Theory on where they're going with Absolute Lex Luthor. [Spoilers for Absolute Superman #17]

Finally got up to date with Absolute Superman last night.

I've been seeing a lot of theories on which way Luthor's going to go following his encounter with Braniac.

Will he blame Metahumans and become a supervillain to exterminate them all? Will he become some sort of anti-hero? I don't think he's going to become either.

I think he's just going to become a drunk.

The absolute villains often tend to be mirrors of their mainline counterparts. Joker's super serious. Brainiac's a bit of a dimwit. I think the logical reversal for Lex Luthor is to go from a man who has everything to a man who has absolutely nothing.

He's not going to obsess over Superman and come up with a convoluted scheme to beat him. He's a little league coach that works in a gas station, how's he going to pull that off?

Absolute Superman so far has been a story about villains trying to break Superman's spirit. And they've come pretty damn close without any help. This isn't a Superman to whom murder is unthinkable. He's constantly fighting the urge to lash out, nearly ripping off the arm of a mailman who reported the Kents to the Lazarus corporation.

You don't need a death ray or a mind control device to "kill" this Superman. All it takes is a broken man behind the wheel of a car, too wasted to stop for a red light while Lois Lane's on the same road. Or a paranoid schizophrenic walking into her office with a loaded gun.

I don't think this is leading towards a long and epic rivalry, I think this is leading towards a single pathetic act of senseless bloodshed.

The brutal irony of this universe is going to be that the one Lex Luthor that ever defeated Superman, didn't even do it on purpose.