Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography (1989)
Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography (1989)
Lex Luthor’s secret origin! This is a heavy one. We start with Lex Luthor getting cozy to watch a tape with a prostitute (or a very erotically dressed secretary), so you know right away this won’t be a regular Superman comic.
A cash-strapped, alcoholic “journalist” called Peter Sands decides to do an unauthorized biography of Metropolis’ beloved benefactor, Lex Luthor, just to get some quick money. When he starts researching the book, however, he finds that Luthor has slightly more dirt on his past than your average Donald Trump: turns out he killed his abusive white trash parents when he was only 13 to collect the insurance money, then used that money to start his company, and kept it growing by running a massive drug distribution ring on the side. Oh, and along the way he also found the time to punch around his girlfriends and order hits on his business rivals.
Sands gets some threatening calls telling him to drop the investigation, but he can’t help himself and keeps digging. As a result, a buddy of his who worked for Luthor in the ‘70s gets murdered. Creeped out, Sands contacts Clark Kent and asks him to get him in touch with Superman, so he can tell Supes what he found out about Lex. Clark says “sure thing, I’ll go fetch Superman,” but before he can jump into a phone booth, he hears about an earthquake in Tokyo and flies off to help. While Superman is busy doing that, Luthor’s goons catch Sands and bring him to their boss, who is nice enough to offer to answer all of Sands’ remaining questions before killing him. Luthor confirms Sands’ finds, and even implies he caused that earthquake in Tokyo.
Sands is then dumped back into his apartment and killed, at which point the goons write “CLARK KENT” in his blood next to the body. The framing device for the whole story shows Clark being interrogated for Sands’ murder (that was the tape Lex was watching with the prostitute/secretary), but in the end Luthor sends a lawyer to spring him out, since he just wanted to show Clarkie what happens to nosy reporters. THE END.
Plotline-Watch:
Being a standalone Graphic Novel, this story won’t be referenced in the main Superman comics beyond some mentions of the fact that Luthor killed his parents when he was a kid. I think that’s a shame: it would have been neat if when Lois Lane finally exposes Lex’s crimes in 1994, she’d somehow found Sands’ investigation and used that too. Also, I know this story is probably supposed to be set after Superman returns from his little trip in space, but I still like to imagine that’s it’s not Clark being interrogated here but a very confused Matrix/Supergirl (who is taking Clark’s place in the current issues).
There are some references to the World of Metropolis miniseries: it’s mentioned that Lex and Perry White were friends when they were kids, and that Luthor actually owned the Daily Planet for a while (which he used to discredit his business rivals). Also, a schoolmate of Lex and Perry, who used to bully little Lex until he sufferend a mysterious “accident,” is revealed to be the goon who kidnaps and murders Sands in this story. Yet another schoolmate/bully gets blamed for the murder in the end. So, you know, say what you will about Lex but at least he keeps in touch with his old pals.
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