Do I hate Superman?

Yes.

Have I always hated Superman?

No.

Oh I know some people may find that hard, even impossible to believe but it is true. A lot of people know my name, not just because it's the name of the greatest criminal mind of our time, but simply because on a few occasions, I have tried to kill their beloved man of steel. And for that my level of infamy has grown some what, along with public hatred towards me. Which of course, I care nothing about.

But I haven't always hated Superman, not at all. Granted I've never liked or respected him but at the beginning, it was never about the man.

For you see, there it was, the crime of the century. Meticulously planned to every detail and executed with precise timing. Yes I'm casting a blind eye to Otis' total incompetence but that's ok as his mistake was rectified. And I fully realised that a great mind such as me, shouldn't associate with someone who remembers numbers, simple numbers, by writing them down his arm. I'm suddenly questioning why anybody in their right mind wouldn't have written them on the back of their hand? Or on a piece of paper kept in their pocket? Or still, if absolutely necessary to write on down your arm, how do you run out of room? A long arm… a very long, arm…

But once more I'm digressing and although that's no bad thing, I should not waste time thinking of Otis.

So the crime of the century, it was perfect in every single way. Well, what else would you expect from a scheme born of my intellect?

And then, the pathetic mass hysteria began as every other person walking the street would say 'Look, up in the sky…', as if nobody had said that before them. Superman, a friend, a strange visitor from another planet with abilities far beyond those of mortal men had come to Earth pledging to fight for Truth, Justice and the American way.
When he first made his appearance, many believed it was nothing more than a prank, a stunt. But I knew different. I have always, from the very first moment, known that the Kryptonian was the genuine article.

Yes, I, Lex Luthor, believed a man could fly.

That however, had nothing to do with Superman whatsoever but is entirely down to the Marx Brothers. Yes man can fly… in aeroplanes. But for an actual man to take flight? No, no stunt or prank. As I told Ms. Tesmacher, if anyone was going to perpetrate such a fantastic hoax, then it would've been me. So no, this man in a red cape was not of this world, he was an alien, a being from another planet.

But did that make me dislike him? Is Lex Luthor, greatest criminal mind of our time, a xenophobe?

Of course I'm not.

I have no discrimination towards his origins whatsoever. I have in fact welcomed his technology and heritage with open arms… fire from the gods…

Was it that he was given adulation for being 'good'? Or that he had powers that would leave any man with a thirst for power, such as myself, with a bitter taste of jealousy? Or maybe it's because that he may ultimately, his powers, his technology, his morals, his ethics… maybe he is simply the very end of the evolutionary scale?

In Thus Sprach Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzssche wrote of the 'overman' being beyond man and that man would be nothing but a joke and an embarrassment to him. Possibly this, Superman, was indeed Nietzsche's 'overman' writings coming to pass. Perhaps the time of man being the dominant evolution on the planet Earth had come to an end, an end heralded by the arrival of the 'super' man.

Humanity would now and forever be looking up, and whereas before they would only see what they could be, they would see him as well. A reminder of what they would never be… 'Super'.

The perfect person who we all must aspire to and then, when the need arises, we wait for him to pick us up, dust us off and continue to save us instead of us learning to pick ourselves up?

Why the world doesn't need Superman… a truly wonderful article, highly worthy of the award it received yet did anybody actually read it? Or even follow its advice? The pathetic drones at work… the key words of 'doesn't' and 'need' not even registering in their brains…

But no, it was none of that. Those very thoughts are as ridiculous as thinking that I wanted to destroy him because he got his powers from 'our' sun.

It was not to kill him for who he is, no, why would I when I knew about us much about his personality as everyone else who read that 'I spent the night with Superman' article. Well of course, that article gave me more than it gave most people, as ultimately it led me to Addis Ababa.

Perhaps I should be more grateful for that article… Maybe I'll thank Lois Lane for interviewing and Superman for being such an interesting source of information, so much so I became fascinated by something, until that time, I'd never concerned myself with… meteorites.

Specifically, a certain one scientifically named Sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with fluorine. More commonly know by the name I myself gave it… Kryptonite.

But even then, armed with the one substance that would destroy him, it wasn't about killing the man in the suit. It was all about killing what he represents. Superman, the shining beacon of all things good, pure, true and just in this world, a symbol for peace and justice and therein was the reason he had to die. To put it into it's simplest context for those who foolishly see the world in black and white and not how it really is, Superman is the good guy, the ultimate law enforcer if you will. Then there is me, Lex Luthor, the 'bad guy', the criminal, a symbol for what people believe is wrong with the world.

It is a basic plain school yard perception of right and wrong, good versus evil. As naïve and foolish as it is to believe there is such a thing as 'Truth, Justice and the American way'. Who's Truth? Truth is opinion, just one persons perspective on something. My truth is that Superman is better off dead. Other people's truth may be different, though I do not care for others truth. Then there's justice. Is there really such a thing as justice anymore? I too see the atrocities some people 'get away with' sometimes due to the flawed system of justice. Again that is of no concern. But maybe in a sense, in a strange way it does.

I have had dreams, goals and aspirations. All I wanted was to have land, wealth and power. Although billions would have died as a result of my actions, that doesn't alter the fact I, like anyone else, wanted to be a successful man. But because of one man, all my ambitions have thus far been crushed. Where is the justice in that? That one man takes it upon himself to fly above us all, before landing on my dreams.

So did I hate him? Did I hate the man inside the suit with no real name except for the one given to him by a swooning reporter? No. I hated what he stood for. And so, for that reason and that reason alone, I knew that I simply had to destroy him.

So, I had the crime of the century and now… I had the challenge of the century.

But even then… no, I didn't hate him… not yet…