Lex was never an effective Big Bad, now that I think of it. In the movies, he usually reverts to a flunky for the Supervillain of the Week. Even in the comics, he relies on an committee to get anything done (see: Kingdom Come).
The reason we keep coming back to Lex is, like, it's either gonna be him, Zod, or Darkseid. Superman doesn't have many intimidating foes.
I'm a skeptical squirrel^ Darkseid can be used very effectively as a Superman villain, as in Superman The Animated Series, where he's essentially the Big Bad (though Lex is the recurring Arch-Enemy). However, you do pretty much have to bring in the whole New Gods mythology at least to a degree to give some feel to the scope of the character's power and the depth of his evil.
I've always felt the best way to use Darkseid in a cinematic way would be either a Justice League movie or build him up over multiple movies as simply a Superman foe. Much like Unicron is Transformers or Galactus in Fantastic Four, he's just too big of a character to fit into one movie effectively.
Thing is that Lex is pretty much all brain, with most incarnations having little-to-no ability to face Superman in a head-to-head fight. But this movie will hopefully have at least one epic fight scene involving Superman, so it's gonna need a superpowered villain as well. So, if Lex is in this movie, he'll probably either be the Big Bad with the other supervillain being The Dragon, or he won't be an antagonist at all, maybe serving as a supporting character or having an Enemy Mine situation with Superman.
That's assuming a traditional depiction of Lex Luthor, of course. Personally, I've always thought it would be neat if Lex and Metallo were the same character. If you're a Mad Scientist with a serious hate-on for Superman, turning yourself into a kryptonite-powered cyborg seems like the natural way to go.
I want Brainiac. In my opnion, Darkseid is too good for just a movie, and Doomsday, while powerful, is quite a boring villain to be the Big Bad. And they can definitely build up the animosity between Lex and Superman for later movies in the franchise. Let him be an amoral but well-meaning corporate executive who has a distrust for Superman.
Eh, there are a decent number of physical threats available, especially if you tone down the power levels to post-Crisis levels ( ie, no turning time back for the planet ). That said, a lot of them are basically super mooks. The quality physical threats with decent story behind them, IMO, are:
-Zod -Brainiac -Bizarro ( yes, I said Bizarro )
Which is why I am a big advocate of Brainiac as a first movie Big Bad, preferably by way of tying him into Krypton's destruction. It worked for Superman TAS, it'd work for a movie.
Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.comI think Brainiac is the number one contender, Luthor has just been overdone in the movies to be the main threat and Zod has also already been done. Brainiac is the kind of larger-than-life threat to challenge Superman, hasn't been depicted cinematically before but also not just be the "superpowered thug" as a lot of others are. Characters like Bizzaro and Metallo probably won't work as their own villains, although connecting Lex to them can work as he is trying to figure out Superman's upper limit.
I think it would be neat to have a shake-up of the typical origin story, not necessarily Anachronic Order but don't start the movie on Krypton and go sequentially. Everyone knows Superman's origin, so start off in Smallville and have Clark learn his identity along with the audience.
edited 4th Apr '11 6:50:46 PM by KJMackley
If I had my druthers, I'd make the movies go something like this:
1. Origin story. Villain is Brainiac, who came from Krypton. Introduces Luther towards the end as a 'neutral' character.
2. Luther attempts to control Superman. As this effort fails, he turns to plots to destroy Superman. Metallo, Bizarro, or both figure in, serving as muscle for Luther's schemes.
3. Zod escapes the Phantom Zone, and intends to conquer Earth. Superman and Lex Luther end up having to team up to defeat the brilliant general who suddenly also has godlike power.
Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.comI'm mixed on Mongul. On one hand, he is a recurring classic Superman rogue. OTOH, he doesn't really have any ties *to* Superman. He's a Superman rogue only because he happened to fight Superman primarily.
I'd rather use him as a Superman villain than Darkseid, though. Darkseid should be reserved for bigger uses, like "all JLA and then some" rogue.
Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com
Respect the Red Right Hand

It'd be like if The Ventriloquist,Bat-Mite or The Mad Hatter were to be the next Batman Villain
edited 4th Apr '11 8:54:09 AM by faradayangel
Humour, where would we be without it? In Germany, probably