The notorious malcontent Lex Luthor has committed a number of atrocities in his time fighting Superman. However, while facing off with Superboy, Luthor engaged in an act that stands out as quite possibly the cruelest thing he’s ever done.
Few villains in the DC Universe have gone to the depths that Lex has in the pursuit of his ultimate goal: killing Superman. Resolute in his belief that the Man of Steel is a blight upon the world, Luthor has done everything he can to eliminate the hero. From creating robots and science experiments to fight Superman to becoming the president, everything Lex Luthor does has come from his intense hatred of the Kryptonian. Amid all these grand plans to defeat his nemesis are acts of inhumanity, moments that show lives are merely pieces on a chessboard for Lex to move around as he sees fit.
And as one savage moment shows, even the lives of his own family aren’t safe from the machinations of Lex Luthor. In Adventure Comics #6 by Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul, Superboy Conner Kent comes face to face with his clone-father who has just broken out of prison. In an attempt to intimidate Superboy, the evil Lex Luthor holds his own niece, Lori, at gunpoint and threatens to kill her. However, Lori’s mother, Lena, intrudes and Lex discovers how bad his sister’s debilitating illness has become. Wanting to believe that there is some good in Lex, Superboy challenges Luthor to cure Lena. Lex takes Conner up on the challenge and has the hero retrieve a number of rare materials for him. Luthor fashions a cure that gives Lena a miraculous recovery, but unfortunately, Lex undoes his work with another serum and says the secret stays with him until Superman is dead.
In his bid to destroy Superman, Lex Luthor has done some pretty reprehensible things. Extortion, kidnapping, murder. Nothing has ever been off-limits to Lex as long as it could help him get rid of Superman once and for all. And while Lex has been shown to be cold before, there’s been few moments that so expertly capture his lack of humanity. But giving his own sister hope before snatching it away is the perfect example of why Lex is above all, a monster.
Granted, Lex isn’t the only awful person Superman has fought. Whether Brainiac, Mongul, or Zod, there are a number of heartless beings in Superman’s rogues gallery. But the Big Blue Boy Scout’s alien villains don’t possess the same sort of inhumanity displayed by Lex. Lex isn’t a superpowered dictator or a cyborg collector, he’s ultimately just a man. And while one would think that he’d have some modicum of compassion, at least for his family, his act towards Lena stings all the more because of how needlessly callous it is. Lex Luthor didn’t need to make his sister suffer, but he did for the slight chance it may help him defeat Superman.
