Tuesday, April 10, 2018

I wonder if he widened the concourses and opened another runway; or if he rebuilt it as crappy as before...


This issue is more about the aftermath of the fight, along with a bit of introspection about what it means. Not what I expected from a 1975 comic! Superman #292, "The Luthor Nobody Knows!" Written by Elliot S! Maggin, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Bob Oksner.

Lex is already back in custody at the start of the story, but he did a number on Metropolis National Airport, nearly downing a jetliner to draw out Superman. Then, Lex hits Superman with a ray that affects his coordination. Superman may actually do most of the damage here, first out of control, then shaking to cause an earthquake to knock a chunk of building on Lex. Repairing the airport with its chief of operations, their conversation prompts Supes to recall his history with Lex, less with anger than with "resignation."

Superman (and Maggin) take a more charitable look at Lex than he sometimes received; I was thinking of Cary Bate's "Luthor's Day of Reckoning," where Supes is visibly fed up with Lex. He sees Lex as lonely, perhaps a reflection of the loneliness he sometimes felt himself. Yeah, or maybe Lex is just a dick. He did literally just try to murder a planeload of people, in passing, just to draw Superman out.

In fact, Supes recalls an early fight with Luthor, back when he was Superboy, where Luthor stole a nuke and tried to use that to keep Superboy away. Superboy presses too much and the bomb goes off, but while inexperienced, he had the powers, and rescues Lex at super-speed, then stops the shockwave with a super-shout, and funnels the radioactive fallout into space with a super-speed funnel. Easy, or at least easier than getting through to Luthor. At some point, most people would have to give up on him; but Superman can't or won't. That's either proof of his super-ness, or of a narrative problem wherein they're locked into episodic conflicts, your choice...

1 comment:

H said...

Supes still blames himself for Lex turning evil- the whole hair, protoplasm thing from when they were kids. It's kinda sweet, not giving up on him. Maggin did a bunch of humanizing Lex stories- shame more of the 70's/80's stories haven't been reprinted. That was the best Superman (and maybe DC in general) era.