Originally Posted by
Jim Kelly
I know that Luthor's baldness is explained as an artist's accident--but I'm skeptical that's the whole story.
When Luthor is introduced in the syndicated newspaper strip, he's called the "Ultra-Scientist"--which makes clear Siegel's association of Luthor with the Ultra-Humanite. We should really consider the Ultra-Humanite as the original Luthor. You could even imagine that the brain was transplanted from Delores Winters to Red Luthor (one story followed on the heels of the other). In Ultra, Siegel seems to be going back to his original Superman concept, where that Superman was a villain. Although of infirm body, Ultra is the "Ultra-Humanite" because his brain power makes him a Superman. It's an interesting parallelism that, not long after Superman appears on the scene, another kind of super-being appears to challenge him.
That's really the essence of Ultra/Luthor--he exists to challenge Superman.