Random Back Issues #100 - Fantastic Four #548

Imagine the Wizard describing someone else as having pretensions to relevance. How did this moron not die during Acts of Vengeance?

Reed and Sue's attempt to reconcile at Mentor's digs on Titan after Richards' rampant jackboot-licking in Civil War was interrupted by a weird space probe. While Reed was poking at it with Hank Pym, Sue got ambushed by the Wizard's latest version of the Frightful Four (him, Titania, Trapster, Hydro-Man).

We pick up after Reed's ship is destroyed by a booby-trap the Wizard somehow got on-board. Fortunately the Black Panther suggested remote starting the ship, but Sue's still being tortured because the Wizard's a sadistic little shit. They've got a back-up ship, but they still need a plan. So Reed sends the Wizard a little message.

The rest of the Frightful Four agree it's time to bail, also recognizing that they'd better kill Sue rather than risk her coming after them. The Wizard, however, is convinced Richards threatening to nuke him from orbit means Reed is charging in heedlessly. Dumbest smart man in comics. Yes, even more so than Reed. But hey, this house is really hi-tech. No way anyone could sneak up on them. Except maybe if one of the C-listers was an expert at that sort of thing.

(Plus, it's not like Reed Richards wasn't staying there for several days. He probably took everything apart while he was promising to never help the government throw people in Negative Zone jail again.)

It's hard to say who has the worst go of it in this issue. The Thing gets sucker-punched by Hydro-Man, then gets his foot stuck to the floor by a stray glue shot from Paste-Pot Pete as he's getting kayoed by the Panther. While he's stuck, Ben gets sent flying by Titania.

On the other hand, Hydro-Man's attempt to drown Ben got thwarted by the Torch evaporating his arm, and when he tries to take T'Challa prisoner, Storm simply turns him into humidity. As it turns out, a guy made of water fighting a guy made of fire and a lady who controls weather elements is in for a bad day. Who knew?

Reed's actually having trouble fighting the Wizard 1-on-1, but after Hydro-Dope gets dealt with, it's 5 against 1. Or is it, because the Wizard has a fancy briefcase! And inside that briefcase, is. . .a flowerpot? A hearing aid for Galactus? No it's the sonic cannon of the sound menace, Klaw! Hard to believe that guy was kept in reserve, considering the losers that made the starting lineup.

[4th longbox, 117th comic. Fantastic Four #548, by Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Paul Pelletier (penciler), Rick Magyar (inker), Paul Mounts (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer)]

Random Back Issues #75 - Avengers Spotlight #29

That is the most exposition-laden attempt at a threat I've ever seen.

We looked at the issue prior to this back in February, when Acts of Vengeance was in full swing, but it's into the epilogue now. So much so, the lead story isn't even part of the event!

Hawkeye arrives at the hospital in response to a plea for help. The guy making the plea, former Defenders supporting cast member and general pain in the ass Dollar Bill, specifically requested Daredevil, but supposes Hawkeye will do. 

Dollar Bill's been filming a cable TV show with Madcap, called, creatively enough, "The Madcap Comedy Hour." If the brief clip we see is any indication, it's basically Jackass, as Madcap is standing in a burning trash barrel, to the confusion of assorted homeless people. It doesn't actually harm him, as he hops out, scrubs off, and throws on a fresh costume, all while talking about the pointlessness of life. Then he gets abducted by two guys in a van whose hands turn into tools. Dollar Bill admits Madcap is obnoxious and a menace to society, but will "Mr. Eye" help him?

Besides, their show was just about to get syndicated.

Hawkeye, having either absolutely nothing better to do, or having taken too many shots to the head, agrees. He tracks the license plate of the van to the Scuzz Club, and has barely taken a seat at the bar before he's dumped through a trap door. Madcap's tied up, and there are three guys with tools for hands: Pick Axe, Vice, and Triphammer. Oh god, this is really scraping the bottom of the burning trash barrel. Hawkeye quickly frees Madcap, who gets an arm chopped off by the fourth member of the team, a lady with a saw for a hand. During the fight, he gets her glasses off and is able to use his weird eyes to make her go nuts.

Hawkeye reveals the one behind it, and as we saw, Dr. Malus thankfully introduces himself for people who wouldn't otherwise recognize a scrawny Dr. Octopus-looking dweeb. I'm not sure how he expected Daredevil to show up. Dollar Bill doesn't mention receiving a ransom note or anything that specified Daredevil. Smart guys, always missing the obvious stuff.

Malus sets the self-destruct, everybody clears out, then Madcap goes back in for his arm. There's an explosion, but he walks out fine, determined to find Malus, because whatever his machine was, the energy it produced made him actually feel. Clint regrets getting involved almost as much as I regret reading it.

The second story is actually Acts of Vengeance related. A bunch of villains are being dropped off at the Vault, right as Iron Man is delivering new models of Guardsmen armor. The rest of the Avengers depart, with Captain America asking Iron Man to let his "boss" Tony Stark know they appreciate his work helping make the Vault more secure. You know, after that time Stark broke in and wrecked all the Guardsmen armors. Iron Man says he'll make sure Stark gets the message, and Cap replies, 'I'm sure he will.' Because Captain America's not a dumbass.

Iron Man's just about done walking the guards through using the armor when the Wizard gets brought it, his costume neatly packed in a suitcase, courtesy of Loki. Klaw makes an attempted rescue, kicking Iron Man around with sound-created Triceratopses, but Shellhead creates a counter-frequency with his unibeam to dissolve them and then Klaw. 

The Wizard's suited up by now, not that I expect it to help much. But one of the Guardsmen shows up, wanting to handle things. Sure, should be good for a laugh. Well, he takes everything the Wizard can throw at him and drops him in just over one page. I was right, it was good for a laugh. How embarrassing. It's almost like the Wizard was a third-rate schmuck all along. The Guardsman proclaims this new (really bulky) armor as good as Iron Man's, who replies, 'Don't you believe it.' Tony is no doubt already planning another attack on the Vault to trash these new armors as well.

Inside the Vault, the Wizard, now stripped down to his briefs, can't resist the urge to run his yap. He claims the guard would be no match for him man to man. Has the Wizard looked in a mirror lately? The guard, who was nearly killed by the Wizard in the original breakout, obliges by getting out of the armor. Then he flattens the Wizard with one punch. Trust Dwayne McDuffie to know what I wanted to see.

[2nd longbox, 55th comic. Avengers Spotlight #29, "What's the Point?" by Howard Mackie (writer), James Brock (writer/penciler), Roy Richardson (inker), Mike Rockwitz (colorist), Jack Morelli (letterer); "Tales from the Vault" by Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Dwayne Turner (penciler), Chris Ivy (inker), Mike Rockwitz (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)]

Sunday Splash #188

 

"Complications, of Many Sorts", in Fantastic Four #546, by Dwyane McDuffie (writer), Paul Pelletier (penciler), Rick Magyar and Scott Hanna (inkers), Paul Mounts (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer)

Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier's stint on Fantastic Four isn't a long one, starting at issue #542, and ending at #553. It's wedged between what were undoubtedly more highly-publicized runs, following (finishing really) J. Michael Straczynski's run, and being followed by a Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch creative pairing.

Worse, JMS departed before the book's tie-ins to Civil War were finished, so it fell to McDuffie to clean up and address that mess as best he could. His explanation for Reed's actions - essentially, Reed made psychohistory from Asimov's Foundation a reality and the math said Negative Zone prisons and cyborg murder-clones of Thor were the best path forward - does nothing to lessen my desire to see Reed get punched in the face. However, it does feel very much like the sort of thought process Reed Richards would follow.

Doesn't change the fact that while Tony Stark (deservedly) spent about 18 months getting his ass kicked literally or figuratively by people for what he did, Reed mostly dodges any of that shit. His place as Marvel's Gladstone Gander, the one things always work out for, unchallenged.

(Until the Hulk returns royally pissed off, but he's mad at Reed over things besides the Registration Act, and beats up a lot of people who had nothing to do with it anyway, so it doesn't really count.)

Not that McDuffie ignores it entirely. The Four were fractured by Civil War in ways I'm not sure they had been previously. This wasn't Ben or Johnny temporarily deciding they needed a change, or Reed and Sue deciding to focus on raising Franklin. Sue and Johnny joined essentially a rebellion against a force Reed was a public face of, and Ben decided to go to France rather than end up punching his friends over legislation. 

Reed and Sue do have to patch things up, most of which is implied by their vacation on Titan. That leads to the Black Panther and Storm joining the team for about 8 issues. A Dr. Doom from the future shows up near the end to try and sow discord between the team, exploiting everyone's recent doubts about Reed. Doesn't work, naturally. The general theme seems to be Sue, Ben, and Johnny know Reed's not infallible, but they trust that his heart is in the right place. And Reed needs them for the times when he overreaches, or when they see something he doesn't.

McDuffie writes Reed as someone endlessly curious and not entirely aware of how brilliant he is, whose brain makes unusual intuitive leaps. Such as when he and Hank Pym are studying an alien messenger probe and it helps Reed decide he should bring Sue perfume of some sort. Ben feels things deeply (it's interesting how bothered he is by Gravity's grave being robbed), but is more observant and smart than some writers give him credit for. He was a qualified astronaut, he's gotta be fairly smart. McDuffie alternately plays up Sue's resilience and her presence as possibly the most dangerous member of the team, and her supportive nature. Johnny probably gets the short end of the stick, pretty much the impulsive goofball. Although it certainly takes confidence to try flirting with the Black Panther's bodyguards.

Black Panther and Storm make for interesting additions to the cast. T'Challa is brilliant, but in very different ways from Reed Richards. More cunning, more quick to suspect ulterior motives, and somehow both more blunt and more diplomatic. You can tell he's used to his decisions being followed, by how he goes for the throat when Ben basically tells him "you ain't the boss o' me" at one point. Storm's quite a bit more open with her feelings, probably because she's used to the sort of informal atmosphere the Four have. Ben and Johnny aren't going to seem that unusual to someone who spends a lot of time around Wolverine and Nightcrawler. And she tends to react similarly to the Thing and Torch. When she sees an injustice, she won't turn away or make a tactical retreat.

McDuffie has a bit of sport with the annoying fans who no doubt complained bitterly about things like the Black Panther handling the Silver Surfer. There's a panel where the Wizard dismisses Storm and the Panther as "B-listers with delusions" while looking at us. Which is hilarious coming from the Wizard of all characters.

Pelletier's art is pretty well-suited to what the story needs. It's very slick and classic superhero art, everybody with the perfect physiques, pretty straightforward presentation. No real wild layouts or character designs, but it always makes sure to tell you what you need to know. Shows the action and makes it easy to follow, expressive enough to carry the emotion of the story. The speculative look he gives Sue when she seems to be considering how she should kill the Wizard is a favorite. It's exaggerated, but Sue's also acting, so it makes sense she'd play it up. Pelletier's got enough design sense to make all the weird science stuff look futuristic and cool. It's too bad he and McDuffie didn't get more time on the book, I'd be curious what else they'd have done.

Random Back Issues #52 - Avengers Spotlight #28

That's it, that's the entire conceit of the story.

The last time we looked at an issue from this series, it was still called Avengers Solo, and focused on Hawkeye being roped into working for Silver Sable to get home after he was abducted and taken to France by his mentor Trick Shot. Now it's Avengers Spotlight, and we've got an Acts of Vengeance tie-in. Which would normally be cause for celebration on this blog, but the first story is pretty lackluster.

As arguments over the Super-Human Registration Act rage, Hawkeye and Mockingbird are committing robberies in Denver. Which is news to Hawkeye and Mockingbird, news they only learn by reading the New York Post (despite living in Los Angeles?). Hawkeye wants to sue someone, but Bobbi suggests they simply investigate, so they hop a Quinjet to Denver. Since they radio the airport for permission to land, the cops are waiting, stunned they actually come back. Clint's ready to throw down, but a convenient radio call informs the police Hawkeye and Mockingbird are robbing a bank.

The heroes rush off, and when they reach the bank, well, Mockingbird thinks she's seeing doubles, but Hawkeye sees Angar the Screamer and Screaming Mimi (the future Thunderbolt Songbird). I don't know if I'd ever really looked at her Screaming Mimi get-up, but holy shit that's terrible. Turns out the two acoustic-based villains figured out their powers could combine to make Angar's hallucinations something other than weird monsters. So they decided to impersonate two Avengers and have a crime spree. Brilliant.

 

Anyway, Hawkeye's immune because he doesn't have his hearing aid turned up (not joking), so he catches them with no sweat. Not sure how he was able to talk with the police or Mockingbird if he couldn't hear the villains' sound powers, but maybe it's some sub-harmonic his hearing aid can't detect. 

The second story is a bit more clever. Makes sense, considering it was written by Dwayne McDuffie while the first one was by Howard Mackie. The mysterious guy (Loki) who convinced all the bigwig villains to team-up, is making the same pitch to the Mad Thinker. Who declines, because he predicts disaster for everyone involved, especially Mysterious Guy when his "brother" figures out he's behind it. Loki freaks out the Thinker deduced his identity and bails, but the Thinker's not quite done for the day. The SHRA passing would be bad for a lot of his schemes, too, so he decides to turn public opinion against it.

Several weeks later in Washington D.C., Wonder Man and the Wasp are supposed to make a speech about why the SHRA is a bad idea, although neither is sure what to say. Great planning there, team. They're saved from needing to be eloquent by the arrival of a large man calling himself, eventually, Gargantua. He starts picking up cars and throwing them around, although he's confused at the reason. Wonder Man's trying to fight him, but he forgot his little jet packs he wore on his hips, so he can't reach the guy's jaw.

 

Really? Guy's only 50 feet tall or so. Wonder Man's supposed to be a strong as Thor. He can't do a Hulk-jump that high? Spider-Man can almost jump that high. Fucking lame, Simon, go back to your crappy Arkon movies.

Anyway, the Wasp figures an attack from inside might go better and flies in Gargantua's ear. Where she hears a voice giving commands. She crawls further in, reflecting this guy never cleans his ears, and finds some little transmitter, which she smashes so she can give orders.

Outside, Simon's climbed a telephone pole, and Gargantua, as ordered, politely bends over so Simon can paste him one. Simon and Janet figure out what to say for their speech, to a crowd already fired up by their heroics, and the Thinker sits in his lab and reflects it was nice to win one for a change, even if helping heroes isn't something he wants to make a habit of.

I like the idea that not all the villains were on-board with this scheme, for whatever reason. I know in Spectacular Spider-Man, they nodded at the fact that some villains didn't appreciate others horning in on their turf so to to speak, and started fighting amongst themselves.

{2nd longbox, 54th comic. Avengers Spotlight #28, "Denver Doubles" by Howard Mackie (writer), Al Milgrom (penciler), Don Heck (inker), Paul Becton (colorist), Jack Morelli (letterer); "Second Thoughts" by Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Dwayne Turner (penciler), Chris Ivy (inker), Mike Rockwitz (colorist), Jack Morelli (letterer)}

Sunday Splash Page #119

"Under New Ownership" in Damage Control (vol. 2) #1, by Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Ernie Colon (artist), John Wellington (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)

The second Damage Control mini-series took place entirely during Acts of Vengeance, which, if you know me, is considered a plus. They're called in by accident during the initial mass breakout at the Vault, although the biggest issue there is Captain America gets a little annoyed they were chummy with Thunderball. Mrs. Hoag resigns as head of the company to join the Commission on Superhuman Activities, leaving Robin in charge. The Punisher figures out Wilson Fisk was part owner of Damage Control (along with Tony Stark and Mrs. Hoag), and targets Robin as a possible criminal with connections to the Kingpin. Of course, Frank is in Dr. Doom's crosshairs, so he's got other problems.

The main conflict is that, with Fisk and Stark both selling their shares, the company is bought out by CarltonCo, and is promptly run into the ground. The new owner promptly guts the company, slashing pay, benefits, basically everything so he can use that money to pay off debts he incurred elsewhere. Boy, good thing such unscrupulous business practices don't take place all the time these days!

I don't know enough about the editorial staff at Marvel or DC in the late 1980s-early 1990s to know if McDuffie is making a point about either one with how Michael Souris and his weaselly assistant Roy Lippert behave, but I wouldn't really be surprised. Certainly the short-sighted, self-serving, cruel attitude towards the employees sounds familiar to things I've read about how those companies run. At one point, Souris tells Albert, the company comptroller who got Doom to pay his overdue bills in the last mini-series, that CarltonCo saves its tokens for the front office and the subway. Yikes. I'm guessing McDuffie was writing from his own experiences there.

Sunday Splash Page #118

"Seems Legit", in Damage Control (vol. 1) #3, by Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Ernie Colon (penciler), Bob Wiacek (inker), George Roussos (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)

Superhero fights cause property damage, yet most of the times we see New York City in Marvel Comics, it's basically OK. Superhero fights leave lots of dangerous crap just lying around afterward. Where's that stuff go? Who transports and stores it if the Avengers miss it? Damage Control was ostensibly about how those problems get addressed, but in a way that pokes fun at the Marvel Universe.

The teasing is gentle, because Dwayne McDuffie did like superheroes, did like getting to write Marvel characters. There's affection for the whole thing in his writing, rather than the sense the writer thinks you're an idiot for enjoying this kind of stuff and wants to mock you for it (see Ennis, Garth). It's not mean-spirited when we see the Thing overreact and bust out a wall to signal the rest of the FF because he found out Albert from Accounting went to the Latverian Embassy to make Doom settle his account before Damage Control fixed his building that turned to glass. For the characters, that kind of thing is just normal. Of course Albert would bring their intern along, and of course he would demand Doom provide i.d. if he's going to write a check. Why wouldn't those things happen?

So it's funny, and the solutions to the problems that crop up are clever. The day-to-day reconstruction and demolition stuff is far less challenging for the cast that the mayhem going on within the company. People unhappy about lack of promotions, annoying directives from high up the executive ladder, the office politics bullcrap that always makes work harder, even (or maybe especially so) if you like your work a lot, which most of the cast seem to.

Ernie Colon is able to blend the cast of basically regular, everyday people with the more fantastic elements easily, although most of the Damage Control employees look pretty natural in the spandex outfits marketing forces them to wear in this issue, even if they all despise doing so. Most of the time, those characters take their interactions with the costumed set pretty calmly, at least outwardly. Again, it's old hat for them. But when they need to actually be terrified or fuming about something, Colon gets that across no sweat.

There were two more Damage Control mini-series after this one, and we're going to look at the second one next week.

Sunday Splash Page #81

"More Rigged Than a Duke Home Game", in Beyond! #4, by Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Scott Kolins (artist), Paul Mounts (colorist), Dave Lanphear (letterer)

Beyond! came out in late 2006, probably during the stretch where Steve McNiven fell way the fuck behind on Civil War. I don't think that has anything to do with this, just a bit of temporal context. It has to have wrapped up before McDuffie took over for JMS as writer of Fantastic Four, since McDuffie pulls a plot element from this for one of his stories there. 

A disparate group of characters - Medusa, Spider-Man, the Wasp, Hank Pym, Firebird, the Hood, Gravity, the Mac Gargan Venom, and one of Kraven's kids - are lured to a mysterious spacecraft landing in Central Park. Which then carries them to a distant planet where a mysterious voice tells them they'll receive their heart's desires if they triumph over their enemies.

Sounds familiar, right? But things aren't what they seem, as they aren't the first, or even the second bunch to be brought here. Plus, one of them is an imposter, and no I don't mean the Hood impersonating a badass.

McDuffie's able to give every character a chance to show how they can be cool or even just human. He draws some good stuff out of the old history some of the characters have (Kraven and Spider-Man for one, Pym and Firebird for another). The reveal of the true mastermind seemed clever and in keeping with the character, at least based on my understanding of him. 

Kolins' art has a kind of roughness to it that I don't exactly love, but it's effective. He can handle the scenes of people talking, the parts where tensions are running high and people are starting to snap at each other, and he can handle the fight scenes. He knows when to pull back for a sense of scale or scope, and when to zoom in on someone under strain. I don't think I've ever seen the outfit he gave Medusa before or since, but it was pretty cool.

You can probably find Beyond! pretty cheaply in trade or single issues, and I'd say it's worth a look if you enjoy Dwayne McDuffie's work or stories about random collections of characters having to work together somehow.

Is It The Superhero's World, Or Are They Just Living In It?

This post originally started as one thing, but I realized there was a more interesting direction for it to go.

During Dwayne McDuffie's stint on Fantastic Four, he was handed a bit of a rough situation. It came immediately after Civil War, when the team had fragmented. Reed had been Pro-Reg, Sue and Johnny switched to the Anti-Reg side about the time Reed and Stark unveiled Murderous Clone Thor, and Ben left the country for a time, unwilling to fight his government or his friends. So McDuffie had to try and patch things up between them, and try and explain why Reed would produce things like Clor and the Negative Zone prison.

The solution he went with was that Reed made psychohistory work. He'd read Asimov's books as a boy, and he tried to make it a reality. At some point, he succeeded, and his actions were an attempt to keep things on what seemed the path least likely to result in disaster. This seems sort of reasonable on the surface, and I do find it kind of cute to think of teenage Reed trying to work out the math behind psychohistory during 3rd period Spanish, or something.

There's a possible hitch, though. In the Foundation series, the flaw in psychohistory is it can't account for random individuals. Large groups of people are predictable, a single person is not. This is how the arrival of the Mule throws everything off, because he's a solitary individual with incredible psionic power, and Hari Seldon's calculations could not account for him*.

Now consider the Marvel Universe. There are dozens of people on Earth alone equal to the Mule's power in one way or the other. The Hulk, Dr. Strange, Apocalypse, Dr. Doom, the High Evolutionary. There are abstract concepts such as Death which are aware and occasionally take an active hand in the universe's proceedings. You have things the Celestials, whose true goals are unclear. You have people falling into toxic waste and developing powers every whipstitch. Time travelers, people from alternate timelines or other universes entirely. Reed Richards himself has shaped the course of the universe more than once. He convinced people to help save Galactus once. Imagine how differently things might go if he hadn't.

Given all these individuals, how can psychohistory work? Can't their powers give them a disproportionate level of control, to the point large groups of people are essentially meaningless? I mean, humans as a group have been trying to exterminate mutants for years. Legally, illegally, camps, giant robots, smear campaigns, using other mutants against them, whatever, none of it worked. The Scarlet Witch, by herself, came closer than all those groups ever had.

Then it occurred to me. Readers of serial comics talk about illusion of change. We also talk about how the genius characters never seem to use their big brains to fix the problems their world (and our own) has. And it's because the writers want to keep the world fairly recognizable to the audience, I presume so things they want to have stand out will. So things may go in a different direction for a time, but eventually, inevitably, they cycle back around. Mutant population was devastated, mutant population is reborn. The government trusts heroes, then it doesn't, then it does.

So what if that's point McDuffie was making? Superheroes and villains, for all their power, don't really make any sort of impact on the world? Or if they do, they cancel each other out? The nature of their stories prevents them from making any lasting change, so any permanent changes we (the audience) see in the Marvel Universe will be a reflection of the changes that come about in our own world, as writers attempt to continue representing the world outside our doors.

In-story, it would come down to Reed having determined that the superpowered individuals will have sufficiently different and opposing goals that they'll all stop each other from accomplishing anything. Which leaves the way open to the masses to determine the path, or be lead down it, if someone knows how to game the system. Say, someone who can predict what those masses will do. Like Reed Richards**.

* Given Seldon's Second Foundation was staffed by psionics, I'm left wondering what it was about the Mule that was so successful. Was it the strength of the Mule's talents, that they couldn't find him and draw him into their organization, or the fact that he set his eyes on galactic conquest? You would think, if Seldon had a group of psionics dedicated to keeping the Plan on course, there would be some way to predict their occurrence and account for it.

** I feel like McDuffie sort of of touched on this in a time travel sense. This is going off a vague memory, so it could be wrong. Reed says one person going back in time can't cause a sufficient difference as to change things, but if a large group of people go back, they just create an alternate timeline. Apparently the optimal number of people needed to change the outcomes without causing divergent timelines was 4.

At Least Try 30th Century Hair Restoration Products!

Has Lex Luthor ever traveled to the 30th Century (or is it the 31st Century now)? The episode of Superman: The Animated Series with the Legion of Superheroes was on last night. Saturn Girl was showing a teenage Clark Kent how the future is this wonderful place, thanks to Superman.

All I could think was, "Boy, that would burn Luthor up if he found out." Then I had to wonder whether he had been there or not. I figure if anyone in the present day in the DC Universe could build a time machine, it'd be Lex, but that doesn't mean he would.

Not that I think he'd have any scruples about jumping ahead to see where things are going, either to alter the course of history, or take advantage of it. But he might see it as not worth the resources, since most of what he learned will be rendered obsolete after the first move he makes changes things. Though I suppose one move ought to be enough for Luthor.

It might be interesting to see Luthor's reaction to his legacy, and Superman's, a thousand years on. Would he dismiss it, or actually change his approach? Knowing Lex, though, "change his approach" would mean ignoring any attempts at running a real business, and going back to 100% focus on killing Superman, and destroying his reputation. "If I can't be remembered as the savior of mankind, neither can you!"

It put me in mind of Dwayne McDuffie's last story on Fantastic Four, when a Doom from the future shows up. First he starts off claiming Richards destroyed the world, but eventually he admits Reed's made it a paradise, and Doom is just super jealous. The part where he finally admits how well off the world is, and you can just tell it kills him to admit it.

Of course, that's difference between Doom and Lex. Doom will admit it if Reed does something right, he just thinks he could do better (and Reed found a universe where he was dead and sent Doom there, basically saying, "Prove it."). I don't Lex would ever give Superman credit. He's wrapped so much up in how Superman is wrecking humanity, he'd never admit Supes did something right.