Batman has outright stated Tim Drake is smarter than he is.

So, unless Tim is more than perfect, or Batman is handing out superlative
compliments like they're candy, Batman is not perfect.

What Batman does is make 100% of everything he has. Lex Luthor is smarter - but he's blinded by hubris. Bane is stronger (even without
Venom) - but he's crippled himself with drug dependency. Wildcat is a better boxer - but he's ONLY a boxer; Lady Shiva is a better whatever-
the-hell-martial-artist-she-is - but she's ONLY that. Batman's advantage is that while he isn't the best at most things (I'm willing to give him
World's Greatest Detective - but only because Vic Sage is dead), he *is* the most dedicated at using everything and everyone at his disposal
to their maximum extent.

Lex Luthor fails in many respects because he's so goddamned smart that he's never had to train that brilliance, and falls into errors of pride
or ego. Batman never assumes that what he figured the other guy will do is correct - he's spent too many years fighting the Joker to do that.
Lex, on the other hands, will always assume he's correct, and if he fails to take into account an unknown variable, that leaves him open to a
super-fast, super-strong, nigh-omnipresent alien demigod zooming in and punching him before that super-hot brain of Lex's can reassess the
situation.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?445657-Comic-Lex-Luthor-What-makes-him-last-tick/page2
All-Star Superman had a take where it was demonstrated that Luthor is using Superman as an excuse. Luthor talks a good game about how if
Superman weren't around he would be creating this scientific utopia, but if it weren't Superman it would be something else. Luthor is
fundamentally flawed, checked by his own ego that doesn't permit him to really try and change the world for the better or pursue something
other than his own self-interest. Because if he tried he might fail, and then there would be no Superman to blame it on. No one but his own
inadequacies.

Originally Posted by Wolfwood2 

All-Star Superman had a take where it was demonstrated that Luthor is using Superman as an excuse. Luthor talks a good game about how if Superman weren't
around he would be creating this scientific utopia, but if it weren't Superman it would be something else. Luthor is fundamentally flawed, checked by his own ego
that doesn't permit him to really try and change the world for the better or pursue something other than his own self-interest. Because if he tried he might fail,
and then there would be no Superman to blame it on. No one but his own inadequacies.

This sounds like what I'd read Luthor as. He's incredibly, almost unimaginably intelligent, but he's also so full of pride that it gives him a
crippling fear of failure. Because he defines himself by his superintelligence. If he found out that he COULDN'T figure out how to
singlehandedly wipe out AIDS, it would utterly shatter his self-image. So he keeps trying to fuck with Superman because he knows that no
one else could call him out on failing against him because it's SUPERMAN

And he sees himself that way. For all the talk about his alternate cultural heritage, and his "world of glass" mentality, Superman sees himself
as a human being. Not the Clark Kent disguise, but the real Clark Kent, the kind of person we see in his own head, behind closed doors with
his wife, with his parents and his close friends (including those on the JLA). He would never think of any person as a "lesser" being, any more
than you'd think of a C-Student as a "lesser being" if you were an A-Student, or a Roger Bannister would think of me as a "lesser being." He
believes in the fundamental equality of human dignity.

The problem with Luthor isn't (just) that he's arrogant - it's that he's afraid. He's afraid he isn't good enough. And his whole rationale ties in
with that.

Luthor often decries to all and sundry that Superman destroys the concept of personal achievement. That contributions have no value by the
virtue of Superman's presence. But (and in respectful but firm disagreement with those who have articulated a similar argument above) that's
a crock. Because achievement isn't ranking.

Personal achievement is all about (this is getting a little Norman Vincent Peale, but it's true, damn it) betterment of the self. You don't need
to defeat anyone else to achieve, and that's both an exercise in asshattery and futility. If you do something today that you've never been able
to do before, if you make a change, or beat a personal best, or make the world a little bit better in a way it wasn't before you've made the
change, you've achieved something. Superman's got a wider reach, but no-one's scoring. No-one's awarding marks for it - you rank yourself
against yourself to see if you're improving. Day by day. That's what you're looking to become: The Man of Tomorrow.

Except Luthor. Luthor can't conceive of a concept of personal achievement against himself. Part of that is ego - he can't imagine being better
tomorrow than he is today - but not all of it, because he does change, and grow, and morph, and tells himself that each version is better than
the last (superscientist, corporate head, archvillain) Part of that is fear - he worries that he'll fail in a goal he sets for himself that's beyond
what he's already achieved - but not all of it, because he did come from NOTHING, and someone who has gone as far as he has, natural gifts
or not, can't be ruled an absolute fear of success type. But the main part of that, I think, the great tragedy of Luthor, is loneliness. He's
desperate to be loved, he constantly needs that reassurance that he's the best. His self-worth is so low that he needs the whole world to
declare him to be the best, every day.

And if he was able to achieve that, he probably wouldn't be so ruthless, because the aim would be gone. Hence all the alternate future's
where he's a hero or humanity's last hope, because he has that acknowledgement.

The temper tantrum though, is wrong. It's based off buying in to a false paradigm of achievement - the exact opposite of the paradigm of
achievement that Superman represents.

That's why they're exactly matched. By any real scale, Luthor is superhuman. He can do EVERYTHING. Hell, he's better than Batman, who is
acknowledged as superhuman. So, in that sense, he and Superman are two sides of the same coin - they've been marked as different,
beyond human capacity, but how they've reacted to the world around them is what's different. Superman is forged by the best in us. Luthor is
forged by the worst. The incredible powers just give us a sufficient sense of scale to see the psychodrama played out in comic book pages.
So, Luthor is as Geoff Johns would have it, everything bad about humanity. Because, like Superman, he grew up as a human, but superior to
them, and because of his environmental factors, he's turned into what he is.