It's that time again! It's time to look in on the last days of the Man of Steel in All-Star Superman! In the last issue, we saw Jimmy Olsen have to save Metropolis from a Superman crazed by Black Kryptonite. So, what adventure will Superman find next as his time runs out? Let's find out in All-Star Superman #5!
The cover is a Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant piece. It depicts Clark Kent hiding behind Lex Luthor in a prison.
"The Gospel According to Lex Luthor"
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Frank Quitely
Inker: Jamie Grant
Colorist: Jamie Grant
Letterer: Phil Balsman
Editors: Brandon Montclare, Bob Schreck
Executive Editor: Dan DiDio
The story begins in a courtroom. No, this mini-series didn't suddenly become an episode of Law & Order, we are witnessing the trial of Lex Luthor. The judge is rattling off names. Names like Al Capone, Atilla the Hun. Genghis Khan. Adolf Hitler. These men were conquerors and murderers. These are men that Lex admires and considers his heroes. For years, Luthor's schemes have menaced the lives of people all over the world. The judge asks if Luthor has anything to say before the verdict is brought down. What is Luthor's response?
Superman made me do it. He should be on trial here.
Yup. As is typical of Luthor, nothing is ever his fault. Luthor sees the trial as a farce, and he just wants to get this over with. The judge takes great pleasure in giving Lex the verdict for his many crimes: Death by electric chair. Luthor's reaction is rather unusual.
Page 105, Panel 1
Yeah. He's smiling. He's not afraid, he's not panicking, he's smiling. Considering this is Luthor, he likely has something up his sleeve.
Later on, a helicopter is heading for Stryker's Island, a prison originally built in the 1930s to house the gangsters of Metropolis. This is presumably a reference to Intergang. Clark Kent is there to interview Lex Luthor. He arrives at Luthor's cell, and the reporter has one hour.
Clark does the whole "clumsy big guy" shtick to help maintain his secret identity. Luthor takes Clark to a treadmill, as the bald madman is in the mood for a run.
(run away)
No, not that kind of running. He wants to run for exercise. He wants to know how Clark feels about Superman. Clark's all "He's a nice guy, pretty friendly around the office. Nobody has anything bad to say about him." Luthor then asks an interesting question in a follow-up: "You don't feel in any way diminished by his presence on this planet?" It's something Luthor finds strange. This is a nice little way of showing that Luthor views everything through the lens of his twisted ego. Clark being Superman aside, it makes sense that since Superman is a walking talking attack on his own ego, Luthor would believe everyone else thinks the exact same way about Superman. In a little funny moment, Luthor tries to read Clark's notes, and he can't make heads or tails of it, despite his knowledge of every code. That's because Clark is writing in Shorthand.
As Luthor works out, he tries to get Clark to imagine what it would be like if Superman never came to Earth. Maybe Lois Lane would notice him. But here, that will never happen. To Luthor, Superman is an impossibility. Something that no one can possibly compete against. What's the point if trying to be great if you'll never outdo Superman? Again, it's clearly Lex projecting.
Luthor then asks how Superman is doing. Clark claims he seems fine, but Luthor knows the Man of Steel is not in the best of health right now. Remember back in issue #1? That's why he knows. Lex brings Clark down to the courtyard.
Page 112, Panel 2
Evidently Stryker's also takes prisoners from Remulak. Luthor continues on his spiel, saying he's turning the prison into a new society. This is his final revenge, to show that he is right. The Parasite is overheard threatening to gut Luthor, but the bald madman isn't bothered by it. He sees the former janitor as nothing more than a big dumb brick, needing a superior brain to guide him. Thing is, Clark's presence causes the Parasite to literally swell with power. He breaks out of his restraints, and this causes a riot.
Luthor welcomes this, as chaos is needed to start building a new order. The Parasite keeps absorbing power. Clark realizes that Luthor is in danger. The Parasite wants Luthor's head, and with the power he's absorbing remotely from the Man of Steel, he could easily get it. Luthor tries to get Clark to safety, grumbling how he thinks someone he sees as weak and pathetic is stuck covering him. Clark cleverly uses his powers discreetly to help protect Luthor.
The bald madman wants Clark alive to tell his tale. He wants the world to see him as a hero, as someone who refused to bend the knee to an invader from Krypton. The Parasite attacks. Luthor tries to shoot the metahuman criminal, but the kinetic energy from the bullets hitting him only adds on to his power supply. The Parasite then gets so bloated with power that he collapses, too massive to hold himself up.
Page 120, Panel 3
Clark finds it sad. Parasite's own greed and lust for more power caused him to end up in this state. Luthor savagely beats the downed villain, screaming and ranting that nobody gets in Luthor's way. Not the Parasite, not the law, not even Superman.
Superman will write the story. After all, it's his job. He points out that Lex can't be all bad, as he protected the reporter during the riot. Lex then says something hilarious. He points out that he always liked Clark, as he sees Clark as everything Superman is supposedly not: a humble regular uncoordinated human. He brings Clark to his cell, that has also become his lab.
Page 122, Panel 5
Yes, that is a monkey in a Superman suit. Lex used a robot he built earlier in the issue to tunnel his way out of his cell to a body of water. There Lex has a boat waiting, the rower being his niece Nasthalthia, aka "Nasty".
Page 123, Panel 2
Unlike a lot of All-Star Superman's borrowing from the Silver Age, Nasthalthia is actually from the Bronze Age of Comics. First debuting in Adventure Comics #397 (September 1970), she was created by Mike Sekowsky. She was the daughter of Lex's elder sister who eloped in Europe, which was not revealed in a story, but by Sekowsky himself in a letter column. In the original Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth-One, she was actually a nemesis of the Kara Zor-El Supergirl. I'm presuming she was created so that Kara would have her own Luthor to face. She was erased from canon alongside Kara herself when DC editorial desired to revamp and streamline Superman's mythos post-Crisis. She's never appeared in post-Crisis canon to my knowledge, but considering all the constant rebooting and retconning the DCU has undergone post-New 52, her status is now as up in the air as anything else in the DCU. A version of her did appear in the Scooby-Doo Team-Up comic, though.
Right, right, right. Anyway, it turns out the boat is not for Lex himself, but for Clark. You see, Lex is actually happy to go to the electric chair. He confirms that he caused the disaster that is killing Superman. He's got the one thing he wants more than anything in the world now: the death of Superman. The Man of Tomorrow will never stand in anyone's way ever again. The story ends with Nasthalthia rowing Clark away, asking where he wants her to take him.
I enjoyed this issue. It's a character study of Lex Luthor, really. And it shows that Lex really sees himself as Earth's greatest hero, despite his obvious villainous nature. This issue shows that Lex also views the whole world through the lens of his twisted ego. The prison riot shows that he genuinely sees himself as superior not just to Superman, but everyone else. Really shows how much of a megalomaniac he is. Also I liked the nod at the end to mythology, with Nasthalthia playing Charon. Morrison has long espoused that superheroes are basically modern mythology, that our enjoyment of them is a spiritual successor to worshipping the ancient gods, like Zeus and Rama.
I have said before that I always had a mixed view of Frank Quitely's art. Mainly because of the way he draws people. There's an uncanny valley to his renditions of people that I always find rather..."off" for some reason. But there is plenty I am willing to praise. He's a good storyteller, and he's also good at facial expressions. The last panel of Luthor in the issue is chilling. The evil grin on the face of a monster who sees himself as a savior. Funny enough, I also like his rendition of Nasthalthia, as she looks more like an actual person than other people Quitely draws.
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