Lex Luthor is the true hero in Superman Lore (Even if it pains us to recognize that)
A hero is always defined by their villain. Most notably, by how the hero’s actions differentiate them from the villain’s actions. The hero-villain dynamic is one of the most important elements in contemporary popular culture. The best of these dynamics represents the contradictory facets of the human condition. These pairs work so well because they represent outcomes that are both viable — Batman and the Joker represent two possible answers to tragedy: vengeance and madness, respectively. In the case of Superman and Lex Luthor, their pairing centers around what should define a human being — selflessness or self preservation. Superman represents the ideal of what a human being can aspire to become whereas Lex represents the reality of what a human being actually is. While Superman is presented as the hero in his mythos (since he is the main protagonist) it always follows that Lex is the villain (given his centrality as the main antagonist). But this simple dichotomy hides a more interesting commentary on human beings, and also points to the reality that Lex Luthor is standing up to a god — that their dichotomy isn’t just between selflessness and self-preservation but between a higher power enforcing their morality and human reason fighting against that enforcement. Superman and Lex are the perennial conflict between revelation and reason and while Superman is presented as the main protagonist to root for, Lex is the real hero in the sense that he aspires to use his rationality to dominate revelaton, to choose preservation over sacrifice, and, ultimately, to choose the moral ambiguity of the human condition over the absolute moral enforcement of a god.
Without specifying one particular interpretation or era of either character, both Superman and Luthor have similar character qualities that define them. Superman is “the boy scout” that is always engaging in the “never ending battle” against injustice. He is presented as a Mosaic or Christ like figure who will lead his people into a better world through both the strength of his example and the strength of his sword. Superman is dedicated to “truth, justice, and the American way” and the American way means life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While is origin is as a socialist rabble-rouser, he is now the bulwark champion of the establishment, the preserver of order and stability, the conservative force of moral absolutism devoted to the principles of classical liberalism. Superman is what America wishes it could be, an actor of moral righteousness who stands for honesty, liberty, and justice in a world of deception, exploitation, and corruption.
Lex, alternatively, is presented as being the embodiment of what Superman is fighting against — that he is the personification of deception, exploitation, and corruption. Lex is presented as always desiring more power often for his own selfish purposes. He is a corporate magnate driven by a need to perpetually gain more market share, more influence, and, ultimately, tyranny over all he desires. He is the enemy of American cultural values and represents the worst facets of American culture.
And yet —Lex is only human. Superman pretends to be a human being and is raised with American conservative values. Lex, just through the power of his rationality (either in the form of business power, weaponized scientific discovery, or his power of persuasion) is the peak of Enlightenment sensibilities and highest development of human rational capacity. He is said to have above a “12th level intellect” making him one of the smartest characters in the DC universe. He is the best that human beings have to offer and his fight against Superman is man’s fight against God — it’s the power of rationality clashing with the eternal condition of myth. They are the manifestation of what Plato calls “the ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry.” Their conflict is fundamentally this: do we follow the morality given to us by a higher authority or do we follow the morality proscribed by us from reason? While Plato would profoundly disagree with some of Luthor’s conclusions, Luthor’s desire to supplant the blind acceptance of a mythical creature and the corresponding moral system would be celebrated by Plato. Luthor, in this sense, is the champion of reason and the desire for man’s rationality to direct his fate, not the protection of a conservative moral arbiter.
The final facet that Luthor represents is the notion of progress versus preservation. Superman fundamentally stands for preservation of the moral and political ideals that he exists in. By always striving to protect people’s safety and to punish those who violate the law, Superman is inherently conservative. Luthor, on the other hand, stands for progress — for using the power of the human mind to discover new frontiers, explore new avenues, utilize new resources. Luthor is not interested in preserving the status quo — he is interested in the aggrandizement of the human species, and even perhaps in the perfection of the human being (himself being first, of course). What this conflict so profoundly represents is the tension in modern society itself — between the desire to preserve what we’ve inherited and the desire to achieve something greater, to forge our own path. This later sense is what drives Nietzsche’s idea of the übermensch or the overman, the beyond man, the superman. Luthor is much closer to this ideal than Superman is — Superman is here to save us, Luthor is here to advance us. While we may desire a savior, and perhaps psychologically we need to believe in one in order to see the world as fundamentally ordered, the history of mankind has shown we will choose the pioneer, the rebel, the crusader over the preserver, even if the rebellion undermines the very way of life the preserver aspires to protect.
Superman is presented to us as the hero we should aspire to be like, the moral sentinel who stands against the never ending horde of injustice and human depravity. However, Lex Luthor is the true hero of the story — at least as far as the West after the Enlightenment is concerned — because he uses his rationality to fight the tyranny of a higher power, to push forward in science, technology, and commerce for the benefit of the masses, and is willing to do what is necessary to further the plight of the human condition. Superman may be who we root for and who we aspire to be like, but it is the Luthor’s of our history, and of our time, whom we celebrate and whose ethical paradigm is far more resonant with the modern human condition.
A hero is only as good as their villain. Lex Luthor’s villain is a demigod who is imposing, unilaterally, his moral framework on humanity. He is not allowing the necessary evils to exist which push forward human progress; his villain stands against what is best for the human race. Luthor’s villain believes himself a hero, one dedicated to preserving a way of life that preserves weakness, that makes human beings his moral slave by imposing his moral will onto them by force, and, worst of all, is undermining human self-reliance by making us dependent to his benevolence instead of creating for ourselves a better condition. Luthor is the hero of humanity’s progress, self-reliance, and human reason. He may not be the protagonist of the Superman mythos and he may often engage in underhanded and unsavory behavior, but he is the manifestation of mankind’s eternal desire for self-determination — something Superman’s presence fundamentally undermines. Superman makes us a slave to his beneficence. Luthor desires to free us to determine for ourselves whether or not we wish to be beneficent or maleficent.
