What if Lex Luthor thought himself a real philanthropist and an honest businessman, who (thought) he played by the rules of business, instead of seeing himself as a brilliant criminal mind?

Write a story where Lois and Clark, those meddling reporters, create so-called news stories to blacken Lex Luthor's good name. Who wins in the end?

RULES:
1) Lois and Clark (the Daily Planet, Perry White, and that photographer puppy that follows them around) are villains! Lex Luthor is a good guy and hero of this story!
2) The story must be from Lex's POV (and we know what an honest and fair narrator he is, representing all sides just as they deserve). Lex Luthor can do no wrong!
3) While Lex can romance Lois in an attempt to get her to charm her into submission, he cannot win her heart by the end.

LEX: What?! That's ludicrous! Of course I win the damsel's heart. Did you not read the first two rules? I'm the hero of this story! Mrs. Cox, call Bender; we're suing for slander.

Not gonna lie... this is essentially what I'm working on with my anti-verse. Although I assume you mean this in jest more like a perspective piece. I'd love to see it entirely from Lex's point of view! I'm always hooked by pieces that flip everything on its head! Never enough alt-u's. And Lex is a great character to experiment with.

After all, he only wanted to help all those people on the Prometheus to find all sorts of cures for diseases, help a young girl walk again... And finding Superman's limits-- purely humanitarian. It's a civic duty to find the alien's weaknesses, should the situation arise that he might turn on them. Even those ungrateful orphans, he was only trying to help out of a bad situation!

(...I may have been spending too much time in Lex Luthor's head lately...)

Have you seen Batman vs. Superman? Luthor tries to present his interest in Superman as purely humanitarian.

Lol yeah. It was an idea that could possibly have been good, except it was poorly written, shot, and executed. I don't really know why it's so hard for movies to get Luthor right. From his point of view, of course he'd think Superman is a villain. Like trask. But of course that doesn't excuse all the side villainy.

Controversial opinion time: Batman v Superman was actually not far from being a good movie. I feel like you could just rewrite all the scenes with more context and fix a lot of its holes. Except that Martha scene. And 90% of Batfleck.

But that's what fanfic is for I guess.

Sounds interesting.

No. I meant a serious piece, where one wrote from Lex's or Trask's POV, explaining why Lois and Clark are really the villains. Trask didn't see himself as a villain, but as the hero with aliens are the villain. What if Lex thought in the same manner? What if he considered everything he did as within the law, even if it bent the law to his own advantage? How far would Lois and Clark go as reporters to prove that Lex is a criminal? How would Lex feel about that?

It could be argued...
To make sure that Superman didn't use it against humankind, of course.

He was trying to make them smarter! Duh!

You've got to watch out for that.

I'd like to hear more about what you think about BvS, but let's move it over to another thread: BvS Fanfic Ideas

In that case, wish granted. Without giving away too many spoilers, the premise is that considering how many alternate universes there are out there, there's of course a universe where Clark is the villain, hellbent on bringing down Luthor, and Lex actually is the philanthropic humanitarian he pretends to be in the show. And of course, the chips fall where they may.

Okay, FROM Lex's POV, he's the good guy, but the reader knows the truth... right?

Well, except for those mentally disturbed people who claim to be doing the Lord of Evil's bidding (usually via voices in their heads) and those claim to be so above the normal rules that 'good' and 'evil' have no real meaning, most villians sincerely believe they are working on a side of 'right' and their victims deserved whatever for doing or being 'whatever' first. The fact that the rest of the world considers them monsters is irrelevant to their self and world view.

In fact, this is one of the gripes I have about the 'Dark Side of the Force' - Palpatine (and the Sith in general) actually accepted the Jedi's arguments that there WAS a 'wrong' and 'right' side to the Force when Palpatine should have been arguing that the Force had no 'sides' at all, intent was everything, and the Jedi were criminally negligent to teach otherwise.

So Luthor's general view of himself would be that he is so brilliant, rich, powerful as to be completely above the law and his brilliance in business made it obligatory for him to take over the crime element to 'give it direction and order'. And that fact that giving it direction and order made him even more rich and powerful merely proved his brilliance. (And all the 'bad' things he did were all in 'retaliation' for 'bad' things done to him - like not selling to him when he made a ridiculously low offer, etc.)

Uhm... Sure. Or maybe he actually is the good guy... I will say it's hard to keep a character like Lex from being a bad guy though.

THIS. This is why I love writing from the perspective of a villain, or darker pieces, because it's fascinating to see how little it takes to push someone there, to that point where they cross the line in the name of vengeance or even self respect or the greater good.


Love this characterization. I would add even that for Lex it's also a spirit of competition and arrogance that drives him. He wants to prove he is the best and brightest, that he can get away with increasingly more crazy challenges. It's the ultimate challenge, something to finally show he's an unparalleled genius, to best Superman, to run all the crime in Metropolis, and still get all the praise for being the good guy in public.

Interesting.

I first read this challenge as one where Lex really is the good guy, and the Daily Planet is just a political/business tool whose ownership and employees are dedicated to defeating him while appearing to the casual person-on-the-street as the good guys. That's a story I'd like to read, and if my health were stable enough, I'd take on the challenge myself. Like Mouserocks, I like tackling alt-worlds and bending the characters to the breaking point.

I can see the Planet's setup now. For the most part, the reporters and middle management are honestly trying to report the news as it really is. But they're constantly thwarted by a small cadre of employees who slant everything touching Lex Luthor to present him as a really bad guy. There's room for a new character, too, or for bringing out a one-shot guest to be Luthor's pipeline into the newsroom. He or she would be in constant danger of exposure, and depending on how dedicated Lois and Clark et al are, might even be risking his or her life.

So many possibilities, so much pending angst, so much mistrust, so many super-powered ethical dilemmas. How far would bad Clark go to bring down Luthor? Would his moral touchstone (whoever or whatever that might be) allow him to intimidate, injure, or even kill someone? How would the spy hide from him? If Lex is a good guy, where would Nigel or Asabi fit in? Would Lex have access to Kryptonite? If so, how would he use it against Clark's Kryptonian alter ego? Or would Clark hide his abilities from the general public altogether?

Hurry up and write this, Mouserocks! My plot bunny in-basket is full!

I just thought of a horrendous alt-universe: The person in Terry's scenario could be Ralph.

<Shudder>,
Lynn

p.s., Terry, I hope your health improves soon.

Yay! Another crazy dissenter like me. I would absolutely still like to see your version though, maybe in an evil little ficlet. *nudgenudge*

I really like this setup, particularly Lex having a man(sic) on the inside.

So many questions, so little answers.... mwahahahaha

Working on it!! 43 chapters and counting (help me ahhhhhhhhhhh)

I don't know if there's any universe where Ralph isn't a sleazeball.