The DC KO event rumbles continue with Superman’s greatest enemy, Lex Luthor, battling Arthurian nightmare Etrigan the Demon. Lex is there because his ego says he should be the King Omega, the all-powerful tournament survivor who will go head to head against Darkseid. But surely a creature of Hell is above – or below – the petty concerns of Man?
The conversation comes in the second of the three rounds, the first sees Lex ruminating on his nature – he considers himself above Good and Evil, but he’s not without fear.
He’s met Neron, one of the Lords of Hell, sold his soul to him years ago. Questions are implied. Did the devil take it when he subsequently died? If so, will the resurrected Lex have grown a new soul that Neron will one day – and eternally thereafter – torment?
Luckily for Lex, any deaths he suffers during the KO project will be instantly reversed, do no pass Go, do not enter Hell. The victor of Round Two emerges after a rather novel use of a beloved piece of DC tech.
Let’s call it a Mother Box-ing match.
Round 3 reminds me of a Silver Age story in which Superman and Lex fought a shirtless boxing match, only this has a lot more skin.
As we’re in the Superman series rather than a DC KO tie-in special, we get a subplot… well, a side plot really, as it’s connected to the overarching threat of Darkseid. His evil Legion of Super-Heroes have been acting as his attack dogs, but the currently reformed Superboy Prime recently held them off. Last issue, though, he left his 31st-century duties and turned up in the present, because, he says here, ‘I found something out about the Legion that Superman needs to know, to give him his hope back’. Not so, claims a defeated member of said Legion who followed Prime to 2025 and got his arse roundly kicked.
We also get a page or so of business involving Gorilla Grodd and a Darkseid-possessed Booster Gold. Every Vs book has included a bit of this JLU Watchtower-set plotline, and it’s all so bitty as to be rather unengaging.
Superman Prime, Superman robots, Lex in Superman armour… we get everything but an actual Superman appearance in this comic. I don’t understand why Lex vs The Demon occupies an issue of Superman while Superman’s bout with Captain Atom is in one of those tie-ins I mentioned earlier; it should be the other way around.
As for Etrigan, for an ancient demon with untold millennia of battle experience, he’s taken out by Lex rather easily.
That apart, I enjoyed this issue a lot. Joshua Williamson can’t write Etrigan’s rhyming dialogue for toffee, and I fear he’s a little too much in love with Luthor, but the three rounds are fun, and the Lois/Prime mini-team-up surprisingly compelling.
Points to Williamson for using the beloved DC Cosmic Odyssey crossover as Etrigan’s motivation for entering the tournament, while Prime showing concern for Lois bodes well for a spotlight DC plans for him in 2026.
Guest artist Hayden Sherman’s storytelling is terrific, with shard-shaped panels for the Fortress of Solitude scenes and ornate decorations framing the Hell environment, while the opening spread has a wonderfully worked treatment for the issue’s title, ‘Does Lex Luthor have a soul?’ The emotions are always clear, the action big and bold… I hope the Absolute Wonder Woman artist pops back for another shot at the regular DC Universe.
Colourist Alejandro Sánchez adds atmosphere and excitement to the pages, and Ariana Maher’s crisp lettering makes the script inviting.
Sherman’s cover illustration, coloured by Mike Spicer, is pretty decent, though Etrigan could do with looking a little more imposing. Given Lex still has the beard he shaved off a few months ago, I suspect this cover was prepared quite a while back. I do like the cover furniture DC’s production people have produced for the DC KO ‘all fight month’.
Superman is absent, the Demon underserved, but If you’re a huge Lex Luthor fan, this is the comic for you.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 