Why Is Luthor Back In Smallville? (Superman Secret Origin Spoilers)

[Death Itself]

The actual reason for the return of Luthor to Smallville is an obvious one: Michael Rosenbaum's great work on Smallville. But when they decided to first retcon this in Birthright they forgot weren't going to be able to put him on the printed page, but the idea of enemies who were once friends is as old as storytelling so it remained a valid idea nonetheless. Not any longer. According to Superman Secret Origin, they speak exactly twice. They aren't friends and there is no relationship. So I ask, what's the point of this particular retcon destroying 25 years of stories and all of Luthor's rather complex history with Perry White? What kinds of stories can you tell based on two conversations? You're not going to a pre-crisis classic like "The Luthor Nobody Knows" out of this. Like Smallville, Birthright and the Silver/Bronze Age all understood, the drama came from knowing that there was once something good in Luthor that Clark saw. It not only lent tragedy to his fall (goofy though it was), it added depth to their relationship and you understand why, no matter what Luthor did, Clark could never hate him (also, he never slaughtered innocents the way he does now).

My rule of retcons is simple: if your change doesn't result in a better story than the one you're destroying don't do it. The Winter Soldier in Captain America was better than every story that needed Bucky actually dead, so yes. Hush which actually brought back Jason Todd, wasn't even better than the issue of Nightwing where he delusionally talks to Jason's ghost, so no. And while the Luthor/Perry stories aren't classics on their own, this change cannot possibly result in anything better than this underrated gem:

http://www.actuastore.com/catalog/images/back_issues/l/l_miscellaneous/Lex%20Luthor%20The%20Unauthorized%20Biography.jpg

The irony being, we're back to corporate Luthor anyway, so really, what was the point?

[dumbstruck]

My rule of retcons is simple: if your change doesn't result in a better story than the one you're destroying don't do it.

How long before someone who supports the current DC silver age makes the comment that Man of Steel didn't result in a better story than what came before it?

Sadly, Johns shoves retcons into everything, and most of them don't necessarily make things better.

For myself, I agree. There really was no reason to put Lex in Smallville again. All it does is serve to return the character to something resembling his silver age origin.

And yes, that Lex Luthor bio was frikkin' amazing.

[Mat001]

Mark Waid had apparently wanted to go back to the classic Lex/Superman dynamic when he wrote "Birthright", but was overruled when it came to doing away with Lexcorp. So what happened is that BR continued the trend that began in 1996, of placing an emphasis on Lex's scientific background which was downplayed in previous years. But that he would have a company that he would use as a cover in Lexcorp. Waid was not a fan of Lex and Perry's relationship which was only done as a substitute for the Superboy/Lex dynamic. The thing is that Waid had to try and incorporate both his story with the work of John Byrne and John Francis Moore. "Smallville" was a factor in DC even approving of this, but I believe Waid said that it was mainly his decision. It wasn't forced on him. When Johns and Busiek took over the Superman books in 06, they were retaining Waid's setup, only later on, Johns modified it so that Lex did know Clark Kent, but unlike what Waid had done, Lex didn't care for Clark under Johns. Lex in Smallville would pay off with Conner befriending Laurie and then finding out that she was his cousin, when Lex showed up at Lena's home.

As to Lexcorp now, none of the writers wanted to get rid of it fully. That's why Busiek had Lana in charge of Lexcorp during his run, trying to save it from bankruptcy. Lex is back in charge since it provide Lex with the tools that he needs, but he's no longer the beloved benefactor that he once was. Too many people no longer trust him. And Lex's scientific acumen is still at the forefront of the character.

[Jimmy Bond]

Mark Waid is obviously a Silver/Bronze Age fan, so while Birthright was very modern and not nostalgic, he did reincorporate a few things from Pre-Crisis. I think it's obvious that Smallville sort of showed that it does work in a modern setting, so Waid sort of fused that with the classic science accident origin.

On the other hand, I think in SO, it's just for the sake of trying to artificially patch the different Superman versions together, and I think that reasoning pretty much applies to the whole story.

[Jake V]

retcon destroying 25 years of stories
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/IantistarI/HA_HA_HA_OH_WOWjpg.jpg

[Monty_Cristo]

as a superman-outsider, i never really understood Luthor until Smallville. his tv origin is..cleaner.

[dupersuper]

as a superman-outsider, i never really understood Luthor until Smallville. his tv origin is..cleaner.

Every long running comic characters tv/movie version is cleaner. Thet's the nice thing about not having decades of different writers. Scott and Jean from the X-Men comics could blow movie Scott and Jeans mind with their family albums alone...