Superman took a slightly new approach to Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) by amping his professional-hater factor to around 15. The evil businessman was relentless in his pursuit to take down our beloved hero. He was so desperate to beat the Man of Steel, that he developed a clone of him, Ultraman, whom he controlled via a series of short commands. During the film's third act, Ultraman got quite close to beating the Last Son of Krypton.
With Superman on the ropes, Lex began excitedly shouting out the same command at the top of his lungs: "1A" (for the unitiated, that meant bashing the hero's face in with Ultraman's bare fists). Luthor repeated it over and over for a few seconds—enough for the moment to be turned into a meme. Now, Hoult himself has joined in on the fun. The actor made an appearance at Perú Comic Con. Aside from revealing he'd start shooting Man of Tomorrow in April, he also recreated the "1A" scene, proudly shouting out the command to a joyful audience:
It was a great moment between an actor and his audience, but... I have to succumb to my inner primitive nerd, and say that, as much as I enjoyed seeing Hoult have fun with fans, it also reminded me of how much the command plot device bothered me. Let me get this out of the way before I start complaining: I know Superman and the DCU as a whole are embracing the far-fetched sci-fi nature of comics of old. That's well understood, and I don't just like that. I love it. Yet, the way this particular plot point was handled didn't sit right with me.
My main issue comes from the fact that the idea of Luthor controlling Ultraman was somewhat grounded in reality. Luthor created a clone and trained him to obey certain coded orders. It made sense. In the opening minutes of the movie, as Superman fights the Hammer of Boravia, it's explained that Lex spent years studying the hero to be able to create suitable countermeasures for him in a fight. However, my suspension of disbelief is not that great to where I can buy that Lex, who, despite having a way-above-average intelligence, still obeys the laws of regular human reflexes, could keep up with the Man of Steel's reaction time.
It's something that's been regurgitated mutliple times, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless. Think about it: Lex has to give out the command, his henchpeople then have to acknowledge it and type it in. Then, the computer needs to process it, Ultraman has to understand it, and then he can carry out the command. There are a good four steps that need to be trimmed from that before Lex's method of stealing Clark Kent's lunch money is actually viable. Given all the processing points in one command, it really shouldn't matter how much Lex has studied Clark, Ultraman's moves should be way too slow to work on Superman.
Here, try something out with me. Ready? Blink. Did you do it? Great. Superman can react that fast. This isn't about Lex knowing how Superman moves. That's totally possible, and it's believable for Luthor to sit in his office, incessantly consuming videos of Superman to learn his every movie. The issue is that their brains work at completely different speeds.
Now, you might think, "Well, he's smart, so he probably thinks five steps ahead." The movie clearly showed him shouting out the commands to Ultraman in real time. What made this more bothersome to me is the fact that, when Lex became unable to control Ultraman, the clone was capable of holding his own against Clark. Yes, he lost eventually, but he had little issue going against his adversary without Lex sending out orders.
With all of that said, does my very minor grievance matter in the grand scheme of things? No. Does it ruin Superman to the point of making it unwatchable? No, not at all. This, my wonderful comic book consumers, was just a detail that raced into my mind as I saw Hoult recreating the scene in question. Let's be clear: This is a fun discussion on a movie, and I feel thankful that we have wonderful projects like Superman, The Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts* to get both amazed and frustrated by, and discuss until we get tired.
It's part of the fun of being a geek way too involved in comic book media. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to watch Superman again. It's only been around 100 rewatches. That's fairly okay... right?
Lex Luthor and Superman will return in Man of Tomorrow, scheduled for release on July 9, 2027.
Did you enjoy Nicholas Hoult's interaction with his fans? What did you think about Luthor's Ultraman commands? Drop your thoughts in the comments!