Superman: The Death of Lex Luthor book two takes the duo to the future, secrets from the past, and truths courtesy of Wonder Woman! Lex Luthor has revealed that he is dying from experimenting with Kryptonite! Superman thinks back to his days in Smallville with a young, arrogant Luthor. Also, he thinks they are the only ones in town who may understand each other. In the present, Superman takes Luthor to his Fortress of Solitude, and takes him into the Bottle City of Kandor. They find no cure so Superman has the Kandorians ready retrieve them. They use the projector to enter the dark dimension discovered by his father, the Phantom Zone! The projection has barren planets, winds, and a purple light. It is a greywasteland with winds and they communicate through telepathy.
Superman offers Luthor to hit him, he swings, but finds they are made of ghost-like dark energy. The prisoners start to call his name, “Kal-El”, like ghosts out of the underworld. They are formed into an army by General Zod! They start to swarm Superman who realizes that their hatred has made them solid as well as himself. The emotion using to act physical makes me think of the subway spirit in Ghost (1990). Superman is mobbed and cries out for Luthor to save him! A reversal of their situations. Luthor calmly uses his willpower to pick up a blade from the ground. Zod tells him to join them and stab Superman! Luthor says he likes the offer, but holds the blade to Zod’s neck! He forces Zod to have his army to release Superman.
Zod rages and tries to swing at Luthor, so he calls on his army, to concentrate and throw Luthor painfully out of the Phantom Zone! The Kandorian leader, Drygor Moliom, wonders why Superman would save Luthor who threatened him. Smallville, we see the young Clark pleading for Luthor to open a lab door and then says it is his fault, saving Luthor is his redemption! Book Two continues with a Bryan Hitch cover that shows Superman flying over an admiring crowd as a man and woman look up to see him. The variant covers by Francis Manapul and Chris Samnee show the rivals of Luthor and Superman. Mark Waid continues writing the tale, Hitch provides pencils, and Kevin Nowlan inks book two. At the Daily Planet, the staff are working on the tracking polling on Superman’s decision to save Luthor. Jimmy Olsen is uncertain if Superman knows about the polling.
Lois Lane tells him that Superman only does what he thinks is right. This would be interesting for Lois with the recent Superman movie. It is nice that we have a ground level reaction and a look back to Lois and Jimmy while the cosmic events are going on. We also get questions of morality from Jimmy on why Superman doesn’t permanently stop Luthor. Lois counters that Superman could kill villain after villain, but he has to put boundaries. Superman exists to find solutions. Great Superman writing. Superman can see them and says to himself, “Thanks Lois.” Luthor is restless waiting in the Fortress of Solitude with globes of different Kryptonite in the background. Superman says that he will take Luthor to the smartest man he’s ever met.
He holds up a Legion flight ring with Luthor framed in the curved shank of the ring! Waid had a run on the Legion of Super-Heroes in 2005. Superman puts on the flight ring and flies pulling along Luthor in a time bubble.This opens up to a stunning two page spread with the Legion against the Fatal Five in the 31st century! The Legion first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 (1958) by Otto Binder and Al Plastino. The same team that created Supergirl. The battle continues across a long horizontal panel and Superman smiles introducing them to Luthor. He drops out of the sky as the Legion take the Fatal Five into custody. Superman says he was a member and Saturn Woman says he inspired them. Luthor wonders who he inspired and the Legionnaires joke that they never heard of him!
They fly back to Legion headquarters for Superman to meet Brainiac 5, whom he greets as Querl Dox. His computer-like intellect, Brainiac 5 calls Luthor, an ape. Saturn Woman is the telepathic link between Brainiac and Superman who uses his vision to examine Luthor on the sub-atomic level! We have a quote from W. William Frazer about being recognized for “who we are.” Also, we need someone to keep us grounded and encouraging us to fly. We see Clark in the classroom and Luthor hard at work in his lab. At night, Clark goes to the lab and Luthor shows him his lab, Clark is stunned. Luthor has a transformer that can open a wormhole. He has a plan to open a dimensional portal? I wonder where if that is some movie. I like the reddish orange tint to the lab with colors from David Baron.
Luthor is obsessed with not being “alone in the universe”, then he opens a box containing a meteorite! The green glow of Kryptonite! Clark starts to feel pain and Luthor says it has a “unique radiation” that powers his machine. I like that they haven’t discovered the effect of Kryptonite. Luthor holds the egg-like Kryptonite in closeup with Clark weakened behind him. Clark holds up his hands to try to block the Kryptonite and Luthor takes it for fearing him as a freak. He tosses Clark out of the lab. Clark tries to warn Luthor. Lex Luthor then gets a glimpse of Kryptonopolis, the capital city of Krypton. He gets a warning of the E.M. field breaching and then an explosion! We see again Clark trying to break into the lab saying it was his fault. The blame is really Luthor trying to experiment beyond any safety protocol.
We see Luthor’s angry face as his hair is burned away and then an explosion. Saturn Girl sees the vision because of its strength. Superman explains that it was his first exposure to Kryptonite, Saturn Girl and his form look holographic behind the face of young Clark. He says that Luthor left Smallville and hazmat teams covered up the site. Brainiac 5 calls Superman’s attention since Luthor is going into convulsions. He says that every time he tries to use a cure, the pathogen attacks his system almost causing a stroke. Any medicines would be too powerful for a “21st century Earthling.” Superman says that the future could have discovered the cure, but Brainiac 5 says records were corrupted for the last ten centureis. He tells Superman to be careful of his enemy. Superman’s thoughts are that he was watching Luthor’s pulse and brain patterns suspecting a trap.
When they leave, Saturn Girl says that Brainiac 5 was lying and that they know what happened to Luthor! Next, Superman takes Luthor along in the time bubble and says he will need to make negotiations. Then, we see the imposing figure of Wonder Woman in front of Themyiscra! Hitch returns to draw the character after working on a story in Wonder Woman #750 (2020). She says there are warrants for Luthor’s arrest in 32 countries and also for the Justice League to take him into custody. Wonder Woman has already defied these authories. Superman tells her that he will turn over Luthor, but he has to be alive. A kind of reasonable condition. He asks as friend to use the Purple Ray on Luthor. I don’t know how it works. The Greek goddess of healing is Panacea, daughter of Asclepius.
Does this ray use some of her magic to heal channeled through science?, Wonder Woman walks in both worlds. It has been around since Wonder Woman #1 (1942). Extreme closeup of Wonder Woman’s face as it looks like she is thinking, “What the-?” Then, a splash page of Wonder Woman’s right cross as she screams out, “How are you?” Superman looks floored by the punch and Luthor looks slammed back in his bubble! Wow. Ever see a picture of a punch that hits so hard you feel it in your jaw? Luthor is hurtled to the sea and wishes he had a camera to record the battle. Superman struggles with Wonder Woman over Themysicra. She says he has broken the trust with the Justice League and should just let fate take Luthor and make people safer. We see a closeup of Wonder Woman’s raging face.
Superman calmly reasons with Wonder Woman saying he doesn’t want people to see him as a weapon. Letting a single person die may make the world’s people think about Superman’s judgment on them. Closeup of Wonder Woman’s morose face, incredible character work by Hitch and the art team! She agrees to take Luthor to the Purple Ray and Wonder Woman says that the rest of the Justice League are covering for him. She reminds me that no man may step foot on Themyscira. We see the halls in the Isle of Healing with statues of goddesses tinged in purple of course. Luthor says it looks like the set of Clash of the Titans! Wonder Woman has Luthor restrained with her lasso. It looks like Hygieia, the goddess of health with a snake on her arm, is holding a large bowl that projects the Purple Ray. This is how it works? We see in a single panel Superman landing in an alley and taking out a suit to return as Clark Kent. Wonder Woman questions Luthor about his fear.
Luthor has to admit he is afraid of dying because this was not the end he envisioned. I like the Smallville scenes revealing the pivotal moments, but even more is Wonder Woman’s lasso getting to the truth with Luthor! Clark walks the streets with the people of Metropolis with the golden light of the sun. Luthor admits that he is close to inventing interstellar travel because he doens’t want to die on Earth. He says the Kryptonian is immortal and can look down on humans forever. We see Wonder Woman again in closeup saying he is wrong. We get a page of horizontal panels showing Clark with Lois as we hear Wonder Woman explaining to Luthor. She says what Superman really thinks of ordinary people is that he is in awe of them. He admires humans since they don’t have super powers and still face the “darkest times.” She says people are made of tissue paper, but “can do anything.” This seems to hint at Larry Niven’s 1969 essay, “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”! We see Wonder Woman’s face in closeup as she says, “You’re his heroes.” This scene just sums up so much about Superman and is one of my favorite all time Superman stories. A powerful story reveals the characters of Superman and Luthor with stunning art in Superman: The Death of Lex Luthor Book Two!
Five+ Kryptonite Cells out of Five!
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