For the Luthor in the comics, that pretty much rings true. He may do evil stuff without Superman there, and he may do good, but Superman simply makes him irrational. One thing I love about JLU Lex is that he transcends that (by getting other obsessions, admittedly) which makes him a much "freer" character.
The Lexor story is awfully sad. Especially since it starts out so well - Lex and Superman honour their agreement to have a fair fight, Lex finds peace and happiness and all the affirmation he needs on Lexor - and then it all just breaks down. Which is almost like a justification for Lex's hatred: no matter what he does, no matter how good he gets, he can never have what Superman has. He can never be the hero of the story. The only question is whether that is because of a flaw of character or because of fate, but either way it must seem like great injustice to him.
The thing that gets me is that with both Silver Age Lex and Smallville Lex (less so with 80's businessman Lex, but I don't count him, he's lame) a lot of the worst things that happen to him are sort of freak accidents. Lexor was destroyed by a riccochete gone awry. The accident in Smallville (the Silver Age version of the town, not the show) that was the catalyst for his hatred of Superman was 'cause he knocked something over with his elbow and everything spiraled out of control.
In Smallville it's like that too. The Nicodemis flower and that gas/virus that gave people nightmares, at least as far as I recall, were released accidentally. Lex will have a perfectly legitimate (if a tad dangerous) experiment and then some one in a million thing will go wrong and burst through multiple safegaurds and then Clark bursts in to upbraid Lex for being careless.
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The Lexor story is awfully sad. Especially since it starts out so well - Lex and Superman honour their agreement to have a fair fight, Lex finds peace and happiness and all the affirmation he needs on Lexor - and then it all just breaks down. Which is almost like a justification for Lex's hatred: no matter what he does, no matter how good he gets, he can never have what Superman has. He can never be the hero of the story. The only question is whether that is because of a flaw of character or because of fate, but either way it must seem like great injustice to him.
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In Smallville it's like that too. The Nicodemis flower and that gas/virus that gave people nightmares, at least as far as I recall, were released accidentally. Lex will have a perfectly legitimate (if a tad dangerous) experiment and then some one in a million thing will go wrong and burst through multiple safegaurds and then Clark bursts in to upbraid Lex for being careless.
Maybe it is fate, Lex is just cursed.
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