Requiem for Lexor

Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor started life as a stereotypical, mustache-twirling mad scientist; evil through and through. Fifty years later in a more sophisticated, grown-up age of storytelling, he was re-imagined as...well, a stereotypical, mustache-twirling evil businessman. But for a brief moment in the Silver Age, something funny happened to the world's most infamous evil genius; he grew a new layer of complexity. In short, he showed a spark of goodness.

There had been hints of virtue in Lex for some time. When in Superboy #85 (Dec. 1960), he realizes he's prevented the Boy of Steel from saving the life of Abraham Lincoln, Luthor flees the past in his time bubble, overcome with guilt and remorse. ("I'm responsible for many crimes," he reflects ruefully, "but this is the worst of all!...I'-I'm sorry...sorry...sorry..."). A recurring sub-plot concerned Luthor's sister Lena Thorul, who grew up never knowing Lex was her brother. Ordinarily "bad and proud of it," Lex is mortified at the possibility the sweet and kind Lena will one day learn the truth about their connection, and in Action Comics #313 (June 1964) he escapes prison for the sole purpose of erasing this knowledge from her memory when she does temporarily find out. ("Protecting Lena was the one decent thing I did in my life," he tells Supergirl.) So it would seem that at least on some level Luthor knows what kind of man he's become, and he's not proud of it.

The most famous tales to deal with this side of Lex, however, are writer Ed Hamilton's tales of Lexor, a distant planet on which Luthor is regarded as a hero, and not entirely without cause. We first see this (as-yet-unnamed) world in the classic "Showdown Between Luthor and Superman" (Superman #164, Oct. 1963) when Luthor and Superman travel there for a final showdown, one-on-one, on a planet where Superman has no super-powers. When the foes are temporarily separated, Lex learns the planet is inhabited by a race of humans who are just barely managing to survive. There is virtually no water on the planet, but Lex is able to activate an ancient pump, creating a plume of water that wards off birds that were trying to steal what little crops the local farmers could grow. After the incident, Lex "reveals" in a thought balloon that he only helped the locals so they would aid him against Superman, but that sure didn't seem to enter his mind at the time.

In the alien city, Lex is given a hero's welcome, and likes it.

This panel leaves open the possibility that Lex is just "helping" these people out of vanity; it's been established in other tales that he has a formidable ego, and likes being praised. Indeed part of his long-standing resentment towards Superman -- going all the way back to Smallville days -- is that the Man of Steel gets all the attention while Lex, with his great genius, is ignored or reviled. And yet, he thinks in this panel that what he's feeling is "strange" to him. Does this suggest that for once he's feeling a pride that comes from a good place? That he's glimpsing the value of giving for once, instead of taking?

Discovering a stockpile of advanced technology that was abandoned over the centuries as the locals gradually forgot all they ever knew about science, Luthor re-activates some robots and sets them to work searching for a source of water, but it soon becomes apparent it's a doomed effort.

Again we wonder, is Luthor just trying to avoid losing the adoration of the crowds, or is he really starting to care about what happens to these people?

When Superman catches up to Luthor, the locals are willing to dispose of him on nothing more than Luthor's say-so, having fully adopted him as their hero. Luthor declines this perfect opportunity, however, and insists on keeping his word and beating Superman man-to-man. Indeed, after a few rounds of battle he seems sure to defeat Superman, but he "throws" the fight at the last minute, surrendering to Superman but asking him to do him a favor before returning him to Earth; he wants Superman to hurl icebergs from a frozen planetoid onto the desert planet, to supply his admirers with water at last. Superman agrees, and begins to suspect another side to his foe.

Consider at this point, Lex has no way of taking credit for this gift, since he's off the planet and can't know if he'll ever return. Thus, he's just thrown away a perfect opportunity to kill his foe, and stay out of prison, to perform a selfless act for a race of strangers who saw the best in him.

Superman, possibly to fan this spark of goodness into full flame, presents Luthor with a remarkable gift once he's back behind bars.

The following year, in "Luthor -- Super-Hero" (Superman #168, April 1964), Luthor escapes from prison and heads straight for the former desert planet, which its people have named Lexor in his honor. Superman pursues him, knowing he's in for a rough time given Luthor's popularity on this planet, where Superman himself is considered a low criminal. Meanwhile Lex has gained not only the admiration of the masses, but the love of the beautiful (if rather obviously named) Ardora.

Another interesting panel, here, as Lex calls the planet "my paradise." There's no indication he considers it paradise because he's free to plunder Lexor without Superman's interference, or that he intends to rule the planet as some sort of dictator. Apparently he just wants to hang out on a world where people revere him; to start a new life in the one place where his past crimes are unknown. The worst "crime" you could accuse him of, given the evidence so far, is that of vanity, but all things considered, that's not so bad.

Alas, Superman is an agent of justice and isn't about to grant Luthor a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, so he shows up to spoil the party. Luthor develops a means to temporarily grant himself superpowers, so he'll have the upper hand, but he decides to use them only in disguise, to protect Ardora from harm.

Of course this is played up for the "irony" factor, since Luthor's doing exactly what Superman does, but it also shows Luthor has true feelings for Ardora. And again, putting someone else's interests before your own is a fairly advanced concept for a guy as heretofore selfish as Lex.

Superman steals a collection of valuable crystals and becomes a wanted fugitive, with Luthor in pursuit in his super-hero persona, "The Defender." Once captured, Superman reveals that the crystals have a mind-numbing effect that accounts for the Lexorians' lost knowledge of science. For the good of his people, then, Luthor agrees to let Superman escape, so as to dispose of the crystals somewhere off-planet.

So once again, Luthor's thirst for revenge takes a back seat to his altruistic concern for the people of Lexor. However, he's unable to leave it at that, and returns to Earth to battle Superman again, traveling through the time barrier to face his foe during the great San Francisco quake of 1906.

Seven months later, in Action Comics #318 (Nov. 1964) Luthor escapes prison again and rockets directly to "the one world in the Universe I really love!" Once there, he's greeted by Ardora, and decides to settle down.

The only shadow over this happy union is the spectre of Superman; both Ardora and Lex know it's only a matter of time before he returns to take Lex away, again. Lex vows to kill him, but Ardora appeals to his nobler side.

Unable to lower himself in his wife's eyes, Luthor agrees not to kill Superman, but the old grudge runs deep, so he tries to have his cake and eat it, too, setting up a chain of events that will result in the Man of Steel's death through other means. When Superman confronts him before assembled witnesses and punches him in the face, Luthor falls back, strikes his head on a statue and dies. The furious crowd demands Superman's execution and after a dramatic trial it seems certain they'll get it. However Superman is able to escape jail and prove Luthor isn't dead at all, merely in a catatonic state thanks to swallowing a drug that mimics death. Luthor's adoring public assumes he swallowed the drug accidentally, and Superman, though exonerated, is banished from Lexor.

And so Luthor gets his wish. Superman is forbidden by a judge to return to Lexor, and he always obeys the law, right? The people of Lexor love him and he has a wife to settle down with, so all he has to do now is lay low in his own private "paradise" and live happily ever after.

And yet he doesn't. In short order, Luthor is back on Earth and back to his old evil ways. Obviously the real-world reason for this is that Luthor is just too good a bad guy to write off forever, and in the Silver Age, the other writers in the Weisinger stable could hardly be expected to be bound by Hamilton's "happy ending." But to explain it in Superman's fictional world, we'll have to assume that life as a respectable, married pillar of Lexor society failed to satisfy Luthor. Maybe he just couldn't relax knowing Superman was still alive, albeit light years away. Whatever the case, he abandoned his "paradise" once again.

The Lexor saga reaches a tragic conclusion in Action Comics #544 (June 1983) with Cary Bates' "Lex Luthor Unleashed!" Luthor again seeks refuge on the distant world after a particularly frustrating encounter with Superman, and discovers to his joy that Ardora has borne him a son in his absence.

So it is that Luthor decides to put his past life behind him once and for all, settling into a new life on Lexor as a devoted husband and father. In a montage of images, we see an undetermined amount of time pass, during which Luthor enjoys romantic strolls with Ardora, playtime with Lex, Jr and building a huge, new, lightning-rod-like device that penetrates to the core of Lexor, delivering a constant pulse of neutrons to forestall a predicted planetary cataclysm.

As ever, though, the old demons return to prey on Lex's mind, and soon he's slipping away to nurse the old grudges:

Stumbling onto a hidden lab full of advanced gadgetry, Lex gets that old gleam in the eye and before long a mysterious armored "raider" is flying around attacking passing spaceships and generally causing mayhem. Ardora has a bad feeling and asks Lex point blank (albeit respectfully) whether he's involved, but he tells her to look him in the eye, and denies he has anything to do with the crimes. This, we will soon learn, is a flat-out lie, signaling that his darker side has won out even over his love for his family.

Back on Earth, one of Luthor's robots initiates a doomsday protocol that threatens Earth, and once Superman stops it, he's off for Lexor to capture Lex. This time he's taken the precaution of applying a sort of "super sunscreen" so he can keep most of his powers, but when he arrives he finds Lex in the "raider's" armor, which puts them on near-equal footing, power-wise. The people of Lexor watch them battle, and when they hear Luthor's voice coming from the armor of the criminal raider, they begin to turn against him. Noticing this, Luthor's ugly side comes to the fore.

"I'll have to discipline the little maggots," he says, abandoning whatever affection he may have had for the Lexorians and suggesting, perhaps, it never ran very deep in the first place. Luthor aims a powerful blast at Superman, which ricochets onto that "lightning rod" contraption and delivers a lethal surge of destructive energy straight into the planet's core. Lex tries to reach his wife and child before the inevitable occurs, but neither he nor Superman can save Lexor, which blows to bits.

Superman assumes he is the only survivor of the disaster and heads for home, but Lex has also survived, armed for future encounters with a powerful new battle suit and a thirst for vengeance now magnified many times over.

And so it is that a saga of promise and hope ends in hatred and despair. I'm tempted to say Cary Bates turned Ed Hamilton's premise on its ear, reversing Lex from a villain with a good heart deep down into a creep-at-his-core who can't move beyond his darker impulses. But the fact is, there were plenty of indicators throughout the saga that Lex would never completely reform. If nothing else, there was the fact that he kept leaving "paradise" to come back and trade blows with Superman over and over.

You could argue Superman is complicit in this vicious cycle as well. After a while, he has to know no prison will hold Lex for long, that so long as he's on Earth, he's going to endanger innocent lives, and that on Lexor he's actually helping people instead of hurting them. And yet he insists on tracking him to Lexor again and again to drag him back to Earth, undermining the only real shot at reformation he probably ever had, and adding each time to the obsession with vengeance that will finally destroy whatever was still good in Lex's brain.

Logical or not, I can't help but view the shift in mood from Hamilton's tales to Bates' as a microcosm of comics in general. In the Silver Age Superman mythos, the theme of redemption was a constant; mortal enemies repeatedly turned last-minute allies, even giving their lives to save Superman in the case of Wonder Man, the Tyrant Superman, Android-I and the Composite Superman. Lex himself was retroactively made into a boyhood friend of Superboy, a former admirer driven to evil by hatred and jealousy. Always, in the back of Superman's mind, there was the hope that the friendship could be restored, and various imaginary tales showed how idyllic life would be if that were to happen.

Lexor, then, was our lifeline, a ray of hope that even Luthor was, at heart, salvageable. It didn't really matter if it ever came to pass, as long as the hope was there. Modern times, though, called for "tougher" foes, and in the same Action Comics issue where Brainiac's human form was replaced with a Terminator-style chrome body, Luthor too lost a big hunk of his humanity with the destruction of Lexor.

Maybe in the long run it was even worth it, to get a more formidable foe in what is frankly one of comics' weaker Rogues Galleries. Certainly that purple-and-green battlesuit made for better looking toys than the old prison grays ever did. But it's hard not to feel a little wistful for the multi-layered Luthor we briefly knew, and the family he only briefly had.