Superman is an iconic character in pop culture. He is the hero that other heroes aspire to be like. A beacon of hope and all that is good in the world. So why then does Lex Luthor hate Superman?
Why Lex Luthor hates Superman
To put it simply, Lex Luthor hates Superman because he is incredibly jealous of him. The Man of Steel is everything that he can never be. Despite being one of the most successful men on the planet who is adored and respected by many, he will never have the God-like abilities that Superman has.
Lex Luthor definitely has an ego problem. And maybe understandably so. The billionaire entrepreneur built his company LexCorp from nothing. From a poor kid in a poor neighbour to the insanely wealthy king of Metropolis. And from his perspective, all of this was taken away when Superman, an alien from Krypton arrived on Earth.
Lex is of the opinion that Superman invalidates all of his hard-fought successes. If he donates millions to charity, it is still the Man of Steel that makes the front page of the newspaper the next day. What makes it even worse for Luthor is that Superman is inherently good and incorruptible. No task is too big or too small for him. He battles super-powered beings in defence of Earth and rescues kittens from trees.
No amount of blood, sweat or tears on Luthor’s part will help him to achieve this level of adoration love and support from the people. So Lex Luthor hates Superman because of this.
Superman as a threat
Lex Luthor also sees Clark Kent’s alter ego as a threat to humanity. What would happen if Superman turned evil? This is the narrative of the campaign that Lex uses in his fight against Superman. While publicly he advocates the risk to humanity, it’s actually more about Superman being a threat to him directly.
