Superman #168

Superman #168 (1964)
“Luthor… Super-Hero!”
by Ed Hamilton & Curt Swan

We already saw Lex Luthor being considered a hero on the planet he saved, but this is taking that in a more literal sense.

This is the issue where the planet is officially renamed Lexor, so I can finally stop saying “that planet where Luthor is a hero”.
Although now I wonder what it was called before.

It’s easy to criticize Superman for pursuing Luthor to this planet, but for once I’m going to defend him. Luthor IS an escaped convicted criminal, and it would be naïve for Superman to just trust that he’s going to be a honorable citizen just because he found a place where people like him.
I am, however, going to criticize Superman for going there alone when he doesn’t have powers on Lexor. There is absolutely no in-universe reason for why he couldn’t ask the Justice League to help.

Luthor even gets a love interest here; she was actually briefly introduced as “Tharla” in the previous issue, but for some reason she’s renamed Ardora from this point forward.

The story is making a good use of Luthor’s new status quo to make us sympathize with him; at this point everything he does is either to help the people of Lexor or to prevent Superman from taking him away.
In fact the story does this a little TOO well: since it doesn’t give ANY hint that Luthor plans something nefarious, or that his popularity could turn him into a tyrant, it’s making the reader root AGAINST Superman.

I pity because I can absolutely see Luthor slowly turning into the Doctor Doom of Lexor, considering he might as well be a god to these people.

But no, the story goes into a wildly different direction by having the McGuffin Crystals turn Superman into a criminal.

So we have Luthor giving himself all of Superman’s powers…

…including his super-idiocy.

As a general rule, if you see the words “it’s ironic that” in a Silver Age story, that’s typically when the story either derails or gets unbearably dumb.

Three panels later, Superman gets arrested. Turns out it’s not that easy to be Luthor, Supes!

I can excuse Superman not immediately figuring out The Defender is Luthor, considering how secret identities work in the Silver Age.
He should still have figured out Luthor was behind it; it’s not like Luthor hasn’t built PLENTY of super-powered robots before!!!

Not that the people of Lexor are particularly smarter.
Wait, why does Luthor still keep the secret identity? If he’s THAT certain that Superman will escape, couldn’t he just use the machine to also make Ardora invulnerable?

I’m sure there are legitimate reasons for why a robot guard has an easily accessible panel that allows you to reprogram it, but they escape me at the moment.

Well at least the comic answered one of my doubts… Luthor can’t make Ardora permanently invulnerable because the effects of the ray are temporary.
I still think he didn’t need the secret identity. At all.

Following the robot, Luthor is able to capture Superman.

We have reached the final page with the final twist… and FOR ONCE it’s not a stupid ending!
Because it turns out that Superman wasn’t turned into a criminal: he just wanted to save Lexor from those crystals.

In fact, he recalls having seen those crystals on another planet that was slowly turning dumber because of their effects.
Was that planet our Earth? Because that would explain SO much.

You would expect the story to end with Superman bringing Lex back to Earth, but no: he’s STILL on Lexor.

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“Luthor, Daily Planet Editor!”
By Leo Dorfman & Curt Swan

Across this sort of mini-saga, we saw Ed Hamilton turn Lex Luthor into a surprisingly complex character, placing him in a new scenario we never saw before.
Enter Leo Dorfman to screw it up.

Luthor is SO fixated on Superman that he decides to go back to Earth to capture him.
This COULD potentially work… show that Luthor’s obsession is poisoning his attempt to redeem himself… but there’s three problems with it.
The first is that there were no hints that his obsession was THAT deep.
The second is that he plans to capture Superman by exposing him to Red Kryptonite… which is a TERRIBLE idea considering just how random its effects are.

Third, and by far the worst, is the absolutely random decision to turn this into a time travel story.

Pop quiz! You’re Lex Luthor, a guy smart enough to have REPEATEDLY built time machines out of 1960s household appliances.
You find yourself stranded in the past: what do you do?

Get a job, of course.

Wait Superman can find Luthor anywhere on the planet THAT easily?
How does he EVER escape capture for more than five minutes? Scrap that, how is ANYONE on the planet a fugitive!?

EVEN WORSE, Superman can track your mind ACROSS ALL TIME AND SPACE.

Another quiz! You are Superman, a guy who can scan the entire planet to look for a single person; you can time travel and have access to all historical documents imaginable.
How do you look for Lex Luthor?

You get a job, of course.

Superman, capable of scanning the entire planet AND read lips from another solar system, can be fooled by fake moustaches.

Luthor, why do you even NEED this job???

Meanwhile, Superman interviews actress Lillian Russell.

Who was a real person, by the way. She would have been 46 years old in 1906, when this story is taking place (below a picture of her from 1904). The story implies that she’s living in San Francisco, but I couldn’t find any evidence that she ever did.

Superman’s first scoop is the arrest of some jewel thieves that want to rob her, his second is part of his neverending battle against professional boxers…

…and his third one is about a brand-new fire engine painted with Red Kryptonite.
Wait, WHAT!?

After he’s saved the boat, Superman is captured by Lex Luthor at gunpoint.

In case you missed it: right now Superman is not invulnerable.
WHY DON’T YOU JUST SHOOT HIM???

So to recap, this was Luthor’s plan after finding himself stranded in the past:
A) get a job
B) paint a fire engine with Red Kryptonite
C) secretly build a machine to get you back to Lexor
D) just wait for Superman run get near Red Kryptonite
E) somehow know exactly what effect said Red Kryptonite will have
F) bring Superman back to Lexor

You knew this was going to happen the second they mentioned San Franscisco and 1906?
There’s only one reason any comic ever goes there.

As mentioned I could not find evidence that Lillian Russell lived in San Francisco, let alone in 1906. I am 100% sure the only reason she’s here is that she has multiple LLs in her name.

In fact there is AN ENTIRE PAGE dedicated to her hanging out with Superman!!!
Was Leo Dorfman a huge fan of her? He was born in 1914 and she died in 1922, but she was the subject of a 1940 movie.

Once the effects of Red Kryptonite fade away, Superman returns to the 20th century.
To discover that Luthor has NOT returned to Lexor, and has in fact left a heartbroken Ardora behind.

And we end the story with the revelation that Luthor has just time-traveled back into Alcatraz.

Whoever thought THIS would be a satisfying conclusion should have been put in jail.

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Historical significance
First story: 8/10
Ardora will be VERY important for later Lexor stories.
Second story: 5/10
To a lesser extent, Luthor’s obsession will as well.

Silver Age-ness
First story: 5/10
The ray that can conveniently give you temporary powers is the biggest part; somewhat lessened by the fact that the effects of the crystals are not as random as they initially seem.
Second story: ∞/10
Where do I begin? We have Luthor’s ship going into the past FOR NO REASON, him taking the editor’s job FOR NO REASON, Superman having access to all time and space but being fooled by fake moustaches, Luthor somehow predicting the effects of Red Kryptonite AND using it as paint, shoehorning the San Francisco earthquake AND a real life person…

Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 7/10
This could have been SO much better if Hamilton wasn’t constrained by the need to create parallels to the status quo, which really feels like it was dictated by editor Mort Weisinger.
As mentioned, it makes you root for Luthor a bit too much… since you never see him commit any crime once he’s on Lexor, or even express the desire to do so, it’s hard to root for Superman to take him back to Earth.
The story is not ruined too much because of it, however, because for most of the story Superman is just trying to save Lexor (even if you only learn it at the end).
Still, a lot of wasted potential because considering his other work it’s quite likely that Hamilton could have delivered something with more nuance.

 

Second story: 0/10
I knew this was going to suck the SECOND I saw Dorfman was the writer.
Aside from gorgeous Curt Swan artwork and unintentional comedy, this has no redeeming qualities.