Lex Luthor and the Joker hanging out

[cyberghostface]

From Superman #107.

Comments

[mazway_75]

I remember Luthor talking about Joker in Morrison's JLA: "Frightenly sick in the head yet strangely compelling company."

[thanekos]

Lex Luthor, quite possibly the only man to get away with pulling " bucket of water above the open door " on the Joker.

(Issue #3 of the 90s World's Finest mini - it's a toss-up between that and the Lex issue of the Joker's 70s ongoing.)

[mastermahan]

Of all the versions of Lex and Joker's relationship, my favorite is when they're somehow best friends.

[numeronone]

Joker: "What, you think giant purple muscle cars and plastic explosive cream pies grow on TREES?! I gotta have a silent partner helping me turn my Joker Bucks™ into Benjies and Andies!"

Luthor: (Smiling Warmly) "Can't sleep, clown will kill me"

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Now I'm left wondering if Batman and Superman have had that conversation.

[tcampbell1000]

My headcanon: Superman and Batman both agree the Joker takes the cake.

Lex is brilliant, and could give Batman a few really bad days. But he has too many weaknesses that Bruce is well equipped to target. Bruce deals with amoral businessmen every day as his side gig, and Lex is limited by that mindset as well as by his ego. The mere fact that he spends most of his life in a giant skyscraper shaped like his initial means he'll never be as unpredictable a factor as Ra's al Ghul. Lex is no cakewalk, but for Batman, he's manageable.

But there's a chasm of cackling darkness in the Joker's mind that should scare Superman. The foundation stone of Clark's psyche is a faith in humanity: the Joker is everything that tests that faith in one narcissistic package. He's able to view the Joker as an outlier because they don't interact that much and it's no secret which hero gets most of the Joker's focus: the Joker's anti-Superman strategies are superficial efforts. But if that shifted for some reason--if the Joker really put in the time as Superman's archenemy--that'd be a frikkin' nightmare for Clark.

[blueprintstyles]

That's an interesting perspective and I could definitely see that happening, There's a strong argument for Lex in terms of influence. Luthor is the type who manipulates eco-disasters and wars for profit, his body count could lap Joker's ten or twenty times over.

[tcampbell1000]

Yeah, in terms of who can do the greater damage, it's Lex all the way. All things considered, his obsession with Superman might be an accidental good because it keeps his focus off other projects that can harm many more people than just one Kryptonian. But he still has some spare cycles for that stuff.