>>114018413Serious Mode: I like the idea of Lex starting out as Businessman Lex but becoming Mad Scientist Lex by the 'present' as he battles Superman, especially the Bronze Age far-seeing and reaching kind as seen in the Superman/Spider-Man crossover, because it allows him vastly more flexibility in evil deeds big and small as well as embodying supervillainy incarnate. He could EASILY save humanity... at the cost of its very soul and, well, humanity. If Superman is THE superhero, then Lex needs to be THE supervillain, unabashedly evil and shameless on it even if he has a nominally noble intention. The kind of guy who is so intelligent and charismatic he could easily convince you to kill yourself even though your brain's telling you he's the fucking evil supervillain Lex fucking Luthor and your heart deep down knows he's *wrong*, but he's just that persuasive and "logical". Much less he'd go forth and ruin the planet just to show humanity it shouldn't have had faith in Superman.
>In another place, under different circumstances, this man might have been a Caesar, a Napoleon, a Hitler, or an Archimedes, a Michelangelo, a da Vinci. A Gautama, a Hammurabi, Gandhi. But in this place, at this time, he was more. Superman made him more. 
