Luther Strode

One day a young teenager named Luthor Strode decided he needed a change. With the recent separation of his mother from his father due to his father's abuse, Luther decided he no longer wanted to be weak and powerless. Searching online, he found a book called The Hercules Method that guaranteed results to any student dedicated and willing enough to commit themselves to its teaching. Not long after receiving the book in the mail and beginning his training, strange things start to happen to Luthor. He finds that he needs to eat much more than usual and that he no longer needs his glasses to see. But even more unnerving is that he is beginning to see normal people as figures of muscle, blood and bone.

Little did Luthor realize the effect that learning "The Method" would have on him -- or its secret dark origins.

Luther Strode is a six-issue miniseries written by Justin Jordan, illustrated by Tradd Moore and colored by Felipe Sobreiro published by Image Comics. This series is not for the squeamish and contains gratuitous, almost artistic levels of blood, gore, and mutilation. The first series started with The Strange Talent of Luthor Strode followed by The Legend of Luthor Strode and The Legacy of Luthor Strode.

Tropes used in Luther Strode include:

Asshole Victim: A lot of named characters who end up dead, usually have it coming. Everyone Luther beats up or kills is pretty much this. Almost all of the students of the Method who die in the series are this. Almost all instances of Mook Horror Show are criminals of some kind. Aside from Jack the Ripper's atrocity display in a shopping mall and some characters close to the protagonists, surprisingly few innocent/regular people end up dead.
Asskicking Equals Authority: The belief students of The Method share and how hierarchy in Cain's murder cult is established. It's a fairly loose organization but when orders are issued it's by the stronger students to the weaker ones.
Awesomeness By Analysis: The Method enhances the student's senses so that all of their physical senses are beyond human. Luther can hear people's heartbeats while most students have reflexive ability enough to allow them to dodge or even redirect bullets. Coupled with their martial training and they can see several moves ahead of their opponents by the various sound, scents and movements their opponents make like the way their muscles tense, their bones grind, the state of their respiration, etc. This is also deconstructed as a student's conditioning makes them constantly aware of all the different ways to hurt, brutalize, or break the people around them. This ends up affecting their perceptions of normal people as being targets and the acute awareness of how weak normal people are compared to the students give them as strong sense of superiority and a tendency to disregard and look down on regular people.
Berserk Button:
Biblical Bad Guy: Cain. The first murderer and the creator of The Method.
Big Bad: The Librarian who went to recruit Luther in the first series and destroyed his life and was responsible for the deaths of Luther's family. The Binder in the second series who is trying to capture Luther along with Jack the Ripper at the end when the Binder ends up dead.
- Bigger Bad: Cain for the entire series as he is the founder of The Method and is ultimately responsible for all the death and misery caused by The Hercules Method.
But I Read a Book About It: The Hercules Method is transmitted in the form of books, scriptures, and various writing mediums. While everyone has the capability of learning it, not everyone has the aptitude to be extremely proficient in it. It's implied that the writings are presented in such a way as to make sure only the ones with the most potential can understand and put the writings into use.

The Librarian:(speaking to Luther's captured mother) I put out hundreds of copies of the Hercules Method every year. I even put it out on the "internet" which I greatly dislike. Do you know the number of people capable of using it in the last decade? Just one. Your Son.

Charles Atlas Superpower: The Hercules Method grants its student super-human physical ability among a few extra things. This is a bit of a Zig-Zagging Trope as the Method itself isn't about building up and improving your body but the power of the mind and reaching the point where you can control your own physiology down to the cellular level. While there is physical stress, it's more about testing the capabilities of your body and nailing down proper communication between your mind and flesh. The Hercules method allows students a number of abilities such as:
- Breath Weapon: A student of the Method can expel air from their lungs with such force that they can turn a small object like a marble or tooth into a projectile equal to a bullet in lethality by simply spitting it out.
- Combat Clairvoyance:
- Healing Factor: Both of the passive and active variety. Once conditioned enough, a student of the method will mend themselves on a subconscious level. This process is greatly accelerated when the student focuses expressly on mending their body though it leaves them vulnerable as they need a pause and stop moving to dedicate enough concentration to it. Students can heal wounds in a matter of seconds and while they cannot regrow limbs, they can reattach missing parts by holding the dismembered limb in place and manually having their body reconnect. Since they are controlling their bodies on a cellular level it makes students immune to diseases and a side affect of mastering their bodies means a restructuring that eliminates flaws and congenital irregularities that may result in the emergence of illnesses like MS or cancer later on. The only vulnerability is neurotoxin as neurotoxins have the ability to disrupt nerve signals and scramble communication between the student's mind and body but this can still be thrown off by the student with enough time and focus.
- Immortality: A side affect of their absolute body mastery. "Normal" or "average" students of the method can live for a really long time and age very slowly but will eventually die. This is referenced by The Binder when he mentioned that only The Bound live forever (students with the highest level of abilities that need to be imprisoned or "bound" as they either can't or refuse to reign in their blood-lust). The students with the highest talent and ability are essentially biologically immortal and will only die due to physical trauma. Good luck inflicting enough damage on them for that to happen.
- Mind Over Matter: The source of the power granted by the Hercules Method. Essentially, the student expands their perception, awareness and control of their body until they can completely control it down to the cellular level. This drastically enhances physical ability and allows the student to perform superhuman feats of physical ability.
- Super Reflexes:
- Super Senses:
- Super Speed:
- Super Strength: Students of the Method gain superhuman strength to the point where their punches can cause a small gust of air, they can casually tear steel doors off the frames, lock and hold any objects that penetrate their flesh by flexing, and tear apart and dismember people like they were bags made of chunky salsa.
- Super Toughness:
- X-Ray Vision:
Curb Stomp Battle:
Deadpan Snarker:
Deconstruction: Many of the tropes having to do with combat, martial training, and being a badass that are often glorified in various media are harshly taken apart and it's shown how negative that these tropes so many believe would be "cool" or "awesome" would not be in a realistic setting.
- Might Makes Right is taken apart and it's show how anyone from bullies, domestic abusers, to full blown mythic warriors like Samson that routinely get what they want through force or by living by the way of the warrior alone usually only have people follow them or have a relationship with them out of fear or the desire to benefit from their reputation. Ultimately all of the people who live by violence are shown to be isolated, resentful, misanthropic, and hollow of any real fulfillment or happiness. Even Delilah, who uses the method to influence people via her reading of body language and mastery of body communication or the art of physical seduction is shown to be this way as she is still using figurative force to influence others in lieu of physical force.
- Evil Is Cool is also taken apart and it shows that, while Card-Carrying Villains and Draco in Leather Pants might be fine in stories, in real life, no evil is not cool. At all. While there are various examples throughout the series, the author pulls no punches in showing just how horrible and disgusting normal criminals and superhumans turning the world into their own personal playgrounds would be. The biggest example being when Jack the Ripper goes to a mall and in less than an hour mutilates and guts enough people to pose them around fountains and turn them into nightmarish aesthetic decorations arranged around pillars, benches, and stores. And there's a reason the word "kill" wasn't used in the previous sentence. He didn't kill any of them. He did just enough so that they would still be alive, in pain, and aware of how badly he cut them up but unable to move or even scream. No, in a realistic setting, evil would not be cool at all.
Decon Recon Switch: While the series begins as a deconstruction of what it would really be like to have Charles Atlas Superpower in the normal world and the kind of trauma associated with an evil secret society being after you, midway through the second series through the third series, the concepts of With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility and regardless of the effects of your abilities, it's up to you to choose what you are and what you do with your gifts are presented with Luther gaining control of the natural blood-lust that comes with learning the method and his attempts as being a better person while also trying to help other students start to win some of them over..
Domestic Abuse: Luther's father was an abusive Jerkass to both him and his mother to the point where they had to escape after he broke Luther's mother's arm.
The Dreaded:
Enlightenment Superpowers: Like many things in this series, this is deconstructed with the students of the method. The students meditate, focus, and reach a profound realization which allows them to bring all of their body's processes, physiology, and structure under their control down to the cellular level giving them unbelievable superhuman abilities....that they then use to brutalize others, take what they want, and basically act like sociopathic barbarians even in the modern age. This is a very clear example of Pure Is Not Good as the dedication needed to achieve this is on par with priests, monks, ascetics, and holy men with the students being very much NOT holy.
Even Evil Has Standards: Any of the bad guys who have some standards or even morals fall into this category even if they aren't conventional standards or morals.
- As vile as Jack is he actually believes that it's important to live life full and that life is nothing without beauty. It's just his tastes in beauty are absolutely horrific. He also believe is craft and taking your art/craft seriously.
- The Binder and to a lesser extent Cain believe in restraint and knowing how to use self control. It was by Cain's decree that students who couldn't control themselves needed to be captured and bound. Partially due to pragmatism as the world advanced and weapons powerful enough to kill students were invented and he wanted to make sure the Method and his cult weren't exposed. Partially out of concern for the students as he wanted them captured, bound and held to keep them safe. It he didn't care about them at all, he would have just had them killed.
- Musashi is a warrior not a sadistic killer and he follows the warrior's code. He also promises to give Luther a clean death partially out of the desire to spare him the sight of what Cain will do to Patra and Delilah for Luther's defiance.
Everyone Has Standards:
Evil Counterpart:
Faux Affably Evil:
Genius Bruiser:
Gorn: HOLY CRAP!!! This comic is practically drenched with blood, guts, and horrible mutilation. Part of it seems to be to drive the point of just how horrible killers with Charles Atlas Superpower could be and frail and weak normal people would be against them. It starts off relatively light with The Legend of Luther Strode (readers will understand what "light" means when they compare the beginning to the latter half of Legend and all of Legacy) but by the third series, blood spray and human dismemberment is practically used as an artistic design element.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Given how much damage Luther or really any student of The Method takes when fighting another student it's a damn good thing that accelerated healing and regeneration are among their abilities. Especially Luther give his lack of skill and experience in the beginning fighting seasoned practitioners. He often has to resort the Deliberate Injury Gambit up to the severity of Torso with a View.
It Amused Me:
Jerk Jock: Jacobson. So much so, one would think the "V" on his varsity jacket stands for "Violent." The friends he surround himself with are very much in line with his thinking too.
Logical Weakness: The Method Relies on using the mind to control the body. This makes the users vulnerable to anything which targets their nerves (electricity, aesthetics) as it disrupts conscious connection to the body. They are likewise also vulnerable while unconscious though not to the same extent as their training is ingrained into them on a subconscious level giving them reduced and passive enhancement even while out cold.
Martial Pacifist:
Master of Your Domain:
Mook Horror Show:
Noble Demon: Any of the criminals or students of the Method who have some standards if not morals count as this.
Omnicidal Maniac:
Pay Evil Unto Evil :
Person of Mass Destruction:
Pulling Themselves Together:
Reconstruction: Toward the end of Legend of Luther Strode and throughout Legacy of Luthor strode, the series starts to show that it's the user of the Method that decides whether or not to become a monster and while the Method itself pushes one towards violence, it is possible to use something made for evil to help people and bring a measure of justice to the world.
- Toward the end of Legend of Luther Strode, Luther overcomes his self-loathing and uses his power to rescue Petra and realizes have her around means he has something to live for and that he is not alone while. He then uses his skills to kill Jack the Ripper with Petra's help.
- Legacy of Luther Strode Reconstructs Bad Powers, Good People by showing how Luther overcame the inherent blood lust that's part of learning the method and the reader is later introduced to The Shooter, who was once a slave over 100 years ago and models himself as a noble cowboy while targeting modern underground slave trafficking rings and killing the people involved with the buying and selling of people. Later, Luther manages to reach Delilah who had been under Cain's thrall for over 1000 years and show her through his compassion and example that she can be better and more than what Cain allows her to be.
Religion of Evil: The Hercules Method is actually the initiation for students to enter into the death cult created by the first murderer Cain. Students who don't simply revel in their power but actively serve Cain and his organization are acolytes that consider the act of murder "holy".
Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: The only sure way to kill a user of the method. While destruction of major portions of there bodies and/or extensive damage to most of their vital organs will work, the odds of anyone being able to deal that kind of damage before the student pounces on them and turning them into a pile of meat are slim to none. Headshots are the only way to instantly kill a student and not give them time to recover and defend themselves. Since the Method itself relies on the mind to control the body, there is no way for students to heal or recover head trauma that disrupts their ability to control their bodies.
Sealed Evil in a Can: .
Social Darwinist:
Takes One to Kill One: Yes and No. While conventional modern weapons are capable of killing users of the Method, the difficulty is in having normal human beings trying to compete physically with the reflexes, perception, speed and strength of super-human walking engines of carnage. The only time normal humans end up killing students of the method is when the student is caught off guard or killed in one shot via sneak attack. Any other way and the normal humans (even people with special forces training and combat experience) are nothing more than walking targets Made of Plasticine to even "normal" students of the Method.
Technical Pacifist:
The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Ironically, while the method allows the students to gain complete control of their bodies, the conditioning itself has the reverse effect on the student. The Method was intended to turn individuals into a One Man Army while also gearing their reflexes and responses to brutal physical combat. By conditioning and etching in what is essentially the how to guide on becoming walking genocide your being, your instincts will follow suit. A student's senses are fine tuned to the point where they can hear heartbeats and this culmination of senses culminates in the psychological phenomenon "meat vision". "Meat Vision" is when the students come to the point where they become keenly away of the processes of all the bodies of the people around them and they can see where and how to break or destroy people (their illnesses, conditions, ailments) which also has the consequence of causing the student to see normal people as walking humanoid constructs of muscle, tissue and bone that they are keenly aware of how to destroy. Coupled with the side effect of feeling so strong and powerful and being very aware of how weak and fragile everyone else is, the student becomes more callous and distance from normal people seeing them on some level as nothing more than slabs waiting for the butcher's block.
The Paragon: By the end of the series as a whole, this is what Luther has become. He is not only one of the strongest users of the method but he managed to defeat and kill (albeit with some help) the creator of the method and its oldest practitioner Cain. More than that Luther has successfully reigned in the inherent bloodlust that comes with learning the Method and does his best to see that violence is the last resort. He doesn't always succeed but his genuine willingness to try to talk to people rather than fight and his insistence on minimal force to subdue his opponents before going all out to defeat them has successfully won over The Shooter, Miyamoto Musashi, and Delilah.
Took a Level in Badass:
Training from Hell: This is a Zig-Zagging Trope in that the Hercules method itself is actually more about focus and training your mind to control your body but the things the students do to practice count as this on a straight and figurative level. Many of the students were either the most renown warriors in history like Miyamoto Musashi or the most monstrous killers to walk the earth like Jack the Ripper. Most of the students cut themselves off from society or subject themselves to the worst humanity has to offer so they're either dealing with human garbage at their worst like The Shooter or they're training and isolating themselves in the middle of nowhere like The Bear in the Russian tundra.
Weak but Skilled:
Your Mind Makes It Real: A Downplayed Trope in this instance because a student of the method is only absolutely controlling their body and their mental training and ability to affect their physiology doesn't extend to anything else. The student is able to bring all of their physiological processes and manipulation of their anatomy under there complete conscious control allowing them to perform superhuman physical feats. There is also an unconscious component as even passively the students are still superhuman and are still durable while possessing accelerated healing without conscious effort on their part which probably comes down to conditioning becoming reflexive akin to the act of breathing. This also has unfortunate side affects for the student as the Method was specifically created for the purpose of allowing people to become living engines of destruction capable of mass murder and annihilation. See The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body.