Warning! This article contains spoilers for Superman.
Superman, thankfully, avoids a villain trend that is decades old. Superman includes many villains, with Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor standing at the top of this pyramid. The ending of Superman has its тιтular character defeating these villains, with Luthor being sent to prison while his goons, like Ultraman and The Engineer, were either killed or incapacitated.
The hero overcoming the villains is fairly typical for comic book movies, yet Superman managed to subvert expectations in some ways. Some of the Easter eggs in Superman, such as the reveal of Ultraman’s idenтιтy, were somewhat unexpected, allowing the DCU film to break the mold where its villains were concerned.
The main way in which Superman did this, however, was via Luthor’s depiction. Thankfully, Superman avoided a villain trend that has been around for decades.
Lex Luthor’s Movie Appearances Tend To Follow A Specific Trend
Luthor Is Often A Lone Wolf
Most previous iterations of Lex Luthor have tended to follow the trend of having him operate alone. At most, the Lex Luthors of the past have only been aided by a handful of hapless and ineffective allies. Despite his reach and wealth, Luthor’s vendetta against Superman tends to be something only he truly understands.
The most recent cinematic interpretation, for instance, came in the DCEU’s movie timeline. Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor was similar in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Luthor worked primarily on his own to manipulate Superman and Batman before creating Doomsday. While he had some help, these characters received no development, painting Lex as the lone villain figure.
Superman Breaks This Movie Villains Trend In A Major Way
Lex’s Support System Is Clearly Established
Superman, however, breaks this trend noticeably. From the outset, Luthor is shown to rely on his allies, who are much more competent than those from other movie franchises have shown them to be. The Engineer, for example, was instrumental in allowing Luthor to tarnish Superman’s reputation, while Ultraman allowed him to access the Fortress of Solitude in the first place.
Superman broke the lone villain trend, primarily via showing the inner workings of Lex Luthor’s master plan…
Ultraman’s success in fighting Superman was then possible because of Lex’s allies at LuthorCorp. The countless screens, computers, and the smart people manning them were what aided Luthor in beating Superman in combat. All of this proves how Superman broke the lone villain trend, primarily via showing the inner workings of Lex Luthor’s master plan more intently.
Why Superman Giving Lex Luthor A Full Team Of Supervillain ᴀssistants Is For The Best
Superman highlighting Lex’s support is for the best, primarily because it makes the threat against Superman feel even greater. It is not only Lex pushing back against Superman anymore, but hundreds of ᴀssistants and several superpowered beings like The Engineer and Ultraman. In Superman, the entirety of LuthorCorp was against him.
This only made Lex feel like more of a threat, not just because of the ways he could get the better of Superman, but because of how many people the hero had to go through to get to the mastermind. The competency of Luthor’s allies only increased this threat level, making the heroics of Superman even more thrilling when he overcame his enemies.
A lone wolf villain can work, but there is no denying that Superman‘s depiction of Lex Luthor and his allies increased the stakes of the DCU’s first movie.
