Popverse's top stories

• Absolute Superman is designed to be "the ultimate immigrant story" for our times, says DC writer Jason Aaron
• Simon Kinberg on writing X-Men movies, producing Glenn Powell's The Running Man remake, and co-creating Star Wars Rebels [Popversations]
• Better angels and online demons: A trip down the rabbit hole of Downton Abbey fandom

Lex Luthor is unquestionably Superman's biggest villain - aside from Dean Cain. But unlike Dean Cain, Lex Luthor is a name your mother, father, and grandparents would recognize. So it's not surprising, then, that when Absolute Superman was announced by DC Comics, Superman fans everywhere began wondering when we would see Lex Luthor's Absolute Universe counterpart. Now, Absolute Superman writer Jason Aaron has addressed why Lex Luthor hasn't appeared in the series yet. 

At Fan Expo Canada, Jason Aaron said, “I want to keep using characters that are surprising. Again, I think that’s one of the things that’s surprising about Absolute, because it shouldn’t just fall into the same neat categories, right? Where Batman just fights the same Batman villains, and Superman fights the same Superman villains.” 

Instead of Lex Luthor, Superman's primary antagonist in Aaron and Rafa Sandoval's series has been Ra's al Ghul, whose mainline counterpart is best known as a Batman villain and grandfather of Bruce Wayne's only biological child, Damian Wayne (quite a résumé). Thus far, the Absolute Universe has done a stellar job at playing with readers' expectations, achieving a fine balance between keeping recognizable elements of characters intact while throwing curveballs that take us by surprise. Frankly, I'm all for creators keeping me and other Superman fans on our toes! One of the greatest joys of reading comic books is getting the sense that a creator is feeling challenged by the story that they're trying to tell, and that's certainly the case with Absolute Superman. 

Volume 1 of Absolute Superman is available now in both trade paperback and hardcover form. 

Need more? Here's our picks for the best DC Comics stories of all time.