A Hero Is Only As Great As His Villain

There's a Reason Why Superman Remains Such a Wonderful Character: His Name is Lex Luthor

So my buddy author Daniel Sherrier who contributes wonderful history book reviews on Wednesdays here at God of the Desert Books and maintains

And the Quest for Pop Culture

substack had a very on-point answer to my critique of the “too powerful” superhero problem the new “Black Adam” movie showcases:

With Great Power Must Come Great Humanity

Be sure and read Daniel’s post as he lays out a number of thoughtful reasons how the all-powerful Man of Steel manages to remain such a sympathetic character in spite of his level of godlike power. Here are the key points he emphasizes:

Ultra-powerful protagonists can work, but they require several ingredients: humanity, morality, sacrifice, loved ones, self-restraint, clear upper limits to their great power, and foes who are even more powerful or smart enough that the hero’s brute force alone won’t win the day.

It’s this last idea that I feel compelled to emphasize today: apart from the great points Daniel lays out in summarizing much of Superman’s history, I think much of the reason for the Man of Steel’s success is that he’s got such a phenomenal nemesis, Lex Luthor.

In virtually every decent incarnation of Superman from comics to cartoons to films, Lex Luthor perpetually presents inventive challenges and genuinely menaces our hero. He may not be as strong as Superman but he’s at least as intelligent, if not more so. Thus, he’s always coming up with schemes to subvert Superman’s powers or threaten the people in Clark Kent’s life.

I especially have a fondness for the incarnation of Lex Luther in the Justice League Unlimited series:

I think this point about villains is a general truism not just in superhero stories but across almost all fiction in general. To really care about a protagonist we need to feel like they’re genuinely threatened by a dangerous antagonist.

We see this in Disney movies especially, and I think it’s a big part of the reason why the last 20 years or so of the studio’s animated output has been so lackluster. Take a look at the “canon” here and ask yourself how many villains have been truly iconic, memorable, and menacing?

You really have to get back to the mid ‘90s with Hades in “Hercules,” Frollo in “Hunchback,” Scar in “Lion King,” Jafar in “Aladdin,” Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast” and Ursula from “Little Mermaid.”

Most of the Disney films since then have been entertaining to one degree or another but they’ve hardly packed the emotional punch of the Disney Renaissance or classics like “Sleeping Beauty” with its glorious mistress of evil Maleficent

So I think the lesson is clear for would-be novelists, screenwriters, and storytellers across mediums: to really get your reader to care enough to turn the pages or keep watching over and over again you have to make your bad guy tremendously menacing and even, dare I say, COOL.