Top 10 Live Action Lex Luthors

A few years ago I did my top five Lex Luthor list. Since then, we’ve had no less than four new adaptions of the character. So it seems only right to revise my list and see where I think they rank. As always, just opinion. 

 

#10. Lyle Talbot 

Last time I completely ignored this guy because I really don’t care for the old serials. Which isn’t fair lots of lore come from them including kryptonite, the phantom zone, and even Luthor. Predating the series (why was there no Lex Luthor in the original series?) this is truly the OG Luthor. Not only was he the first live action version but his bald look would became the canonical comic look also (he had red hair before this) and his mad scientist motif would stick right until the Crisis caused the major character revamp that created businessman Lex. 

My Official Superman Movie Ranking List

 I’ve done many articles on my favorite character but when it comes to ranking the movies that wasn’t easy. Not only be ate there were only a few live action films, but because how they ranked wasn’t very hard to figure. Last year I ranked the top 5 worst, but that’s still not all of them. And Ive changed my mind a bit. Then this year we got a brand new movie. And it’s time to decide where I think it ranks  and in order to do that I did a little rewatching. 

Ok here we go worst to best, live action theatrical releases only and of course this is just opinion. 

Random Thoughts-Superman (2025)

When this was first announced, I was intrigued. I didn’t care for Man of Steel or the Snyderverse in general. Then I heard the casting announcements. Guy Gardner? Mr Terrific?? Metamorpho????! I dreaded the movie, not because I couldn’t let go of Henry Cavill no longer being in the role (seriously guys move on already) but figuring it was going to be a clustered mess and more of a pre-Justice League movie and not a genuine Superman movie. This became worst when images and scenes appeared, and David Corenswet wasn’t wowing me as Superman. So at last the movie was released, and critics mostly liked it!

So the time has come to watch this and see if my fears were justified, or if I finally get a decent version of my favorite character since 1982! I should mention I know the story and the surprises going in, I don’t worry about “spoilers” and have heard plenty of reviews at this point. 

And what did I think?

Top 5 Worst Superman Movies

 So one thing I’ve never done is rank the Superman movies. There’s one simple reason for this, they’re obvious. They were pretty much released in order of quality! But which are the five worst? Ah..let’s discuss! 

It’s funny. I love Superman but these movies are so lousy I never watch them. This is the kind of character that just works better on episodic tv, movies don’t work. So the question is, which one has the more memorable moments? Something in them that I can point to and say “yeah, I like that”. 

And only live action movies are counted. 

#5.Man of Steel

This movie did a few horrible things that tainted it including passive Jon Kent and the meaningless neck snap. Worst of all, Supermen not caring about people as they are getting hurt. But at least Henry Cavill plays a good Superman and he has decent chemistry with Amy Adam’s. And points for having a new villain and an idea that hadn’t been done to death. And if you’re wondering I decided justice league didn’t count.

Five Other Champions of Metropolis

Superman is well known for being the champion of Metropolis. It's his city and the residents love him as much as he loves them. He has fought many foes in that city and it's impossible to not connect the two.

However, Superman can't be everywhere and do everything. What about the smaller problems like street gangs? Or organized crime that are smart enough to work around Superman? This is why Metropolis has had other defenders over the years. Sometimes they work alone and other times they work with Superman, and while none are as well known or loved as The Man of Steel it's all part of the same never ending battle. Here are five:

Black Lightning

Even Metropolis has to have a slum section, and as you can expect a city as big as this one would have a large section of poverty. It's called Suicide Slum and is where Black Lightning first made his home when he first appeared. He was a teacher who donned the mask to help out his students. It makes sense, Superman can handle the big threats but who can handle the small one's that happen in parts of the city? I have no idea what his modern origin is these days. 

My Favorite Characters-Superman & Batman

This is going to be my last favorite character article for awhile, I’ve kind of run out new characters to talk about (aside from the one’s I’ve discussed at length elsewhere), so decided to conclude for now with two heroes I’ve spent a lot of time discussing over the years…

Superman & Batman

Top 10 Members of the “Superman Family”

Superman supporting characters aren’t quite as lush as the Batman one’s, so this list was a little harder. But after 80 years Superman has managed a decent array of supporting characters. Like last time, no villains and no colleagues that weren’t originated in the Superman books (like Wonder Woman, etc).

#10.Jor-El

This one may seem kind of strange, kind of like putting Thomas Wayne on the Batman list. But over the years Jor-El has made lots of appearances and of course we’ve seen lots of flashbacks expalinin who this guy was and why he sent his only son to Earth as his planet exploded.

Top 10 Favorite DC/Marvel Comic Crossover’s

 

I’ve said a million times, I’m a DC fan. But while I was never a real Marvel fan that doesn’t mean I wasn’t familiar with Marvel. Spider-Man was on The Electric Company, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends introduced me to Captain America and the X-Men, and thanks to The Hulk TV movies I learned who Daredevila nd Thor were. The point I am getting as while I was never a Marvel fan, how could I resist it when DC and Marvel would do a crossover?






















As hard as it is to believe, the two companies used to do a lot of crossover’s. Way back they were “non-canon” crossovers which pretended the two universes always shared a universe. Later we got a slew of crossover’s where the heroes found some way to meet (in some case they just pretended like they did before). Some made sense (Batman vs The Punisher) others were out there (Darkseis vs Galactus). So here are my ten favorite DC/Marvel crossover’s and the only rule is that it has to be a crossover between two mainstream character (or teams).





#10.JLA vs Avengers

This was huge! The World’s Greatest Superheroes vs. Earth’s Mightest Heroes. And with George Perez on art! I man, how could this possible miss? Is it ok if I say the story is a little, convoluted? It’s just a little to busy with a little to much going on. But it’s still good, any comic that has Superman wielding Mjolnir and Captain America’s shield is enough for me!

Top 10 Favorite Superman Designs

In April I discussed my favorite Batman designs, live action and/or animated. I didn’t do Superman because Superman has not had as many different designs. Except for crazy variations it’s pretty much the same. But just because he hasn’t had as many different designs as Batman doesn’t mean it’s not worth a look. With all the different performers, artists and animators after 80+ years we have a few choices out there for what we can consider the IDEAL version of the Man of Steel.

I’ve gone over the different looks but never put them in order, from lest favorite to most favorite. So let’s do it :So here are my favorite Superman designs, from movies, animated, and comic books. No variations or “Elseworld’s” designs.

#10.Superfriends

I led off the Batman article with this one, so figured I’d return the favor. While he has the look down it also looks a little, generic. In fact he and Aquaman almost look the same person! Just blonde instead of Dark hair.

Random Thoughts-The New Lex Luthor (no spoilers)

So I talked about the new Superman when he showed up on Supergirl, it was only fair to discuss this week’s newest casting. Yes my friends we have  a new Lex Luthor. Let's go over his appearance this past Sunday Supergirl, without any spoilers and real quick.

 

Not gonna lie, I was not excited about it. I have never been much of a Jon Cryer fan. The only thing’s I’ve really seen him in were Superman IV and Two and a Half Men. Course he was ridiculous in Superman IV and while he was ok in “Men” he was kind of a tool. Add to that the ghost of the last new Luthor, Eisenberg who trashed the character, I had my concerns.

What did I think?

I was very, and happily, surprised! So again with no spoilers, Cryer really did a fantastic job. He’s a much better actor than you would realize after that lame sitcom he got stuck on. This was a Lex that had everything. He had  a sense of humor and some humanity in him. But he was still smart as a whip and cunning. Luthor is always 2 steps ahead of everyone, except Superman, and that showed. He’s still got another two episodes so it’s hard to say for sure where he will rank on my list of actors who played Lex. He doesn’t beat Rosenbaum or Shea, or Hackman, but he is sure hell better than Eisenberg. Cryer seemed to really get Lex, and while I don’t think he physically fit the role 100% I think he nailed the rest of it. His scenes with Lena were superb. I was very impressed by the end of the episode, and that final scene was perfect it may be one of my favorite Arrowverse moments from any of the shows. Can’t spoil it so go watch it!!! It’s a shame these DC TV writers don”t write the movies, why couldn’t we have had this Lex in Batman V Superman rather than the Joker wannabe we ended up with?


I also loved the nod to the old comics, especially the plot point of Luthor having cancer by kryptonite exposure which was a real thing once. By the way I haven’t been thrilled with this season on Supergirl, but this episode as a whole was pretty damn good. Wonder what next week will bring?


So that’s it. my initial reaction to seeing the new Luthor. What did you guys think? Comment and let me know.

Ten Favorite Fictional Towns & Cities

Last year I did a list of my favorite fantasy world’s. You know, made up lands where our favorite fantasy characters exist. From OZ to Pandora, and by the way I realize I messed up when I said Hogwart’s didn’t count. Even though it is in Scotland you need to run into a wall onto a magic train to get there, and be a wizard, so my bad.

 

Anyway, getting off topic. Fantasy world’s are fun and all but what about regular cities and town’s? It’s really quite amazing how, when done right, a made up city or town and be just as much a character as anyone else in the TV show, movie, or comic book. Like Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show”, Hazard County on “Dukes of Hazard”, Stars Hollow on “Gilmore Girls”, Cabot Cove on "Murder She Wrote, Cicely on "Northern Exposure", and of course Angel Grove which people are gonna kill me for leaving off, but I never watched Power Ranges. EVER.

 

So here are my ten favorites. Couple rules, they need to be ordinary town and cities in America that just happen to have quirky characters living there. Also no existing cities. While it’s true Spider-Man is synonymous with New York City it doesn’t count since, of course, NYC is quite real.

 #10.Bedford Falls

It’s a Wonderful Life is an amazing movie. One reason for that is the acting by Jimmy Stewart. But another important element is the setting. We get to really know the town and townspeople of Bedford Falls in he movie. Who doesn’t know Martini’s bar? Or want to grab a cap from Ernie? And of course there’s the Bailey Building and Loan. In fact we get so familiar with the town that when we get to the angel stuff, the change is quite jarring! The town was so well done that it’s seem impossible to believe that the whole thing was a set. Yep it was one of the largest sets ever constructed for a movie and they made it as authentic as possible. And it worked, since it just wouldn’t be the same movie anywhere else.

Five Not So Notable Obscure Superman Villains

So after talking about the more obscure Batman villains the other day, it was only fair to cover Superman.

The big difference is Batman’s were all spun off into animated and live action media, so people were aware of them to some degree. Not so true with Superman, his rogue’s gallery is kind of lame and the obscure villain’s are reeaally obscure. In fact while Batman’s obscure villains are still impressive enough to be liked, the more I looked into Superman’s the more I found..not so much. It makes sense, it’s doable to stand toe to toe with Batman. But in order to be a true Superman villain you need to challenge him on some level. And that’s not always easy.


Oh sure some can do it. Take Silver Banshee, she had a cool look, a different and unusual power, and a very well thought out backstory so she not only stuck but became very popular with all sort of appearances not just in the comics but live action and animated DC productions. Not all are so lucky, and here five examples of what I mean :


Amazing Grace

Not everything John Byrne created turned to gold. In a storyline where Superman is sent to Apokolips and ends up with amnesia she convinces him they are a couple. And that’s it, she didn’t last long for obvious reasons. She was G Gordon Godfrey’s sister and had the same powers he had, so what did they need her for anyway?

Five “Death of Superman” Stories

 

So as I’ve talked about a million times, The Death of Superman was part of an awesome storyline that I still love. The amazing thing was that not only did the death stick (for a time) but it wasn’t brought on by magic or Kryptonite. It was Superman literally fighting the monster to death! Nice to see the creators fight convention though you could argue that is even more preposterous.

Now of course, killing of Superman wasn’t THAT radical an idea. It’s been done before. What made this one work was the direction they took it. But I thought it would be fun today to talk about the other times in comics when Superman “died”. Now often it doesn’t get past a cover gag like these images :

Other times, the story will literally kill him. Only to either have it be undone or make it an “imaginary” story. But it seems real as we get a funeral and the works.

Here are five times Superman literally kicked the bucket (or at least seemed to).





Superman #149

I read this in the “Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told” trade and I have no idea why its there. Ok, let me start at the beginning. Back in the olden days DC would have “imaginary stories” where the creators did what they wanted with no ties to continuity. Sort of the precursor to Elseworld’s. In this Luthor appears to reform, until he double crosses Superman and literally kills him. We see him turn green from kryptonite poisoning and DIE. Man was this a depressing read! Of course it was fake, and written by Jerry Siegel himself so make of that what you will. Elsworld’s stories are famous for killing off as many regular characters they can, and Superman has died in lots of them from “Earth’s End” to “Kingdom”.

Top 5 Superman Reveals His Identity to Lois Scenes

I talked a few weeks ago about how cool it the first time we see the reveal of a hero in a movie. But another cool thing is when we see the hero finally reveal his identity to a loved one. Of course no one owns this more than Superman!

Hard to believe that in the old days Lois Lane was just a nuisance. She was either trying to prove Clark’s secret or sabotage is attempts with other women. And somehow she had her own solo series for 100 issues, figure that one out! It wasn’t until the early 90’s she finally learned the secret (and I never loved how it was done) but it took and Lois became such a better character for me once she knew. Not only did we lose the “Superman tricking her” stuff but she become a source for Clark to confide in and talk to. Nor to mention helping once in awhile! Until The New 52…but that’s getting off topic.

So since they did it in the comics most TV and movies Lois usually does find out the secret and the reactions tend to range from shock to outrage to just plain thrilled. Here are my five favorite “Superman tells Lois” scenes. I had wanted to do more than five but there aren’t as many out there as you’d think.

#5.Superman:Doomsday
So I rented this out of curiosity, and man did I hate it. This was clearly the Animated Series version of The Death and Return of Superman and the plot was lame. I also hated that here, Lois was in love with Superman first and had no idea he was Clark. Yeah, that’s not how it’s supposed to work he is supposed to earn her love as Clark first. Anyway, the one moment I liked was the end when Superman finally drops the act. Lois gets it, and runs into his arms. By the way Anne Heche as Lois? Just no.

My 10 Least Favorite Superman Comics

Last weeks to celebrate Action Comics #1000 I spent a lot of time talking about my favorite Superman stories. FYI, Action #1000 was fantastic and is worth the money. So is the excellent book that came out with it!

So after all that gushing it’s only fair to mention a few that weren’t quite as good. Like last time, these aren’t The WORST Superman stories per se, just the one’s that I did not enjoy. Course there are plenty more than 10, but this is what I came up with. They can’t all be gems and these stories sure aren’t.

 

Here are ten awful Superman stories, in my opinion anyway




Superman #405

I said before that Superman titles before the Crisis reboot seemed stuck in the Silver Age. This one is a great example of what I mean. Superman blows a Pan flute at a local museum, and grows horns! Yes, really. And this was made in the 80’s! In order to not be seen that way he wears a Batman cowl to cover up his head, but can’t pull off Batman’s shtick.

Celebrating Action Comics #1000-My 20 Favorite Superman Comics

 

My friends April 18, 2018 is a big day if you’re a fan of Superman as I am. Not only is it the 80th anniversary of our beloved hero, but DC Comics is releasing the 1000th issue of Action Comics on this date. We’ll ignore that technically there have been more issues of that with the odd numbering changes over the years and just say-WOW! Do you think when Siegel and Shuster created that first issue in 1938 it ever occurred to them that there would be 999 more? Or that the character would become the icon he has?

 

So I wanted to do something special. I’ve talked about the movies to death. The TV shows need more love but that didn’t seem appropriate here. I have done articles on the comics discussing team-up’s and holiday stories but I never really discussed my favorite Superman comics that aren’t team-up’s or events. So to celebrate the 80th anniversary and release of Action Comics #1000, that’s what we’ll do today.

 

To be clear, these aren’t The Greatest Superman Stories (though a few sure apply) these are my favorites. The stories I love and have a read a million times. So as you might guess some obvious choices are going to be missing. Either because I didn’t like them or I never read them. I usually try to keep a decent date range in stuff like this but most of these are from the same era. I can’t stand the silver age stuff and I stopped reading twenty years ago so there isn’t to much recent that I can list here.

 

I know 20 is a lot but it could have been even more! As you might expect there were a few and I had to cut some to keep this from going forever. I am including all Superman titles not just Action Comics, and these will be in publication order. Course if I included his appearances in other comics….man there are a lot of stories out there!

Superman #247

Stupid cover aside, this is a good story about Superman questioning whether or not he has really done any good. As he impeded the progress of humans rather than helping? Issues like this weren’t raised in 1972 making this a unique tale. For some reason the Superman books seemed stuck in the silver age right through the 80’s with their tease covers and goofy stories.