Speaking of henchpersons, it's not like an internationally-infamous evil scientist can just walk into Supercuts.

So, aboard his hidden flying fortress:

Umm...I hate to mention this...

But Lex, in this continuity, you're kinda permanently bald--no hair at all!

So what the heck is Wanda doing?

Ahhh....nice and shiny!! 

Hey, even Lex Luthor cares about personal appearance!! You have to look your best before wiping out your arch-enemy!!

From Superman #386 (1983)

If it's a day that ends in a "y," there most be another new Kryptonian hanging around Smallville:

Wow!! I guess that means watch out, the trouble's just beginning if you live in Hawaii or Guatemala!

No, but seriously, this isn't really a Kryptonian. It's part of an over-elaborate hoax to trick Superboy into freeing the prisoners from the Phantom Zone. Who's behind it?

Duh.

But that's a good question, Luthor--how did Superboy suss you out?

But...but...but...

OK, OK, this is before the "the S symbol is the crest of the House Of El" thing was thought up, and the "S" Superboy wears was put there by Ma Kent. Maybe Luthor should have said, "It's not a D...on Krypton it stands for oh, I don't know, faith?!?"

Still, it was pretty damned stupid for young genius Lex Luthor to put Dak-El's initial there. After all, he was in contact with the Phantom Zone villains, and none of them wore monogrammed clothing.

From Superboy #115 (1964)

It's really too stupid complicated to explain here...

...but Lex Luthor is trying to get Black Canary and Green Arrow to kill each other!

How?




But it turns out that Lex picked the wrong JLAer to hypnotize!


What the how, now?!?


Hells, yeah. So stand by for several pages of Dinah kicking Luthor's bald ass!



Sadly, Luthor used to invisibility watch to escape. But on the good side, that was enough to break the spell!!

Awww...

From Action Comics #458 (1976)

A significant milestone in the history of Superman?

Not just another Luthor story--read the caption!

Yeah, yeah, the "government wouldn't let us print this before" is cute and all. But it is actually true story, and just a clever trope:

In Superman #38, released in 1946, Lex Luthor terrorizes Metropolis with an “atomic bomb.” This comic had actually been written and produced two years earlier, but when the U.S. government got wind of it they sent agents to the offices of DC Comics to stop publication until they received official permission. At the time, the Manhattan Project was underway and the government did not want the Axis powers to know that they were working on an atomic bomb and were closely monitoring any public mention that could be considered a clue. The folks at DC were not given a reason for the censorship and could only assume they had hit on something sensitive, but they did not know what. Two years later, with the war over, the comic was cleared to be released.

But look: the caption gives us specific footnotes, including page numbers, to real adult publications!!!

Significantly, those are the first issues of Time and Newsweek to be published after the dropping of the atomic bombs. Now, I'm too cheap to pay to read the actual articles the caption cites, but here's a partial table of contents from that issue of time:

It's easy for us to forget now, having lived with nuclear weapons as a fact for our entire lives, but that table of contents reminds us that the advent of the "atomic age" had a seismic effect on the world, on culture, on our very perception of ourselves.

This Superman comic hit the street in late October 1945, meaning it would be one of the first published in the wake of those seismic revelations. And clearly someone involved had at least been reading about the world-altering events, because they even cited specific page numbers in the damned captions!

So how would the new atomic age alter Superman?


Geez, Luthor, it looks like you really need to cut down the caffeine!

Anyway, when Luthor's main plan--using an atomic-powered "molecular propulsion ray" to rob banks--is thwarted, it's time for one of comics' first uses of the atomic bomb!


And...Superman is immediately powerful enough to withstand an atomic bomb. Way to take all of the drama out of the atomic age, guys!

In fairness, I doubt DC did much if any rewriting or redrawing of the story from it's 1944 original, so our creators at the time would have had no concept of what the hell an "atomic bomb" really was, or the kind of havoc it could wreak. It was just another technobabble weapon from a super-scientist in a kiddie comic book. It was only the citations of "real world" media dealing with the impact of atomic science that made us expect anything more.

Still, the result of the first post-A-bomb Superman story is to effectively make Kal-El so overpowered that he was essentially unbeatable. Atom bombs? They don't even phase him!

No wonder they had to bring kryptonite into the comics a few years later...

From Superman #38 (1946)

Given all the attention that Thor's getting right now, it might be nice to see how old Goldilocks views the Marvel cosmic hierarchy:

You can click to embiggen the Ron Lim goodness, but I blew up the individual parts for you.

How ya doin', Thor?

Oops, cut off Loki there. Sorry, Matt Damon!!

How about the bigger guns?

You know this next guy is my favorite:

 MANGOG!!!!

You might remember this guy...

This next guy (maybe) answers the eternal question, could Odin create a weapon so powerful it could destroy him?

Oh, yeah, and there's this guy:

Much better than a "cosmic cloud creature." Sheesh, movie makers, how stupid are you??

Ah, yes, let's not forget the the Beyonder has gone trough at least two massively stupid retcons. At first, he was the sentient embodiment of an entire other universe. Then, they decided that he was a not yet complete Cosmic Cube. Then, Bendis and Reed decided that he wasn't even that--he was just a mutant Inhuman. No wonder Thor has no respect for him...Next? The Beyonder was just a schmo with a magic wishing penny...

Not just Celestials, but "higher level" Celestials!!

This guy really should have been in the Doctor Strange movie, to blow our puny minds.

The Living Tribunal!! Don't mess with him!!

Over/under on how many of these guys will turn up in Avengers: Infinity War?

BTW, you'll note that Thor managed to do all that without any damned Asgardian font.

From Thor Annual #14 (1989)

Elliot S! Maggin has some odd ideas about what was going on in Metropolis in the early 1980s..

Earlier this week we saw a story where Maggin told us that Morgan Edge held Bacchanalian cosplay orgies at his mansion.

Well, sure, that's how the rich live. But what do the simple folk of Metropolis do?!?

Wait...Luthorcon? Luthercon III?!?!?

Yup.

So, wait...Metropolis really has an annual convention celebrating Lex Luthor?? Remember, this was pre-Crisis, so it's old school Luthor, and everyone knows that he's a vile villain!!

And yet...



You're telling us that the good citizen's of Superman's own home city have an annual fete in honor of one of history's greatest monsters?

Yup.

That's kind of...well, wrong, isn't it?

But wait--there's more!! Like lots and lots of Lex Luthor cosplay!!


This is giving me uncomfortable feelings....


Yes, the crowd loves Luthor...and hates Superman!!

What the hell is going on here?!?!

Maybe you think it's all fun, but the biggest event at Luthercon is...

Yes, they stage the death of Superman.

No, really, they act out Lex Luthor killing Superman with kryptonite. And the crowd loves it.

What the hell is going on in Metropolis, Elliot S. Maggin?!?! What kind of den of iniquity and moral inversion have you created here?!?!?

FYI, Gregory Reed is the actor who looks just like Superman, and plays him on TV and movies. He was hurt in a car crash, and Superman agreed to fill in for him at the convention. So it's Superman pretending to be Gregory Reed playing Superman. And the real Lex Luthor knew this, and managed to swap the fake kryptonite for real kryptonite, as part of an overly elaborate plot to kill Kal-El and send Metropolis into another dimension. Which, judging from these stories, Metropolis kind of deserves...

From DC Comics Presents Annual #4 (1985)