| NOTE: This page is only about his novel incarnation as the original film incarnation of Lex Luthor was not voted Pure Evil, and thus only the novel version of Lex Luthor's info and crimes should be put here. |
| “ | Gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes and don't share their power with mankind. No, I don't want to be a god, I just want to bring fire to the people. And I want my cut. | „ |
| ~ Lex Luthor's philosophy. |
Lex Luthor is the main antagonist of the 2006 novelization of the film Superman Returns, released the same year, which serves as an homage sequel to the 1978 classic film Superman: The Movie and its 1980 sequel Superman II while ignoring the events of its 1983 threequel Superman III and its 1987 fourquel Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
He is an evil criminal mastermind and genius scientist who schemes to defeat and kill Superman, his longtime archenemy, for taking away five years of his life. After Superman returns back to Earth following five years traveling through outer space, Luthor envisions a last scheme to conquer the Earth and defeat Superman once and for all.
While the film gave him some, if just a few, redeeming qualities, the novelization by Marv Wolfman strips said traits away, presenting him as a greedy, sadistic and murderous monster.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Due to him being intended to be the same Lex Luthor from the first two movies of the Christopher Reeve series and the film's nature as an homage sequel, this version of Lex Luthor likely committed some of the crimes the Gene Hackman version of Lex Luthor did, with the novel confirming that he indeed tried to destroy California to create a new West Coast to make a high-tech beachfront property.
- Among the charges he was tried for, was the attempted assassination of the President of the United States.
- To avoid prosecution, he tricked Superman into believing that some Kryptonians had survived, leading Superman to leave Earth for five years and not be there to testify in Luthor's trial, allowing him to get away with his crimes, with Lex hoping that Superman would die in outer space.
- Tracked down Gertrude Vanderworth, a wealthy old widow, and married her just to inherit her fortune upon her death. While she believed that Lex loved her, this wasn't true and Lex himself faked her signature when she died while writing him on her will.
- To secure his place in Gertrude's will, he leads her to believe that all her relatives were swindlers, leading Gertrude to disown and hate all of them, with Lex not even allowing them to be with Gertrude on her deathbed and kicking them out of Gertrude's mansion once it becomes his own.
- Neglected Gertrude's dogs and starved them to the point where one ate the other.
- He treats Kitty Kowalski, his lover, with little to no respect, often verbally abusing her and barely restraining himself from hitting her though he still lustfully finds her alluring.
- He travels back to the Artic alongside his henchmen and sneaks into the Fortress of Solitude to steal some Kryptonian crystals Superman's father Jor-El left for him.
- He gleefully causes a power outage over Metropolis when he drops one of the Kryptonian crystals into the sea of his scale model for his own city. This leads to many of Metropolis citizens to nearly die and almost gets Lois Lane and many journalists aboard a plane with a rocket attached killed, though they were fortunately all saved by Superman, who had just returned to Earth.
- With the Kryptonian crystals, he decides to resume his plans to make a high-tech beachfront property by combining the crystals with Kryptonite to create a huge Kryptonian island that will expand until it destroys America and potentially other countries, forcing all of the rest of the world to pay him to live in his "New Krypton" islands, even horrifying Kitty, who finds it disturbing how Lex enjoys killing people.
- His main motivation to destroy America with the Kryptonian expansion is for the people to appreciate him as a god, feeling that all those innocents who are going to die deserve such fate for not appreciating his "genius", ignoring that they are even people who don't really know who he is. He mainly hates Superman because he feels that if it hadn't been for him, the people of the Earth would have seen him as a god, proving that he has a god complex.
- To allow his goons to steal some Kryptonite from the Metropolis Museum of Natural History, he creates a distraction by sending Kitty to drive an out-of-control car so Superman will save her, cutting off the brakes without warning Kitty, endangering her life along with those of many Metropolis citizens.
- Takes Lois Lane and her son Jason White hostages when they sneak into his yacht, and leaves them to die upon correctly deducing that Jason is actually Superman's son and when "New Krypton" starts to grow.
- By creating "New Krypton", the landmass' expansion starts to cause chaos over Metropolis, endangering many citizens, all who are rescued by Superman.
- When Superman faces him at "New Krypton", he and his goons savagely beat up a weakened and powerless Superman, breaking his legs and some of his ribs in the process, and also taunting how he killed Lois and her "spoiled brat" (he didn't know they survived, but the intention counts). When Kitty tries to stop him, he even shoves her aside. He ends the beating by stabbing Superman with a Kryptronite shard he plunges deep into his body before breaking it off and throwing Superman into the sea so he can drown.
- When a recovered Superman starts pushing "New Krypton" to send it into outer space to save the world, Lex runs for his life and leaves his goons behind to be crushed by a giant pillar.
- He gets furious when Kitty deliberately throws the Kryptonian crystals off the helicopter they are using to escape so Lex can't repeat his plan again and to get back at him for her mistreatment, leading him to restrain himself from punching her, with the intentions of dropping Kitty off the helicopter once they are at ten thousand feet, though he is ultimately unable to do so.
Trivia[]
- Only Lex Luthor's novel version can be considered Pure Evil, while his film version doesn't count due to possibly caring about Kitty Kowalski as well as his henchmen (he plays cards with them and looks somewhat concerned when they are crushed to death) and having some comical moments, like when he gives one of Gertrude's little relatives his wig (though it's played for dark humor), catches both Lois and Jason sneaking inside his yacht while brushing his teeth and the iconic "WROOOOOONG!" scene which has become a meme.
External Links[]
- Lex Luthor on the Villains Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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 Pure Evils
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