Lex Luthor

Publication history

Creation and development

For the first two decades of his existence, starting with his first story appearance in Action Comics #23 (April 1940), Luthor is depicted as a diabolical genius and referred to only as "Luthor", with no clear indications to whether this is his given name, his surname, or a codename. He resides in a flying city suspended by a dirigible and plots to provoke a war between two European nations. Lois Lane and Clark Kent investigate, which results in Lois being kidnapped. Luthor battles Superman with a green ray but he is ultimately defeated, and Lois is rescued. Superman destroys Luthor's dirigible with him still on it, and concludes that Luthor is dead. Stories ending with Luthor's apparent death become common in his earliest appearances, with him turning up alive later on. This contrasted with Superman's previous arch-nemesis, the Ultra-Humanite, who makes a clean getaway at the end of most of his stories.

Luthor returns in Superman #4 and steals a weapon from the U.S. Army capable of causing earthquakes. Superman battles and defeats Luthor, then destroys the earthquake device. The scientist who made the device commits suicide to prevent its reinvention. In a story in the same issue, Luthor creates a city on the sunken lost continent of Pacifo and populates it with recreated prehistoric monsters he plans to unleash upon the world. Superman thwarts his plans and Luthor is seemingly killed by the dinosaurs he created. Luthor returns in Superman #5 to place hypnotic incense in the offices of leading financiers so he can profit from a nationwide economic depression. The story ends with Superman smashing Luthor's plane in mid-flight, killing him.

In these early stories, Luthor's schemes are centered around financial gain or megalomaniacal ambitions; unlike most later incarnations, he demonstrates no strong animosity toward Superman beyond inevitable resentment of the hero's constant interference with his plans. Luthor's obsessive hatred of Superman came later in the character's development.

In Luthor's earliest appearances, he is a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair. Less than a year later, however, an artist's mistake resulted in Luthor being depicted as completely bald, first in a newspaper strip, then in Superman #10 (May 1941), which depicts him as significantly heavier with visible jowls. The original error is attributed to Leo Nowak, a studio artist who illustrated for the Superman dailies during this period. Comics historians, noticing that this altered rendition of Luthor closely resembles a stockier, bald henchman in Superman #4 (Spring 1940), hypothesized that Nowak mistook Luthor for this henchman, a fact confirmed by DC Comics editor Bob Rozakis. The character's abrupt hair loss has been made reference to several times over the course of his history. In 1962, writer Jerry Siegel altered Luthor's backstory to both allow adventures in which he and Superman battled each other when they were teenagers (whereas Action Comics #23 depicts them meeting for the first time as adults) and incorporate his hair loss into his origin.

Silver Age Lex Luthor

In 1956, DC Comics reimagined the Flash with a new secret identity, costume and origin. This led to the new Silver Age of Comics and the first DC Comics reboot, with characters across the board being reimagined or having their histories and nature redefined. The earlier Golden Age stories of Superman and Batman were later said to have taken place on Earth-Two, a parallel universe that was part of the larger DC Multiverse.

The Silver Age version of Luthor was introduced in Adventure Comics #271 (April 1960), now given the first name "Lex" (later said to be short for Alexis, eventually retconned as Alexander) and an origin story. Originally hero-worshiping Superboy, teenage Lex Luthor of Smallville is determined to prove he is Earth's greatest scientist by creating artificial life. His recklessness and inexperience causes a fire in his lab and he calls on Superboy to save him. The Boy of Steel puts out the fire but, in the process, accidentally destroys the artificial life form and the years of research notes that led to its creation, while fumes from the chemical fire cause Luthor's hair to fall out. Unwilling to hold himself responsible for the lab fire and the destruction of his own life's work, Luthor decides that Superboy was jealous of his intellect and caused the fire himself. Believing he was betrayed by his hero and friend, Lex swears revenge. His first attempts at that are grandiose scientific and engineering projects around Smallville to steal Superboy's thunder. When these attempts, for which, unknown to Luthor, Superboy is supportive as consolation that Lex is at least being constructive in his vendetta, each go disastrously awry and force Superboy to intervene while earning the citizenry's scorn, Lex's hate for Superboy only grows in rationalization of his failures.

This revised origin makes Luthor's fight with Superman a personal one and suggests that if events had unfolded differently, Luthor might have grown to be a more noble person. Luthor's ego preventing him from personal growth and the tragedy that he and Clark could have been a force for good together are played up in various stories throughout the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Elliot S. Maggin's novels Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday.

The Golden Age version of Luthor appears again as a villain still alive and well on Earth-Two. To distinguish him from the modern-day Lex Luthor, the original incarnation is shown as having kept his red hair and is retroactively given the first name Alexei. In DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (1982), Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two and Lex Luthor of Earth-One team up. It is shown that Alexei is arguably colder and more villainous, perfectly willing to destroy all of Earth in order to prove his superiority, whereas Lex hesitates to do so because he had no desire to rule a lifeless world and does not want his sister to die.

Post-Crisis reboot

Following Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986), DC rebooted its universe yet again, creating the "Post-Crisis" reality. For the 1986 limited series The Man of Steel, Marv Wolfman and John Byrne redesigned Lex Luthor from scratch, intending to make him a villain that the 1980s would recognize: an evil corporate executive. Wolfman, a writer on Action Comics, came up with the idea of Luthor being a wealthy businessman rather than a brilliant scientist. He recalled:

I never believed the original Luthor. Every story would begin with him breaking out of prison, finding some giant robot in an old lab he hid somewhere, and then he'd be defeated. My view was if he could afford all those labs and giant robots he wouldn't need to rob banks. I also thought later that Luthor should not have super powers. Every other villain had super powers. Luthor's power was his mind. He needed to be smarter than Superman. Superman's powers had to be useless against him because they couldn't physically fight each other and Superman was simply not as smart as Luthor.

Byrne based this new depiction of Luthor on the businessmen Donald Trump, Ted Turner, and Howard Hughes. Initially brutish and overweight, the character later evolved into a sleeker, more athletic version of his old self. Luthor is no longer recounted as having lost his hair in a chemical fire; rather, his hairline is receding naturally over time.

As originally presented in the post-Crisis version of the DC Comics Universe, Lex Luthor is a product of child abuse and early poverty. Born in the Suicide Slum district of Metropolis, he is instilled with a desire to become a self-made man of great power and influence. As a teenager, he takes out a large life insurance policy on his parents without their knowledge, then sabotages their car's brakes, causing their deaths. Upon graduating from MIT, Luthor founds his own business, LexCorp, which grows to dominate much of Metropolis.

Luthor does not fully appear in The Man of Steel mini-series until the fourth issue, which takes place over a year after Superman's arrival in Metropolis. Terrorists seize Luthor's yacht, forcing Superman to intervene. Satisfied at the hero's performance, Luthor attempts to hire him, admitting he knew about the incoming attack and allowed it to occur so he could see how Superman responded (assuming that he would arrive in time). Enraged, the Mayor deputizes Superman to arrest Luthor for reckless endangerment. Although Luthor is released from jail quickly and has the charges dropped, the humiliation of being publicly arrested and processed, coupled with indignation that Superman refused to work for him, results in the villain pledging to destroy Superman simply to prove his power.

Modern depictions

Superman: Birthright, a limited series written by Mark Waid in 2004, offers an alternate look at Luthor's history, including his youth in Smallville, and his first encounter with Superman. The story has similarities to the 2001 television series Smallville, which follows Clark Kent's life as a teenager and into early adulthood. One plot element shared by the comic and the show is the problematic relationship between Lex and his father Lionel. Along with this, Birthright restores the Silver Age concept of Luthor befriending Clark Kent as a young man. The two find a kinship in both feeling like outsiders and sharing a wish to explore outer space and discover alien life, despite one resenting humanity and the other hoping to understand and be accepted by it. Lex discovers kryptonite samples in Smallville and uses them as a power source for a machine he hopes will pierce space and time so he can communicate with Krypton. When Clark falls ill approaching the machine, Lex mistakes his reaction as doubt in the young scientist's ability and sanity. Feeling betrayed, Lex continues the experiment but an explosion erupts, the radiation blast causing his hair to fall out. Luthor leaves Metropolis and years later his scientific work, largely based on his ideas about alien life, results in a fortune he uses to create LexCorp. When Superman appears, Lex is angry that the powerful alien, the kind of companion he'd often hoped for, looks on him with disapproval and openly disrespects him in front of the media. For this and his interference with Luthor's criminal operations, the scientist businessman decides to humiliate and destroy the alien.

Waid's original intention was to jettison the notion of Lex Luthor being an evil businessman, restoring his status as a mad scientist. He ultimately conceded, however, that the CEO Luthor would be easier for readers to recognize. In Birthright, Luthor remains a wealthy corporate magnate; in contrast to Byrne's characterization, however, LexCorp is founded upon Luthor's study of extraterrestrial life, thereby providing a link between him and Superman. In the retrospective section of the Superman: Birthright trade paperback, Waid explains:

Despite my own personal prejudices, I say we leave Lex the criminal businessman he's been for the past 17 years. The Lois & Clark producers liked it, the WB cartoon guys liked it ... so clearly, it works on some level. My concern is that, at least in my eyes, the fact that Luthor's allowed to operate uncontested for years makes Superman look ineffectual.

Birthright was initially intended to establish a new origin for Superman and Luthor. Immediately, the Superman comics and the series Superman/Batman made references to the canonicity of the new origin series. But after Infinite Crisis ended in 2006, new stories discredited parts of it and it was officially replaced by the 2009–2010 series Superman: Secret Origin. Superman: Secret Origin revised Lex's backstory so that he now again had a sister Lena. While he knew Clark as a teenager in Smallville, he rejected the other boy's attempts to form a friendship. Resentful toward his alcoholic and abusive father, Lex arranges his parents to die in a car accident and uses the insurance money to leave Smallville and start a better life. After studying under the villains Ra's al Ghul and Darkseid, he founds LexCorp and uses his PR, resources, and media control to set himself up as a near-savior in Metropolis. The Daily Planet opposes Luthor and he retaliates in ways that leave the newspaper almost bankrupt. Superman's arrival challenges Luthor's image and brings renewed interest to the Planet when he does exclusive interviews with their staff. Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen, and Lois Lane work together to oppose Luthor's power and Superman tells the public they should strive to achieve great things themselves and not wait for others to be their saviors. Angry at Superman's interference and blaming him for losing the love of the public, Luthor swears vengeance.

Fictional character biography

Whether he is a mad scientist, corrupt businessman, or both, Luthor's ego is a defining trait in all his incarnations; he believes he is entitled to both popularity and power. While each incarnation initially wants the adoration of others and control over either Smallville or Metropolis, the goal eventually rises to control over Earth and possibly universal domination. Luthor's other defining trait is his obsession to destroy Superman and humiliate the alien hero, either by displaying his own superiority by achieving victory without the benefit of superpowers or to prove Superman is motivated by selfish desire rather than altruism. Many times, Luthor has claimed he could create a better way of life for the entire human race if not for Superman's interference with his work; he has even argued that the Man of Tomorrow's presence not only invites danger, it actually encourages human society not to strive for greatness because a powerful alien is around to protect them and solve problems. During the Blackest Night crossover, Wonder Woman restrains Luthor with her magic lasso and under its spell of truth he confesses he secretly wants to be Superman, revealing that beneath all his blustering, Luthor covets Superman's powers for himself. When Superman was out of sight for a year, Luthor used the time to create the "Everyman" project intending to create new superheroes to replace the Kryptonian, then later attacks Metropolis with a long-buried Kryptonian warship. Returning to action, Superman points out that Luthor had a year to prove his old argument that he could help others and improve Earth if Superman didn't interfere with his life, but instead of curing disease or making technological breakthroughs, all he did was focus on increasing his power and finding "a big destructive machine so [he] could break things." In the storyline "The Black Ring", Luthor is endowed with cosmic powers that could enable him to bring peace and bliss to the entire universe and therefore achieve his dream of being more respected than Superman, but he ultimately chooses to renounce his new powers when he realizes that his greatest enemy would never suffer again if he used them.

At times, Lex has been shown evidence that Clark Kent is Superman and almost always he denies this possibility, unable to imagine a man of such power spending half his time pretending to be average since in his mind, such a possibility would be too humiliating to bear. In stories appearing in JLA and 52 by Grant Morrison, Luthor cannot bring himself to believe Superman is truly altruistic and deeply cares about a planet that is not his native world, concluding the hero's good deeds are often actually passive-aggressive ways of flaunting his power and popularity to Lex. When the hero joins forces with others to form a new, powerful version of the Justice League of America, Lex decides this is Superman's direct challenge to his own power, and establishes an "Injustice League" composed of various supervillains to rival them.

Silver Age

While the Golden Age Luthor (later named Alexei Luthor) is simply an amoral and brilliant man driven by a simple desire for power, the Silver Age incarnation was given a more developed personality and backstory. Overall, The Silver Age incarnation was more detailed. Teenage Lex Luthor is an aspiring scientist who resides in Smallville and greatly admires its local hero Superboy. After Lex saves him from kryptonite, Superboy builds him a private laboratory in gratitude. After thousands of experiments, Luthor creates an artificial living protoplasm. Overjoyed, he accidentally causes a chemical fire in the lab. Superboy puts out the fire, inadvertently spilling other chemicals, destroying his research. The chemical fumes also cause Lex's hair to completely fall out. Enraged he has lost years of research but unwilling to accept responsibility for the fire, Luthor concludes Superboy intentionally sabotaged his work and swears revenge.

Luthor creates grandiose engineering projects to prove his superiority over the superhero, but each one fails and causes problems that Superboy then solves. Luthor then makes his first attempt to murder Superman and fails. Instead of bringing him to the authorities, Superboy declares they are even now and expresses hope Lex will "straighten out" and use his intelligence to help humanity rather than try to prove his superiority or waste time seeking power and vengeance.

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #23 (1961) reveals the Silver Age Lex Luthor parents are Jules and Arlene and that he has a younger sister Lena. When Lex becomes a criminal, the family moves away from Smallville and changes its name to Thorul (an anagram) to start a new life free of him. Lena Thorul is a toddler at the time and grows up not remembering her real last name, while her parents say her older brother died in a mountain climbing accident. Lex later watches over the adult Lena, making sure she does not discover her connection to one of Earth's greatest villains.

As an adult, Lex Luthor's driving ambitions are to kill Superman and rule Earth, a stepping stone to dominating the universe, believing a man of his intellect deserves such power. On several occasions he joins forces with Superman's enemy Brainiac (though the two often betray each other as well). Lex is repeatedly imprisoned, but his genius allows him to routinely escape. He also makes it a point to be out of prison on the birthday of Albert Einstein, regarding it as a holiday. A non-canonical "imaginary story" from 1961 entitled "The Death of Superman" has Luthor finally succeed in killing Superman after pretending to reform and befriend him.

Bronze Age

Deciding to retire permanently, Luthor returns to Lexor and learns he has fathered a son by Ardora, Lex Luthor Jr. He spends the next several weeks with his new family before discovering Lexor suffers from the same planetary instability that destroyed Krypton. While creating a "Neutrarod" tower to stabilize the planetary core, Luthor's pathological hatred for Superman resurfaces and he reflects on feeling unsatisfied in life without their conflict. The villain then unearths an ancient underground laboratory of great technology, a relic from Lexor's lost age. After one of Luthor's still-active satellites threatens the people of Earth, he concludes Superman will soon come to Lexor to take him back to Earth authorities. With the underground lab's resources, he spends weeks creating a "warsuit" — highly destructive, flight-capable power armor — to finally match the Kryptonian in physical combat and counter his powers. To test the suit, Luthor performs several acts of destruction on Lexor, feigning ignorance when he hears about the "mystery marauder" and telling Ardora he has no knowledge of the armored man.

When Superman arrives, Luthor dons his warsuit and attacks, now obsessed with the need to best the hero in combat and prove his superiority. The people of Lexor are shocked to realize he is the mystery marauder and does not care about the harm he has caused them. During the battle, Luthor releases an energy salvo that accidentally overloads the Neutrarod, resulting in the complete destruction of the planet Lexor and all its inhabitants, including Ardora and Lex Jr.. Similar to how he reacted after the destruction of his lab in Smallville, Lex is unable to process his grief and accept his responsibility for Lexor's destruction. He psychologically blocks part of his own memory to convince himself Superman is at fault, renewing his need for vengeance. In his subsequent stories, he regularly uses the Lexorian warsuit. The warsuit was designed by George Pérez as part of the Super Powers toyline in the early 1980s before being introduced into the comics in 1983. The suit vanished in 1986 after Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted DC Comics continuity, but was reintroduced in 2004, now said to be built with a combination of Earth and alien technology (including tech from the other-dimensional world Apokolips) and armed with different forms of kryptonite in the gauntlet.

Lex Luthor of Earth-One teams up with Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two. It is shown that Alexei is arguably colder and more villainous, perfectly willing to destroy all of Earth in order to prove his superiority, whereas Lex hesitates to do so because he had no desire to rule a lifeless world and does not want his sister to die. They even extend their alliance to Ultraman when Earth-Three's Lex Luthor is a good guy. All three villains were defeated by Superman of Earth-One, Superman of Earth-Two, and Lex Luthor of Earth-Three.

Post-Crisis

As part of the continuity changes which followed The Man of Steel and Superman: Secret Origin, Alexander "Lex" Joseph Luthor is a corrupt businessman profiting from many hidden criminal operations. This Luthor grew up a poor child alongside Perry White, later causing his parents' death via a car accident so he can inherit their life insurance and create a better life for himself, creating LexCorp. He marries and divorces several times and desires a romance with Lois Lane. When Superman appears, Luthor takes advantage of a terrorist attack to see the hero in action and then attempts to make him an employee. Superman, acting as a special deputy of Metropolis, arrests him for endangering people by not warning authorities of the impending terrorist attack. Humiliated, Luthor swears revenge, repeatedly letting Superman know about his criminal schemes but never leaving him enough evidence to bring the man to justice again. Luthor becomes obsessed with Superman and gathers all information on him and his associates, leading a computer analysis to conclude Clark Kent and Superman are the same person. Unable to believe someone as powerful as Superman regularly hides his powers and pretends to be average, as that is something he would never do himself, Luthor dismisses the computer's findings and concludes both the machine and its programmer are at fault.

As a nod to the previous continuity, Luthor has his lab create high-tech armor that resembles the Lexorian warsuit. Rather than act directly, he has an employee don the armor and attack Superman for him. The man is defeated and cannot testify against Luthor because the armor's neural control unit destroys his mind. Along with this, Luthor participates in the creation of two Superman villains, Parasite (indirectly) and Bizarro (a failed attempt by Luthor's scientists to clone Superman).

When Superman fights the cyborg Metallo, Luthor intervenes. In Superman (vol. 2) #2, discovering Metallo is powered by a 'heart' of kryptonite that can hurt and potentially kill Superman, Luthor steals it and a creates a kryptonite ring for himself. He wears the radioactive ore around his finger as a symbol that he is untouchable, causing the Man of Tomorrow pain and weakness whenever he approaches. Not realizing humans can be affected by severe or long-term meteoric radiation exposure, Luthor eventually suffers from Kryptonite poisoning. He had his right hand amputated to prevent the cancer's spread, and not long afterwards, said kryptonite ring (which he kept in cold storage prior to the surgery) would be stolen. Eventually coming into the possession of Superman, who in turn entrusts it to Batman, tasking the Dark Knight to use it if Superman ever becomes corrupt or falls under the control of another. But removing the tainted limb was a mere half measure, as his affliction had already metastasized rendering Lex's condition terminal.

The New 52

In 2011, DC Comics implemented The New 52, a relaunch of its titles and a reboot of its fictional continuity. In the new reality, Lex Luthor has no childhood association with Smallville or Clark Kent. As an adult in Metropolis with the resources of LexCorp, he sets up himself as a scientific troubleshooter for the military, working with government scientist John Henry Irons to create high-tech armor called "Metal-Zero" (which is later used to create the villain Metallo). When Superman appears in Metropolis and clashes with local authorities, Luthor works with the military to bring in the superhuman being, arguing that alien vigilante is an inherent threat since history has shown that introducing new life forms into other environments often causes the local environment to destabilize and suffer. Luthor tortures Superman to test his power, justifying his actions by looking at the hero as an alien rather than a human being whose well being should be considered. Superman laughs at Lex, infuriating the scientist, then escapes. Insulted by Superman's mocking laughter and his failure to contain the alien, and determined to learn more secrets from the Kryptonian's biology and technology, Luthor becomes determined to best Superman.

Unknown to the U.S. military, Lex Luthor has been in contact with the "Collector of Worlds" (a version of Brainiac) and makes a deal with the alien, who wishes to collect specimens from Earth for his collection of inhabitants and artifacts from different planets. Luthor intends to increases his power in Metropolis and to aid this he also supplies social justice blogger and journalist Clark Kent with information regarding the corrupt activities of powerful media mogul Glen Glennmorgan of Galaxy Inc. Clark is unaware his informant is Luthor, knowing him only as "Icarus".

After the Collector attacks Metropolis and Luthor's deal with the villain is exposed, Luthor is fired as a consultant to the U.S. military by General Sam Lane himself. He is later instrumental in the creation of the New 52 version of the Kryptonite Man, known in this world primarily as K-Man. A few years later, Luthor's schemes against Superman and some of his crimes are exposed. He is arrested and imprisoned in a special U.S. government prison.

In the "Forever Evil" storyline, Luthor plays a major role in opposing the Crime Syndicate, an evil version of the Justice League from a parallel Earth. He founds the New 52 incarnation of the Injustice League, helping Batman to free their world from the Syndicate's control and saving Superman's life from a kryptonite attack by Syndicate member Atomica. Public opinion of Lex Luthor becomes favorable. After learning an entity destroyed the Crime Syndicate's Earth, Luthor wants to prepare for the possibility that his Earth could be threatened next. To aid him in this and continue his new role as a hero, he requests Justice League membership. The Justice League are not sure about his altruism but decides his membership would make it easier to monitor him. While a Leaguer, Luthor helps against several threats, wearing a high-tech warsuit created by reverse-engineering Kryptonian technology, and builds a new Watchtower for the team.

DC Rebirth

Following the death of the New 52 Superman, Luthor creates a new warsuit decorated by Superman's S-shield, deciding he is the new protector of Metropolis. He is confronted by the pre-Flashpoint version of Superman, who refuses to believe Luthor's intentions are noble. In DC's 2016 line-wide relaunch DC Rebirth, large parts of the New 52 canon are removed (later said to have occurred in a different timeline) while large parts of post-Crisis canon are restored to the DC Universe. Eventually, this affects the Superman comics as well, in the wake of the 2017 storyline "Superman Reborn" Luthor's backstory from Superman: Secret Origin and large parts of his post-Crisis continuity are restored, while the New 52 events are largely removed. The canon says that Luthor still served in the Justice League for a time.

In Doomsday Clock, Luthor is approached by Adrian Veidt, who attempts to enlist his aid in finding Doctor Manhattan. He is then attacked by a seemingly-revived Comedian. After recovering from surgery, he reveals he has been investigating claims that many heroes and villains gained their powers from government experiments rather than accidents. He later provides Lois Lane with footage of the Justice Society of America, who in the new canon were not the publicly known superheroes of World War II, but were clandestine heroes whose existence was largely denied. Doomsday Clock ends with Luthor considering utilizing and improving Veidt's methods for his own personal use. It is also revealed the New 52 Luthor and history still exist in a parallel universe.

Lex Luthor's childhood is fleshed out further in the pages of Justice League. Before he ever met Clark Kent, it is said his father Lionel Luthor was a scientist working with the Legionnaires Club, an organization created by the immortal villain Vandal Savage to unlock the secrets of the universe. At one point, Lionel is able to reach through space and time to bring a Martian child named J'onn J'onzz to Earth. Lex and J'onn form a brief friendship. When the Blackhawks attacks the operations of the Legionnaires' Club, Lex sends J'onn back home to Mars to protect him. Many years later, he will meet J'onn again when the alien operates on Earth as the Martian Manhunter. To protect his secrets, Vandal Savage has Lionel's memories altered. As a result of this psychological trauma, Lionel becomes a "broken man" and an alcoholic. Lex comes to hate his father and only feels family love for his sister Lena, who is increasingly ill and whom he wishes to help.

After the universal barrier known as the Source Wall is broken during the events of "No Justice," Luthor forms a new Legion of Doom to track down the secrets that were once pursued by the Legionnaires' Club, discovering they are connected to the god-like Perpetua, Mother of Forgers. In the Year of the Villain special, Luthor commits suicide to gain favor with Perpetua, who resurrects him as her acolyte/child, becoming a powerful Martian/human hybrid called Apex Lex. He then offers power to many DC Universe villains. Luthor is eventually betrayed by Perpetua and Batman Who Laughs, who depowers him and sends him back to Earth with Mercy.

Infinite Frontier

Lex Luthor makes guest appearances in Joshua Williamson's Batman run, trying to convince Bruce Wayne to work with him in dealing with an enemy name Abyss. Black Adam recruits Lex and the Legion of Doom during Dark Crisis event after Pariah uses his Dark Army to seemingly kill the Justice League. Deathstroke manages to corrupt Lex Luthor, and Lex fights against the heroes in the climatic battle, before escaping after the Deathstroke is defeated.

Dawn of DC

After Superman returns to Earth, Lex blackmails Metallo into working with him by kidnapping his sister, and is thrown in Stryker's prison. Lex Luthor kills Manchester Black to make the world forget about Superman's identity because he hated how the world viewed Superman as equal and human to them, while revealing that if civilians were to discover Superman's identity, it would give them a heart attack. Superman defeats Lex and sends him back to prison. Lex Luthor decides to give his company to Superman, and renames it Supercorp to help make Metropolis a better place and helps Superman deal with Parasite. In "House of Brainiac", Brainiac captures Lex Luthor by mistake to help him with his dying body. Lex reunites with his daughter Lena Luthor, and helps Superman take down Brainiac, but at the cost of losing his memory.

Powers and abilities

Lex Luthor has no superpowers, but is considered one of the brightest minds in the DC Universe, standing out not only for his prodigious intellect but also for his extraordinary analytical ability and deep knowledge across multiple scientific and technological disciplines. His genius is not limited to theory alone but extends to the practical application of his knowledge, allowing him to develop advanced technology, devise complex strategies, and anticipate the actions of his enemies.

Since inception as a character, Luthor has been described as the most intelligent human in the DC Universe and one of the brightest beings in any world. His eidetic memory enables him to recall any information with absolute precision, reinforcing his mastery of virtually all branches of science, including aerospace engineering, biochemistry, robotics, artificial intelligence, computing, nanotechnology, genetics (like creating artificial lifeforms and clones), nuclear energy, synthetic polymers, telecommunications, quantum physics, and time travel. His expertise in these fields has allowed him to develop everything from highly sophisticated weaponry to teleportation mechanisms and advanced augmented reality devices. Unlike most scientists and technologists in the DC Universe, Luthor does not limit himself to scientific innovation but has also demonstrated unparalleled skill in business and politics. He is the founder and CEO of LuthorCorp, one of the most powerful corporations in the world, with interests spanning multiple industries, from energy to biotechnology. Thanks to his cunning, charisma, and determination, he has become one of the richest and most influential people on the planet. His strategic genius has even led him to hold the presidency of the United States, showcasing his ability to manipulate public opinion, gain powerful allies, and eliminate political threats.

In combat, although he is not a natural fighter like Batman or Deathstroke, Luthor has received martial arts training, specifically in karate, which allows him to defend himself in emergency situations. In some versions, he has also received training from the Amazons of Themyscira, further enhancing his hand-to-hand combat skills. However, his true strength lies in his ability to anticipate any confrontation and prepare advanced strategies and technology that enable him to emerge victorious without relying on physical force.

Despite his immense intellect, Luthor rarely acknowledges others as his equals. With the exception of the extraterrestrial entity known as Brainiac and, on occasion, Batman, Luthor believes that no other being in the universe matches his intellectual level. This arrogance, combined with his unwavering determination to surpass Superman, constantly drives him to seek new ways to expand his power and influence.

Equipment

Kryptonite is Luthor's weapon of choice against Superman, and his ingenuity has allowed him to develop it in multiple forms, most commonly a kryptonite ring.

In the Pre-Crisis, Lex Luthor makes uses of a pair of jet boots, various high-tech gadgets, and weapons, and different android and robot minions.

In battle, Lex Luthor wears a warsuit that grants him super-strength, enhanced durability, energy projection, flight, and advanced weaponry that would often incorporate Kryptonite. One version of it possesses its own Motherbox.

Relationships and family

Pre-Crisis continuity

In pre-Crisis continuity, Luthor is shown as having few personal attachments. Shamed by his crimes, his parents Jules and Arlene disown him, move away, cut off all ties to Smallville, and change their name to the anagram "Thorul". Jules and Arlene take their younger child Lena with them, who is only a toddler at the time and later does not remember her real last name. Lena Thorul is told her older brother died in a mountain climbing accident. Not long after their departure from Smallville, Jules and Arlene die in a car accident, leaving Lena to grow up alone. Like her brother, she attends Regis High School and then later becomes a librarian. Lena meets Lois Lane, who plans to mention the young woman in a story but is then warned not to by Lex Luthor. Superman and Lois discover the truth but agree to Lex's request that Lena not learn about their connection. Later on, Lena moves to Midvale and befriends Superman's cousin Supergirl, who also winds up helping to make sure Lena does not learn the truth about her brother.

Exposure to one of Luthor's inventions later grants Lena ESP, making her an empath. Lena Thorul marries FBI agent Jeff Colby (who had once arrested Luthor) and they have a son, Val Colby. Colby dies some time later. After Lena has brain surgery, the decision is made to reveal the truth about Luthor to her. Luthor then discovers he was an unwitting party to a conspiracy against Lena masterminded by his own cellmate "Sam", who wanted revenge against Colby. Deeply remorseful about this, he apologizes to Lena and the two attempt to make amends with each other.

The pre-Crisis Luthor also has a niece named Nasthalthia Luthor, the child of an older unnamed sister of Luthor who had run away and eloped in Europe when she was a teenager. Nasthalthia is an occasional thorn in Supergirl's side, at one point forming a gang called Nasty's Nasties. Nasthalthia was removed from canon following the reboot of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Lex Luthor himself later marries Ardora of the planet Lexor and, in Action Comics #544 (June 1983), learns he has an infant son by Ardora, Lex Luthor Jr.. Almost two months later, Luthor accidentally causes the destruction of Lexor, and Ardora and Lex Jr. die as a direct result.

Post-Crisis continuity

In post-Crisis continuity, Lena is the name of Lex's adopted sister when he was living in a foster home. She is accidentally killed by their foster father when she refuses to try to trick Lex out of his inheritance. Lex later names his baby daughter after her.

Following the events of Infinite Crisis, Luthor's history was again altered, re-introducing Lena as his blood sister. Unlike the pre-Infinite Crisis version, Lena is well aware of her history with Lex, having grown up alongside him, with only an abusive father. Lex and Lena's mother is named Letitia and is presumed deceased. She has no empathic abilities, and is a paraplegic with a teenaged daughter, Lori, both of whom still live in Smallville. Unlike his pre-Infinite Crisis version, Lex has little love for his sister, having abandoned her with an unnamed aunt after their father died of a heart attack. Lex even goes so far as to cure Lena's illness, and then immediately undoes the process, leaving her completely catatonic, solely to make a mocking point to Superboy and Superman. Lena is currently under the care of the best doctors from Wayne Enterprises, hired by Red Robin.

In post-The Man of Steel continuity, Luthor is childhood friends with Perry White and it is revealed Luthor is the biological father of Perry's son Jerry White, conceived during a period when Perry was believed dead. Luthor, White, and White's wife Alice only learned the truth shortly before Jerry was killed by a gang war that Luthor had triggered. Post-Crisis Lex Luthor has been married eight times, though the first seven marriages occurred off-panel in Luthor's past. His eighth marriage to Contessa Erica Alexandra Del Portenza (a.k.a. the "Contessa") is based on mutual greed; Contessa buys controlling interest in LexCorp after Luthor is indicted, compelling him to marry her in order to regain control of his company. Contessa becomes pregnant and starts using the unborn child to dominate Lex into doing her bidding. Luthor's response is to imprison her while she is drugged during childbirth, keeping her in a permanently unconscious state. Contessa later escapes to an island mansion, but upon being elected president, Luthor targets her home with a barrage of missiles and destroys it. Luthor's daughter, Lena, was the avatar of The Tech, the remnant cyberware of Metropolis after Brainiac 13's advancement of the city to a futuristic state was undone.

Dan Jurgens's run on Superman further expands on Lex's origins. The story details how Luthor was sent to live with a foster family following the sabotage of his parents' car. His foster parents, Casey and Emily Griggs, who prove to be as volatile and hateful as Jules and Arlene Luthor, conspire to embezzle his insurance and coerce their adopted daughter, Lena, into seducing Lex to learn the location of the money. Due to her genuine romantic feelings toward Lex, Lena refuses and is beaten to death by her father. Lex is absent from the home at the time of the murder, having been talked into going to a football game by his schoolmate Perry White. Once he has established his preeminence in Metropolis, Luthor takes vengeance on Griggs, secretly hiring him to assassinate Frank Berkowitz, the city's popular four-term mayor, who refuses to knuckle under to Luthor's dominance, then personally killing him once the deed is done.

Alternate versions

Many alternate universe versions of Lex Luthor have appeared throughout the character's publication history.

Earth-Three

On Earth-Three, Luthor is a heroic scientist and an enemy of the Crime Syndicate. The Earth-Three Luthor is married to Lois Lane, with whom he had a son, Alexander Luthor Jr. In Forever Evil, a separate Earth-Three version of Luthor known as Mazahs appears. Due to changes made to the multiverse during the events of "Dark Nights: Death Metal", the Earth-Three Luthor is now depicted as African-American and founder of the Legion of Justice.

Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again

A possible future version of Lex Luthor appears in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. This version became obese, developed a hunchback, and joined forces with Brainiac to control the U.S. government and blackmail Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel into doing their bidding by taking their loved ones hostage. After being attacked by Batman and Catgirl, Luthor retaliates by manipulating Superman and Wonder Woman into killing Brainiac in the hopes the former will die trying and launching satellites to destroy most of the world's population. However, both plans fail and Luthor is eventually killed by Hawkman and Hawkgirl's son Hawkboy.

Earth-47

An alternate universe version of Lex Luthor from Earth-47 appears in Year of the Villain: Lex Luthor #1 (2019). This version studies and uses the Black Mercy. Through repeated use of its illusionary effects, he experiences multiple scenarios wherein he acquires great power, but is never satisfied. Realizing his ambitions are based on his ego, he spends the rest of his life creating new ways for people to heal and live better lives.

Amalgam Comics

An alternate universe version of Lex Luthor, with elements of Marvel Comics character Red Skull, appears in Amalgam Comics. This version is a war profiteer who injected himself with a chemical agent derived from a green radioactive meteorite. While it extends his lifespan, it also gives him green skin and a skull-like head. Taking the name the "Green Skull", he goes on to oppose Super-Soldier (a combination of Superman and Captain America).

Superman: Earth One

Dr. Alexander Luthor and his wife Dr. Alexandra Luthor appear in Superman: Earth One. They are scientists who refer to themselves as Lex2 Incorporated. While working with the military, Alexandra researches ways to kill Superman as a thought exercise amidst the compassionate Alexander's apprehension over harming someone who has not given cause to be feared. Alexander would later sacrifice himself to help Superman battle Zod, for which a grief-stricken Alexandra blames Superman and vows to destroy him.

Absolute Universe

An alternate universe version of Lex Luthor appears in the Absolute Universe, or Earth-Alpha, a world corrupted by Darkseid. This version of Lex is a civilian who lives in Missouri and owns a gas station.

Elseworlds

Multiple versions of Lex Luthor appear in Elseworlds.

In Speeding Bullets, which depicts a world where Kal-El was adopted by Thomas and Martha Wayne, Luthor acquired great power and influence until he suffered an accident at a chemical plant that resulted in him acquiring chalky skin and blood-red lips. He initially attempts to hide his disfigurement before embracing it and calling himself the Joker.

In Kingdom Come, an older Lex Luthor forms the Mankind Liberation Front to combat Superman's Justice League after they become more authoritative and militaristic.

In Superman: Red Son, Lex Luthor is a respected scientific prodigy married to Lois Lane-Luthor who believes the Soviet Superman is halting human progress. Following several failed attempts to kill Superman, who later fakes his death, Luthor turns his attention to advancing the human race, ultimately becoming mankind's greatest mind and savior.

In Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong, Lex Luthor was transported to the Monsterverse, where he downloaded information about Monarch and the Titans before using LexCorp resources to build Mechagodzilla to control the Titans and fight the Justice League. However, Mechagodzilla and the Titan army are defeated before he is taken into custody by Supergirl.

Lex Luthor appears in the crossover miniseries DC X Sonic the Hedgehog. First serving as a minor antagonist in Chaos Crisis, he returns as one of the main antagonists in the sequel Metal Legion.