Mark Waid and Bryan Hitch present the first book of Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor. This is published under DC’s Black Label which presents mature subject matter and is not bound to regular DC continuity. Waid currently writes the Batman/Superman World’s Finest series. Hitch worked with Waid on the tabloid size JLA: Heaven’s Ladder #1 (2011). Kevin Nowlan inks and is the artist of one of the variant covers. The magazine size of the Black Label graphic novels has the large panels that can contain the cinematic visuals of Hitch. Book One has a cover by Hitch of Superman arms spread out in flight with the sun shining behind him. We begin with the Daily Planet building with at sundown with Hob’s River in the background. Clark Kent is alone in the dark newsroom with only the light of his computer screen to illuminate him. He is sullen. We shift to the younger Clark shouting for Lex Luthor to open a sealed, metal door.
The older Clark removes his glasses and rubs his right eye at the memory. He strikes the door and in a closeup, we see the growling face of Luthor through a portal window, aflame! I like the hint that this accident may have caused Luthor’s hair loss. Medium shot of Clark desperate to enter the building as we see the other half of it is burning! We seee Clark typing and the text, “The Last Days of Lex Luthor by Clark Kent.” Great beginning that ties the two lifelong foes to the past and present. This goes to the lurching command room of a tanker off of Bangladesh. A closeup shot of the crew before we get the tsunami about to overtake the ship! It is actually the appearance of a giant, purple tech form like a mecha. The crew takes pictures of it with their cell phones. The Daily Planet newsroom is a buzz at the saving of the tanker. Perry White calls for Clark, but we only see his glasses at his desk. This is the best change of costume for Superman.
This goes to the island of Meghwip off of Bangladesh with a clawed Mecha like a hand with a glowing circle at its center. The mecha, colored purple and green, the signature colors of Lex Luthor’s Warsuit. The text explains that the island is six feet above the sea level, the Mecha powers up, and then slams into the island. The island is low enough to have the impact flood its fault lines, sinking it! We see the giant robot slamming into the island sending dust clouds throughout a city. Citizens fall next to boulder-shaped debris like the Kryptonians during the planet’s destruction in Superman the Movie (1978). Then, streaks of red and blue through the rubble. Shattered glass is about to fall on other citizens and then we see a blast of red, this makes me think of the scene in Superman Returns (2006) where Superman turns as he flies and vaporizes glass with his heat vision.
The waves start to flood the streets with people of Meghwip trying to run from it. Then, we see the waves turned into icy shards above the citizens. There is green x-ray vision of trapped people. A shadowy, flying figure frees them. The rescued people look up smiling with hope. There is an image of the machine almost filling two pages. Long panels at the bottom has the impact clouds at one end of the city and the mecha at the other side. Closeup of hands starting to rend the machine. Then, a splash page of the towering figure of Superman, the first time we have seen him in full above the head of Lex Luthor in shadow! An impressive panel by Hitch, Nowlan, and colorist David Baron. Superman senses something is wrong with his rival, but flies above the island to study the problem. We see Superman flying, his eyes ablaze with heat vision, and his fist out in powerful foreshortening!
He starts to plow into the island several “echo chambers” to counter the tremors. He sees Luthor standing on his machine saying he wanted Superman’s attention. Lurthor seems to find the situation amusing and Superman works out that there was a “combat machine” developed in India and we see that a control room of its operators was killed by Luthor and we see his smirking face. He slams Luthor back into the combat machine’s wall and is told to look at him with microscopic vision. Superman sees his lungs, deeper into Luthor’s celluar structure, and finds green particles. Luthor casually says it is from Kryptonite, we see a large panel of a labortory with Luthor looking at a meteor fragment of Kryptonite. It exploded and bathed Luthor with its radiation. He is tested and explains to his counterpart that the radiation has faded so Superman is in no danger, only his life is in danger.
Lex Luthor only has a few days left and has turned to his greatest rival. Luthor’s genius has failed at any cure. Then we get a splash page of the various times Superman helped people against Luthor’s schemes. We get the smiling face of Luthor realizing that Superman will save everyone including himself! Superman carefully scans Luthor and familiar with his enemy knows he is telling the truth. He doesn’t believe it, but Luthor has ultimately has come to value his life. Luthor notes that Superman’s help comes with a surrender for his crimes. We see that Superman agrees to save Luthor as a bargain between them. Then, he starts hearing his name in many languages, around the world. There is many faces of people and we see on a cellphone with text asking if Superman is a villain sympathizer!
The Daily Planet is chaos at the news! Luthor has transmitted their conversation to the world and thinks the world will hate him saving the villain. He says he hated him the moment he saw him. Clark thinks back to Smallville meeing the bullied, red-haired Lex Luthor. They were friends like in the Smallville show because of Luthor’s brilliance was the only person Clark could talk to about what he was experiencing. Luthor’s genius intelligence had no patience or understanding of the simple values of townspeople. The cure for Luthor will lead them into the Fortress of Solitude to the Phantom Zone! I suspect Lex Luthor has a plan to turn a cure into a weapon against Superman, but I'm always thinking Luthor has plans within plans. Still, I think this also might be a development like the cure can also free Superman from Kryptonite! An epic Superman adventure in artwork and story! Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor is powerful story of the two enemies, former friends, and an important development for Superman’s greatest villain!
Five Kryptonite Cells out of Five!
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