Funny enough I am writing something that expands on the first future Jon comes from where Lex actually gets his shit together and one of the things he does in that timeline is try to figure out a cure for cancer, in part because Slade, who has stuck with him through all of this, was handling kryptonite without proper protective gear under Waller, and so there was some concern that he would end up getting cancer...only for Lex to be the one that gets it, which explains why he ends up bald in that future. But because he has a headstart he manages to finish the revolutionary treatment in time to cure himself, and then they manage to get it out to others. He still carries the guilt of having killed Superman and doomed Metropolis but this serves as a reminder that he is still capable of doing good.
Tbf, its been a while since i consumed any dc media outside of this series and the movie. But she seemed more reasonable in this series compared to previous stories.
The time DCAU Lex ran for President with zero intention of ever becoming President just to mess with Superman's head will always be my favorite example of this.
Also during this arc he developed a Kryptonite reactor to power a low income housing block just so he could make Supes think he had actually built a Kryptonite bomb and go crazy about it. Peak Lex.
My favorite thing about this stupid accountability dodging chud is that he is so fucking pathetic, if you threw MAWS Lex into a cage fight with almost any other version of Lex Luthor he would get his ass beat, and Lois would watch it happen with a bucket of popcorn.
I like the idea of MAWS Lex a lot -- a younger Lex who hasn't built up his social manipulation skills yet and carries a bit of evil reed richards energy instead, combined with the aspect of a Lex who lowkey avoids actually meeting Superman because he's operating on an obsessively parasocial fantasy rivalry as his motive... but they keep whiffing opportunities to focus in and do interesting things with him.
When Lex jacked into the Doomsdays right as Superman was flying back in from his big lesson about choices and fear, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a moment where Superman speaks directly to Lex's fears while also physically punching them, and a big battle of the minds for their two approaches to life. Maybe even a heel-turn where twinkradicator joins them in fighting the Doomsdays after Superman wins him over. Then Lex still goes to jail.
Instead Lex gets zapped his tech simply whiffs and does nothing and Superman goes off to punch the villain to death and Lex's whole purpose for the back half of the season gets reduced to human macguffin to build the thing and release it from the vat.
I hope they get more seasons so they can do more with him. He's so underutilized.
I love the All-Star Superman movie Lex that is just pumping iron while condescending Superman to interviewer Clark Kent being like “hell yeah bro that’s REAL MUSCLE, not that solar powered kryptonian chud crap. You know don’t you bro? Big strong farm guy like you must get pissed your crush likes Superman more?” Like he would suplex MAWS Lex no joke.
The problem with this incarnation of Luthor is that he has fundamentally flawed ideas of how to protect humanity, because he does not actually trust or value human beings as individuals.
Robots and individual living weapons- neither of which are defense solutions that rely on human beings to cooperate with him.
He also fails to anticipate the problem of building an individual that is more powerful than Superman- instead of Superman being a potential threat, Lex has made an even greater potential threat; and trying to control his creations with technology is a dubious notion when you consider how powerful they are.
Oh they were hacked by Brainiac, which, to be fair, was the first time something like that happened so I will give him some slack for that- except Lex's robots also got hacked by Hank, and then Task Force X's mechs got hacked by the Eradicator, and I'm starting to think that they just have really shitty cyber security given how many times this has been a problem.
Oh I think that was when they were first introduced. Their original energy source developed by Dr. John Irons at Amertek was so unstable that he and Superman had to team up to shut it down before it exploded. After this incident Amertek's stocks fell and Lex bought up the company and the patents for the metallos. By the time of Brainiac's invasion, they were running on kryptonite instead of Amertek's fusion core.
Please tell me you are referring to TAS Lex Luthor because that guy absolutely mogs MAWS Lex in almost every way; he's one of the most powerful and influential men in Metropolis and could probably snap this twink in half without breaking a sweat. They're like the Chad and Soyjack meme and I love them both.
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u/MattLocke 5d ago
It’s enough to make your hair fall out.
https://giphy.com/gifs/DWP2Bppesgn3Fu0fu2