I disagree (only in your definition of parody though, the rest of it i agree)
Parody is indeed to copy the style of something or someone in a humorous way, or so the dicctionary says, but the common use of the word parody nowadays doesn't imply to mock or taunt the original source
So SU could be a parody depending on who's judging, have in mind that dictionary definitions change as often as the words do, so that definition of "parody" they have could already be in disuse
I agree to a large degree that 'parody' is a living definition.
But again, I think it comes down to how transformative something is.
Is SR7s Lex wildly different than the real Lex? Actually yes. Lex being a sex-fiend with Mercy being his perpetually frustrated girl (like a common law wife) is a nice and fresh new take on the characters. I certainly recognize a lot of the elements of JLU and SupermanTAS in this Lex but he also has elements that are all his own.
But none of the other characters are transformed except that they use curse words, or are a little more hostile.
It's not the leap that, say, SAO Abridged was over the original Sword Art Online. or the various Batman Jokers are from one another. So maybe that's why I have a hard time seeing this as parody.
The degree of difference between the 'not-avengers' images I posted above and the canon Avengers is there, although the inspiration is still recognizable. In SAO vs SAOA it's the same anime footage and action with a much better script - and I'm fine with what is essentially a rewrite being declared a full parody. Something Witty really did make Abriged Kirito worlds different from Anime Kirito.
And I guess I'm judging Lex by the same standards.
When I think of Lex Luthor I think of Clancy Brown for the above StASS, JL and JLU, and Mark Rolston for YJ - and they're roughly the same entity (side note, it'd be cool if we get a story where Mercy got the robot arm).
The only other Luthors I can think of are Gene Hackman in the Christopher Reeve universe Superman movies.
And of course Smallville's Michael Rosenbaum.
Both of these live action Luthor's have their own thing making them separate from Brown/Rolston.
And thinking about SU's Lex... he's still Brown/Rolston. He has a different take, the same way Brown is different from Rolston, but the differences in SU aren't as major as Reeve or Smallville.
idk, is that semantics at this point?