Now in Action Comics #1103, we begin a new arc looking back at the earliest days of Lex Luthor. After reading the first chapter, this looks like it will be just as interesting a refresh of Lex's origins, keeping the best parts and sort of modernizing the rest. Perhaps what I like best of all is that it isn't just Lex's story. We will see even earlier portions of Clark's life as a compare/contrast to how Superman ended up being who he is and how Lex's environments molded who he has become.
Lex is still an early genius. He has an abusive father. But now he has a loving mother trying to escape a toxic environment. She is trying to nurture him and show the world who Lex is. . For sure, this has to be a reason why Lex is so rough around the edges.
I don't need every villain to have a sympathetic back story. But Lex has really danced all over the line for the last 20 years or so, being in the JLA as much as he has been in jail it seems. So having Waid rewrite and revamp DCU continuity will shore up Luthor's history.
Throw in the usual nods to DC history that Waid always brings and you have a great opening chapter.
Patricio Delpeche is on art here and his style works well with this tale of Lex and Clark as kindergarten age kids. It just works well. And much of this issue is small town, in home parenting sessions and he brings the emotions there too.
On to the issue.
Clark learns the right lessons, even showing some early secret identity ingenuity at a party.
We open with young Lex, living in Shelby Kansas and defeating his father at chess.
He looks like a young Archie Andrews! This is an innocent Lex who is already smarter than the adults around him.
And most adults aren't ready for that.
Cut to modern time where Lex talks about how he repeatedly has suffered amnesia. In a little meta-commentary, Lex says amnesia is as common as resurrections in his world. Hilarious.
And he isn't wrong. Josh Williamson made him amnestic within the last couple of years. Fearing he will lose his memory again, he decides to dictate his life story. Waid has decided much of Lex's history is in continuity - scientist, tycoon, billionaire, President. It's all listed out.
Had to include the one panel with Supergirl. Love her smiling widely as she and her cousin remove an alien monster from Metropolis airspace.
Lex comes from good intellectual genes. His dad was a genius but alcohol and science experiments have reduced him. However, he remembers he used to be smart and can't deal with his tot son out-thinking him.
Here Lex fixes the car and gets beaten for it.
Lex's mother Leticia is also smart, an engineer but gave up the life when Lionel was on the high road. She also seems to be suffering from Lionel's wrath.
She decides to show off Lex's brilliance to the neighbors. But when the three year old Lex starts talking about quantum physics, it turns off the townspeople.
So his father is physically and mentally abusive. His mother treats him like a carnival act. His neighbors think he is an 'aberration'. No wonder he has scorn for the world. You sense how anxious he is about the judging stares.
But then we cut to Superman as narrator so we can see what his life as a toddler was like.
He also seems to be documenting his history. (Perhaps his recent run-in with his past self made him realize this needs to be done?)
Love how Waid effortlessly homages Action Comics #241 and Superman's giant metal diary.
Stuff like this makes an amateur comic historian like me smile.
Waid also brings back, in a way, super-baby. Gone is the Byrne logic of powers manifesting in high school.
Here tiny Clark lifts the house!
Love Delpeche's art here! Almost silly!
But then we get this great scene, such a contrast from Leticia.
The Kents aren't trotting him out like a prize pony. They are teaching him lessons. 'Better at' is not 'better than'. Pa Kent wisdom.
'Don't try to impress people or make them feel bad.' Ma Kent Wisdom.
And the opposite of Lex's upbringing.
Brilliant.
Clark learns the right lessons, even showing some early secret identity ingenuity at a party.
That night Pa gets nervous about all the people that might come after Clark. And Ma is there to calm him down. They will get through this together.
I love it. I love the strength of the Kents to keep Clark safe and teach him how to act. And I love the love Waid injects into their marriage. So warm.
And I love Clark sleeping in a Jay Garrick Flash shirt. Wonderful!
Meanwhile, Lex's mother decides she has to hit the road and escape Lionel. She sets the house on fire, calls the fire department pretending she is dying, and jumps in a hidden car with Lex.
In the Silver Age, Lex's family aren't abusive and leave Smallville in disgrace because of him, changing their name to Thorul.
In the post-Crisis world, I think both of Lex's parents are dullards who he kills for insurance money.
Now in this world, we have a mother who trots him out like a freak show and an abusive father. Lex is on the run. Hmmm ... perhaps they run from Shelby to Smallville.
I thought this was a very solid first chapter, showing us the earliest years of our characters and how their environments are starkly their different. They parents are very different. We will see how all this molds who they are.
I hope we vault forward with each issue of this run. Maybe next issue is elementary/middle school.
But little to complain about here. This sets the stage.
Overall grade: A
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