Superman and his arch-enemy Lex Luthor have been battling each other almost since the beginning of Superman’s career. With his bald head, genius intellect, and megalomaniacal nature, Lex has become the classic image of a supervillain, providing an excellent contrast to Superman’s powerful, good-hearted nature. In Lex’s mind, their clashes are nothing short of humanity taking down an alien outsider… but one storyline reveals Lex and Superman are more closely connected than Luthor might accept.
Strange as it might seem, Superman and Lex Luthor were revealed to be related by blood in one alternate Elseworlds story!
The idea of Superman and Lex Luthor being related has been explored before. In an alternate timeline shown in a Booster Gold comic, for instance, Lionel Luthor discovered Kal-El’s rocket ship and decided to raise the Kryptonian side-by-side with his son Lex. Lex and the young Kal-El grew up as brothers, but when Lex discovered Kal-El’s secret life as Superboy, he killed him.
In the classic comic book Superman: Red Son, however, Superman and Lex’s relationship receives an even more twisted connection. In this Elseworlds tale, Kal-El lands in the Soviet Union, not the United States, and is raised by the state to be the poster boy for the Communist Way. Thanks to his powers, Superman is able to help Stalin increase his political and geographic power, and Communism begins to spread across the world.
Superman is opposed, however, by the United States scientist Lex Luthor who uses his scientific genius to create several opponents for this Man of Steel, including his own version of a Bizarro Superman. Despite this, Lex is unable to truly defeat his foe – who eventually takes command of the Communist Party and attempts to create a utopia, albeit with questionable methods, including performing brain surgery on dissidents. Luthor is able to become President of the United States, however, and restore prosperity to his country. During his final battle with Superman, Lex is actually able to win simply by letting Superman read a note asking why he doesn’t put the entire world in a bottle. Realizing that he’s meddled too much in world affairs, Superman fakes his death and allows Lex and his descendants to lead the world into an age of peace and prosperity.
Lex himself lives for many centuries and is satisfied that he finally defeated “the alien.” Superman continues to walk among humans in secret throughout Earth’s history, however, up to the point where Earth’s sun turns red and the planet is about to be torn apart. Before the world ends, Luthor’s distant descendant “Jor-L” places his infant son “Kal-L” in a time machine and sends him back to the 20th century, allowing him to become Superman and revealing that Lex and Superman were related all along!
It’s a weird twist ending (and one that was not adapted for the animated version of Superman: Red Son), but it follows in the tradition of having heroes and villains share a close relationship. The recent Joker movie, for instance, plays on this trope by implying that Bruce Wayne and the Joker may be half-brothers. While some may not feel that Lex Luthor and Superman need to be linked so closely in this way, it does show that they are – in this universe, anyway – two sides of the same coin.