocides going on that people in the comic-reader demographic have (probably mostly) heard of: the five-way extermination-fest in the Balkans, and the three-way war in Rwanda and Burundi. Both featured all sorts of opportunities for a young mutant to come to the conclusion that minority groups have to protect themselves, because the so-called good guys cannot be relied on to do it for them. I’m old enough to remember how nauseating it was to see people in Western Europe and North America celebrating the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII and how they all swore “Never Again” would such a thing be allowed to happen… while the same thing was happening, everyone knew it was happening, yet hardly anything got done to even try to stop it until after millions were already dead.

(Pre-emptively: Anybody who thinks shifting Magneto from being a Jewish Holocaust victim to a victim of a later attempt at mass genocide would somehow cheapen the horror of the Holocaust… is themselves cheapening the whole idea that genocide is horrible and wrong.)

Rebooting Magneto as a black African from Rwanda or Burundi — or even creating a new character with that as their origin story — would be an interesting idea… but on a practical level, alas, I don’t think this generation is yet ready to handle Black superheroes or supervillains in a sufficiently-consistently-respectful manner. (I’m not saying there are no comics creators who can do non-white characters justice, because there are plenty, but unfortunately editors keep handing the characters in question to writers who have no clue what racist asshats they are.) Maybe a couple of generations down the road.

Lex Luthor has been, and always will be, my favorite villain in comics, film, TV, etc.

One aspect I love about him is that, of all villains, he is the most realistic. And one that is around us all of the time whether we like it or not.

We all want to be like Superman, but we often end up like Lex Luthor. We want what WE want. And we’ll most likely save ourselves before we save someone else. It’s our nature.

Lex himself can be the tragic anti-hero of his own story, and very few comic book villains can truly fit that bill. In ‘Smallville’ we see all the best sides of him, but then we see all the darkest demons of his past, present, and future. It is tragic that he is almost inevitably meant to be the purity of evil… yet we all can sympathize. Its as if comic books have re-written Milton through Lex Luthor.

Curious as to your thoughts on the film and TV adaptations of Lex? I thought Gene Hackman’s Lex was a step up from the rather boring one-note Lex from the comics AT THE TIME. And Michael Rosenbaum is flat out the best incarnation of the man and the villain.

-John

For me, one of the best parts of All-Star Superman was Professor Quantum and his lab; the man says right away that the majority of his work was inspired by how Superman’s body works. This returns Luthor’s hate to the realm of choice; it was Lex Luthor who decided that Superman was a wall between humanity and its ultimate potential, where other scientists have, instead, used the example and existence of Superman to bring the human race closer to that hypothetical goal. And it reminds us that the only person putting the Superman so impossibly far ahead of the average person is, well, us-if you want to make the character more accessible, the best place to start is to remember the amazing things the human race is capable of.

Superman is a god that thinks he’s a man.
Lex Luthor is a man that thinks he’s a god.

I’m also with Morrison on the idea that while Luthor likes to boast that he’d be the world’s greatest hero if Superman hadn’t come to Earth, he’s full of it. He’d still eff it up due to his massive ego.

I’m writing a story that shows more of my thoughts on Lex right now, though, so I’ll hold off on dropping them just yet.

I would argue that Luthor knows he is not Superman, but I would also argue that Luthor’s true hatred for the alien is mutually felt by Superman. Luthor, for his part, sees Superman as much as a threat to humanity for the change in the universe he led to earth. Before Superman, mystery-men like the JSA were almost exclusively humans, with powers from science and self-discipline. After Superman, you see a flood of alien powers, deferring to Superman as much as emulating him. We did not have to fear an army of Alan Scott’s Green Lanterns descending from space with their rings raining death on earth, where that is possible for Hal Jordan. For Superman, Luthor represents all the horrible things that made him the last Kryptonian. Greed, avarice, an air of uncaring, and most of all an introverted galatic view all contributed to the end of Kryptonian society. Because they were not a space-faring race, Kal lost almost everything about his birth planet, and he sees in Luthor those same qualities (most of which made Krypton great) that doomed Krypton. Superman says it a lot: he lost one planet, he doesn’t want to loose another.

Finally, as to the Joker/Luthor relationship: at the end of the recent Crisis, Lex confronts Alexander Luthor a moment before Alexander died. He tells him how that he thought the plan brilliant, but he made one mistake: He didn’t let the Joker play. Then Joker does what he does best, with a smile and a laugh. To steal from another companies closing line: ‘Nuf Said.

Just Some of many references:

Books of Doom – Origin and Humanity
Dazzler #3 (just one comic that came to mind) – Honor and Outsider Reactions –
Doom (2003) – Existentialism
Doom: The Emperor Returns – Self-Made Man, Perseverance
Stan Lee Meets Dr. Doom – a humor comic, but gives some comic insider views
What If #52 – Doctor Doom embraces sorcery and becomes Sorcerer Supreme
What If #22 – Doctor Doom became a super hero (not really a stretch in the early years)

Good article, but I always thought Doom and Luthor were on the same level. “You scarred my face.” “You made me lose my hair.” Both are insanely jealous of their opposites…but to each their own.

Evil Batman is a great shortcut for Luthor I feel.

However, with several of the comments and especially the “You really believe that, don’t you” line, it appears that Luther’s biggest roadblock to actually being a good guy is Superman himself. Like has been admirably demonstrated here, Luther can never be Superman so instead, he’ll do his best to be the exact opposite. If he can’t be the best, why not the worst?

But from the Luther I’ve seen and what everyone has shown here, even that doesn’t satisfy him because he knows he could be the best if it wasn’t for Superman. So he continuously tries to defeat Supes just so he can say, “He’s not the hero, I am,” such as in the picture above. That is the ultimate goal of every great narcissist and Luther is nothing if not a narcissist. Because in a world without Superman (or with a subjugated Superman), Luther really is the greatest American Hero.

Have you read Lex Luthor: Man of Steel by Brian Azzarello? I think that was the best portrayal of Lex Luthor’s personality and drive. I even wrote a paper because of it for class and you can check it out if you want:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddq2xrmh_17hdxqc9&hl=en