Waaay too late to the party, wanted to write back when you made the post about the twitter thread complaining about possibility of Lex being redeemed and forgot 70% of what I was gonna say, but I agree. Beyond personal preference, my argument is that the big part of the character and his dynamic has always been the "You could've used your genius for good" tragedy, and that just doesn't work if he's written as the evilest man on Earth. Might as well talk how sad it is Darkseid ain't running a utopia. I get how that can get unfomfortable with "He's a BAD billionare instead of a good one, which would be the best thing ever", but I think it can just as easily be framed as "he chose to be a billionare instead of a scientist"-hell, the vigilante thing fits into that pretty well!
exactly!! and tbh the fact that lex isn’t an irredeemable monster is honestly one of the most interesting things about him? lex seems himself as a hero and he wants to do good, but ultimately his own ego usually ends up getting in the way of it, because he’s usually more concerned about how other people perceive him than the actual effects of his actions.
there are also only so many stories you can tell that are “superman vs a super evil guy who has a lot of money and keeps buying his way out of trouble” and eventually, it’s going to get boring and repetitive, esp bc it’s disheartening to see superman lose over and over again.
his story is far more interesting, imo, when there is some kind of emotional stake for superman. when you have a superman who sees a sliver of good in lex, no matter how small. that’s part of why i like seeing stories where lex is contrasted with the joker, because lex – at least when written well – has standards and isn’t usually interested in harming civilians.
(probably the thing that will make me groan and tune out of a lex story faster than anything is seeing him referred to as “a sociopath”, both bc i feel like it’s a gross misrepresentation of his character, and because I’m personally really tired of seeing personality disorders tossed around as pejoratives.)
i think it’s also very telling that – at least in my observations – people who care deeply about superman lore tend to prefer pre-crisis and superman: birthright lex over the byrne-era, whereas most people who want lex to just be the evil CEO – or worse, who want him to be “updated” into just being a musk parody – tend not to be people who actually read his comics or engage with superman lore in any meaningful way.
there’s a reason, imo, that most superman content from the 2000s onward has been trying to retcon lex to be either closer to his pre-crisis iteration or closer to smallville, and that’s bc those are the versions of the character people actually… you know… like.
