Warner Brother's new film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, has recently received harsh criticism. Some of the reviews were directed in the portrayal of each character. In fact, before the film was released, fans were concerned on the casting for each character. For example, Jessie Eisenberg has changed Lex Luthor's character that most of us know too well. Although he mentioned to Playboy that he was planning on modernizing Luthor, there was still a sense of the classic Luthor within his character.
Many fans today aren't aware of the classic characters because it is before their time. So in hopes to get fans to understand why Eisenberg portrayed Lex Luthor as a narcissistic evil scientist, with a little modern touch, here is a little history on Lex Luthor.
In 1940, Luthor was introduced in Atomic Comics Volume 1 issue #47. He was a mad scientist opponent for Superman, who lived in a flying city and brought dinosaurs to live. Luthor, at the time, did not have his iconic bald head. In fact, Luthor had a full head of orange hair, which might explain why Eisenberg had hair within the film. It wasn't until an artist, named Leo Novak, made a mistake. Novak possibly got confused with Luthor's bald henchman or for one of Superman's prominent villain, Ultra-Humanite. However, once Novak made the mistake of drawing Luthor bald, his iconic look was born.
Luthor's character, at the time, was initially portrayed as a mad scientist who inflicts havoc on the world with his futuristic weaponry. Actually, in the "Powerstone" saga, the first crossover between Action Comics and Superman, Luthor physically takes on Superman after using machinery that allows him to gain super-strength and invulnerability. Luthor held a mansion of millionaire hostages and demanded Superman to retrieve a Powerstone that would give him abilities surpassing even those of Superman.
This is one comparison on how Luthor consistently uses his unorthodox scientific methods to defeat Superman and attempts to use Superman, who is seen as a God, to follow his command. In the film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Luthor has a god like complex and attempts to control Superman to do his bidding, which is to kill Batman. Luthor gains control of Superman by kidnapping his mother.
It wasn't until the 1970's, and 1980's that there was a slight change in Luthor's characterization. Luthor was no longer a mad scientist who was able to create weapons within a jail cell. Instead he began to humanized as an intellectual. Thanks to John Byrne and Marv Wolfman, Luthor was transformed into an intelligent greedy man who didn't trust a man who couldn't be bought.
It's as if Eisenberg has portrayed Luthor's classic personality rather than his now iconic intellectual man with class. Eisenberg took a classic character and added his little touch. So don't judge too harshly. Although the film isn't 100 percent accurate to the comics, it is still a great film.
