Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 23:50:56 -0400
From: Derek
To: Metropolis Mailbag
Subject: The Champion of All that is Fine and Good!
"Luthor, Master of Evil
" was the best Superman story published in recent memory. Gone all
the doubt. Gone all the worry. Gone all the regret and helplessness
and squeamish fears.
The art is very readable. The characters' expressions and poses are
evocative, letting the reader understand their emotions and movements
from moment to moment. The action sequences are well paced and
laid-out, especially when they involve the outlandish gadgets that the
story calls for. For instance, seeing the pieces of the humongous press
flying apart (page 8, panel 10) captures beautifully Superman's hidden
strength. Another loving detail was the depiction of Superman's hand as
it snapped the bullet to dust (page 6, panel 8). That hand was really
nicely drawn and gave the story a tangibility often lost on lesser
artists (or is it styles).
And the story!
In this story, everything is where it belongs. Lois is fearless,
Luthor is dastardly, and Superman is polite, wily, and invincible, in
short, a hero.
An unusual and amusing touch was seeing that Clark wears his yellow
belt as part of his suit (see
page 1, panel 5).
I love the scientifictional devices like the hurricane generator/shield
and the amphibious dirigible. These are trademark Luthor inventions -
wildly powerful, incredibly useful, powerless to stop the Action Ace.
Luthor is a wonderfully credible villain, a "sinister ultra-scientist"
with a vast organization of fellow criminals and mastermind of a
thousand crooked schemes. His keen efficiency and intense ingenuity
make him capable of taking the life of any ordinaryperson (or
extraordinary person; example, Lois), but for the fact of Superman.
Even there, his plot for Superman seems airtight as the trap snaps
shut. But Superman is courteous and inevitable (and we get him showing
off his staggering scientific know-how too, talking about the "specially
treated material, that [he himself] invented").
Thus evil takes it on the jaw but, due to Superman's heroic nature
("it's more than [Luthor] deserve[s]"), lives on to
almost-but-not-quite-succeed-in-his-plot-for-the-destruction-of-Superman-and-world-domination
another day.
Everything ends up right. Lois gets her scoop. Luthor ends up in jail
for his crimes, and out of it again through sheer genius. And Superman
gets a nice acid bath.
What a story!
When are those-who-control at Detective Comics, Inc. going to put this
Siegel and Shuster on the regular books and quit it with this heaping of
tragedy upon tragedy upon a poor lost soul?
Much gratitude goes to Superman Through The Ages! for bringing this
story to the world once again.
- Derek
