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From SCIFIPEDIA
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| Superman Character
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| Lex Luthor
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Luthor in the Silver Age.
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| Publisher
| DC Comics
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| Gender
| Male
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| Species
| Human
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| Creator(s)
| Jerry Siegel
Joe Shuster
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| First Appearance
| Action Comics #23 April, 1940
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| Profession
| Evil Genius, CEO, President of the United States, Astrophysicist
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| Affiliations
| Secret Society of Super-Villians
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| Special Features
| Arch Nemesis of Superman
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Lex Luthor is a fictional comic book super-villain owned by DC Comics and is Superman's arch nemesis in most variations of the Superman story.
Golden and Silver Age Luthor
Lex Luthor was first drawn with red hair. In his first appearance, he had at least one assistant who was completely bald. The next year, he was accidentally drawn bald, and the look worked. He has been drawn bald ever since.
When the Golden Age Superman first meets Luthor, he asks "What sort of creature are you?"
Luthor answers, "Just an ordinary man—but with the brain of a super genius! With scientific miracles at my fingertips, I'm preparing to make myself the supreme master of the world!"
By the 1950s, Luthor was officially his arch-nemesis, sometimes teaming up with the Joker against Superman and Batman.
In the Silver Age of Comics, Lex Luthor solidified his status as Superman’s arch nemesis. Supposedly they were contemporaries, both growing up in Smallville together, originally friends. In those days, Lex had a full head of hair. He was a real fan of Superboy's, and saved the Boy of Steel's life by pushing a kryptonite meteor into a gully full of quicksand. He was already a genius, who dreamed of being as famous and celebrated as Superboy. Superboy even built him a laboratory and supplied him with unknown chemicals to analyze. Luthor was even on his way to inventing a cure for kryptonite for his friend and hero. Then came the day when, due to an experiment Lex was conducting, his lab caught on fire. Superboy blew out the flame with his super-breath. This caused some of the chemicals to spill down on Luthor's head, and Lex was, from then on, completely bald. He blamed Superboy for this accident, and has hated him ever since. After that, the teen Luthor would begin his long battle with Superman while they were both boys.
Luthor in his prison grays.
Lex grew up to be the definitive evil genius, and was always being brought back to prison by Superman. In fact, Luthor stories often seemed to start with him sitting in prison with in his gray convict’s uniform. Luthor liked to think that his battle with Superman was a matter of brains over brawn, but he failed to realize that Superman’s Kryptonian brain could match his as well.
During the Silver Age, Luthor had his good side, and there was even a planet called Lexor where he had a wife and son and was regarded as a hero. There were statues of him in the town squares and a museum honoring his great deeds. He could have been happy there, with a family whom he seemed to really care about. In the end, he betrays them all for a chance at revenge on Superman.
If the story of the Silver Age Luthor has a theme, it's that he could have had a successful productive life if he could just have gotten over his obsessive hate for the Man of Steel.
The Modern Age Luthor
The Modern Age of Comics created Luthor as a very different character. In this case, he is older, a contemporary of Perry White, whom he knew from school. This Luthor is a sadistic manipulator, who goes as far as murdering his own parents to gain freedom from their interference as well as their insurance money. The interesting thing about this Luthor is that the general public thinks of him as a compassionate entrepreneur. His company, LexCorp, is the economic cornerstone of Metropolis. At one point, he owns the Daily Planet, and uses it ruthlessly as a tool against his competitors. He later divests himself of the newspaper, making it one of the few unbiased sources in Metropolis.
In the Man Of Steel (1985) limited series, he has Lana Lang captured and tortured for information about Superman. This Lex Luthor has no “good side”, taking delight in ruining people’s lives at a whim. In the graphic novel Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography (1989) by James D. Hudnall and Eduardo Barreto, he explains his reasons for hating Superman. “I chose to become a God. I control human lives, instead of being controlled. I can destroy someone with a phone call. Which is why I can’t abide Superman. There is only room for one God on this planet. I am determined to bring him down at any cost.”
The Modern Age Luthor in one of his many "battle suits".
The most interesting thing about this Lex Luthor is that no matter what he does, he always manages to use clever lawyers to get the charges dropped and to fraudulently clear his reputation with the general public. At one point he starts over by faking his own death, then having his mind transferred into clone of himself, which he claims to be his own son, and then leaving himself everything in his will. Other times, he claims to be the victim of mind control, or that he was an innocent victim of one of his actual evil cohorts. It helps that due to the economic importance of his company to Metropolis, the powers-that-be have a strong interest in going along with the fraud so that they can continue to deal with his company without ruining their reputations.
Luthor became so good at white-washing his reputation that, despite all his misdeeds, he actually got himself elected as President of the United States. Thanks to Superman and Batman, he did not get to finish his term, but he is still walking around, never spending a day in prison. While he keeps fooling the general public, the super-human community (both heroes and villains) seem to know the score regarding Luthor. Thanks to Perry White's long standing knowledge of (and dislike for) Luthor as well, the staff of the Daily Planet also know the truth about him, and constantly try to expose him.
The “Birthright” Lex Luthor
In the limited series, Superman: Birthright (2004) writer Mark Waid changes Lex Luthor’s background story again, introducing elements from the Smallville TV series that began in 2001. These are considered to be a part of the DC Universe continuity alteration as a product of the Infinite Crisis crossover series.
This Luthor is again a contemporary of young Clark Kent, and the two become friends when Lex goes to school for a while in Smallville. The two share an interest in astronomy, which Clark is interested in as part of his struggle to understand his powers and his origins. Conducting an experiment to contact alien life, (which turns out to be Krypton through some kind of time warp) an explosion occurs. The result of the accident is that Lex’s father Lionel is killed and Lex is rendered bald for life.
He erases all records of his being in Smallville, and leaves town forever.
When Clark meets him again years later, he has manifested his billion dollar corporation in Metropolis and claims not to remember Clark at all. He still maintains his interest in astrophysics.
Alexander Luthor
One should mention here Lex Luthor of Earth-3. Before Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), Earth-3 was a parallel world where versions of our DC heroes were evil, and Lex Luthor was one of the few positive influences. Just before his universe was destroyed by the Anti-Monitor, Lex (like Jor-El before him) sent his son Alexander in a rocket to another universe to save his life. This is the origin of the Alexander Luthor who played such a large role in that crisis, as well as the Infinite Crisis limited series.
Luthor Portrayals
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