5 Times Lex Luthor Almost Got Away With It (And Should Have)

Lex Luthor is one of DC’s most notorious supervillains. He’s been around longer than most every other comic book character, and has made his mark on the world with nothing but an intelligence only eclipsed by his disastrous ego. The mad scientist made it his mission to be the one to wipe Superman from the face of the universe, and over the years, he’s had plenty of opportunities to do so. However, something always came up at the last minute to prevent him from killing the Man of Steel. Be it the assistance of others, plot necessity, or Luthor’s own insanity, something always holds him back from winning.

Today, we’re going to take a look at five times in the comics that Lex Luthor actually should have won the day, and explore what kept him from doing so. Strap in, because while some of Luthor’s wins can be argued as the good guy needing to win, each one of these only happened because Lex is a petty, vindictive man who doesn’t understand Superman at all. With that said, let’s get right into it.

5) Action Comics #277 — “The Conquest of Superman”

This story sees the world turn to Lex Luthor when Superman is off-planet, needing someone to stop a plane carrying a hydrogen bomb from crashing and exploding. Lex does this, and then escapes and decides to rob Fort Knox as a treat for saving the world. He’s in the middle of the heist when Superman appears, but Lex easily defeats him with Kryptonite globes, trapping the Man of Steel. Luthor’s day was perfect, having saved the day when Superman couldn’t, stolen heaps of gold, and embarrassed his archenemy beyond belief. What made it even better is that none of the Kryptonite was even real, meaning he embarrassed Superman and proved him inferior to him to boot!

His elation, however, would be short-lived as he discovered that the hero he fought was actually a Superman Robot, the real one still off in space. Lex realized he beat a duplicate but bragged like it was the real one, and was so embarrassed he returned the stolen gold to cover his shame. Lex had this day in the bag, having practically infinite resources and crippling the United States’ economy in one fell swoop, but his ego was too fragile to win against anyone who wasn’t the real Superman.

4) Superman #164 — “The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman!”

Lex’s self-sabotage continued in this issue, where he sought to settle things with Superman for good. He challenged the Man of Steel to fight him on Lexor, a planet with a red sun, in a man-to-man single combat. Superman wound up winning that regardless, but as the two tried to go home, they discovered the locals were in desperate need of help. With Superman powerless, Lex used his genius to restore their civilization, and the people of the planet lauded Lex as a hero and Superman as a villain. Lex finally had an entire planet dedicated to worshipping him like he always wanted, and compatriots who hated Superman as much as he did.

While this could have been a perfect victory with a planet to lord over, Lex did the most surprising thing of all and developed a conscience. He couldn’t handle being praised while he knew he was an evil man, so he let Superman take him back home, hoping to never interfere with the poor Lexorians again. Lex could have had everything he wanted, and Superman would have let him be these people’s hero, but he just couldn’t let go of his own history to do it.

3) Superman (1987) #2 — “The Secret Revealed!”

This issue was nearly a total victory for Lex. He discovered Kryptonite and used it to beat Superman to a pulp, only letting him live so he could suffer more later. At the same time, he had scientist Amanda McCoy compile all the information about Superman into a supercomputer to reveal his true identity. The machine worked perfectly, and told Lex that Superman’s real name was actually Clark Kent. He had everything he needed to rain hellfire down on Superman when he least expected it, but instead, Lex refused to believe it.

Lex said he already saw the links between the two, but it must have been wrong, because someone as powerful as Superman would never debase himself by living like Clark Kent does. Lex’s own greed and hatred of the common man stopped him from realizing the thing that could have let him destroy his archenemy from the very beginning. All Lex had to do was accept that Superman was human, but at the end of the day, his blind and insane animosity towards the hero is what keeps Lex’s unstoppable genius from actually accomplishing anything.

2) Superman #149 — “The Death of Superman!”

This imaginary tale sees Lex convince the entire world that he’s turned over a new leaf and become a better man. He cured cancer, destroyed his old lair, and started to work alongside Superman to save the planet. However, this was all a ruse to lure Superman into a false sense of security, which he exploited to finally kill the Man of Steel with a lethal dose of Kryptonite poisoning right in front of Lois, Jimmy, and Perry White. After dumping the body on Earth, he’s captured by Supergirl and brought to the Bottle City of Kandor for trial. He openly admitted to the crime and openly bribed the Kandorian judges that he could make an enlarging ray if they acquitted him. 

To his surprise, they still found him guilty, because not everybody is as selfish as he is. This is truly Lex’s smartest and dumbest moment of all time. When he lured Superman to his space station, he could have murdered him without any witnesses and dumped the body into space, where nobody would have ever found him. Lex could have remained a hero of Earth and murdered Superman with no one the wiser, but in his own egomania, he needed everybody to know what he did. If Lex had swallowed even a little bit of his pride, he would have gotten away scot-free. But as it stands, not even Mister Miracle could get out of this guilty verdict.

1) Action Comics #890-900 — “The Black Ring”

One of Lex Luthor’s most complete victories should have come in “The Black Ring” storyline. After becoming an Orange Lantern following the events of “Blackest Night,” Lex sought a source of greater power and merged with the living embodiment of the Phantom Zone. He gained omnipotence, able to rewrite reality however he pleased, and tried to torment dead Superman by inflicting him with the one thing Lex thought the alien could never understand: human emotion. Lex forced Superman to relive the emotions of his greatest loved ones during tragedies, but Superman never broke, because he understood their pain better than anyone. Lex kept digging, even finally realizing that Superman was Clark Kent, but never accepted that Superman could feel real, genuine pain like normal people.

In the end, it was revealed that Lex could only keep his power if he did truly good deeds. He could have saved the world like he always said he would, remake the Earth into a utopia, but of course, he just kept trying to murder Superman, and thus lost. Lex genuinely could have won this and every other possible future fight by just setting down his hatred and trying to be a good person for three seconds, but he couldn’t. Lex was once again done in by his own overwhelming hate, and he had nobody to blame but himself. Though he would continue to pin it all on Superman.

At the end of the day, Lex Luthor is one of the most intelligent and dangerous people on the planet. He could remake everything exactly how he wanted if only he could let go of his ego and vitriol to actually do it. As long as he clings to these terrible aspects, Superman will always win, and Lex will always lose. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

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