Lex Luthor steals Superman's scene in The Black Ring, out March 30 in hardcover. Will he do the same on film?

Is Lex Luthor the most notorious supervillain of all time? You might want to read Superman: The Black Ring before answering that question.

Written by Doctor Who lifer Paul Cornell with art from Pete Woods and Sean Chen, the hardcover collects Issues No. 890 to 895 of the venerable Action Comics while bum-rushing Superman right off the stage.

“Lex fascinates me, although in real life he’d be boring, self-obsessed dinner company,” Cornell told Wired.com in an e-mail chat ahead of the book’s Wednesday release by DC Comics. “But I couldn’t pass up the chance to work on one of the most interesting and well-known characters in comics.”

Whether ego addict Luthor is hunting down a power ring (above), matching wits with The Sandman’s adorable Death (below), easily pwning other DC Comics bad guys or merging minds (and bodies) with a synthetic Lois Lane android — all without actually encountering Superman — he’s proving one thing above all else. He’s fully ready for his blockbuster close-up in Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel film.

It just might not be such a great thing for the Man of Tomorrow.

“If you asked Lex if he felt he was capable of pushing Superman out of any spotlight, he’d say of course!” Cornell said.

Lex Luthor matches wits with Neil Gaiman's adorable Death in Superman: The Black Ring.
Images courtesy DC Comics

It wouldn’t be the first time. Old-schoolers remember Gene Hackman’s scene-stealing turn as Luthor in 1978’s Superman, still Hollywood’s best take on the caped superbeing from Krypton. Animation geeks worth their salt know that Clancy Brown’s version of Supes’ archenemy lorded over both Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League, arguably becoming the best Luthor ever in the process.

While much of the chatter about Snyder’s Superman reboot has focused on its Man of Steel, Henry Cavill — as well as whether producer Christopher Nolan should keep Snyder on board, given the confused and eviscerated Sucker Punch — the dark horse remains whoever ends up bringing unrepentant screen-hog Lex Luthor to cinematic life this time around.

The two iconic characters have been mostly inextricable for decades. How their complicated power plays explode in the new millennium’s reinvigorated film franchise will be interesting to watch. But if Superman: The Black Ring is any indication, Nolan and Snyder might want to keep Luthor away for at least a film or two. The character’s complicated humanity, replete with boundless ambition and self-importance, can often be more compelling than Superman’s sweetly benevolent immortality.

“Lex Luthor is DC’s Tony Stark,” Cornell said. “And he’s only a couple of degrees away from being a hero. But that couple of degrees is all human failing. His tragedy is that he doesn’t understand that Superman, who he sees as such an alien, was raised to be a much better human being than he was.”

The hyperproductive Cornell is something of an authority on aliens, given that he’s written novels, comics and episodes for Doctor Who while penning more sci-fi novels, comics and fandom nonfiction than you can shake a sonic screwdriver at.

“The Doctor is kind of the British version of the American Superman,” Cornell said. “They’re both aliens who adopted our customs and yet can still see us as outsiders would.”

The main difference? The good Doctor doesn’t have a Lex Luthor to upstage him.