I can't recall why I started thinking about this Thursday night, but I did. I actually had to get up to write it on my "blog post ideas" note pad, just to make sure I remembered it.
What happens if Lex Luthor learns Superman is Clark Kent? I know there was a story (by Byrne?) where a computer tells Lex Superman is Clark Kent, and Lex doesn't believe it, but say Lex somehow, someway gets definitive proof, what action does he take?
Does he go all battle-suit crazy, barge over to the Daily Planet, and start laying waste to it, to either kill Superman or wreck his secret identity?
Does he leak the information selectively, and let others rain hell down on Superman for awhile? Lex would administer the coup de grace naturally, as I can't imagine him letting anyone else have that honor.
Does Lex attack loved ones, trying to drive Superman over the edge, into disgrace, then killing him when he's down?
Or does he go the "Wilson Fisk in Born Again" route, and just try and ruin Clark Kent's life? Figure out someway to make it appear Clark Kent is filing stories when he wasn't there, and didn't actually talk to anyone to know what's going on, get him and Lois evicted from their home, try and wreck Lois' career, get the Kent family farm foreclosed, and so on.
I'm not that much of an expert on Lex, and his does tend to undergo radical personality shifts from time to time, so I don't know what approach he might take. Whichever would bring him the greatest satisfaction, I imagine.
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5 comments:
He did learn it, actually in 2001-2002, but it was swept under the rug with the "Ending Battle" storyline.
As part of that storyline, Superman gets pummeled with all these villains, thinks it's Luthor. He confronts Luthor, who admits he Knows, and has been sitting on it because he's secretly in love with Lois (really). Later the real villain of the story, Manchester Black, wipes the identity knowledge from Luthor's mind.
Really, I always just thought that his head would explode.
See, in my mind, Luthor refuses to believe that Superman has a secret identitiy. To Luthor, if you had that much power at your fingertips, why would you bother hiding as a puny human?
I think the current Luthor would suit it up and go after his loved ones in an attempt to drive him over the edge, and prove to the world that Luthor was right about Superman all along.
Post-COIE to President Lex Lex would go the Born Again angle, systematically and secretly targeting his entire existence, selling the identity to certain lower tier villains along the way to keep the focus off of him.
Silver Age Luthor would just find a way to make Superman bald, made all the easier by his knowledge of the secret identity. I mean, that's what Silver Age comics told us Luthor's motivation was, right? Anger at Superman for making him bald.
dan coyle: So Luthor knew, and did nothing with it because it would hurt Lois if he did? Then i am very glad they had him forget, if that was his thought process.
sallyp: Probably, but it would be part of an elaborate plan to make people thinking Superman made Luthor's head explode (through super-balloon popping or something), to ruin the Man of Steel.
jason: I could see that. I was thinking Luthor might figure Superman would have a secret i.d. so he could surreptitiously spy on Earthlings, but I'm not sure Luthor thinks that way about Superman.
teebore: Maybe DC should just put out a huge special one-shot, with all these different creative teams showing how they think Luthor would react, and then the fans could vote on which was best, for some reason. That could be pretty cool.
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