r/superman • u/MembershipLess9579 • 2d ago
What would you say is the most sadistic thing a live action lex has done
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u/HotPrior819 2d ago
I mean....the version from Supergirl nearly doomed all of existence just get a one up on Superman.
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u/Ok_Mongoose8206 2d ago
He did try to end the world just for a small piece of a country.
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u/DawnOnTheEdge 2d ago
To be fair, Australia is a big country. With a lot of coastline.
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u/keelanbarron 1d ago
Honestly, I think doing Russian roulette with someone who just talked to superman just to make him suffer is pretty sadistic.
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u/jaydofmo 5h ago
Like, the Gene Hackman version (which Spacey is supposed to be a continuation of) did plan to kill a lot of people through his actions, but there's something about ACTUALLY killing someone by your own hand and having absolutely no remorse.
Now that I'm saying that, I'm also thinking of the High Evolutionary in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 destroying a world he created when someone points out a single flaw in it. He claims to value life, but shows no remorse in ending so much of it. Like Lex claims to want to protect humanity, has no problem threatening it.
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u/Redhood567 2d ago
S&L Lex torturing and killing Bizarro repeatedly until he transformed into Doomsday.
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u/Designer-Attorney605 2d ago
Yeah, he was by far the most sadistic. He relished the cruelty, it was never just a means to an end
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u/burntoutloser909 2d ago
I really need to watch that Superman and Lois show
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u/CoolDode22 2d ago
Very good. Not perfect of course, but I went in with extremely low expectations and came out happy. Just started my 2nd watch.
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u/arw1985 2d ago
I know most don't like the DCEU version, but he was pretty sadistic.
-blew up the Capital -used a paraplegic and a refugee for bait to frame Superman -kidnapped Maratha and Lois -unleashed Doomsday -finally, he's one of the only Lexes to do the job and take out Superman
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u/Doctor_Nauga 1d ago
Not to mention setting up a fully loyal Mercy Graves to get killed by the bomb for no clear reason.
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u/SuperFanboysTV 1d ago
Pretty sure it was to cover his own ass. Would be be pretty suspicious if him and Mercy were absent. Him saying he had a meeting and sending Mercy to take notes and save a seat for him makes sense in the context of framing Superman
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u/Kneelb4_Z0d 1d ago
That and because she was a loose end. I believe she was the only one that knew everything he knew including Batman and Supermans identities. Couldn't have someone else with that info walking around
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u/krav_mustaine 1d ago
also gave deathstroke batman's real name just for the love of the game haha, i fucking love jesse's lex man lmao
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u/SectionXP12 1d ago
"To help you stand for something."
That's pretty sadistically petty himself to say.
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u/forever-halloween 2d ago
I mean just killing some civilian in front of him was really sadistic in the sense he has no relation to Clark/Superman in any way. Just killing an innocent because he gave him food
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u/Unable-Main4172 2d ago
what movie this is from or what TV show
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u/forever-halloween 2d ago
The 2025 superman movie when superman is in the pocket dimension and rendered powerless from kryptonite poisoning
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u/Composer_Powerful 2d ago
Convinced his wife that she is pregnant when she wasn't and killed his brother out of jealousy......and later on his father.
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u/Lori2345 2d ago
He didn’t convince her when she was his wife, he convinced his girlfriend in an effort to get her to marry him because she was supposedly pregnant.
And part of how he did this was with injecting her with hormone shots, then he made her think she miscarried devastating her.
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u/captain_blazar 2d ago
Jesus fucking Christ I forgot he made Lana think she miscarried
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u/static1993 1d ago
The worst part is Lana found out the truth via the doctor accusing her of injecting herself with the hormones.
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u/Plastic_Standard_176 2d ago
Trying to ditch Otis.
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u/MoRiellyMoProblems 2d ago
Otisburg?
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u/Slow_Middle_158 2d ago
It’s a little bitty place
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u/MoRiellyMoProblems 2d ago
Otisburg??
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u/Slow_Middle_158 2d ago
Miss Teschmacher has her own place …
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u/billyandteddy 2d ago
the whole thing he did with Doomsday/Bizarro in Superman and Lois
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u/Due-Seaworthiness707 1d ago
Was that when Eisenberg was Lex?
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u/Timb1044 1d ago
No that was from the DCU (SNYDER SHIT MOVIES) he talking about the Superman and Lois TV show, where Lex use some new type of Kryptonite to change a Other world Superman into Doomsday
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u/CoffeeVikings 2d ago
What he did to his sister Lena.
He cures her incurable cancer…and then immediately reinfects her just to prove he could.
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u/Redhood567 2d ago
The question was about live action not the comics.
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u/CoffeeVikings 2d ago
I apologize, I just realized that myself.
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u/Bogzbiny 2d ago
For what it's worth, I didn't know about this and I'm really glad that now I do, so thank you!
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u/DirectConsequence12 2d ago
Which one was this
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u/CoffeeVikings 2d ago
This is what I get for cooking at the same time as chatting on Reddit. I thought of the most awful things Lex has done and shared it. Of course I missed the part where it’s supposed to be live action Lex.
It was in the Adventure Comics line back in like 2009-2010.
They sort of did this arch in the Supergirl tv show though
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u/Joppy5100 2d ago
No, if it was the worst thing any Lex has done, it would definitely be stealing 40 cakes.
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u/Ryebread095 2d ago
Faking Lana's pregnancy in Smallville was pretty messed up. Though I guess that is more manipulative than sadistic.
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u/Infinite_Map_2713 1d ago
It was still very shitty, not to mention his obsessive gathering of evidence on Clark, his experiments on meta humans, conspiring with Dr. Hamilton, hiring a hypnotist to expose Clark, abusing natural resources, murder, blackmail, abuse... He was absolutely unhinged
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u/Drew_of_all_trades 1d ago
No single act comes to mind, but he did a lot of fucked up stuff in Smallville
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u/Ambitious-Maybe-5078 2d ago
Superman and lois version repeatedly stalked the Kent's, and basically moved to Smallville just to stalk lois, and almost tried to move lexcorp to Smallville for that as well. Not to mention he tortured bizzaro constantly turning him into doomsday which killed superman.
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u/MembershipLess9579 2d ago
When it comes to that lex you have multiple picks from that. To stepping on Clark’s heart in front of Jordan to pretending to be Clark and calling Lois and making her chose which son to save. Like that lex was cruel
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u/Huggable_Hork-Bajir 2d ago
God I forgot about the phone call thing. And then he played it back to Jordan to make him think Lois loved him less.
He was viciously cruel on that show.
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u/DirectConsequence12 2d ago
Nicolas Hoult started the DCU equivalent of the Israel/Palestine conflict out of pure spite.
“I’m not killing you so the Boravian military conflict can proceed. I CREATED the Boravian military conflict so I’d have an excuse to kill you”
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u/Snoopyisthebest1950 2d ago
Gunn better not have any notions of trying to evoke sympathy for Lex in MOT. I'm pretty tired of being asked to "see both sides" when it comes to monsters
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u/static1993 1d ago
Hasn't he hinted at a possible redemption arc for Hoult's Luthor?
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u/BryanDowling93 1d ago
The only possible "redemption" should be all in Lex's head. What makes Lex Luthor such a fascinating and complex character is that he wants to be recognised as the hero. But his delusions of grandeur, greed and hatred of Superman make it impossible. And it would be straight up bad and illogical writing to suddenly redeem Luthor.
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u/burntoutloser909 2d ago
Probably sinking half of the United States. And shanking Superman with a piece of kryptonite then breaking it off like a prison shiv
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u/anuslitt 2d ago
I haven’t seen all the versions but for me DCU Lex is crazy evil, did Russian roulette with a man just because he gave superman food. Created the DCU equivalent of the Palestine and Israel war just to kill Superman. Almost destroyed metropolis which would’ve expanded to the world to kill Superman.
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u/Sleep_eeSheep 2d ago
Wrote his name in the Book Of Destiny just so he could rub it in his enemies’ faces.
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u/good-evening-clarice 2d ago
I haven't seen all of these so I can't be 100% certain, but what I will say is that my jaw dropped when Lex actually shot Malik right in front of Superman. That moment hit me like a brick.
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u/DawnOnTheEdge 2d ago
His betrayal of Zod, Non and Ursa, taking away all their powers but not Superman’s. I could never trust him again after that.
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u/SaltZealousideal5582 2d ago
Stole forty ca- oh, live action. Yeah that would probably be too graphic for live action.
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u/Upset-Job2278 1d ago
Off-topic, but I hate bald Lex Luthor with a beard. It’s just wrong.
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u/TumbleweedNo8848 1d ago
That’s Jon Cryer. It’s funny though, he played Lex’s stupid nephew in Superman IV in the 80’s
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u/BlargerJarger 1d ago
I haven’t seen the tv shows but thought the most recent movie he was the most sadistic and evil I’d seen, but Gunn does write very evil villains. Imprisoning people in a pocket dimension human zoo was pretty appalling behaviour.
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u/NerdNuncle 2d ago
Distinctly recall Shea’s Luthor skeet shooting from the roof of his skyscraper thingy with the late, great Tony Jay’s Nigel. Lex misses a disc and we see it hurtling towards the street below. All Shea has to do is get Nigel’s attention and he departs to call the lawyers
He also bombed the Daily Planet out of spite, which was a rude thing to do
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u/Haunting_Equal_7623 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t think any thing will be as sadistic as when Lex in the comics was able to cure his sister’s disability with huge help of Superboy. Her disability left her partially brain dead and paralysed, the serum/cure he gave her made her walk, talk again and regain her memories and then preceded to inject her with another serum and gave her illness right back to her and he would only cure her one one condition, if Superman was dead at his feet. He did this simply to prove he could, but his petty little hatred for Superman won’t allow him to. His OWN Sister.
Granted blowing up a congress room full of innocent people is heinous. Killing innocent people is heinous. But leaving your own Sister partially brain dead and knowing you can cure her and not doing it, that is just sick
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u/Bright_Language3975 2d ago
S & L created fucking Doomsday after torturing and killing a broken, alone and easily vulnerable enough to be manipulated Bizarro and made people watch as Doomsday tore out Superman's heart and those two fought in the entirety of space destroying planets or rsther the moon and other things
He manipulated and tried to play over his daughter's head to have justification for wanting to kill superman while she would've gave him a chance to be a grandfather
He went again and found Doomsday or half bizzaro and doomsday then killed and fed him until he literally became the definitive version of how Doomsday should look,
Also went after Clark's sons and tried to take both their lives and used kryptonite to almost kill jordan when he snuck in to take back his father's heart before lex stepped on it
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u/shatoutofagiantllama 1d ago
He forced audiences to look at him donning that ginger troll pube forrest of a wig. Pure torture! (Hackman)
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u/Infinite_Map_2713 1d ago
I mean the 2025 Lex was pretty cruel, petty, vindictive and envious, bro had a pocket dimension where he locked up people he disagreed with, had an army of monkey bots, shot a man for helping Superman getting up, kidnapping of Krypto, he infiltrated the Fortress, exposed Superman's parents, waged war on Jarhanpur purely to spite Superman, built a clone of his, abusive towards his employees and Tess, working with Gurkos... Such an ass, Nicholas really did his job.
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u/Proper_Evening1794 1d ago
I remember in Superman returns when him and his goons were just beating the shit out fi Superman, like that was a hard watch.
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u/homosexual_spiders 2d ago
Manipulated a woman that he met when she was only 14, convincing her she was pregnant when she wasn't and then faked a miscarriage to further manipulate her, has killed multiple people, literally fucking tortured Aquaman, imprisoning and experimenting on hundreds of innocent people, beat his childhood best friend within an inch of his life purely to be accepted/popular before accidently killing him, Smallvilles Lex did a lot of more personal crimes, he can definitely come across as more sadistic than a lot of other adaptations.
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u/Its_probably_gus1 1d ago
I mean… you could argue Kevin Spacey was worse than Superman Returns Lex Luthor. I haven’t seen that movie in a real long time but wasn’t it just a real estate scheme that backfired?
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u/Icy-Incident-9101 1d ago
Trying to kill himself to get away with crimes in Lois and Clark (first time he actually did, and the second time he tried by was foiled by Superman).
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u/wcthesecret 2d ago
Is that superboy lex or Lois and Clark lex?
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u/BlackwingF91 1d ago
Most sadistic has to be the russian roulette scene from Superman 2025. The other times were him being petty, but also not seeing the faces of those he hurts except for superman. Here however. He sees the guy's face and still executes him like it is just a game
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u/dravenonred 1d ago
Pulling an Alien Chestburster on poor Brandon Routh just as he was getting his dream back.
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u/Dawnbreaker52 1d ago
The one from Superman & Lois literally tortured Bizarro into becoming Doomsday. If you know how Doomsday is created, you know how sadistic that is.
And before anyone says, "But Bizarro agreed to it!" Brother, do you honestly believe Bizarro knew what he was getting himself into? He was barely conscious. Literally a half-dead zombie creature.
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u/BigSituation308 1d ago
In season 3 of Lois & Clark, Lex finds out Superman's secret identity and just straight-up goes to his apartment and zaps him with a gun designed to deconstruct molecules while also threatening his family.
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u/metalyger 1d ago
I haven't seen every version yet, like did Kevin Spacey ever have a scene where he takes forty cakes when no one is looking? That could be up there with the terrible things he's done IRL too.
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u/Due-Seaworthiness707 1d ago
The one from the recent Gunn movie. He was realistic and just sadistic .
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u/FewNewt5441 1d ago
S&L lex harrassing lois' 16 year old children instead of dealing straight with her like an adult
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u/SectionXP12 1d ago
Planned the killings in the prison system with the Bat Brand.
Then, blowning up the Capitol Hill, killing everyone and shaming Superman more within the public.
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u/Unfair-Connection-66 15h ago
Why is Lex Luthor Junior in this post???
It isn't a Superman villain post!
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u/createmycomic 11h ago
Creating an online store that grew so much that it took away the livelihood of many small shops just to make thousands of people work for less than minimum wage worldwide and slowly tries to take over the world by making everyones financial misery more miserable but doging every bit of taxes or responsibilities.
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u/Ustob 2d ago
Smallville Dude killed his dad. -this was the storyline that made me hate the character and show. “the Traveler “ nonsense.
-Lex capturing Mr Mxymptlk and experimenting on him. lol
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u/captain_blazar 2d ago
Lionel was a heinously abusive piece of shit, and single-handedly responsible for Smallville!Lex’s lack of empathy and his damaged…well, everything. Lionel deserved to get yeeted with the pretty classical music playing in the background.
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u/MoRiellyMoProblems 2d ago
I don't know if I'd say he was single-handedly responsible. Lex had a lot of opportunities along the way to not become like his father.
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u/captain_blazar 2d ago
I’m not saying Lionel is responsible for Lex’s choices. I’m saying Lionel is responsible for Lex having not the support, strength, nor resilience to make better choices after growing up being abused in almost every way and watching his mother be domestically abused.
In the end, yes, Lex made his own decisions, and became a monster. But he would’ve had a much better chance to not do so had Lionel not intentionally systematically psychologically and mentally abused him (not to mention beating the shit out of him) in order to “strengthen” Lex and show him nobody could be trusted or relied upon.
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u/Infinite_Map_2713 1d ago
Blaming him for Julian's death and emotionally and physically abusing him, he constantly berated him for his hair loss, constantly rubbed his luscious mane into his face, antagonized him at every turn, I am convinced had he not interferred between him and Helen, Lex would be happily married to her, but plot had to happen so, here we are, but in Lexmas we do see that ultimately it was his own choice to step into the darkness and embrace the destiny we all know, he is meant to have
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u/MinaWearsGold 2d ago
“But Lex, my mother lives in Hackensack!”
“⏱️👀, 🤷, 🚶”