When the flashbacks showed "Luthor" tinkering on the metal suit with his daughter, I started to think, "Hey, this reminds me of Steel." Then "Wait, could this be some kind of variant take on Steel, but substituting an alternate Luthor?" And eventually "Maybe he'll adopt the name John Henry Irons as an alias?" I got so close.
Their comments about whether Luthor might have a son were weird. Per the timeline established in
Supergirl, Lex Luthor is roughly the same age as Wolé Parks (Cryer looking older was handwaved as the result of radiation poisoning).
The boys racing to Superman's rescue in the pickup truck felt hokey to me. Also, Lois shouldn't have to talk Superman down from punching a guy who's already out of the fight. That should be second nature to him.
Seems the character originally was going to be Luthor, until a writers' assistant pitched the John Henry Irons twist.
That's the same thing that happened with David Harewood on
Supergirl. He was originally going to be the villain Hank Henshaw, and then after the pilot was shot, someone pitched the idea of making him the Martian Manhunter impersonating Hank Henshaw. It's an interesting coincidence.
I don't know if Jon Cryer's Lex would work in this series, it's such a serious tone sometimes, and that version of Lex isn't.
Oh, I don't agree at all. Cryer's done a fantastic job capturing Lex's genuine menace and darkness. Yes, he can be witty and theatrical too, but that could be modulated.