John Martin, citizen & rightful ruler of the omniverse.
Luthor should get into more fights with other villains. doesn't make sense for them to be cool with some of his schemes.
Most of the crimes that put Lex in prison (silver/bronze age) were ones he commited before he bacame an adult. Most of the "crimes" he commited after that were not crimes until after he did them. Many of his crimes were believed (by just about everyone) to be absolutely impossible. Then he does those things. Which leads to them being made into crimes. You only outlaw things that can be done.
John Martin, citizen & rightful ruler of the omniverse.
I have read a lot of Silver Age comics lately, and every once in awhile Lex will try to rob a bank. I really hate it, as I feel it's beneath him to do something so common, but I think of it as him needing seed money for something more ambitious. So he was definitely committing real crimes. Plus there's all those attempted murders of Superman.
The laws actually have pretty broad definitions for "catch-all" crimes. I remember one supervillain who was billed as coming from a future where tech had been invented that let him do things that aren't technically crimes. One example was using a fancy teleporter to extract the gold from underneath an area where no one was mining gold.
Well it fits the general concept of stealing, and also mineral rights. Realistically it'd be considered mining even if you're using fancy tech and not excavators.
I could think of two reasons Lex would have had for robbing banks. He has a new anti Superman weapon. Easy way to get Superman's attention was to rob a bank. Make the authorities think that his finances come from crime. Most of his money came from his minor inventions. He would patent & sell/license them through alternate identities. He did not want that investigated.
John Martin, citizen & rightful ruler of the omniverse.
No matter how many reboots, new origins, reinterpretations or suit redesigns. In the end, he will always be SUPERMAN
Credit for avatar goes to zclark
Speaking of Maggin, I don't get why he thinks Lex would be obsessed with Einstein. That has to be Maggin just sharing his own obsessions.
Well hey, I never said that Luthor shouldn't be a threat to anyone, but I think he'd kill a cop, but not a bystander, he's that kind of crook. He'd never stoop so low as to take a hostage, in my view. I mean, in the decades of Luthor stories, I'm sure he's taken hostages before, but you know what I mean. I don't think he'd try to blow up the whole world either, even though there's definitely stories where he's done that.
I love those fake identities, those are a lot of fun. It also makes sense to me that they're the reason he's never considered that Superman might be Clark Kent. Luthor himself has so many secret identities, and he's not attached to any of them, so it'd just never occur to him that his rival's secret identity is the love of Superman's life - the exact opposite approach.
Tired: Luthor thinks Superman would never have a secret identity so he never has to stop showing off his powers.
Wired: Luthor thinks Superman has dozens of secret identities, none of which matter to him.
"You know the deal, Metropolis. Treat people right or expect a visit from me."
Supergirl's Jon Cryer is the best live action TV show version of Lex Luthor combining the elements from more recent comics, TV shows, movies, and real world people to create a believable and frightening version of the character.
Gene Hackman is still the best movie version of the character.
Lex Luthor should always be the smartest guy in the room. That should be the reason why he is able to stay out of prison because he is always two steps ahead of Superman. Superman knows Lex is bad but Lex should always be smart enough to not leave any proof lying around that can prove it.