My feelings on the subject is Lex wants everyone to love him for all his gifts but all the people of metropolis love superman who has a hudge advantage superpowers and hes not even from our planet. he didnt have to do anything to be great just sunbathe in yellow sunlight. In mark waids superman birthright story waids shows superman and lexes first beef as superman being kind of a dick to lex at there first meeting and lex being super butt hurt for no reason it wasnt convicing enough to warrent a hardcore grudge but all star superman 5 explains it pretty well. But i like the idea of the Joker thinking of batman as his faverite toy the incoruptable unstopable immovable object maybe lex luthor needs to admit he would be bored without superman. how do you guys feel?

I feel that Luthor is the best written villain - because in his mind, he isn't a villain.

He sees Kal-El as a threat to his attempts to make the world a better place - its too bad that his mind is weak and he's an egocentric guy, and that he wants to be the undisputed champion of man.

I don't even think Luthor knows why he hates Superman at this point.

Lex hates Superman because up until the Man of Steel came onto the scene, Lex was the epitome of success and power in Metropolis.

Lex was intelligent, rich, powerful, feared and respected. He still is, but all that pales in comparison to the power and prestige of Supeman. Except for his intellect, Lex can't compete with Superman. Superman is now the most powerful and iconic figure in Metropolis and Lex is now second fiddle.

Lex feels inferior to and jealous of Superman.

Its High School all over again.

Lex was the cheerleading queen, until Clark - the new sexy mofo walked into class.

@royale_with_cheese said:

lol

Look at it from his point of view, in the comics(post crisis/pre new 52) he's a self made billionaire with charities and he basically made Metropolis the city it is and he wants more than anything to be the hero of the story but as long as Superman exists his options are play second fiddle as a hero or be the best villain and he just isn't capable of allowing himself to be second best

Yeah, you're right. We should make Lex Luthor the Joker. Let's just make every villain the Joker.

Jealousy.

@Kal'smahboi: How did I imply that Lex was the Joker? They are 2 completely different characters with totally different motivations. I'm not one of those people that think Joker sees himself as a hero, he's a monster, he knows it and revels in the fact. Lex on the other hand honestly believes he's the hero of the story, he just believes the bad things he does are justifiable because his ego will not allow him to see himself as the real bad guy no matter what he does.

@Kal'smahboi: If anything Lex is the Joker's polar opposite. Lex is a totalitarian by nature where as Joker is the ultimate anarchist. I also believe the OP has a misunderstanding of what Joker is as well, Batman isn't his toy, he's his obsession. I look at Joker's view on Batman as more comparable to a hard core alcoholic's view on alcohol.

@Skunkstein said:

Its High School all over again.

Lex was the cheerleading queen, until Clark - the new sexy mofo walked into class.

That's one way of looking at it I suppose.

He feels that Superman has taken his spot light. Despite all that Lex is still an evil man.

@conorbas440044: Long story short? Superman made Lex bald, and Lex lost his $h!t.

Ironically, that experiment Lex is talking about was an attempt to come up with a cure for Superman's aversion to kryptonite.

@Onemoreposter said:

@conorbas440044: Long story short? Superman made Lex bald, and Lex lost his $h!t.

Ironically, that experiment Lex is talking about was an attempt to come up with a cure for Superman's aversion to kryptonite.

Placing a bottle of acid near his sole bottle of the antidote.

The problem with Lex (And the reason why he's one of the most complex villains in the business) is that you can't really sum up his motivation in just one sentence.

This is a good article on him.

Lex is also a hardcore xenophobe. Meaning he also hates Superman just for being an alien.

And then there's the Silver Age origin, where he blames Superman for his baldness.

Superman Returns already did that. And anyone who knows me knows that I hate that movie with a burning passion.

He has a luscious head of hair while Lex is stuck being bald and he want to harvest Superman's DNA in hope of getting hair as beautiful as his

@amazingwebhead said:

...I don't think Returns did that at all.

@kal_smahboi said:

The Editing Room disagrees. Read it for yourself

Because clark is an alien. Lex wants to be the Xerxes of DC Earth

@amazingwebhead said:

But that's sooooo long. Can't you just summarize it for me?

It really doesn't matter what they say, anyway. I've seen the movie a thousand times and I can't imagine they'll say anything that'll make me think they portrayed Luthor like the Joker.

@kal_smahboi said:

The exact line was "KATE BOSWORTH: Meh, the whole movie already feels like it's just a bunch of kids playing comic book dress-up. The only person not sleepwalking through this thing is Kevin Spacey, who seems to think he's playing The Joker." I think they were talking about what a ham Luthor was. "WROOOOOOOONG!"

Anyway, they got some really funny stuff on that site.

Jealousy.

Well, there was the cake incident...

Also, does anyone else think this song fits Luthor's attitude toward Superman perfectly?