Originally Posted by
Adekis
My first impulse is to say Skyhook, Henshaw, & the Pocket Universe Zod Squad.
Also though, I'd argue that Luthor is like, one of the most inconsistent villains of all time. Frequently he's written as very nuanced and sympathetic, too caught up in his own ego to realize he's wrong about Superman, or unwilling to do something truly horrible to someone no matter how badly he wants to win. All that said, every so often some writer who thinks Luthor should be just this completely reprehensible, unforgivable slimeball.
Remember when Luthor offered a woman a million dollars to leave her husband for him, only to ditch her before she made her decision, just so she'd beat herself up over it forever, and that was his whole plan? Remember when he cured someone of a horrible medical disorder, only to give it right back to them out of spite, since he'd only cured it to prove that he was smart enough to do it? Remember when he developed a cheap, simple vaccine for AIDS and wouldn't release it until he turned it into a long-time, prohibitively expensive series of procedures? Remember when Luthor blew up the planet his wife and son lived on and blamed it on Superman? Remember when a masked dude told Superman he had a hour to prevent the destruction of the world, and Kal thought "I don't know who that is, but it's probably not Luthor," only for it to turn out to be him, and his only excuse was "Did you really think I wasn't the worst person imaginable?"
Yeah Lex, somehow I kinda didn't think someone who I just read voluntarily going back to jail to give water to a desert planet, or to save the life of a child, was really bad enough to blow up the world. But those stories had different writers from the ones where he's irredeemably monstrous.
I've said for ages, maybe there just ought to be different Luthor-variants, instead of one unified Luthor who has to encompass everything that everyone wants him to be.