No one is secure from this tongue-in-cheek Superman vs. Lex Luthor meme.

Superman’s sort smile and Lex Luthor’s evil glare are taking on X in a brand new wave of viral memes.

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The Superman Good Deeds, Lex Luthor Bad Deeds meme pattern took off shortly after the discharge of Superman (2025), directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult.

Folks on X started pairing stills of Corenswet’s Superman with healthful captions about doing good on this planet, whereas others took the alternative strategy with Lex Luthor, highlighting petty or malicious habits.

Superman spreads kindness, Lex Luthor does the alternative

Released on July 11, 2025, Superman shortly impressed all types of web content material, from memes to individuals posting about how the movie is the epitome of hopecore. In explicit, one serene picture of Superman mendacity down and smiling, taken from the film’s ending scene, grew to become the face of the “good deeds” pattern. Fans paired it with captions about on a regular basis acts of kindness, like holding the door open for a stranger or serving to neighbors.

Meanwhile, a disdainful, scowling picture of Hoult’s Lex Luthor in an workplace setting grew to become the usual picture for the meme’s evil twin: the “bad deeds” meme.

The earliest recognized put up on this format got here from X consumer @frickyuu on July 12. They captioned Superman’s picture with, “On the way home from Superman I stopped my car to let a squirrel cross the road.” That healthful second earned over 4.8 million views and 147K likes in simply three days.

However, the format didn’t keep candy for lengthy. Just two days later, @RawbertBeef flipped the script. Using the Lex Luthor GIF, they wrote, “Hit a squirrel with my car today,” incomes over 966.7K views and 44K likes. The distinction between the 2 characters grew to become the meme’s driving pressure.

@jaydenscomics adopted up on the forwards and backwards of those two memes with their very own squirrely tweet.

Viral meme examples

From there, variations exploded. On July 14, X consumer @CQuill97 posted the Superman picture with the caption, “Helped my neighbour carry her groceries today,” which racked up over 92,000 likes.

That identical day, @dyingscribe used the Luthor picture with a darkly humorous twist. “Watched my neighbor trip and spill her groceries today,” they tweeted, incomes over 19,000 likes.

The format even made room for extra ironic or self-deprecating takes. X consumer @CBMovieFan shared the Superman model. They wrote, “Repeated someone else’s joke in class and got a bigger laugh.” This tweet pulled in over 18.8 million views and over 12K likes.

@Superherotalk18 took their concept and ran with it, nonetheless, by quote-retweeting their put up with the very same picture and caption. This meta put up grew to become essentially the most viral of the bunch, with over 20.6 million views and 814K likes.

User @CBMovieFan responded to their put up with a hyperlink to the QRT and a Lex Luthor screaming GIF. 

@BatSource1 adopted up on @CBMovieFan’s unique tweet with the Lex Luthor GIF meme. They wrote, “Keep repeating them, maybe one day people will laugh at something you actually said.”

From serving to buddies with homework to mendacity about assignments, nobody is secure from this tongue-in-cheek Superman vs. Lex Luthor meme.

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