Alexander Luthor

**Alexander Luthor**, also known as **Lex Luthor**, is a fictional character and villain in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. He first appeared in *Action Comics* #23 (April 1940), but his first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #52 (September 1986). He was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

## History

### Early Life

Lex Luthor was born and raised in the poverty stricken area of Metropolis known as Suicide Slum, the child of abusive parents, with a fierce desire to better himself. Cunning, vengeful and ambitious even at a young age, Lex was every bit the charismatic and malicious manipulator he is in his adulthood. Such that he could enlist the ne'er-do-wells of the ghetto to dispatch bullies for him, was a habitual misogynist who was cruel to the girls of his classroom, his own teachers were even frightened by him. And as a teenager, young Lex engineered the deaths of his parents by paying off or threatening their auto-mechanic to sabotage their automobile in order to profit from a large life insurance policy he had taken out in their names, and went on to found his own company LexCorp.

### Industrialist

Lex turned the company into a multinational corporation that would ultimately come to dominate the city of Metropolis. With it he owns every media corporation in the city and uses them to reinforce his public image as a wealthy benefactor. The one paper outlet that had always stood free was the Daily Planet (he would come to buy it much later). One such critic was the young reporter, and Editor In Chief, Perry White. Luthor detested White, due to his outspoken attitudes and a release by the Planet condemning his actions with an outrageous editorial signed by White himself. As a result, when Clark Kent is first inducted into the Planet, the newspaper is almost bankrupt, dilapidated, and unable to afford new reporters. Luthor made many criminal connections and industries, anything to help him rise to be the unchallenged master of Metropolis. His legitimate businesses attached to LexCorp cover a variety of enterprises ranging from telephone companies to personal gaming devices. As part of his image, Lex created the illusion of being a caring philanthropist. He became the most powerful man in Metropolis, both financially and in the world of organized crime. Lex would create havoc on the streets by selling weapons to the gangs of Metropolis and using his primarily female staff of underlings to keep blackmail files on all of the major organized crime groups in the city. Lex could use them to further any schemes he had planned. However, this all ended with the arrival of Superman.

### Superman Arrives

Several months after Superman first arrived in Metropolis, terrorists attacked a society gala aboard Luthor's yacht. Lois Lane, whom Luthor had tried to romance as a ninth trophy wife some time before, was present during the attack which was stopped by Superman. Luthor tried unsuccessfully to hire Superman as a bodyguard. But when he admitted that he had known the attack was to occur and had allowed it to proceed in order to see Superman in action first hand, Mayor Berkowitz deputized Superman on the spot to arrest Luthor for reckless endangerment. He avoided prison thanks to a legal technicality, but still had to endure the humiliation of being publicly led away under arrest.

Luthor vowed to destroy Superman for this humiliation, and he has since devoted much time and energy to that goal. An early attempt led to the creation of an imperfect clone of Superman meant to destroy him, but was unsuccessful because Superman's alien DNA made the clone unstable. Luthor continued his vendetta. He was a man driven to be the best, having fought his way up from lowly beginnings by his own (dubious) efforts, and was resentful of how Superman was given his powers by random fate of birth. Superman survived subsequent attempts Luthor made on his life, but he had never been able to prove Luthor's role in the attacks. Aside from Lex's immense wealth and connections, he was able to weasel his way out of trouble due to the fact that Superman, being liable as a witness, would have to reveal his true identity in court to testify against him.

## Powers and Abilities

### Abilities

* **Genius Level Intellect:** Luthor's intelligence is nearly unrivaled, making one of the smartest minds on Earth. His many plans and plots to attack, maim, and generally bring ill will towards Superman were all subjects to a major plan to find a way to end the idea of Superman as well as the Kryptonian himself. Luthor has solved complicated equations in a few minutes and holds a myriad of masters and degrees. He's found cures for diseases in deep thought and found ways to better mankind while still profiting from its destruction.
	+ **Business Management:** Lex Luthor is one of the most shrewd businessmen in the world, a trait that has earned him an immense fortune second only to entrepreneurs like Bruce Wayne and Steve Dayton. Unlike Wayne however, Luthor is not above using cutthroat tactics, unethical practices and illegal operations to maintain the success of his business empire. At the height of Lexcorp's power, Lex Luthor virtually owned every business enterprise in the city of Metropolis.
	+ **Political Science:** Lex Luthor's corporate skills applied just as sharply in the political arena as they did in the boardroom. As President of the United States, he groomed the best candidates to serve as his cabinet members and knew the intricacies of bureaucratic politicking as well as any other former Chief Executive.
	+ **Leadership:** Although Luthor's tenure as president ended in scandal, he successfully guided the nation during the massive alien invasion. He's led a large amount of supervillain teams and done so quite effectively.
	+ **Science:** Lex has solved complicated chemical equations in seconds. He understands the variety of powers associated with the human metagene and manipulated it for his own purposes. He claims he found a cure for cancer as well as AIDS but holds them in his personal notes to better bank on it's research.
* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic):** Lex Luthor is also trained in hand-to-hand combat, though his personal Amazon fighting instructors consider him a sub-par combatant with poor form. He has single-handedly fought with Nightwing and Batman, although he only won these fights due to such advantages as Nightwing being drugged and him still wearing parts of his old armor when he fought Batman.

### Weaknesses

* Luthor's primary weakness is consistently portrayed as a combination of his own arrogance and inability to comprehend his enemies. When he initially took charge of the latest version of the Injustice Gang, he failed to subvert the current Justice League because he couldn't comprehend what truly motivated heroes such as the new Green Arrow, and even failed to realize Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent for years, simply because he couldn't imagine why someone as powerful as Superman would even want to be a frail human like Clark.

## Paraphernalia

### Equipment

* **Kryptonite**
* **Sunstone**

## In other media

*Main article: Lex Luthor in other media*