15 Reasons To Check Out ‘Smallville’ When It Hits Hulu

9: Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor, the Man of Steel’s greatest nemesis, has been portrayed in several interpretations in television and film. But Smallville’s take on Lex, with Michael Rosenbaum portraying the character, is the best version of Lex that we have seen on screen. Maybe it was the advantage of having seven years of fleshing the character out as opposed to having just 2 hours on the big screen every other year that makes me feel this way. But to me, Rosenbaum and the writers had the perfect balance in how they portrayed this iconic villain where you would actually be afraid of him, what he could do and understand why he is a formidable villain to Superman.

While great actors have portrayed Lex in film and TV, those versions just didn’t have that perfect balance and never really came off as a legit threat to their Superman. Smallville wasn’t just about the rise of Clark Kent, but also the dark path of Lex Luthor to become the man that hates Superman the most. By making the two of them friends in the beginning and slowly starting to send the characters into their respective roles as hero and villain, the show nails in making it so clear why these two men will always be on different sides.