Lost lands are islands or continents believed by some to have existed during pre-history , but to have since disappeared as a result of catastrophic geological phenomena.
99-518: Alexander Joseph " Lex " Luthor ( / ˈ l uː θ ɔːr , - θ ər / ) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics . The character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster . Lex Luthor originally appeared in Action Comics #23 (cover dated: April 1940). He has since endured as the archenemy of the superhero Superman . Lex Luthor was depicted as
198-478: A narcissistic and egotistical mad scientist from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. Since the mid-late 1980s, he has more often been portrayed as the power-obsessed CEO of LexCorp . He wishes to rid the world of Superman, ostensibly because he views Superman as a threat to humanity, but in reality because he envies Superman's popularity and influence. Given his high profile as a supervillain, however, he has often come into conflict with Batman and other superheroes in
297-500: 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. But the Man of Steel, acting as a special deputy of Metropolis, arrests him for endangering people by not warning authorities of
396-440: 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
495-431: A complex frame. Soon after Luthor discovers evidence that leads him to conclude Clark Kent is Superman, the 2001 Our Worlds at War saga begins, in which Topeka, Kansas is destroyed in an attack by the alien Imperiex . Luthor is warned of the impending attack beforehand but alerts no one so Earth can enter a great war and he can prove his leadership to the world. Luthor coordinates the U.S. Army, Earth's superheroes, and
594-489: 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
693-427: A distant arid planet orbiting a red star, Luthor challenges Superman to a fight since Kryptonians lose power when exposed to red sun radiation. Befriending the planet's inhabitants, Luthor aids them in rediscovering lost technology that restores the water supply and helps the society rebuild. As a result, Luthor becomes a hero in the eyes of the planet, whereas his enemy Superman is detested as a villain. The people rename
792-554: A fake while Batman keeps the actual ring. Superman, upon learning that Lex Luthor was about to be elected president, flew off in a fit of rage and split one of Saturn's small moons in half with one fly through. Before he takes office in the White House , Luthor cuts ties with his own company LexCorp, turning over leadership to Talia al Ghul , using the alias Talia Head, daughter of international terrorist cult leader Ra's al Ghul , one of Batman's greatest enemies. Luthor's popularity
891-412: 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
990-768: A focal point of the stories immediately following it. He is shown making repeated attempts to court her during The Man of Steel , though Lois plainly does not return his feelings. In the Superman Adventures comic line based on the TV series of the same name, Luthor's backstory is identical to that of the Post-Crisis origin with slight changes. Luthor is shown originating in Suicide Slum, his intelligence outshining other children, fueling his ambition to have all of Metropolis look up to him one day. Luthor's baldness
1089-411: A god and just be a man. Soon afterward, Superman's confronts the telepathic Manchester Black . Realizing Superman is a true hero and therefore true heroism is possible, Black decides to make up for his actions against the Man of Steel and Lois Lane by removing Lex Luthor's knowledge that the Man of Steel is Clark Kent. Following the publication of Superman: Birthright in 2003–2004, Luthor's history
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#17327655826051188-425: A lifeless world and doesn't 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. During the 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths , Luthor allies himself with fellow Superman foe Brainiac to recruit an army of supervillains spanning
1287-533: 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
1386-572: A new, powerful version of the Justice League of America, Lex decides this is Superman's direct challenge to his own power, so he creates a new Injustice Gang in response. Along with his new teammates, Lex acquires a powerful artifact known as the Worlogog, which can warp space and time. The Injustice Gang kills several people while attacking the League then lures the heroes into a trap, but then
1485-453: A number of untrustworthy alien forces to battle the main villain of the story arc. Although Lex Luthor is able to devise a plan to destroy Imperiex's body, the plan is subsequently hijacked by Brainiac 13, requiring Superman to propose a new plan where Darkseid and Luthor coordinate their efforts to defeat Imperiex by sending him back in time. Following the battle, Superman retrieves Lena and returns her to Lex, advising Luthor to stop trying to be
1584-525: 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
1683-399: A powerful alien, the kind of companion Luthor had often hoped for and believed would see him as a peer, instead looks on him with disapproval and moral judgment. This, along with Superman interfering with his criminal agenda and openly disrespecting Luthor in front of the media, motivates Lex to humiliate and destroy the alien hero. Supervillain A supervillain or supercriminal is
1782-468: A promise of payment of some kind), Lex only finds friendship with Clark, impressed by the young man's knowledge though also finding him naive. Luthor discovers kryptonite meteors in Smallville and uses the radioactive mineral as a power source for his experiments. When Clark sees the machine and feels ill from proximity to kryptonite, Luthor mistakes his reaction to mean the young man doesn't believe in
1881-462: 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
1980-410: A scientific genius in the 1990s in stories such as The Final Night . By 2000, it was said that Luthor's genuine accomplishments in several scientific fields is what helped create LexCorp and make it so successful so quickly (in early Post-Crisis stories, Byrne suggested that Luthor was recognized as a brilliant inventor and great scientific mind, but had largely withdrawn from his laboratory in favor of
2079-529: A skill set that allows them to draft complex schemes or commit crimes in a way normal humans cannot. Other traits may include megalomania and possession of considerable resources to further their aims. Many supervillains share some typical characteristics of real-world dictators , gangsters , mad scientists , trophy hunters , corrupt businesspeople , serial killers , and terrorists , often having an aspiration of world domination . The Joker , Lex Luthor , Doctor Doom , Magneto , Brainiac , Deathstroke ,
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#17327655826052178-450: 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,
2277-586: 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 famous 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. On
2376-721: A studio artist who illustrated for the Superman dailies during this period. One hypothesis is that Nowak mistook Luthor for the Ultra-Humanite , a recurring mad scientist foe of Superman who, in his Golden Age incarnation, resembled a balding, elderly man. Other evidence suggests Luthor's design was confused with that of a stockier, bald henchman in Superman #4 (Spring 1940); Luthor's next appearance occurs in Superman #10 (May 1941), in which Nowak depicted him as significantly heavier, with visible jowls. The character's abrupt hair loss has been made reference to several times over
2475-408: A variant of the villainous stock character . It is sometimes found in comic books and may possess superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero . Supervillains are often used as foils to present a daunting challenge to a superhero. In instances where the supervillain does not have superhuman, mystical, or alien powers, the supervillain may possess a genius intellect or
2574-431: 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
2673-464: 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
2772-441: 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
2871-473: Is a sign Luthor does not truly desire the deaths of innocents and still has the potential to be a good man. Luthor marries Contessa Erica Alexanda Del Portenza, a near-immortal and formidable woman with her own agenda. After the birth of their daughter Lena, Luthor attempts to raise the girl without her interference. After several clashes, Luthor has the Contessa seemingly killed by a missile barrage. Later on,
2970-463: Is altered (and the new canon is quickly referenced in both Superman comics and the series Superman/Batman that begins in 2004). In the new history, Luthor is only a few years older than Clark Kent and his family moves to Smallville when he is a teenager. Possibly abused by his father Lionel, and alienated from others by his intelligence and his ignorance of certain social cues and behaviors (he does not understand why gifts are given on birthdays without
3069-745: Is assisted by the extreme unpopularity of the previous administration's mishandling of the Gotham City earthquake crisis (as depicted in the No Man's Land storyline in the Batman titles), and his own seemingly heroic efforts to rebuild Gotham before it rejoins the United States. Batman learns Luthor attempted to take control of Gotham by forging deeds for its lands in his own name. This results in Bruce Wayne severing all commercial ties between
Lex Luthor - Misplaced Pages Continue
3168-526: 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
3267-556: Is created by genetic manipulation, essentially giving him 50% Superman's DNA and 50% DNA of a human being, revealed years later to be Luthor himself. Luthor's clone body eventually begins to deteriorate, causing him to lose his hair and age at an accelerated rate, a side-effect of a disease affecting all clones. Lois Lane discovers proof of Luthor's clone harvesting and false identity and exposes him with help from Superman. Desperate to evade arrest, Luthor activates technology left on Earth by Brainiac, destroying large sections of Metropolis in
3366-455: Is defeated. The Joker gains control of the Worlogog, but is then telepathically attacked, becoming temporarily sane and remorseful. Before the killer's mind reverts, Luthor has Joker use the Worlogog to revise history so that those killed no longer died. With the deaths removed and little physical evidence linking him to any wrongdoing, Luthor is free to go. While Batman concludes Luthor simply used Joker to avoid murder charges, Superman believes it
3465-667: Is depicted as a diabolical genius and is referred to only by his surname. 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, implying Luthor may have died. Stories ending with Luthor's apparent death become common in his earliest appearances, with him turning up alive later on. Luthor returns in Superman #4 and steals
3564-434: Is never explained, save for a brief depiction of him with blond hair in childhood; it is assumed the hair loss was natural. Luthor's parents die during his teenage years, however, their deaths are indeed accidental. Lex uses the insurance to pay for his tuition to MIT and then founds LexCorp. His hatred of Superman is explained as the citizens of Metropolis have admired the Man of Steel more than him. Superman: Birthright ,
3663-570: Is physically approximately in his true age. His soul is later restored after Neron is defeated by Captain Marvel and the Trickster. Returning to Metropolis, Luthor submits to a trial. He claims all his crimes were committed by a violent clone created by renegade scientists from Cadmus Labs who secretly held the true Luthor hostage. Luthor is acquitted of all charges. He later arranges to reacquire his old kryptonite ring. When Superman and others form
3762-452: Is primarily depicted as a supervillain allied with other villains, such as Metallo , Parasite and Bizarro , and frequently leading DC supervillain teams such as the Legion of Doom , he has also been portrayed as an antihero who will ally himself with Superman and other heroes against common enemies such as Brainiac and Darkseid . The character was ranked 4th on IGN ' s list of
3861-425: 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. Despite general acceptance of Byrne's characterization, which led to its influence in media adaptations, DC Comics writers began bringing back his quality of being
3960-507: Is seemingly killed by the dinosaurs he created. Luthor returns in Superman #5 with a plan to place hypnotic gas in the offices of influential people so he can throw the nation into a depression with the help of corrupt financier Moseley. The story ends with Superman defeating 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
4059-497: 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 doesn't want his sister to die. Years later, Lex Luthor and the villain Brainiac recruit an army of super-villains during Crisis on Infinite Earths , including Alexei Luthor from Earth-Two. When Alexei argues that
Lex Luthor - Misplaced Pages Continue
4158-518: 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. Teenage Lex Luthor is an aspiring scientist who resides in Smallville and greatly admires its local hero Superboy . After Lex saves him from kryptonite , the Boy of Steel builds him a private laboratory in gratitude. After "thousands of experiments,"
4257-412: 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
4356-404: Is variously described as either a "lost island" or a "lost continent". Lost land theories may originate in mythology or philosophy , or in scholarly or scientific theories, such as catastrophic theories of geology . With the development of plate tectonic simulation software, new lost land has been discovered and confirmed by the scientific community (like Greater Adria in 2019). Although
4455-635: The Inspector Gadget animated series, Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth from the Austin Powers film series , or Dr. Blowhole from the animated TV series The Penguins of Madagascar . The overarching villain of Star Wars , Emperor Palpatine , leads the tyrannical Galactic Empire , and was inspired by real-world tyrannical leaders. Lost continent Legends of lost lands often originated as scholarly or scientific theories, only to be picked up by writers and individuals outside
4554-488: The Andes and secretly has his brain transferred to a cloned body, one younger, taller, with full hair, and more physically fit. With aid from trusted assistants, the now physically 21-year-old Luthor presents himself to the world as his own hitherto unknown, illegitimate son and heir from Australia , Lex Luthor II , who only wishes to do good and can't be judged by the actions of his father. He quickly manipulates and recruits
4653-550: The DC Multiverse . Alexei Luthor is present and complains this army does not need two Luthors; Brainiac kills Alexei in response. At the conclusion of the series, reality is altered so that each of the different universes converge into one. Luthor is subsequently returned to prison with all his memories of the Crisis forgotten. This incarnation of Lex Luthor met his end in the non-canonical two-part story " Whatever Happened to
4752-521: The DC Universe . Lex Luthor is physically an ordinary human and has no natural superpowers, but he is a genius with a high aptitude for business, politics, science, and technology. He is typically portrayed as a mad scientist lacking a secret identity , costume, or other elements of supervillains, but he occasionally wears his warsuit, a suit of mechanized armor that gives him enhanced strength, flight, advanced weaponry, and other capabilities. While Lex
4851-582: The Green Goblin , Loki , the Reverse-Flash , Black Manta , Ultron , Thanos , and Darkseid are some notable male comic book supervillains that have been adapted in film and television. Some notable female supervillains are Catwoman , Harley Quinn , Poison Ivy , Mystique , Hela , Viper , and the Cheetah . Just like superheroes, supervillains are sometimes members of groups, such as
4950-775: The Injustice League , the Sinister Six , the Legion of Doom , the Brotherhood of Mutants , the Suicide Squad , and the Masters of Evil . In the documentary A Study in Sherlock , writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss said they regarded Professor James Moriarty as a supervillain because he possesses genius-level intelligence and powers of observation and deduction, setting him above ordinary people to
5049-537: The Manhattan Project . 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
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#17327655826055148-542: 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 alife, 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
5247-535: 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
5346-563: 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
5445-447: 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
5544-528: The Man of Tomorrow? " that closed out the Pre- Crisis Superman continuity of the Silver and Bronze Age. Luthor finds Brainiac 's robotic head, hoping to revive the villain for a new team-up. Instead, Brainiac takes control of Luthor's body, forcing him to be a host as he attempts to destroy Superman. Luthor later begs a superpowered Lana Lang to kill him, who does so. Brainiac retains control of
5643-486: 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
5742-475: The Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time and as the 8th Greatest Villain by Wizard on its 100 Greatest Villains of All Time list. Luthor is one of a few genre-crossing villains whose adventures take place "in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended". Scott James Wells , Sherman Howard , John Shea , Michael Rosenbaum , Jon Cryer , Titus Welliver , and Michael Cudlitz have portrayed
5841-477: The U.S. government and his company, Wayne Enterprises . In response to Wayne Enterprises severing ties with his government, Luthor arranges the murder of Wayne's lover, Vesper Fairchild , and frames Wayne for the murder (as seen in Bruce Wayne: Fugitive ), the plan being more successful than Luthor anticipated when his chosen assassin of David Cain realizes Wayne's identity as Batman and sets up
5940-529: The United States , winning the election on a platform of promoting technological progress. His first action as president is to take a proposed moratorium on fossil-based fuels to the U.S. Congress . On the night of the election, Batman threatens that Luthor can keep the kryptonite ring or the White House but not both. Later on, Superman, Batman and Lois Lane seemingly try to steal the ring only to be thwarted. In actuality, they manipulated Luthor into retrieving
6039-443: The academy. Occult and New Age writers have made use of lost lands, as have subaltern peoples. Phantom islands , as opposed to lost lands, are land masses formerly believed by cartographers to exist in the current historical age, but to have been discredited as a result of expanding geographic knowledge. The classification of lost lands as continents, islands, or other regions is in some cases subjective; for example, Atlantis
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#17327655826056138-493: The alien hero, either by displaying his own superiority by achieving victory without the benefit of superpowers or to prove the Man of Steel 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
6237-449: 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
6336-458: The army doesn't need two Luthors, Brainiac agrees and executes him. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986), DC rebooted its universe yet again, creating the "Post- Crisis " reality. In the 1986 limited series The Man of Steel , John Byrne redesigned Lex Luthor from scratch, intending to make him a villain that the 1980s would recognize: an evil corporate executive . Byrne intentionally chose to base this new depiction of Luthor on
6435-476: 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,
6534-412: The boardroom). Regarding the character being a corrupt billionaire rather than a mad scientist, author Neil Gaiman commented: It's a pity Lex Luthor has become a multinationalist ; I liked him better as a bald scientist. He was in prison, but they couldn't put his mind in prison. Now he's just a skinny Kingpin . Luthor's romantic aspirations toward Lois Lane, established early on in the series, become
6633-423: The body for a short period of time before rigor mortis sets in, then abandons it, running out of power shortly afterward. 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
6732-476: The businessmen Donald Trump , Ted Turner , and Howard Hughes as well as Satan . 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 shown to be receding naturally over time. Marv Wolfman , a writer on Action Comics who had one conversation with Byrne prior to Luthor's reboot recalled: I never believed
6831-537: The character in television series, while Lyle Talbot , Gene Hackman , Kevin Spacey , and Jesse Eisenberg have portrayed the character in films, and Nicholas Hoult is set to play him in the upcoming film Superman . Several actors have provided Luthor's voice in animated adaptations, including Clancy Brown , Mark Rolston , James Marsters , Giancarlo Esposito , Marc Maron , and Max Mittelman . In his first story appearance, Action Comics #23 (April 1940), Luthor
6930-438: The citizenry's scorn, Lex's hate for Superboy only grew 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
7029-559: The course of his history. In 1960, writer Jerry Siegel altered Luthor's backstory to incorporate his hair loss into his origin. During World War II , the War Department asked for dailies of the Superman comic strip to be pulled. The strips in question were created in April 1945 and depicted Lex Luthor bombarding Superman with the radiation from a cyclotron. This violated wartime voluntary censorship guidelines meant to help conceal
7128-461: 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,
7227-473: The existence of lost continents in the above sense is mythical (aside from Zealandia and Greater Adria ), there were many places on Earth that were once dry land, but submerged after the ice age around 10,000 BCE due to rising sea levels , and possibly were the basis for Neolithic and Bronze Age flood myths . Some were lost due to coastal erosion or volcanic eruptions. An (incomplete) list follows: The following individuals are known for having written on
7326-484: The experiment, that he also thinks Lex is lying or "crazy" as others do. The machine then explodes and Luthor survives but loses his hair as a result of radiation. Years later, his scientific research, largely based on his ideas about alien life, results in a small fortune that he uses to create LexCorp. When Superman appears in Metropolis, Lex is angered the man won't bow to his control and takes it very personally that
7425-490: 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,
7524-459: The fire, Luthor concludes Superboy intentionally sabotaged his work, jealous of the young scientist's achievements, 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 the Last Son of Krypton and fails. Instead of bringing him to
7623-529: 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 the Man of Steel would arrive in time). Enraged, the Mayor deputizes Superman to arrest Luthor for reckless endangerment. Although Luthor
7722-534: 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
7821-457: 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 shown as a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair. Less than a year later however, an artistic mistake resulted in Luthor being depicted as completely bald in a newspaper strip. The original error is attributed to Leo Nowak ,
7920-494: 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. While the Golden Age Luthor (later named Alexei Luthor)
8019-490: 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
8118-483: The love of the public, Luthor swears vengeance. Following changes to continuity in 2016's DC Rebirth , the history from Superman: Secret Origin is still largely intact, though it has also been revealed that for a time Lionel Luthor worked as a scientist for Vandal Savage and that this led to a brief friendship between Lex and J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter , when both were children. Whether he
8217-410: 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
8316-404: The new Supergirl (a protoplasmic being), who falls in love with him due to his resemblance to her lost love and creator, the Luthor of a parallel Earth. When Superman is seemingly killed by the living weapon Doomsday , the genetic research facility Project Cadmus creates a seeming clone of the hero called Superboy (Kon-El) . As Earth science cannot perfectly replicate Kryptonian DNA, Superboy
8415-490: 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
8514-535: 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
8613-473: 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
8712-416: The planet Lexor and it becomes a regular home base and retreat for Luthor in-between his efforts to fight Superman and take over Earth. He later meets a local woman named Ardora (first called "Tharla" but renamed "Ardora" in later stories as well as the reprint of her first appearance). The two eventually fall in love and marry. Deciding to retire permanently, Luthor returns to Lexor and learns he has fathered
8811-834: The point where only he can pose a credible threat to Sherlock Holmes . Fu Manchu is an archetypal evil criminal genius and mad scientist created by English author Sax Rohmer in 1913. The Fu Manchu moustache became integral to stereotypical cinematic and television depictions of Chinese villains. Between 1965 and 1969 Christopher Lee played Fu Manchu five times in film, and in 1973 the character first appeared in Marvel Comics . The James Bond arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld (whose scenes often show him sitting on an armchair stroking his cat, his face unseen) has influenced supervillain tropes in popular cinema, including parodies like Dr. Claw and M.A.D. Cat from
8910-453: 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
9009-451: The process. In the end, Luthor becomes a prisoner in his own body, unable to move or even blink, internally swearing vengeance on Superman. During the crossover Underworld Unleashed , the demon-lord Neron offers Luthor full health and vitality in exchange for services and his soul. Not believing in the existence of souls, Lex agrees and is restored, regaining the physical fitness of his Lex II body but again lacking head and facial hair, and
9108-401: 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
9207-421: 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
9306-470: 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 the Man of Steel 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. Luthor fakes his death in a plane crash in
9405-553: The time-traveling villain Brainiac 13 infuses Metropolis with technology from the future while his ancestor Brainiac, in need of a new physical vessel, mentally inhabits young Lena's body. Brainiac 13 offers Luthor control of the technology if Luthor turns over Brainiac and hands over his daughter. He later tells Superman that he has a "kingdom" now as a result of his deal, adding "As for my princess... I can always make another." Deciding to turn to politics, Luthor becomes President of
9504-451: The young scientist creates an artificial life-form of "primitive protoplasm." Overjoyed, he accidentally causes a chemical fire in the lab. Superboy puts out the fire, inadvertently spilling other chemicals, destroying the artificial life-form and the accumulated research notes that led to its creation. 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
9603-474: Was jealous of his intellect and caused the fire himself. Believing he's been 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 was supportive as consolation that Lex was at least being constructive in his vendetta, each go disastrously awry and force Superboy to intervene while earning
9702-520: 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
9801-899: Was simply not as smart as Luthor. 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
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