Post by johnreiter902 on Jan 22, 2022 15:50:21 GMT
So, I just finished a read-through of all the appearances of Dr. Sivana before the Crisis, and I compared the results to my read-through of Lex Luthor on Earth-1.
First, I looked at the objectives of Dr. Sivana in each of his adventures, sorting them into Power, Revenge, or Money. I found that Dr. Sivana spent 18% of his career stealing money, 54% of his career trying to conquer the world, and 25% trying to get revenge on Captain Marvel. Considering how obsessed he is with Captain Marvel, he is remarkably focused on his objective of world domination.
Contrast this with Luthor. He spent 20% of his career stealing money, 13% of his career trying to conquer the world, and 46% trying to get revenge on Superman. Luthor is much more focused on (or obsessed with) getting his revenge.
The rest of their time was miscellaneous adventures, including cameo appearances.
Also, in my opinion, Sivana is more dangerous than Luthor. I don't mean smarter, I'm confident that Luthor is smarter, though Dr. Sivana is still one of the greatest scientists in the multiverse, and definitely the greatest on Earth-S.
Luthor's schemes usually involve very little collateral damage. He prefers the threat of force to actual force. He has no problem with killing Superman, but usually prefers to avoid killing or harming other people. He also is not totally adverse to using his genius to improve the world, as we saw on Lexor, as long as he is the one calling the shots.
In contrast Dr. Sivana's schemes frequently involve massive collateral damage. When he invents doomsday weapons, he prefers to test them out on a city or two before making his demands, just to show that he means business. He has tried to exterminate all life on Earth at least 3 times, in order to give the planet to a more pliant species of alien colonists who will elect him king. Further, he actively destroys any of his inventions that might have non-military use, since the idea that his genius could be used to serve humanity revolts him.
Unlike Luthor, who I think is probably stable, if not totally sane, Sivana is probably clinically insane. He takes inordant glee in inflicting pain, death and suffering on people, to the point that he could probably be classified as a sadist. He also goes through wild mood swings, sometimes weeping and pounding the walls while moaning about how unfair life is, sometimes dancing and clicking his heels when he feels on top of the world. Luthor is usually much more staid emotionally.
As an aside, I am amazed Billy Batson can sleep at night. Sivana knows his true identity, and has twice tried to seek into Billy's house while he was asleep and murder him in his bed.
