Character Analysis: Luther Strode

Luther Strode

In case you were wondering…

• Warning for intense violence, gore, and nudity

Background

Luther Strode was an average, nerdy, scrawny high-school kid. Raised by his single mother after his abusive father was sent to prison, he seemed set for an ordinary life pining after his (mutual) crush, Petra. That was until he received a book in the mail, the Hercules Method. While seemingly a normal training book, this book was in reality an ancient scripture on the art of violence, passed down across millennia by it’s original creator and humanity’s first murderer, Cain, to mould whoever followed it into an emissary of brutality, someone who could see the truth - that all humans are just meat, and violence is the purest way.

Within days of training with the book, Luther had become much taller and muscular, wielding superhuman strength and agility and even being capable of predicting the actions of others. With some encouragement from his best friend Pete, he went out onto the streets as a superhero, and even began dating Petra. Luther quickly realised though that crime was hard to come by, and by intervening as a superhero he might have just been making things worse. Not helping matters was the introduction of the enigmatic Librarian, another user of the Method and Luther’s first real challenge. The Librarian slaughtered Pete, threatened Petra, and kidnapped Luther’s mother, all to guide Luther into abandoning his morals and embracing the truth of violence. Luther managed to defeat the Librarian, but at the cost of his mother, who was caught in the crossfire and accidentally killed by Luther himself. Even as the Librarian died, he succeeded in making Luther question his own actions and made him view himself as nothing but a killing machine, his powers nothing but a tool for bloodshed. In a failed attempt to commit suicide, he let himself get shot down by the police, but this still couldn’t kill him, and so Luther burst out of the morgue and went into hiding.

Luther spent the next five years in the shadows, growing into a legend in his community, a mysterious figure who would slaughter criminals and leave behind a trail of bloodshed. All the while, Petra still pined after Luther, and wanted to help him see himself as a person and not just an instrument of violence. Luther still loved her, but didn’t want to place her in danger, especially after he realised he was once again being targeted. This time around it was the Binder, another Method user who aimed to seal Luther away like all the other uncontrollable Method users across history, his killings causing too much of a stir. The Binder was aided by Jack the Ripper, in this world a Method user who had been bound for his killings, now free to cause as much carnage as possible. Luther chased the Binder to his mansion and was nearly defeated, before some aid from Petra and a well-timed explosion managed to put down the Binder for good. Still, Jack the Ripper was now out there, and was free to slaughter as much as he wanted. Luther defeated him, but at the cost of an entire mall of people dying, and he and Petra were now forced into hiding, perceived as criminals responsible for the massacre. Luther had a new goal, to hunt down and defeat Cain, stopping this carnage for good.

It would be another five years before Luther and Petra re-emerged, as news of more killings from Method users emerged. Luther had changed as a man, and believed that reformation for these people was possible. If he could change and use the violence of the Method for good, then so could others. With the aid of the mysterious Delilah, one of Cain’s associates, he and Petra travelled across the globe, confronting rogue Method users and trying to convince them to join him on his quest to defeat Cain. Still, these confrontations usually ended in bloodshed, and Luther quickly realised Delilah was just using him to take out Cain’s enemies. Luther and Petra were finally brought to the hiding place of Cain in the desert, and confronted the original murderer over his ways. Even as Delilah initially betrayed him, Luther’s words made her realise that she was just as much a slave to Cain as she was a slave before Cain freed her, and she chose to aid Luther in his battle, allowing Petra to land a lucky shot and for Luther to crush Cain’s head under a slab. Luther knew that Cain would never change his ways after millennia of violence, but that didn’t mean other Method users didn’t have room to reform, room to change, grow, and do good. In the final page, Luther, Petra, and Delilah set out across the world with one teaching in mind - be better.

Experience

By the end of the trilogy, Luther was active for over 10 years, spending most of that time either fighting criminals or training. He’s matched much more experienced people in combat before, defeating the Librarian in combat in his early days, another Method user who’s been instructing others for what’s implied to be decades. In his later days, he could match Delilah, who’s been active for over 3000 years, and even Cain himself, who has over 10 millenia of experience. He’s trained and learned Method techniques that even experienced users like Musashi didn’t know, and is noted as having potential greater than anyone the Librarian has ever seen, possibly equal to Cain, in the Method.

Skill

• Catches bullets in his muscles

• Throws some sticks of beef jerky precisely enough to jam gun barrels

• Skilfully redirects the Librarian tackling him, exploiting his leverage to send him flying back

• Kicks up a floorboard and launches the shards as projectiles

• Uses a man’s body to block some sniper shots

• Swings his arm to launch his own blood like a projectile to blind an armed man

• Spits out one of his teeth as a projectile

• Launches some stairway rails as projectiles

• Kicks away Binder while simultaneously swinging Jack the Ripper’s body into him

• Catches Jack the Ripper’s knives in his muscles, noting that he learned how to catch bullets in his muscles five years ago

• Pins Binder to a wall with his left leg while at the same time choking out Jack the Ripper with his right arm

• Launches a pair of knives into Binder’s eyes while snapping Jack the Ripper’s neck

• Luther mercy kills a barely-alive man by tapping his forehead

• Utilises a pair of disembodied legs as weapons against Jack the Ripper

• Cuts Jack the Ripper’s tendons with the shards in his hands to prevent him from moving

• Catches Jack the Ripper’s fists in his muscles to prevent him from moving his arms

• Reverses his momentum after being launched using a cable, springing back to the ground

• Scoops up a bunch of panels of the floor to use as projectiles

• Even while his kneecaps are shot, quickly grabs and swings into it with just his arms to land on solid ground

• Lands on his feet after being tossed aside by the Shooter, even while both his kneecaps are shot out

Other Method Users

• Binder notes Luther’s attacks are predictable and catches him off-guard, and Jack the Ripper describes Luther’s style as being somewhat ungraceful and unrefined, though this was in the middle of his career

• Jack the Ripper is precise enough to leave people vivisected and gored without actually killing them

• Jack the Ripper loosens himself from Luther’s grip 

• Cain deflects a dart so that, even when Luther bisects it, its split pieces still hit Delilah

• Cain launches the shards of a shattered sword as projectiles

Equipment

Luther achieved his superhuman powers using the Hercules Method, a training book that teaches one to unify mind, body, and spirit towards one goal. It essentially acts as a guidebook for violence, passed down across thousands of years by Cain and other Method users and teaching them a unique martial art. This art somehow seems to slow ageing, as many users are famous historical figures, with users like Cain living for over 10,000 years.

Luther doesn’t really carry any actual equipment, but he does have a superhero costume used during some of his first outings, including steel-toed boots and a white mask. He’s also very adept at using the environment around him as a weapon. Basically anything he can get his hands on is fair game.

Abilities

Enhanced Senses

The Method grants advanced sensory capabilities to Luther, well-beyond those of a normal human. This allows him to detect people from just their heartbeats, or to track people from their scent alone.

Sight

Luther appears to have an enhanced form of sight, allowing him to see their muscular system and internal organs, and envision exactly how to kill them in his head. This seems to be constantly active.

• Sees an opponent’s muscular system

• Envisions how to kill his classmates in a daydream

• Naturally sees the muscular system of some of his classmates

• Luther can see the Librarian’s muscular system

• Observes the muscles of a man firing at him

• Seems to see the internal organs and skeleton of the strung-up Pete

• Sees the muscular systems of two soldiers

• Sees a defeated soldier’s muscular system

• Has enhanced eye-sight, allowing him to see farther than Petra can

Of note is that early on in his career, Luther was blinded by the Librarian’s blood, with the Librarian noting that he should rely on his other senses. Binder, another Method user, kept fighting after having both his eyes gouged out just through his other senses, so Luther might be capable of doing the same by the end of the trilogy.

Other Senses

• Blinded by the Librarian’s blood and is unable to tell where he is

• Senses a surprise attack within a building

• Senses a sniper is about to shoot him and moves to block

• Luther tracks Jack the Ripper down by smelling the death and blood he leaves behind

• Can hear the heartbeats of people from across the mall

Scaling

• The Librarian somehow detects that Luther is beneath him

• The Librarian can hear the jaw movement of Luther’s mother from a short distance away

• Jack the Ripper locates Petra by smelling her blood

• A Method user is successfully sniped while distracted

Predictive Senses

Method users are capable of predicting all possible courses of actions an opponent might take, basically seeing their future.

Movement Reading

• Senses that one of his mother’s plates is about to fall and preemptively grabs it

• Sees many possible actions an opponent can take in dodgeball

• The Librarian notes that Luther can’t see 1000 moves ahead with him, but after having an epiphany, Luther is able to see the Librarian’s movements and predict his actions

• Envisions and predicts an entire fight with another Method user 

• Luther learned how to counter the predictive senses of other Method users over the course of five years, only allowing them to see what he wants them to see, in this case making them see no moves in his future

Scaling

• The Shooter notes that he can see what Petra is going to do next

• Delilah reads Luther’s possible movements

Endurance

Method users have superhuman levels of pain tolerance, capable of fighting even with their organs spilling out of their bodies. What’s more, they’re capable of forcing their flesh to fix itself, acting as a sort of pseudo-healing factor. It seems to take damage to the heart or brain to kill a Method user properly. They’re also capable of fixing their own nerves to recover from attacks like pressure points or neurotoxins.

Direct

• The Librarian locks some of Luther’s nerves, and notes that Luther should be able to undo it if he applies himself, which he eventually manages to do

• Quickly fixes his snapped arms

• Fixes his own body, forcing his spilled intestines back into place

• Detailed description of what appears to be Luther’s injuries, which he recovered from

• Endures being pierced by a set of darts, which pour neurotoxins into his nervous system and knock him out. Binder notes that while the flesh normally obeys the mind, the fact that the neurotoxins are pouring into his nerve clusters prevents Luther’s mind from communicating with his nerves. Luther eventually manages to overcome the neurotoxins and force the darts out of his body

• Briefly subdued by a taser to his muscles, before quickly recovering

• Keeps fighting after Jack the Ripper rips off his right arm. His right arm later appears to somehow have been reattached

• Cain lands some pressure points on Luther’s chest, preventing him from moving, though he eventually manages to break out and move again

Scaling

• Cain keeps standing and fighting after being pelted with arrows

• The Librarian pushes and bends all his fingers back on his right hand back a large distance, which he describes as a simple parlour trick, and notes that Luther is the only person in the last decade to have learned how to do it 

• The Librarian quickly fixes his snapped neck

• The Librarian keeps standing after being brutally bloodied and having his left arm torn off

• Binder blocks Petra’s nerves, and suggests Luther could have taught her how to unbind them

• Jack the Ripper keeps fighting after his neck is snapped and turned 180 degrees 

• The Gardener briefly keeps operating after having his heart ripped out, before dying

• Cain keeps fighting even as his intestines are spilling out

Feats

Note that Luther gets stronger as the series progresses, so these feats are broadly sorted in chronological order.

Overall

• Defeated the Librarian, Jack the Ripper, Cain

• Dated Petra

• Avenged the deaths of his mother and best friend

• Evaded the police for five years

• Killed the source of the Method and set out to free the remaining users of it

Strength

Striking, Tearing, and Bending

• Punches a jock hard enough to knock out teeth and draw blood

• Knocks out two men by slamming them into each other

• Easily breaks a man’s arm and tosses him around

• Crashes the Librarian through a wooden table 

• Crashes through a wooden door

• Punches through a wooden door and slams a man through it into a wall, cracking it 

• Beats a man into the ground, bloodying him 

• Fights off a group of five people, tossing them around and subduing them

• Slaughters six people in moments, ripping them apart, shown again later

• Bursts out from under the floor of a warehouse

• Snaps his mom’s metal chains with a chop

• Kicks up a floorboard and breaks it with a punch, launching the shards as projectiles

• Punches the Librarian through a plank of wood and slams him into the ground

• Accidentally crushes his mother’s throat

• Crushes the Librarian’s arm with a punch and gouges in his eye

• Uses his own intestines as a weapon to snap the Librarian’s neck

• Bloodies the Librarian, slamming him through a large pillar and caving in his face 

• Luther and the Librarian’s battle ultimately collapses an entire warehouse, taking out the pillars supporting it

• Rips out the Librarian’s spine and skull from out of his back

• Punches straight through a door, obliterating a man’s head and knocking the door off its hinges 

• Slams a man into a car door, cutting his head in two and warping the door’s steel 

• Swiftly decapitates a man 

• Kicks down a door hard enough to crush a man underneath it

• Slams a man hard enough to crack a wall

• Cuts off two men’s hands with a pair of chops

• Moves as a blur and cuts an entire group of soldiers in half

• Punches through a wall, crushing a man’s head before bursting through the wall with his full body

• Kicks a man in the chest, knocking him to the side

• Punches a man head-first into the floor, crushing his head 

• Shoves a man’s gun through his chest

• Kicks a man’s head through a wall

• Has his punch caught by Binder

• Trades blows with Binder, tossing him out of a building and into a van hard enough to warp the roof’s steel

• Crashes through the front door of a mansion, breaking the doors off their hinges

• Slams Jack the Ripper into the ground hard enough to create a large crater in the floor

• Kicks away Binder while swinging Jack the Ripper’s body into him like a weapon, cracking the wall

• Headbutts Binder, pinning him to a wall with his left leg all while choking out Jack the Ripper with his right arm

• Launches a pair of knives into Binder’s eyes while snapping Jack the Ripper’s neck with a punch

• In a fit of rage, breaks and bursts out of the metal chains binding his body

• Punches Jack the Ripper in the spine

• Knocks a policeman out by flicking his nose

• Chokes a Method user in his grip, though she breaks out by attacking his dick

• Peels off a car’s door with his grip

• Slams a Method user straight through a solid, seemingly steel, wall, bursting it open

• Slams into and kicks the Gardener in the head, drawing blood

• Rips out the Gardener’s heart

• Punches a Method user through the abdomen and tosses him into another

• Disarms Musashi with a kick and swings him into the ground

• Stabs Cain straight through the chest, who is completely unphased and notes that flesh is stronger than steel

• Breaks out of Cain smashing his face into the ground and knees him in the head, drawing blood

• Punches Cain through the chest

• Charges into Cain, knocking him away

• Breaks out of Cain’s grip and launches off his body 

• Trades blows with Cain, both fighters drawing blood, and repeatedly punches him in the head

• Luther repeatedly pummels Cain into the ground, before crushing his head with a slab, killing him

Lifting, Pushing, and Throwing

• Throws a dodgeball hard enough to draw blood

• Lifts his entire body with one hand

• Throws a milk carton hard enough to knock a man through the air

• Tears out a man’s heart and throws his body hard enough to knock someone over

• Lifts his entire body with just one index finger

• Launches a man’s body across buildings, hard enough to crash through a window and break along the ground

• Breaks out of a police van and launches the doors like projectiles, hard enough to cut through a car

• Launches a helmet into a policeman to knock him out

• Launches a massive wooden log at the Gardener’s head

Weight / Super-Impact / Charging

• Charges Jack the Ripper through the floor of a building

• Crushes a car by landing on it

• Warps the ground by crashing into it, kicking up a van

• Chases the Shooter up a flight of stairs, bursting straight through a part of the stairs by leaping off the walls

Other

• Spits out one of his teeth as a projectile, breaking a syringe

Speed

Reactions

• Catches a dodgeball just before it’s about to hit him

• Instinctively catches a magazine thrown at him from behind

• Uses a man’s body to intercept and block some sniper shots

• Blocks Binder’s kick, describing it as slow

• Catches Jack the Ripper mid-swing, and subsequently catches him as he’s launching towards him mid-air

• Intercepts and catches Jack the Ripper mid-stab

• Intercepts Jack the Ripper before he can launch a surprise attack 

• Catches a pair of disembodied legs thrown as projectiles by Jack the Ripper 

• Catches a woman by the hair as she’s leaping and slams her into the ground

• Catches and tosses aside a Method user as she charges at him mid-air

• Throws a grate to intercept two bullets before they can reach a man

• Redirects five of the Shooter’s bullets with just one arm

• Fires out a couple of pellets to intercept the Shooter’s shots mid-air and disarm him

• Evades the attacks of multiple Method users from multiple angles

• Luther quickly grabs and drags a Method user into the path of a sword slash to block it

• Bisects Musashi’s thrown head with a sword and cuts a dart thrown by Cain in two

Movement

• Evades some bullets

• Moves as a blur to intercept a man

• Moves as a blur to get behind a group of people, seemingly without them noticing

• Claims he can “dance between the bullets” of a squad of policemen

• Moves as a blur to dodge a swarm of bullets and dashes towards a man in the back

• Disappears and climbs up a ceiling before a team of soldiers can enter his room

• Moves as a blur extremely fast, cutting an entire group of soldiers in half all while dodging their bullets. A guard notes he’s been here for 5 seconds and has already lost 4 men

• Runs twenty miles in an hour

• Runs up a truck as it’s falling off a cliff and leaps off of it onto solid ground before it hits the bottom

• Skilfully evades a swarm of bullets

• Intercepts a live grenade thrown into the air and tosses it away before it can explode

• Kicks away a Method user who’s stabbing him and dodges out of the way

                        Leaping

• Quickly leaps across buildings

• Quickly leaps across cars and dashes to his house

• Leaps high off the ground to match the Librarian

• Leaps across a mall, charging into Jack the Ripper and climbing up the roof before charging down as Jack attacks him

• Leaps to a higher floor of the mall to intercept Jack the Ripper

• Leaps off a bridge and dives headfirst into the water

• A Method user rapidly leaps across rooftops, chasing after Petra while she’s on a motorcycle while Luther pursues her on the same path

• Leaps over an entire bridge, almost landing on a van in-motion

• Leaps up to what appears to be the fourth story of a building from the ground

• Chases the Shooter up a flight of stairs, evading his shots and bursting through the stairs by leaping off the walls

                        Stealth

• Appears behind a man out of nowhere

• Moves from the inside of a van to behind a group of soldiers while being observed by at least a dozen people, with nobody seeing him

• Appears behind Petra without her realising

Low-Ends

• Unable to dodge some bullets in time

• Noted that he’s not fast enough to cross a hallway before Petra is shot

• Unable to dodge a set of darts launched by Binder

• More generally, it’s noted that as time passed and technology developed, weapons that could kill Method users were developed, with the panel specifically showing a user getting killed by guns

• Unable to catch up to a speeding van

Durability

Blunt Force

• Completely unphased by a fairly well-built dude punching him, with the man breaking his hand on Luther’s mask

• Endures a punch from the Librarian, which sends him flying through some wood and into a wall which cracks from the impact, drawing blood

• Endures a kick from the Librarian which launches him straight through the floor of an apartment, before being knocked out with a punch

• Endures the Librarian dragging him out through from under the floor of a warehouse before slamming him back through the floor

• Endures getting slammed with a plank of wood by the Librarian

• Endures the Librarian crushing his head and snapping his arms

• Endures an assault from the Librarian, cracking his ribs and punching him through the gut before ripping out his intestines and tossing him aside

• Trades blows with the Librarian mid-air, getting slammed through a pillar supporting a warehouse

• Completely unphased by a slap from Petra

• Endures being tossed by Binder hard enough to crack a wall 

• Has his elbow blocked by Binder, and is tossed across a hallway

• Endures getting kicked in the head by Binder, who catches him off-guard

• Endures a punch to the head from Binder

• Keeps fighting after Jack the Ripper rips off his right arm, before being subdued by a swarm of blows, kicked aside, and knocked into the ground

• Endures Jack the Ripper biting off part of his neck, before getting stabbed and having his legs broken

• Endures Jack the Ripper punching him in the chest, catching his fists in his muscles

• Endures having a chair thrown at him, breaking on his body

• Endures some elbows to the head from another Method user

• Endures being punched by the Gardener, creating a large shockwave and sending Luther flying a large distance

• Endures being sent flying into the sky from a hit from the Gardener

• Slammed into the ground by the Gardener, seemingly breaking some bones

• Endures being slapped aside by Cain

• Endures having his face smashed into the ground by Cain, warping the floor

• Punched into the ground by Cain, warping the floor

• Endures getting elbowed in the head by Cain

• Endures having his hand crushed by Cain and being slammed into the ground

Bullets / Piercing

• Withstands getting shot seven times in the chest, getting hurt, but catching the bullets in his muscles before forcing them out

• Endures and ultimately survives being shot by an entire squad of police

• Catches a knife in his hand with no visible damage

• Endures a couple of shots to the arm, which draw blood but don’t seem to impede him

• Endures repeated slashes from Jack the Ripper, drawing large amounts of blood

• Endures a slash from Jack the Ripper which launches him through a stairway

• Endures multiple extremely fast slashes from Jack the Ripper

• Catches Jack the Ripper’s knives in his muscles

• Endures Jack the Ripper stabbing him through the hand and pummeling him into the floor

• Endures a shot to the abdomen and shoulder

• Endures having his kneecaps shot out

• Endures getting stabbed by a spear thrown by Musashi and slammed into the ground by another Method user

• Endures getting stabbed and slammed into the ground hard enough to create a crater by a Method user

• Endures being repeatedly slashed by Musashi

• Both Luther and Cain keep going after being riddled with bullets from Petra’s mini-gun

Other

• Endures being on the outskirts of a large explosion while bound, which launches him

• Appears to require little insulation to traverse through a cold environment

Scaling

Luther should scale to basically every feat performed in the series. He’s matched, defeated, and/or killed the likes of the Librarian, Binder, Jack the Ripper, and Cain himself, the last of whom is the original creator of the Method who’s noted as having the greatest potential in it (alongside just generally obviously being implied to be the strongest user of it as the final boss of the series). As such, he would broadly scale to feats performed by any other Method user and should be capable of similar feats, with the exception of some feats performed by those with specific talents like the Shooter. Of specific note is that the Librarian and Binder specifically aren’t as strong as other Method users, which is why they aren’t bound, further suggesting Luther would be above them by the end of the series.

Strength

• Cain (probably) fires out one of his teeth hard enough to pierce a man’s eye and kill him

• Cain decapitates Musashi in his grip and breaks out of his binding chains

• Cain launches Delilah’s body hard enough to knock over Petra and her minigun 

• Cain stomps Delilah’s face into the ground, cracking open the floor

• The Librarian notes that if Cain was sent instead of him, there’d hardly be a city left afterwards

• The Librarian bursts through and crumples a metal door

• Librarian punches straight through a wooden door

• Librarian crushes a man’s head, rips off another’s, and tears out the doors of a police van

• The Librarian crushes the head of Luther’s father with a kick

• The Librarian flings a man aside a good distance

• The Librarian subdues a woman by tapping her head, knocking her out

• The Librarian lifts his entire body with just his pinky finger

• Jack the Ripper cuts Binder in half and decapitates him

• Jack the Ripper slaughters an entire mall of people

• Samson fights off and slaughters an entire army of people single handedly

• Samson begins breaking two pillars with his grip

• A Method user appears to warp the ground with a punch

• A Method user obliterates a man with a kick, knocking over the van he’s driving with her grip

Speed

• The Librarian dodges a bullet fired at his head just as it’s about to hit him

• Jack the Ripper evades Petra’s bullets

• Jack the Ripper seems to deflect one of Petra’s bullets with his knives, though it’s a little unclear

• Jack the Ripper is unable to dodge Petra’s shots

• A Method user evades some bullet shots while mid-air

• A Method user leaps on to a van in motion

• The Shooter intercepts a shot fired by Petra with his own bullet, without even looking, which Delilah reacts to to push Petra out of the way (note Petra also technically reacts to it)

• Petra notes that Delilah likely can’t dodge a shotgun at such a close range

• Musashi intercepts a spear thrown by Luther

• A Method user is unable to dodge a 6000 RPM minigun used by Petra, which promptly eviscerates him

Durability

• Cain is pierced by a knife launched by Petra

• Cain shatters Musashi’s sword used by Luther with just one hand

• The Librarian is unphased by having a lamp smashed over his head, drawing only a little blood

• The Librarian catches a knife in his hands, before flinging it back hard enough to cut off a man’s fingers

• The Librarian endures having a knife slammed straight through his neck, and doesn’t seem particularly inhibited

• Binder endures a set of bullets to the chest

• Binder is still alive and standing after being in the middle of a large explosion, which singes off half his body

• Petra rips Jack the Ripper apart with a chainsaw

• A Method user is killed by a sniper shot from Petra straight through the head 

• A Method user endures having a motorcycle launched into her

• A Method user is killed by a truck crashing into the ground, causing a large explosion

• Delilah endures getting launched through a solid wall by a Method user

Word of God

No Luther Strode analysis would be complete without mentioning the statements made by Justin Jordan, writer of the series. Jordan has defined Luther as being roughly twice as strong as the best irl human in each category, i.e. twice as fast as the fastest man, capable of benching twice as much as the world’s best bench-presser. Jordan specifically attributes any feats of Luther dodging bullets to his ability to read body movements, and notes that he’s strong enough to punch through cinderblock, but not through anything like a bank vault, clarifying on how the limits are ill-defined in a blog post in response to the reaction to these statements. Jordan later doubled down on this in an interview, specifically in reference to the stir it caused on debate forums. He directly says ”It’s not JUST that he’s superhumanly strong, it’s that he also knows where the weak spots are. So ripping people apart isn’t just the strength. Likewise, while he’s fast, the ability to dodge bullets is mostly based on being able to see where the barrels are pointed and react to it.” Jordan also notes that some feats are just visual flourishes that aren’t meant to be taken literally, “The smoke from Jack’s eyes? Not meant to be interpreted literally, any more than speed lines are. Likewise, if looks like a sonic boom, that doesn’t mean it is.” With that in mind, he also notes that Luther’s limits are fundamentally fuzzy, and the general rule of thumb is that he’s vaguely twice as good as the irl record-holders in each field. It’s worth also noting that in another interview, he describes how the drawing of the art for the series is a very cooperative and interlinked process between him and Tradd Moore, so it’s not like Moore is off entirely doing his own thing with the art for the series.

Weaknesses

Luther doesn’t really have any specific weaknesses of note. Broadly speaking, Method users are not immortal, and can be killed for sure with attacks to the brain or heart. Luther struggled with facing people who could match his strength early on in his career, but by the end of the trilogy he faced many other Method users similar to him in strength and abilities.

Overall

I think with regards to strength, Jordan’s statements really blatantly don’t work out with the feats presented in the series. Luther’s strength is very consistently shown to be far above just twice that of the strongest man, with feats like slamming someone straight through a solid concrete wall or creating craters in the floor. Even feats fundamental to the narrative, like Luther leaping across building-tops in his chases, require strength in excess of what Jordan claims. Taking Jordan’s statements at face value would require dismissing basically the entire series.

With that said, I think his statements are more believable with regards to speed. Guns being used to hunt and kill Method users is a plot-point within the series itself, with many showings of Method users, including Luther himself, failing to react to bullets, even late into the series. Jordan also specifically notes that Luther’s feats of dodging bullets are aim-dodging, despite what the art may suggest, and that some of the art may just be visual flourishes that aren’t designed to be literal. That said, the feats of the Librarian dodging a bullet at close range and Delilah reacting to one of the Shooter’s bullets are fairly objective and blatant bullet timing as presented in the series. With that in mind, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe Luther isn’t a bullet timer and that these feats are just the art being non-literal/inconsistent, but it is debatable.