Year of the Villain: Lex Luthor #1 Review

One Lex To Fool Them All

Written by: Jason Latour
Art by: Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Tomeu Morey, and Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: September 18, 2019

I can't say that I've really been enjoying most of these Year of the Villain one-shots because that would be a lie and my mom always told me, "Jimmy, you are never going to do anything worthwhile in this life if you don't learn to concentrate on what blah, blah, blah, blah!" Now, what was I talking about?  I can't remember, so on to the review!



This one-shot is all about Lex, Lex, Lex, and even Lex.  Yep, it's off to the Multiverse to check in on a ton of Luthors and while it looked at first that Lex was gathering some sort of Army of Himself, it turns out he was just separating the chaff from the grain.

Jason Latour isn't really interested in taking us on the greatest hits tour, but instead gives us a couple interesting stops and gradually shows us that Lex has a plan in motion here.  Yea, the ending was surprising, but what Lex did to get there makes sense by the end.

We start our journey on the Earth-38 of the past which right away shows that Apex Lex can travel time and space and it's all to get a little boy Lex who is fresh from a science fair.  Latour makes the play here that Lex might be feeling bad for this (likely) abused little Lex and so takes him on the journey of a lifetime.  Spoiler alert...he doesn't feel that bad for him and the journey does not last that long!

After catching little Lex and some readers up with what lead to this (Justice/Doom War and Year of the Villain mainly) it's off to Earth-45 to get a weapon, Earth-32 to use it, Earth-1 to get a tool, Earth-44 and Earth-13 to have a killer time and then Earth-47 to end the charade...or start it.  Through all of this, we get some cool alt Luthors that look great thanks to Bryan Hitch and get a sly sense of humor about what these other worlds might hold.

By the end, Latour does what every good Luthor writer does...shows that Lex is the smartest guy in any room no matter the Earth and keeps Lex one step ahead of everyone...including the reader.

This was a good issue even though it really only is here to give us the cliffhanger.  It is a contingency plan that I think just might be the hail mary that brings back good old regular Lex by the end of all this...or sets up some really bad shit.  Either way, it makes this one of the more important Year of the Villain one-shots, but still, it doesn't really get to must-read territory. 

Bits and Pieces:

Jason Latour and Bryan Hitch show us what Lex is doing when he isn't busy offering everyone special powers for evil intent.  It's not a must-read, but it looks great and should be a bonus for all the Lex Luthor fans in the house. 

7.0/10