More Birthright

[seriousfic]

It's odd to reread Birthright now that I've read Irredeemable, since Waid's Luthor is characterized almost the same way as Evil-Superman. The difference being, Luthor is a neckbeard. As aloof as he is, the optimistic tone of Superman's universe makes it clear that people fearing what they don't understand isn't the be-all and end-all of Luthor's condition. He has a chance to fit in, or at least find a niche, but he's such a jackass that he looks at his own superiority complex and says "yes, I really am that great" instead of "hey, I should work on that if I don't want to be alone my entire life."

I used to think the added "Smallville" origin of Clark and Lex's friendship in Birthright was pointless, since it ends with Lex swearing that the whole thing never happened and Clark renouncing their friendship, but it does draw a nice parallel between the two. Lex holds himself above humanity, while Clark goes to great lengths to be a part of it.

At least, that's what it seems like to me. Then Irredeemable comes out and it seems like Waid sees himself as Lex/Evil-Superman, an unappreciated genius who's surrounded by idiots (mind you, ones who've given him great critical and commercial success). Makes you think. There's a line between creating a villain you personally can emphasize with and just indulging in the kind of negativity a character like that espouses.

Tl;dr - No one wants to read about your comic book fanboy revenge fantasies, Mark Waid.

Comments

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

That's interesting, and while I haven't reread Birthright lately, I can easily see this being the case. I thought it was bad enough that Waid wrote a pretty one-note evil Lex, which is par for the course for the writer who so aggressively wanted to dismiss any notions of Dr. Doom's nobility and complexity that he had Doom skin his own one true love and wear her hide for evil, evil magic. For Waid, evil is evil. Has he ever written a complex, sympathetic master villain?

I never understood the appeal of Birthright anyway, between the shoehorned-in Smallville-ness and all the dated-next-week references to modern life. As far as modern takes on the origin go, it was no Man of Steel, although I'm not sure how well that one's aged.