Lex Luthor: Man of Steel

I have too many questions, having just finished reading it.

They start with:

OMG why is that one of the gayest things I've ever read in a comic?

Include:

Are they trying to set Lex Luthor up as a longing and repressed sociopathic self-hating homosexual on purpose?

And end in:

Would the world really be better if a) Lex Luthor could get Superman to lift shirt and bend over b) Kara Zor-El had landed on earth first?

I liked the unreliable narration. I liked getting a peek inside of Lex's head and seeing how the quest for perfection and a huge ego could have him wanting to be Superman.

But in the face of what happens in the damn book with Hope; that whole bit about 'Little Girls Want to Marry Him. Little Boys Want To Be Him' and Lex's concept of that type of fantasy as being dangerous just leaves me thinking.

"Lex as a repressed homosexual. That's a pov I never had before."

I'm sure there's a male angle in this that I'm missing. Something to do with competition, that maybe I just don't have the words too. But damn, if I don't need someone male to point it out to me. In small words. Probably repeated at least three times.

Is this Dan Dido's (as Sr. VP Exec Editor) vision of the tumultuous nature of Superman's and Lex Luthor's antagonistic relationship? Really?

I can understand Brian Azzarello writing it. Mostly because I can believe in a writer seeing many different sides and possibilities for the same situation and same group of characters. Writers, in my mind, live to explore 'what if'. But to have a Sr. Editor sign off on it.

Does this fit into the main continuity anywhere?

I don't know who the penciler was. The artist is listed as Lee Bermejo. And I found the art kind of craggy. It reminded me of Quitely in 'The Authority' only somehow more angular instead of the curved set in that made me think of turds. To be honest, having seen other pieces said to be drawn by Quitely, I begin to wonder if it's the inker who was too heavy, and turned me off the art, and not his style.

All the same, while I didn't like the art - in that it didn't grab me and make me vow to seek it more. It was perfect for Lex Luthor's pov of the world. All heavy and harsh and reinforced looped thinking like The Battle Ship Potemkin. Large building size banners that said:
'L o v e   i s   H u m a n i t y' and others saying
'M e n   f o r   M e n.  D e a t h   f o r    t h e   A l i e n'
would not have seemed out of place at all in Lex's Metropolis. It was a surprisingly hulking, oppressing thing, despite the dawns and clouds and high spires.

More-over. I loved the touched with Superman's eyes and that Lex always seems to notice how Superman's eyes, reflecting light, go red and thus seem alien and fear causing and oppressive. It's such a little touch, all by itself, without having him drawn in shadows, to make him seem truly a threat. Yet at the same time as a reader, all I had to do was glance down to look for the shield and feel instantly reassured that it was all just inside Lex's crazy head.

I've never really thought of myself as a Supergirl fan. And it was revealing, to me, to realize how much that shield means. That as discomforted as the art could make me, all I needed to do was look for the shield.

I'm guessing Lex would call me one of the mindless sheep.

PS: I am quite curious as to what was going on with Bats and Supes there though. And I don't feel very resolved about that as all. Was there a follow up?

ETA: If you're a Smallville fan (bear in mind I stopped watching 5 or so eps into S3) you might enjoy this as a look into what happens when the lies and refusals of trust twist Lex into a bitter, suspicious older man.