The Greatest Criminal Mind Of Our Time: an all-encompassing LEX LUTHOR discussion

(picture the Dos Equis commmercials)

[I]He is the Super-villain's Super-villain.

He can speak, read and write in over a dozen languages fluently, including a few not of this world.

He has created the cures for over a dozen "incurable" diseases, after he created some of said diseases himself.

He can make 300 million people vote him into the most powerful office in the world, and stay there for 3 years real-time.

He owned the bald look decades before it became cool.

He is the Greatest Criminal Mind of Our Time: Lex Luthor![/I]

[IMG]http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130918194042/marvel_dc/images/6/69/Action_Comics_Vol_2_23.3_Lex_Luthor_Textless.jpg[/IMG]

Ah, Lex Luthor. My favorite Super-Villain of all time.

He deserves his own personal all-in-one thread on these new forums. This is intended to be an appreciation thread, a constructive criticism thread, a suggestion thread and an artwork/pic thread, all rolled into one.

I'll go first.

Luthor is the rightful heir to the line of brutal conquerors such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun, Charlesmagne, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.

Luthor is also the rightful heir to the line of brilliant innovators such as Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

Luthor should be the smartest, richest and most cunning man on the planet in the DCU. Luthor should be physically fit and a master of several different martial arts (as much as I dislike Chuck Norris on a personal level, he's the real-world template I'd use for Lex's fighting ability). Luthor should be a self-made man who grew up with nothing, abandoned and disowned by his father Lionel at a very young age.

Luthor's greatness is such that he would unofficially already be ruling the DCU Earth if not for one tiny detail: his irrational jealously-fueled hatred of Superman.

[IMG]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Xf1KPssmdcE/SjselpdgisI/AAAAAAAABHA/Oo9VYISKS3M/s400/lex+luthor+superman+(2).jpg[/IMG]

Superman is Lex Luthor's emotional kryptonite. The only person who can make the otherwise unflappable Luthor act the fool. Luthor should be smart and cunning enough to figure out other every super-hero's secret identity and not tell, just to toy with them. But not Superman's, due to the fact his monstrous ego simply cannot accept a god-like being would stoop so low as to pretend to be a powerless human. Everyone else, Lex already knows.

My favorite portrayal of Lex Luthor is the version from the recent animated series YOUNG JUSTICE, voiced by Mark Rolston. That version comes closest to My Ideal Lex: 10 steps ahead of everyone else, 5 steps ahead of all the heroes. And so cool under fire.

[IMG]http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120329123830/youngjustice/images/thumb/a/a7/Lex_Luthor.png/250px-Lex_Luthor.png[/IMG]

Any other admirers of The Greatest Criminal Mind Of Our Time here?

[img]http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/waitress7.jpg[/img]
[img]http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/520b940f6bb3f7b92b000031-1200-1715/lex%20luthor.jpg[/img]
[img]http://mightygodking.com/images/luthor-hate.jpg[/img]

[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YXmUZUjp0Js/TVh6PMByT1I/AAAAAAAAKoY/xMAm4AHs19s/s400/1468483-lex_luthor_12_super.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.comicsreporter.com/images/uploads/I_hate_you_2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/luthorgreatest8.jpg[/img]

I'm more of an Ultra Humanite guy, myself.

Nah, just kidding!

[IMG]http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr288/penguintruth/cantimagine_zps13ed6200.png[/IMG]

Luthor does well with action figures, particularly in his warsuit (official and custom fan-jobs):


[IMG]http://www.figurerealm.com/userimages/customs/13500/13020-2.jpg[/IMG]
Classic Warsuit Luthor

[IMG]http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachments/radicons-customs/27198490d1291583198-dcuc-lex-luthor-1.jpg[/IMG]
Darker Warsuit Luthor

[IMG]http://geekfiend.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/lex-luthor-full_0_0_0.png[/IMG]
Injustice Warsuit Luthor

"Do you know what the first rule of business is Superman? Always be the smartest guy in the room. I want you to follow me, I want you to try and bring me down. Because just when you think that you're two steps ahead you'll actually be five steps behind. And at no point will you be anywhere other than exactly where I WANT you to be."

I appreciate all the love. :D

Whenever I think of Australian politics, I think of Lex Luthor.

Whenever I watch House of Cards, I think of Lex Luthor with a Southern accent.

[QUOTE=Lexrules;47720]I appreciate all the love. :D[/QUOTE]

It's too bad the OP didn't name the thread "Lex Rules."

[QUOTE=Punisher007;48138]Whenever I watch House of Cards, I think of Lex Luthor with a Southern accent.[/QUOTE]

Spacey played a better Luthor there than in SR. Shame on Brian Singer.

[QUOTE=DochaDocha;47772]Whenever I think of Australian politics, I think of Lex Luthor.[/QUOTE]

[img]http://media.comicbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/13-7-Lex-Luthor-II.jpg[/img]

[URL=http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/luthor1940/media/Gary_Frank__s_Lex_Luthor_by_Jukkart_zpsb8064d6c.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a548/luthor1940/Gary_Frank__s_Lex_Luthor_by_Jukkart_zpsb8064d6c.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/luthor1940/media/CW-STM-prison-set-Superman-Lex-01_zpsf3b1cd86.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a548/luthor1940/CW-STM-prison-set-Superman-Lex-01_zpsf3b1cd86.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[QUOTE=daBronzeBomma;46997]Luthor does well with action figures, particularly in his warsuit (official and custom fan-jobs):


[IMG]http://www.figurerealm.com/userimages/customs/13500/13020-2.jpg[/IMG]
Classic Warsuit Luthor

[IMG]http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachments/radicons-customs/27198490d1291583198-dcuc-lex-luthor-1.jpg[/IMG]
Darker Warsuit Luthor

[IMG]http://geekfiend.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/lex-luthor-full_0_0_0.png[/IMG]
Injustice Warsuit Luthor[/QUOTE]

I hope we get the warsuit in a future movie.

Here's a question:

Exactly how wealthy IS Lex Luthor?

I know he's a multi-billionaire, and that whatever he is worth legally is actually just the tip of the iceberg with his lucrative global illegal operations network. But has there ever been a reliable dollar amount placed on his net worth?

At one point (I think during the SUPERMAN/BATMAN storyline Public Enemies back like 10 years ago or so), Bruce Wayne was shown to be at least his equal or better, but that doesn't ring true to me. Bruce was always born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Lex is usually a self-made man. The self-made man would have to be lot more cunning to get to where he is, unlike the trust fund baby Wayne. Lex should be WAYY more financially savvy than Bruce, since for Lex, making money for Lexcorp is crucial, while for Bruce, making money for Wayne Enterprises is incidental.

Bottom line: Lex Luthor's only real peers on DCU Earth in the wealth department would be guys like Ras al Ghul or Vandal Savage, immortals who have amassed billions over time.

[QUOTE=daBronzeBomma;52224]Here's a question:

Exactly how wealthy IS Lex Luthor?

I know he's a multi-billionaire, and that whatever he is worth legally is actually just the tip of the iceberg with his lucrative global illegal operations network. But has there ever been a reliable dollar amount placed on his net worth?

At one point (I think during the SUPERMAN/BATMAN storyline Public Enemies back like 10 years ago or so), Bruce Wayne was shown to be at least his equal or better, but that doesn't ring true to me. Bruce was always born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Lex is usually a self-made man. The self-made man would have to be lot more cunning to get to where he is, unlike the trust fund baby Wayne. Lex should be WAYY more financially savvy than Bruce, since for Lex, making money for Lexcorp is crucial, while for Bruce, making money for Wayne Enterprises is incidental.

Bottom line: Lex Luthor's only real peers on DCU Earth in the wealth department would be guys like Ras al Ghul or Vandal Savage, immortals who have amassed billions over time.[/QUOTE]


I imagine that Lex's fortune would have several legal & quasi-legal sources. His inventions, both the patented ones & the secret ones. For example: Lexoil is earth's largest energy company. On the one hand he uses patented tech to enable him to use oil wells that were previously "tapped out". Otoh he uses a secret instant synthetic oil process to insure that Lexoil always has the biggest market share ever. As well as keep the world market price for oil so low, that next to nobody could afford to compete with him.