DC Just Made One of Superman’s Most Controversial Moments Even More Divisive

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Rick Flag Sr. flies to Louisiana and Bell Reeve Prison to visit none other than Lex Luthor, who’s now an inmate in the infamous facility after all but tearing Metropolis in two via a dimensional rift in Superman. Yet Luthor’s experience with dimensional portals is precisely why Flag Sr. is willing to ultimately broker a deal with the billionaire to find Peacemaker and seize his alien tech that powers the Quantum Unfolding Chamber.

A Month After Superman, Lex Still Suffers from His Injuries Caused by Krypto

In Superman, there’s an argument to be made that the Man of Steel didn’t defeat Lex Luthor, but Krypto did. During the film’s climax, Superman’s misbehaved foster dog almost kills Luthor. He bites and thrashes the man around mercilessly, leaving Luthor broken and bloodied. And while Superman tells Krypto to stop while he’s pulverizing Lex, the hero doesn’t necessarily do anything significant to separate the two. Some fans have bumped on this moment in particular, with some arguing that if Superman is so concerned with the sanctity of life to rescue a squirrel from a kaiju he wanted to “euthanize peacefully” or take to “an intergalactic zoo”, why allow Krypto to maul Luthor?

The last time we see Luthor in Superman is when he’s loaded into a government vehicle, being taken to Belle Reeve with his arm in a sling. Makes sense, since Krypto bit him in the shoulder. Gunn’s confirmed that Peacemaker takes place a month after the events of Superman, and the fact that Luthor still needs assistance walking speaks to the extent of the damage the superdog caused. There’s even a chance that Lex could be permanently injured from his encounter with Krypto, which would make quite the dissonance between Superman’s seemingly squeaky-clean ethics and values.

In Superman, the Krypto and Lex moment is played for laughs. Luthor did capture and torture both the dog and Superman, so perhaps Gunn figured we’d give the mutt a pass for his aggression against the man. But Luthor’s appearance in the notably darker world of Peacemaker underscores just how violent Krypto’s attack was, and spotlights a fault in Superman’s judgment. The persistence of Luthor’s injuries was a well-executed detail that bridged the continuity from the two DCU properties. But it looks like Superman may have to answer and apologize for that fateful moment in LuthorCorp tower if he and Luthor are going to make any sort of an effective team in the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow.

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