The House Of Brainiac Finale

[superfangirl1]

Action Comics #1066









Connor critically overloads the brainiac ship with too much power using his for potential Tactile elekinesis. which takes away brainiac queen power source and weakens her.











Superman #15

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I'm sorry, I know I'm supposed to be moved by the tragedy of it all but GAHAHAHAHA

His FACE

He looks like he finds this whole twist just as funny as I do and is about to burst out laughing too 😂

(And of course if Lex is restored from some earlier backup, he is never ever going to believe that this wasn't Superman doing it to him on purpose, I get it, status quote gonna status quo, might have been nice to see good Lex doing some stuff that wasn't helping Superman or arguing with tiresome members of his family but oh well)

WHO'S LEX HAHAHAHAHAHA 🤪

[beyondthefringe]

Well, here's how we get back to a factory default evil, Superman-hating Lex Luthor. If not now or soon, eventually some writer's going to be all "The Lex of my childhood was a supervillain" and reset him. Maybe by the time they need him to be the bad guy in the movies...

Sigh. Comics have broken me to the point where I expect this sort of thing. And I was really liking the long, slow path towards reaching a rapport with Superman.

[tcampbell1000]

All things end, so we should make the most of the time we have. What disappoints me is that the "Good Lex" story arc didn't seem to do that. I mean, as you say, the path to a rapport with Superman was good, but most of Lex's dialogue could be broken down into:

1) Superman, we need to work together even if you don't fully trust me.
2) Other character, I need to talk to you about Superman.
3) I know you think I'm still evil, but I'm not.
4) I did a bad thing nobody knows about yet.
5) Here's my family! I don't talk about them much. Spend a few minutes with Mom and you'll figure out why.

I know he had a scene with Amanda Waller and there were probably a few other moments I'm forgetting, but it really seemed like that was about 97% of it.

Where was the story about Lex trying to make amends to people outside Metropolis' Super-family? He did a lot of bad shit when he was an evil billionaire...even by billionaire standards. There would always be things he couldn't make right, but it'd be interesting to see him try.

Or what about a story called "Conversations with the Justice League" where reformed Luthor levels with them about all the weaknesses he observed in their operation when he was actively trying to destroy it? I know there was a separate "Luthor joins the JLA" arc but it didn't really reform him that much, so this seems like an opportunity to explore his chemistry with some non-Superman-dependent characters.

Or hell, maybe he could take a few minutes to think about something that wasn't goddamn superheroes? When classic Luthor pretended to reform, he did so by curing cancer: it would be wild to see a Luthor unencumbered by his usual deal working with the scientific community, maybe bringing his insight into Kryptonite radiation into a sustainability effort?

In short, I knew the Enlightened Lex would leave us in some fashion sooner or later, just like Good Norman couldn't stay pure forever in Spider-Man. But Good Norman at least got to be good in some refreshing and unpredictable ways. When Norman Osborn is showing more character range than you are, it might be time to talk to your agent.

[beyondthefringe]

That is literally years worth of good stories we could have had, if DC was truly committed to redeeming Lex Luthor (before undoing all of his progress through a heroic sacrifice.)

Just like Norman Osborn.
Just like Otto Octavius.
Just like... eh, I'm sure we can think of others.

[tcampbell1000]

I'm not sure I'm reading your last post correctly, so I don't know if this will support it or dissent with it. Respect either way!

To my way of thinking, Otto Octavius' "redemption and un-redemption arc" was satisfying within the circular structure that the market demands, because at least the creators involved did a lot with SpOck while he was around. He had a brand-new love interest. He got to interact with a fair chunk of the actively-published Marvel Universe. He had a new lease on life, and it was interesting watching him try to build it. I mean, I got invested when he was going back to school and finishing his degree, for God's sake. And when he went away, it felt somewhat earned.

Good Norman didn't get nearly the same range of experiences, but he at least got some choice moments: writhing under the weight of his sins, pretending to be his old evil self to save his son from the Kingpin, doing a heroic stint as the Gold Goblin, and the way his desire for repentance wrestled with his billionaire privilege in Venom. Not as much fun as SpOck was, but not bad either.

But Good Lex? After the novel twist of Supercorp, nobody seemed interested in delivering on that concept in an interesting or satisfying way. There was no Superior Gold Luthor series, and the Superman books seemed more interested in pulling lots of backstory out of their ass (Luthor had an early career as a superhero! Luthor's kept YET ANOTHER villain you haven't heard of under wraps! Luthor has a secret mom who hates everybody!) than in having New Luthor do much of anything beyond being Superman's guy in the chair. I doubt I'll be reading these stories again: if I get an itch for a redeemed Luthor, I'll try the one from the back half of the final issue of Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Given DC likes to reboot things so often anyway, I'd like to see them just put a time limit on it, and just tell whatever stories they want without having to worry about returning to the status quo, because that will come when they do the next universal reset, anyway.

[zachbeacon]

*This is your chance, Lex. Play dumb and you might get away with it*

"Who's Lex?"

*Not that dumb*

[numeronone]

He's a BRAINIAC, BRAINIAC on the floor

And he's braining like he's never brained befooororreee!