History WMG / AllStarSuperman

The Hairies were youthful, genetically-engineered super-geniuses from the DNA Project Jack introduced in his run on ''Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen''. After the rest of them had moved on to other things, Quintum took the reins of his alma mater, renamed it P.R.O.J.E.C.T., and continued developing all manner of over-the-top Kirbyesque technology, like missions to the sun and giant human clones designed to explore Saturn.

* Morrison said in a 2008 Newsarama interview that he believes Jimmy already figured it out, but believes Superman has a good reason for keeping his identity secret so Jimmy plays along.

Brainiac is a Superman villain like Lex, bald and super-smart, except green-skinned and an alien. He has a descendant in the 30th Century named Brainiac 5, time-travelling, blond-haired and super-smart, who uses his powers for good to make up for his ancestor's evil ways. Leo Quintum, (Quintum=5)is also blond-haired, super-smart and his remarks about trying to escape the past can be seen as trying to escape his family's history of evil. Leo Quintum = Good Lex 5.

[[WMG: Leo Quintum is basically Brainic 5 of the Luthor family.]]

[[WMG: Jimmy Olson knows Clark is Superman.]]

[[WMG: Leo Quintum is basically Brainic 5.]]
Leo is basically the Brainiac 5 of the Luthor family. Brainiac is a Superman villain like Lex, bald and super-smart, except green-skinned and an alien. He has a descendant in the 30th Century named Brainiac 5, time-travelling, blond-haired and super-smart, who uses his powers for good to make up for his ancestor's evil ways. Leo Quintum, (Quintum=5)is also blond-haired, super-smart and his remarks about trying to escape the past can be seen as both trying to escape his family's evil ways both morally and chronally. Leo Quintum = Good Lex 5.

[[WMG: Leo Quintum is Lex's descendant from the future.]]

* Jimmy Olsen hasn't known Superman as long as Luthor has, and Jimmy also isn't the smartest man alive. If Jimmy Olsen can figure out Clark is Superman, Luthor can, though I appreciate you outlining it.

* As for the movie, there's no reason that it isn't just an alternate continuity. McDuffie might not have known Leo Quintum was implied to be Luthor, and so he changed the ending from Kal-El giving the Superman 2 formula to Quintum to Luthor doing it. It could just because in that version Luthor is NOT Leo Quintum. Who knows?

.... as well as his subterranean cave with chauffeured rowboat exit JUST FOR THE PLEASURE OF CREATING AND GETTING TO WATCH the visual metaphor of Superman being boated across the river of the dead into the underworld. Even though this troper prefers to think Luthor's ego is so big he's pretty much incapable of realizing Superman is Clark even when it's literally staring him in the face, the idea of Lex pulling a scheme like this is almost as cool and in-character. It also offers an alternative explanation for Lex's lack of shocked revelation when a finally glassesless Clark is shouting in his face from six inches away.

** "Quint" denotes the number five. Lex Luthor's inmate number is shown to be 221. 2, 2 and 1 have a sum of 5(a "Quint-sum", if you will). Associating a set of numbers - or any symbol, label or name - with a character is ''not'' the kind of opportunity Grant Morrison tends overlook.

When Lex/Leo was first getting into the mad science business, he accidentally split his good and evil sides into two people.

[[WMG: Leo Quintum is Luther's clone sent from the future to help Superman and live up to his promises of Altruism.]]

** It's not really so much jossed, so much as Quintum is supposed to be there to get rid of the ScienceIsBad aesop that pervades so much of DC concepts. According to Morrison, Quintum is a trickster whose background is deliberately vague (he calls him "The Man who Fell to Earth"). While he is obviously the good counterpart to Luthor, any further connection between them is up to the reader - but subconsciously or not, there is a lot of implications going on in the comic (and even the animated adaptation can be resolved - how many stories have you read in which a time traveler imparts information to another version of himself) that hint that they may be the same person. I think what went on was that this is one of those subconscious implications on the part of the writer. Morrison said that he didn't realize it directly, but that Quintum was obviously based on Willy Wonka. Similarly, the intention might not be there, but the text supports the theory that Quintum and Luthor are at least closely related in some way since the character's formula essentially seems to be: Good Guy + Lex Luthor + Willy Wonka.

** It's not canon, but the animated movie version of All-Star Superman also disproves this theory. The movie versions of Quintum and Luthor are clearly two different people, voiced by different actors. Interestingly though, in the movie the good scientist/bad scientist dichotomy of Luthor/Quintum [[spoiler:dissolves in the end.]] Unlike in the comic, [[spoiler:it's Luthor who cracks Superman's genetic code and, repenting his actions, gives it to Quintum. They both seem to agree what to do with the code.]]

* Morrison said in a 2008 Newsarama interview that he believes Jimmy already figured it out, but believes Superman has a good reason for keeping his identity secret so he plays along.

* Frank Quitely makes it easy for us by

Now, Epimetheus' name translates as 'Hindsight', and Prometheus' as 'Foresight'; Prom had the foresight to create humanity as Earth's ideal lifeform, and lock all the evils in a box, while Epim only had the hindsight to think of keeping that box out of the hands of his wife. If we can glean from Leo's statement that he is symbolically Prometheus, and presume that he is also Luthor, then Luthor becomes Epimetheus - where the one has the foresight to know that Superman will die, the other only becomes a good man through hindsight. QED.

Click the edit button to start this new page.