Villains come in many forms. Villains have many skills and talents to help them achieve their goals, whatever they may be. They are so diverse, which keeps the heroes on their guard. Make them rely on a different aspect they have. Some villains are massively different from each other, like Spider-Man and Spot. Others are somewhat the same, like Batman and Ra’s al Ghul. More are evil duplications of the hero, like The Hulk and The Abomination. Yet, when those enemies clash, it might as well be a clone fighting a clone. The best fights are the ones when the fighters are pretty different from each other. One of the most famous ones is Superman vs Lex Luthor. Everything that Superman is, Luthor is not. Everything that Superman isn’t, Luthor is. That drastic opposition is what makes their rivalry so good, so memorable. Yet, there are times when Luthor wants more power, literally. That’s when Luthor loses his strength. Luthor should always be a mortal man.
While Superman is a godly figure with unlimited amounts of strength, Luthor has the strength of an average man. Superman has longevity, and Luthor ages as any other man. People love Superman, people love Clark Kent, and there is an authenticity about that. It’s earned by him being a great human being. Luthor, on the other hand, nearly strongarms people to gain their respect and support by cutthroat, heartless methods. In the event they do clash, Superman could wipe out Luthor before his villain could finish saying ‘Lex.’ However, Lex Luthor has to devise careful, multi-layered, well-planned schemes to keep Superman off his game. Superman is protected by his alien physiology, which grants him immeasurable physical power. Luthor is protected by his intelligence, which puts him at the top of the most intellectual human beings on Earth. Superman has his humanity, and Luthor has his ego. In this classic, timeless rivalry, it’s a fight between mind and might. To add deeper meaning, it plays up to a theme. The main types of conflicts in many stories are man vs. man, man vs self, and man vs nature. An argument could be made that Superman and Luthor is man vs man but it’s much deeper than that. It plays up to the theme of Man vs God, a theme that has been around for quite some time.
However, many times, Luthor has done something that elevates himself to Superman’s power level. His primary way to do that is to create a power suit that comes close to mimicking Superman’s power. Other times, Luthor and Brainiac have combined, which boosts their already high intelligence while giving the body strength to go toe-to-toe with the Man of Steel. Fewer times, Lex Luthor has gained Superman’s powers. Each time he has done that, he obviously goes after Superman. Some attacks are more successful than others. The thing is, though, Superman already has villains like that. He has General Zod, Cyborg Superman, Metallo, and Brainiac himself. Luthor does not need to elevate himself to that level because of this. What makes Zod the character he is is the fact he has Superman’s power with military training. Brainiac also plays with the theme of Mind vs Might as well, with the addition of having the strength that could match Superman’s. And Metallo is a robot that is powered by Kryptonite. No matter which way Luthor goes to rival Superman’s power, another villain has already beaten him to the punch. Luthor doesn’t have to do that.
That is what makes Lex Luthor Lex Luthor. It’s his own human qualities that make him a great villain to Superman. Many test the waters and go head-to-head with him, then find out that wasn’t as easy a route as they thought. Luthor relies on something that could be inherited or worked at by many humans, and that is his intellect. He keeps Superman guessing, on thin ice, off balance, on his toes, trapped, restricted, and limited without leaving his desk at Lexcorp. Say what you will about his portrayal in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Still, he made Superman kneel in front without Kryptonite nearby nor the strength to withstand an attack from Superman if Superman did physically retaliate in that scene. Even though Zod and Darkseid could do the exact same thing because they themselves are strategist, they have the strength to withstand Superman’s rage. As just said, Luthor did not. In that scene, he showed something; in the presence of a Godly figure such as Superman, a mortal man could be terrifying. That was a culmination of who Luthor is and ought to be. He needs always to show that to be human is to be scary. This could play up the irony that ultra-powerful beings have trouble putting down Superman, but a mortal man is the one who consistently brings Superman down to his knees. And the thing with Luthor, because of his success, wealth, and ego, he saw himself as the best man on Earth…until Superman made it to the scene. Because Superman easily eclipses Luthor simply by hovering in the sky, Luthor does what he can to gain the spotlight back. Underneath, he still wants to show that humans, which is obviously him, are still better than Superman. If he does anything that mutates him from human form, a part of his argument against Superman is lost.
The rivalry between Superman and Lex Luthor is one of the greatest and most well-known rivalries across the board. It has proved that it is long-lasting. Part of that is because of how opposite they are from each other. One of the most powerful beings in the universe fights an ordinary man on a weekly, almost daily, basis, and that normal man wins a significant amount of times. It adds so many layers to their rivalry thematically, narratively, and idealistically. Seeing Superman makes Lex Luthor – the most intellectual, wealthiest person on Earth – feel small. Seeing Lex Luthor makes Superman – one of the most powerful beings in the universe – feel humbled. That effect does not happen if Lex Luthor is more than a human.
