Sketch Sunday: Lex Luthor

Debuting in April 1940 with a shock of red hair, Lex Luthor is the genius science villain to Superman's Sun God muscle might. Lex's roots perhaps lie in Siegel and Shuster's pre-Kryptonian 1933 strip The Reign of Super-Man, in which a barmy scientist recruits a down-and-out for telepathic experimentation. The resulting Super-Man clashes with his creator, spelling doom for one, and poor housing for the other. Luthor began his career in published criminality as an arch imperialist, manoeuvering fictional European countries into disastrous wars from his floating city hide-out. Lex's Silver Age adventures frequently featured bank smashing robots, and grateful alien races who have cast him as their cultural lynchpin. Lately though he's more likely to be running for US Presidency, or just involved in some dastardly big business. Unless Grant Morrison's writing him of course, in which case he's back to being a belligerent brain box. Phew! It was touch and go there for a minute.