I’m trying to remember if the garage in Jimmy Olsen is in Suicide Slum. I’ll have to look at it again.

My brother bought the first few issues of Black Lightning but I had forgotten it was in Suicide Slum. Is it right next to Little Africa?

I got a copy of Superman #292 (1975) over the weekend. It’s an interesting examination of the Bronze Age Lex Luthor and his relationship with Superman going back to when they were both boys in Smallville. You know, the origin where Lex has a lifelong grudge against Superman because he thinks he sabotaged the experiment and made Luthor’s hair fall out. (Which is so dumb I can’t imagined why the current DC Cinema Universe hasn’t made a whole movie out of it.)

Early in the story, Clark Kent is having lunch at the Galaxy Building Cafeteria! So that’s a geographical landmark for Metropolis! Morgan Edge’s Galaxy Building has a cafeteria!

And he’s having lunch with ... Roy Raymond! Yes! THAT Roy Raymond, the host of Impossible ... But True! I guess Morgan Edge has hired Roy Raymond and brought him to Metropolis. (Maybe he always was in Metropolis! And I just assumed it was Gotham. I’ll have to pay closer attention to those Roy Raymond stories.)

The story doesn’t say a thing about why Clark Kent and Roy Raymond are having lunch together. And Clark is quickly called away because Lex has escaped from prison.

Lex terrorizes Metropolis International Airport until Superman defeats him, but along the way, the Man of Steel reminisces about his troubled relationship with Lex and wonders what else he could have done and how it’s going to end.

I think maybe if I had read this issue when I was a kid, I would have liked Superman better. It was on sale about the same time I was buying my first super-hero comics.

Yeah, like imagine someone seeking vengeance for something so slight.

Like a joke about your wife going bald.

Or a joke about how the biggest decision you ever made had to make was whether or not to fire an E-list celebrity.

Ah, but that wasn't the reason that Lex held a grudge.  That was what he told Superboy, when he swore vengeance.  What he would never tell the young Superboy or the adult Superman was that his real grudge against Superman was that he killed Luthor's "child."

Elements of this appeared in several stories; but, Elliot Maggin expanded upon it in his Superman:  Last Son of Krypton novel (released with the 1978 movie).  Lex had developed a protoplasmic lifeform (it originally appeared as a sort of smoke creature, in the origin story).  While working on an antidote to kryptonite, Lex had a lab accident that created a fire and noxious and caustic fumes.  Because Superboy lined the lab with lead (after building it, as a reward for saving his life), he couldn't see the protoplasmic lifeform and he used his super-breath to snuff out the fumes.  However, it drove the cloud of gases into the lifeform and killed it.  Lex got out, but his hair fell out.  He used that as his excuse to rage against Superboy, because, he knew that if he told Superboy/Superman that he had killed the lifeform, the hero would try to atone for the deed and Lex would have to forgive him.  He hides that true reason from him, into their adult lives.

Maggin wrote the best pre-Crisis Luthor, ever.  he has a wicked and sarcastic sense of humor, sleeps in an ancient (and stolen) Egyptian sarcophagus, lined with Snoopy sheets, and operates from the upper floors of a building, which are camouflaged from view below and above, by special holograms.  He operates his criminal empire from there, while also creating all kinds of beneficial medicines, new inventions and wonders of science, some of which he uses in his battles, some he introduces through false identities and cutouts, some he synthesizes at a moments notice, and some he disguises as works of modern art (one of his cover identities is a flamboyant modern sculptor and an installation by the identity actually disguises a spaceship).  He also masquerades as a globetrotting doctor, who helps with epidemics and natural disasters.  He idolizes Einstein and celebrates his birthday by reliving his life (in one story) and stealing sealed documents that were kept in a vault, until a particular day is reached (it turns out they are written in Kryptonese, which Luthor thinks is a code, as a letter to Superman, to explain why he defied Jor-El's wishes and manipulated the Kents into being on the back road when Kal-El's rocket crashed to Earth).

When Luthor is in prison, he is given pens and legal pads, and he spends his time writing and sketching out ideas, like Da Vinci, though he also has figured out how to synthesize a concentrated explosive from the glue used on the writing pad, the ink in the pens, and a couple of other items available in his cell.  He doesn't do it, because he will be denied the pads and pens if he is caught again.

Maggin also wrote that Lois secretly writes romance novels, under a pen name, and sportscaster Steve Lombard (ex-NFL jock and all-around jerk), watches old movies on Sunday, during football season, rather than the games he can no longer play.

Maggin also expanded on young Lex and Clark Kent's relationship, in Smallville.  Clark was Lex's only friend, apart from Superboy.  Everyone else finds Lex's genius off-putting and intimidating.  He also has poor social skills, as he is short-tempered, especially because adults can't keep up.  His father travels in his work and he acks a positive role model.  Clark accepts him for who he is and gives Lex and avenue to vent his more agitated impulses, without recklessly endangering people.  Lex seems to recognize that Clark is one of the smartest kids in the class and has more going on then people think, though he also thinks he is a drip, and likes to poke fun at him.  The fact that Clark doesn't get angry with him amuses Luthor, yet, secretly, it gives him companionship, when everyone else avoids him.

In both that novel and the sequel, Miracle Monday, Lex ends up aiding Superman in defeating a greater evil.  He still tries to mess with Superman; but, he has a sort of moral code.

To me, it was far more multi-dimensional than just mad scientist Luthor or criminal genius Luthor, or Billionaire wannabe dictator Luthor.

I got it for less than $5, including postage and tax.

Something I always wondered about is whether Metropolis was supposed to be New York City or was that Gotham?

Back when I was regularly or semi-regularly reading Superman and Batman comics, Gotham certainly had the sleazy, crime ridden streets of 70s and 80s NYC, but I always got the impression that Metropolis was supposed to actually be NYC. Which would mean that Gotham was more like Newark or maybe even Philadelphia, maybe???

Or maybe both Gotham and Metropolis were meant to represent different aspects of NYC? Like, Gotham was the DC equivalent of the tougher neighbourhoods like Hell's Kitchen, Harlem, the Bronx etc, and Metropolis was based on places like Gramercy, Greenwich Village, or the Upper East Side etc?