One Superman Enemy Might Actually Be God According to Lex Luthor

As much as Lex Luthor thinks himself the greatest adversary of Superman, one villain may have seriously eclipsed him. A private confession from Luthor revealed which member of the Man of Steel’s rogues’ gallery Lex believes could actually be a god.

As one of the most powerful heroes in the DC Universe, Superman has an equally powerful set of antagonists. Lex Luthor is one of the most brilliant minds on Earth and uses his impressive knowledge to try and defeat his hated foe. The Kryptonian monster Doomsday possesses strength that proved such a challenge, he actually managed to put Superman to death. Even ‘lesser’ villains such as Metallo have proved to be serious threats by utilizing kryptonite in their weaponry. Whether human or alien, it’s clear that to be a Superman villain, one must have some serious firepower under their belt.

But one villain has so much power to their name, it’s convinced the notorious Lex Luthor that he may actually be god. In Action Comics #894 by Paul Cornell and Pete Woods, Luthor has been shot by Gorilla Grodd during his search for the Black Lantern energy source. As Lex stands over his own corpse, he’s greeted by The Sandman’s Death, who attempts to help the villain come to terms with his passing. Lex, of course, refuses to acknowledge that this is nothing more than a hallucination, but Death eventually lets the reality sink in for Lex. As Luthor begins to freak out over the implications of the afterlife, Death takes him to a dimension outside of space and time to talk things out. As Luthor reconciles with his actions, he wonders if he’ll be able to make a case to anyone particularly if god is a little man in a bowler hat.

Lex is, of course, referring to Superman’s enemy Mr. Mxyzptlk, the fifth-dimensional trickster figure who routinely turns the third dimension upside down for his own amusement. While Mxyzptlk isn’t much of a villain considering he mostly just loves to get on Superman’s nerves. However, his mastery over the third dimension does put him in a league far above Clark’s other villains. In an odd way, Lex may actually have a point about Mxyzptlk being a ‘god.’

Granted, the DC Universe has a number of beings that qualify as ‘godlike.’ And indeed the DCU has a canonical creator figure in the form of the Presence. But as a fifth-dimensional being, Superman’s villain Mxyzptlk has exhibited a control over the third dimension in a way the other gods just haven’t. From routinely destroying and rebuilding the DC Universe for fun to empowering the Joker to rule over time and space, Mxyzptlk’s misadventures have proven that the inhabitants of the third dimension are just playthings for higher level beings. For someone like Lex, that would fit his definition of a god, even if he’s not the God. Lex Luthor may have a point that Superman’s impossibly powerful nemesis could be at least considered a god in one way or another.