85 Years Later, Lex Luthor’s Superman Scheme Once Again Reflects The World
The new Superman movie is really giving 1940s Luthor, before he was Lex.
There are a lot of big twists in the new Superman movie, but perhaps the most pivotal one is also the most classic. Lex Luthor’s convoluted plot to turn the world against the Man of Steel might seem a little far-fetched, but it’s also nearly identical to the methods that Luthor employed back in his very first appearance. In 1940, in Action Comics #23, the world was first introduced to a supervillain called “Luthor” in a story called “Europe at War (Part II).” And the original Luthor’s machinations were very similar to what plays out in the new film.
Spoilers ahead for Superman.
In April 1940, the character of Superman had existed for less than two years, following his debut in Action Comics #1 back in May/June of 1938. But by 1939, Superman accomplished something that no other comic book character ever had: He was given his own monthly comic book devoted only to him. Yes, this really had never happened before Superman, because, prior to Superman #1 in the summer of 1939, Superman appeared in Action Comics, which, like literally all comics of the time, was an anthology series; in addition to Superman, other characters and adventures featured in each issue. Why is this relevant? Well, when Superman got his own comic book, he also didn’t stop appearing in Action Comics, which meant by 1940, you could get Superman adventures in two different comic books every single month. And, it also meant that Superman’s appearances in Action could feature riskier, more dynamic stories.
Luthor as he appears in Action Comics #23 (1940).
And so, in Action Comics in 1940, the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster followed a somewhat contrived subplot in which Lois Lane and Clark Kent are working in Europe as war correspondents. Because they wanted to avoid any references to WWII itself (the U.S. hadn’t taken sides in 1940), Siegel and Shuster instead depicted the fictional countries of Galonia and Toran on the brink of a brutal war. Sound familiar? In the new 2025 Superman reboot, nearly the entire plot revolves around the fictional country of Boravia getting ready to invade Jarhanpur. And just like in 1940, Lex Luthor has actually orchestrated the war for his own purposes.
In Action # 23, Luthor is revealed as an insane tech genius who lives in a dirigible hovering above the Earth. He’s not yet bald, and instead sports red hair and a creepy red robe to match. At this point, Luthor hadn’t gained the first name “Lex,” and didn’t yet have an overwhelming hatred of Superman motivating him to do everything.
But his goal and methods of pitting Galonia and Toran against each other are pretty damn close to what Nicholas Hoult's Luthor is doing in the new movie. And like James Gunn, Siegel and Schuster weren’t necessarily making a big political statement with this particular story. Luthor, at least in this story, doesn’t come across as an analog for any real person. If anything, he's the prototype for an over-the-top James Bond villain. And, like Boravia and Jarhanpur, when you read Action #23, Galonia and Toran feel similarly generic.
“It really is fictional,” director James Gunn told the Times in the U.K., when asked if the war in Superman was supposed to be a direct parallel of Israel and Palestine. “When I wrote this, the Middle Eastern conflict wasn’t happening. So I tried to do little things to move it away from that, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the Middle East.”
Superman, being totally fine with murdering Luthor in 1940.
Still, despite that caveat, like Siegel and Schuster before him, Gunn clearly took the context of real-world events to spin his story. And just like in 1940, Gunn imagines that the true evil behind the war is a third party. There are big differences, of course: Luthor uses some hypnosis to get various soldiers to do what he wants in Action #23. And, unlike modern Superman, the Man of Steel of 1940 has no problem destroying warring planes and is totally okay with crashing Luthor’s dirigible, presumably murdering the villain (and others!) in the process.
So, after 85 years, Luthor hasn’t changed all that much. But, in terms of his methods for trying to stop wars, Superman surely has.
