This Lex Luthor Cosplay Literally Takes the Cake

DragonCon took place last weekend in Atlanta and while there were a lot of excellent cosplays, there was one particular one that took the cake. Literally.

One clever cosplayer brought what might be one of the most humorous moments of comics history to life by dressing up in a classic pink and green Lex Luthor outfit to depict the notorious villain making off with a cart of forty cakes. Yes, that’s right. Lex Luthor stole forty cakes. And that’s terrible. Check it out below.

If by some chance you don’t get the joke, we’ll fill you in. Back in 1978, DC Comics published an educational reference book for kids called The Super Dictionary. It featured various DC characters in sections on a number of subjects and in the part about counting you’ll find a humorous illustration of Lex Luthor dragging away a large dessert cart.

“When no one was looking, Lex Luthor took forty cakes,” the image’s caption reads. “He took 40 cakes. That’s as many as four tens. And that’s terrible.”

Pretty rude, if you ask us, but also not all that surprising considering Lex is Superman’s major nemesis and stealing cakes is exactly the sort of thing a bad guy would do if he had sufficient reason. Of course, what makes the image of Lex stealing 40 cakes even better is that it actually ended up in canon continuity. In Superman #709 back in 2011, a young Clark Kent is in detention with a young Lex Luthor. Why did Lex get detention? He stole 40 cakes from the school bake sale in an act of revenge. See? We told you that stealing cakes is a total villain thing to do.

However, while Lex’s cake-stealing exploits make him a villain this epic cosplay definitely made its wearer a hero. It takes a lot of commitment to bring such an iconic and recognizably meme-worthy moment of comics history to life and this guy absolutely nailed it. We’re not the only people who think so, either. The internet is loving this guy’s cake-thieving Lex Luthor — especially after you see what’s in the cart.

Want to know just how terrible (in the best way) people feel about DragonCon‘s epic Lex Luthor? Read on for some of the best reactions on Twitter.

Is that Solomon Grundy trying to get on cake larceny?

Captain America understands this reference!

Are you sure that’s not just a giant LEGO?

Maybe we should try to steal a cake back?

Maybe it’s not really about the cakes…darn those word problems!

Maybe he’s really the hero here?

So THAT’S what’s really inside!