Lex Luthor's Psychiatrist

[alschroeder3]

I've seen some comment on the pages DC released, on Action Comics #19, about an almost-tryst between Clark and Lois a year ago that instead resulted in her meeting Jon Carrol--but what I found MORE interesting was the way Luthor was portrayed. In the recent H'El storyline, we found that Luthor was imprisoned in a facility that was like Hannibal Lector's confinement in SILENCE OF THE LABS on steroids. Now, showing a scene from one year ago, we see Luthor meeting his psychiatrist.

Joker's psychiatrist became Harley Quinn, but Luthor's psychiatrist suffers a somewhat different fate....which is fitting, since Luthor is a totally different sort of character.

Again, they seem to be playing Luthor with a Hannibal Lector-vibe. Brilliant, amoral, and very, very dangerous. If Kryptonian flesh wasn't so hard to cut, they'd probably have him dining on Kryptonian meat--although that wouldn't make him a cannibal, since Superman's a Kryptonian, not a human.

Yep. He has his psychiatrist locked up.

Totally in control, inquisitive, coldly brilliant, and monomanically driven. One of the better portrayals of Luthor. Again--Hannibal Lector vibes in this portrayal.

Comments

[icon_uk]

I'm not following this, is Luthor in jail and somehow keeping his psychiatrist in the same jail?

[alschroeder3]

No, he's in prison currently---the only prisoner in a huge facility he himself designed as unbreakable. This is a year ago, when he was free---but holding his PSYCHIATRIST prisoner.

[icon_uk]

Right, thanks.

Though I'm curious as to why he has one, he would either see nothing wrong with his perfect mindset, or would view himself so far beyond her abilities that he might as well use a Magic 8 ball to assess his personality.

[turtlefu]

You know, it's kind of hard to get behind this when it's so obviously a Hannibal riff. It seems more Hannibal than Luthor which is disappointing.

[donnblake]

I don't know, Hannibal sort of set the standard for "Villain gets psychoanalyzed," but Lex here seems to actually want to make some progress (albeit it impeded by his refusal to accept any diagnosis) as opposed to Hannibal, who I can't ever remember speaking to his various questioners except for his own amusement, or to manipulate them into furthering his plans (trying to have them killed, facilitating his escape, etc).

[cainofdreaming]

When did Lecter get psychoanalyzed? Starling interviewed him so that the FBI could catch another psychopath, if I'm not mistaken, not to crack the workings of his mind.

And there was a bit more to him choosing to help Starling than just furthering his own ends. He did, in his own way, actually care for her as she reminded him of his sister. Check the book ending of Hannibal to see how far that went.

[donnblake]

(When did Lecter get psychoanalyzed?)

Well, numerous attempts from Frederick Chilton, the head of the institution who intended to get famous by writing a book on him, IIRC, which don't appear on screen or on page, but don't seem to have been terribly successful. But you're correct, I should have better phrased that as "Imprisoned villain speaks with psychologist."

[cainofdreaming]

The mention of Chilton having done such doesn't really amount to setting a standard, but, you know, beside the point at this... ahem... point.

Though, Starling's field was more in profiling rather than medical psychology, wasn't it?

[superfangirl1]

I love the line "I dream in algorithms". Pretty good dialogue between Lex and Dr. Lagarde.

[mrstatham]

And then DC hit the DERPY DERPY DOO button again and magically managed to piss off the book's writer. Way to go, DC. Now we've got solo Tony Daniel to look forward to.

[akodo_rokku]

Not for long, Daniel quit too.

[mrstatham]

Oh lord. Talk about a clusterfuck.

Mod Note

[salinea]

Please don't use "Derpy" since that word is seen ableist by some people.

[robinzegblu]

I thought he was Doctor Luthor in the DCNu, nor Mister Luthor.

[thanekos]

I'm loving this Luthor's presence in the DCNU's superbooks- he's manipulative, he's intelligent, and he's not even pretending to any legitimacy.

.. though I am wondering how LexCorp still is or ever became a thing, with the way he seems to've gone.

(Of course, the time he spends getting up to stuff like this might be the reason Queen Industries's now the go-to for substitutions like QPhones, QPads, QBoxes..)

[randyripoff]

Eh...not so much a fan of sociopath Luthor. I know the idea is to make him creepier and scarier, but I think he's a much better character when he's essentially a decent guy who thinks that Superman is the greatest threat to humanity ever and eliminating him is the best thing to do, no matter the consequences.

[md84]

How often is Luthor actually portrayed that way? The closest he got to actually being a decent human being was in Smallville, and that didn't last. In other works Luthor's a bit of a jerk even before Superman ever appeared. 52 made the point that Luthor is even WORSE without Superman aroudn, since the Caped Crusader acts as a lightning rod of sorts for Luthor's villainy.

[okkult3000]

Eliot S! Maggin's Luthor treated crime as a kind of performance art and had rules against harming innocent bystanders in his war against Superman.

[blackruzsa]

It is beyond disappointing, and pretty damn flawed for Luthor to even have a psychiatrist in the first place. He doesn't even seem to consider himself human, so why ask a human being to judge him by human standards?

[md84]

That's essentially what he tells the psychiatrist in the end. That his intelligence is beyond human and so he can't be judged normally. He just wants her to confirm his delusions of being a god among men, while showing off by keeping her unjustly locked up just because he can. The entire thing is just a huge ego-trip, much like everything else Luthor has ever done.

It's nice to see that the reboot hasn't changed everything. Like the Question in JL Unlimited said, no matter the world Luthor is Luthor.

[espanolbot]

Prefer the Young Justice version of Luthor, personally.

[bruinsfan]

I think my favorite Luthor was the one from Final Night: brilliant, working feverishly for the survival of mankind, but taking a moment to lord it over the assorted heroes he needed to execute his disaster plan.