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This has to be one of the very best Luthor stories I have ever seen, and I really don't think I've ever seen a story that explains the character better. Of course Frank Quitely & Jamie Grant's work is excellent(particularly on Clark Kent and the really gross Parasite, who now has a face like a lamprey or tapeworm). That being said, there's a lot more. One thing Grant Morrison seems to have been doing, at least so far, is to have an issue(or two, in the case of Lois Lane) each devoted to a portrait of some aspect of the Superman world via focus on one character, and including the classic elements that define each and really exploring them-at the same time as making a fun story.

Basically, Luthor is sentenced to death, and Clark Kent gets to have an hour-long interview with him in prison. Proeeding from the classic rules of Luthor established by Weisinger, Schwartz and Cary Bates, Morrison doesn't even try to explain his enmity beyond his hate and obsession(if you grew up reading Bates and Maggin on Superman you remember what I mean), and then fleshes it out from that point.

But even more, the structure of the story itself is one of the best uses of subtext I've seen Morrison use. Throughout, Luthor keeps noticing things about Kent, what he does, how he looks, and keeps focusing on its difference from Superman. Which also occasions his explanation of why he hates him, which seems to come more from a Salieri-like envy of him: in essence, Superman was handed everything by accident and birth, while Luthor works hard at all he does, and just because he keeps trying to take over the world rather than saving it, everyone gets on his case.

He's not sympathetic; he remains a villain. He even calls himself a "born dictator." He also taunts Clark by pointing out that Lois Lane might notice him without Superman there(which, he hopes, will make the story Clark's writing about him nastier toward Superman-maybe). He also tells Clark how he's made sure Superman will die, and shows him a way he could get out anytime, but he claims to be satisfied with his revenge.

But the little things he keeps noticing about Clark might also be his way of telling Superman he can see through the disguise, but he's using this as a way of talking directly to his enemy-and also gloating about his triumph. It's not at all obvious that it's Superman because the way Quitely draws him, his posture is so shrunken and his muscles so slack that he ends up looking more like an ungainly, fatter Keith Olbermann with a worse hairdresser. He looks chunky, not muscular. Though Luthor does remark that, with some weight training, his physique could rival Superman's.

The way that Luthor seems to perhaps know, but then may not, is what's most fascinating to read; that he may be playing a game underneath everything he says. That and that Superman repeatedly saves Luthor's life, and in the end, in a veiled way, even expresses how much he wishes he and Luthor could have been friends.

Which is a characteristic of the mythos that's been sorely missing ever since John Byrne; the crucial tragedy of Luthor is that he could have been great and his obsession with Superman ruined this. It's the waste of a great mind that Luthor represents that's significant.-not making him Donald Trump. Byrne's Luthor may as well be a thinner Kingpin. What makes Luthor Superman's opposite is that Superman is concerned with everyone while Luthor is only concerned with Superman and bettering him.

Also: Quitely does a few really funny things in here. Clark's expressions, for one, and then there's a pencil Luthor carries around all through the story, whose rather vain purpose provides a great gag at the end. Which I'm not giving away.

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