In August 2023, DC released The Last Days of Lex Luthor #1.
In April 2025, DC released the finale, The Last Days of Lex Luthor #3, the book I am here to review a day. It is interesting that the last 2 chapters came out within a month of each other, but nearly 2 years after the first.
My philosophical question for the readers is this. Do dramatic delays in a comic release somehow impact your enjoyment of it? I can't help but think that Doomsday Clock might have read better if it came out in a timely fashion. Or if read in one sitting when you aren't wondering when the next chapter is coming out.
My philosophical question for the readers is this. Do dramatic delays in a comic release somehow impact your enjoyment of it? I can't help but think that Doomsday Clock might have read better if it came out in a timely fashion. Or if read in one sitting when you aren't wondering when the next chapter is coming out.
I know. Why am I talking Doomsday Clock in a review of this book?
This is a fine Elseworld book. This has an interesting, and I might say controversial, ending. I don't know if I like the ending here. The art by Bryan Hitch and Kevin Nowlan is scintillating. I am glad I bought and read this. From the tour of the DCU to the update of the Luthor origin to the interplay between Lex and Superman, it has been a fun read.
But I really wanted to be blown away by the ending of this book, probably because I have been waiting so long for it. And that is probably unfair of me to have scheduling drama alter my expectations. Of course, the ending falling flat for me is probably as big a reason as any.
On to the book.
Last issue, we learned that Brainiac was behind Lex's illness, one which is transferring Superman's ability to absorb solar radiation and giving it to Lex, causing Lex's cells to burn out.
Of course, we don't really get the how. How did Brainiac do it? It is the maguffin that I wish was given more detail.
I do love this little moment when Superman talks about how much Brainiac scares him. And how Lex's 'are you kidding me' is such a contrast.
It shows how fearless Lex is. Or maybe what a narcissist he is, that he thinks he is above even Brainiac.
And then this exchange. That this whole scheme was to allow Lex the back door honor of killing Superman. I shows that maybe Brainiac respects Lex a little.
But you can't think about this too long.
Obviously weakening Superman is an important part of this scheme. But isn't transferring it to Lex overly complicated. Did Brainiac think Superman would 'waste time' trying to save Lex and therefore not realize Brainiac was the enemy? Or was this just drama?
It still is a fun moment, showing maybe a little emotion or love of irony in Brainiac's programming.
Brainiac floods the sky with his ships and his drones just start scooping up humans. He isn't going to shrink a city and destroy the Earth. He wants human brains for hard drives. Certainly this is pretty gross for a Superman comic. And also, hard to think about this too much. Is it worth antagonizing a world full of meta-humans for brain storage? Maybe an easier world to overcome whose brains have a little less storage an easier fight?
And what about those other heroes? We see them all captured ... off screen of course .. leaving just weakened Superman and Lex to fight the good fight.
But wait ... if Brainiac could just capture all the heroes, even a full powered Kryptonian like Supergirl and Green Lanterns, why not just capture these two? Why go through this Lex plot if he had the power to capture Supergirl? Why not just capture Superman?
I get that Waid needs to get the other heroes off the board. But really? And did he do the same for the super-villains? Certainly those beings won't want to be hoarded?
Horrifying art by Hitch and Nowlan.
Lex and Superman rush to the Fortress to strategize. Lex has a device in mind to turn the tide. But he is too weak to build it so Superman has to assemble it.
One of the through lines of this book is Lex facing his mortality, and perhaps embracing some humanity. It also is Superman dealing with his regret of never telling Lex his secret identity in Smallville.
Both those themes clash here when Lex and Superman both talk about Smallville. If Lex knew, maybe be wouldn't have felt like an outsider and become who he did.
This was my favorite moment in the book as I think this is really the crux Waid was hoping to mine.
The machine Lex builds will reverse Brainiac's plot. Superman will regain all his ability to process the sun. But Lex will die. The world needs Superman to defeat Superman.
Now don't think about this too hard either. We have just had 2 issues of everyone in the DCU being unable to cure Lex. Perhaps because they didn't know the link to Superman? But after 2 issues on failure to have Lex whip up an answer seemed a bit fast.
That said, this might be the most noble thing Lex has ever done. To save the world he is willing to sacrifice himself. If part of this book's theme is Lex's redemption maybe this simple solution should have played out.
Maybe Lex saving the world this way would make him a hero.
Instead, Superman won't allow it. Even if it dooms the planet, he won't allow it. That also seems off. Surely, if the roles were reversed, Superman would sacrifice himself.
Why?
Because only Lex is smart enough to beat Brainiac. Now he is powerful enough.
This also seems crazy.
Even if Lex does stay on target and defeat Brainiac, what is to say he won't just revert to his old ways? Rule the world as a despot?
I like Superman being an inspiration, filled with hope.
But this whole turn of even just felt a bit insane.
Superman still has a small amount of power so he had Lex head to the moon to fight Brainiac.
But a defeated Brainiac hits the mandatory self-destruct red sun mechanism, a bomb that will kill both the super-energized Lex and Superman.
At least we get a good shot of a Hitch/Nowlan Supergirl.
But now the world has no Superman.
Yes, his self-sacrifice saved the world.
But so would have Lex's and we would still have a Superman.
Waid does throw in one last good moment.
Clark reminisces that on the moon, the super-powered Lex carried his body just outside the blast zone, saving Superman.
Lex, whose whole life was dedicated to killing Superman, used his last moment to save Superman instead. But he doesn't want anyone to know it. That last 'don't tell anyone' speaks volumes. Lex doesn't want to be remembered as a hero, perhaps because he thinks he doesn't deserve it?
Yes, that last 'don't tell anyone' is a solid one and ends the book on a very good moment for me to mull over.
But so much happens so fast and so quickly this last issue that it is a little hard to swallow. Brainiac's Lex scheme seems like it isn't even necessary for his world domination plot, so why do it? Brainiac's ability to capture everyone is so fast? His plot is around increasing his hard drive storage? Lex is able to cure himself so easily after nothing else worked? Superman won't allow Lex to sacrifice himself to save the world?
I don't know ...
I haven't talked about the art a lot. Hitch and Nowlan are great throughout and there are plenty of big action sequences here that sizzle.
Overall grade: C+
6 comments:
Well, you already know I liked this a lot more than you, to me it was an instant classic. Yes, there were a lot of things you had to just go along with, but I spent my first years as a DC reader catching up on Silver Age Superman Family stories, many of which were imaginary tales. ‘The story of Superman Red and Superman Blue’, ‘The Last Days of Superman’ and my all-time favourite, ‘ The son of Jimmy Olsen’, they just piled on incident after incident as they pummelled towards the most dramatic of conclusions. ‘The Last Days of Lex Luthor’… that title can’t be a coincidence, I think Mark Waid was going for that Silver Age sensibility. I can see that not chiming with everyone, but I loved it.
Is Busiek the only one who remembers Clark's power set includes a super brain? These days the only Kryptonian who seems to have it is Kara and only when she's not starring in a story.
I missed the first issue, got the second after Mart's review of it, and it left me so cold I have the third but will probably never read it based on you and his reviews.
I hate to say it, mostly owing to my admiration for Mark Waid the writer, but if you have to put Luthor on a redemption arc by conveniently stuffing all the other DCU heroes into vials, then yes you've finally trespassed on "Klunky Writing". Its one thing to write a "Luthor goes Straight" Elseworlds, but it beggars description to make him a veritable godling in the process, while permanently depowering Kal El and yet still expect a happy outcome. It just makes Superman look like a naive fool in extremis. That being said certain scenes and dialogue between Lex and Superman were very well written indeed, enough to serve as good starting points for other writers, but the climax was somehow at once painfully klunky and straining credulity all in one go. Buuuuuut, waaay deep in the background there was one fleeting theme I liked, the notion that a depowered Superman was at last handing off The Big Job to his Long Time Protege, Supergirl, with the expectation that she'll thrive and prevail in the topmost role, Of couse as a Supergirl fan of ancient vintage this is a miniseries itself I'd love to read...from Mark Waid especially. :) JF
It's a good job this is an Elseworlds, as Lex is written WIDELY out of character. He would never willingly sacrifice his life to save the world - he'd strike a bargain. He'd never save Superman from certain death, unless it was to save his own image. And he'd never seek redemption, because he doesn't care about that - it's all about what benefits HIM.
Also, and hot take, but I've never been that big of a fan of Hitch. His best work was the original Ultimates, and that was twenty years ago. Maybe it's the way the scans have come out, but it looks like the inking has alot of super-thick outlines, too.
Not great. In my case, badly hurt by the premise that human brains are better memory storage units than even current day machines, much less whatever super-tech Brainiac ought to have access to. We don't fully understand our own brains but for sheer storage capacity and and access to that info it's already very clear that our tools have far surpassed their creators. Brainiac might as well be stealing a whole bunch of magnetic cassette tapes and 3" floppies for all the the good its doing him.
More and more this felt like Waid's version of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" JF
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