Alexei Luthor

[Source]

"*Do you know the oldest lie in America, Senator? That power can be innocent.*"
―Alexei Luthor[src]
**Alexei "Lex" Luthor** was a Human businessman and scientist who briefly served as the CEO of LexCorp.

## Biography

### Early life

Alexei Luthor was born in 1983/84 in New York City, New York as a result of an affair between the notorious businessman Lex Luthor and the nurse Rachel Dunleavy. Before his birth, his mother was paid off by his father and young Alexei grew up with no knowledge of him. His mother was mentally unstable and often physically and emotionally abused Alexei as a boy. After his mother was forced into a mental health clinic when he was twelve, Lex Sr. located him and arranged for his son to be adopted, nevertheless continuing to keep up with and remained in contact with him. Before the adoption, however, Alexei briefly met his older brother, Lex Jr., who played a prank on him by locking Alexei in the family wine cellar, severely traumatizing the boy.

Luthor Sr. was a very cruel and despicable man behind closed doors, with Alexei later remarking in outrage that no "man in the sky" would ever come to save him from "[his father's] fists and abominations". This induced a traumatized Alexei to gain a militantly misotheistic view of God, believing that if He were omnipotent, then it would be logically impossible for Him to be omnibenevolent and vice versa, thereby solidifying his belief that power cannot be innocent (referring to the antithesis of that as the "oldest lie in America"), and that all individuals with great power and popularity must be evil by definition.

While the family's company, LexCorp Industries, was in fact named after Alexei's father, Alexei himself claimed that the elder Luthor claimed at investor pitches to have named it after his son as well, while Alexei himself often mused at how wealthy old women found his father "[writing] checks for Lex" adorable.

### Move to Smallville

"*Get it through your head, Jon. I'm a Luthor... I can do anything I want.*"
―Alexei Luthor[src]
In c. 2003, Lex Jr. found eighteen-year-old Alexei in East Brunswick after a seven month search. He helped Alexei narrowly escape from some gangsters, after Alexei was discovered to be trying to swindle them.

Lex brought Alexei to LexCorp Tower to meet Lex Sr. and to covertly organize a takeover of the company. However, Alexei turned on Lex because Lex Sr. offered Alexei ten million dollars to sign his share away. Thinking he had Alexei under his control, Lex Sr. and Alexei plotted together to take Lex Jr.'s share of the inheritance and have him thrown out of the Luthor Mansion. However, Alexei realized that that at age eighteen, he was entitled to a much more sizable inheritance than his father was offering. In addition, Alexei still had bitter feelings about what he saw as his abandonment by his father. Through observation, Alexei also realized that Lex Sr. was no longer totally blind.

When Alexei was found by one of the gangsters, he was saved by Superboy. Lex Jr. discovered that Lex Sr. set Alexei up and revealed this information to him. When Alexei kidnapped Lex Jr., Superboy discovered Alexei's vicious nature and followed him in an attempt to rescue Lex Jr. In a tense confrontation, Alexei threatened to kill Lex Sr. unless the Luthor patriarch killed Lex Jr. With help from Superboy's heat vision, Lex Sr. got the upper hand and shot Alexei instead, but the gun was filled with blanks. The brothers revealed the kidnapping to be staged; they had plotted together to reveal that their father was no longer blind and worked together to restore Lex Jr's position in LexCorp. Lex had Alexei placed safely away under his protection.

## Personality and traits

"*The bittersweet pain among men is having knowledge with no power... Because that is paradoxical!*"
―Alexei Luthor[src]
Alexei Luthor possessed a brilliant mind, though it was hideously corrupted by his cruel and traumatic upbringing, horrifically unstable ego, and low morality, as well as his egoistical nature of pure malevolence and megalomania, thereby making Alexei comparatively malevolent as his father. Furthermore, Alexei's attempts to acquire power implied psychopathy, as they were extremely immoral and egregiously ruthless, with him having little care for the methods he used, or their impact on others. His mother had battled mental illness all her life and it was believed that Alexei had inherited these traits. Lex Sr. unapologetically believed that his son was a sociopath. Alexei had severe anxiety, complete with panic attacks, and was even shown to have fits of twitchy frustration and rage when talking to a large group of people and not knowing what to say, due to his mind being otherwise occupied at that moment. Hence, when Donna Troy called him "psychotic", Alexei smugly dismissed that word as merely referring to "any thought too big for little minds." Hence overall, Alexei Luthor was extremely unpredictable. Even Alexei's personal assistant, confidant, and right-hand woman Mariko Mercy, who knew him best, was ultimately not privy to all of Alexei's master plans, and therefore was unable to correctly predict his future actions.

Alexei took smug pride in his phenomenal intellect, usually sadistically thinking of others as his inferiors and pawns. Hence, like both his father and brother, he was a manipulative and devious leverager. Alexei had a God complex, though he consistently relied far more on intellect and plans, never allowing arrogance to become his weakness. Like many in his family, Alexei was phenomenally brilliant in sciences and business, but his God complex persona made Alexei very envious and bitter towards the godlike beings such as the deceased Superman, the original Wonder Woman, Thor, Wonder Woman and Superboy, even going so far as openly describing the latter in infernal and diabolical terms, subtly comparing him to the biblical Satan himself, who had originated not in "Hell beneath [Alexei]", but had come "from the sky" (as a fallen archangel), inducing humanity to admire him.

This immense hatred of powerful individuals with popularity seemingly stemmed from the great amounts of hatred and resentment that Alexei harbored for his father, Lex Luthor Sr., as the latter, while both powerful and popular, had abandoned him from birth. After meeting his father years later, Lex Sr. was extremely cruel and egregious behind closed doors, physically abusing his young and helpless son with both fists and "abominations." Thus, Alexei's experienced abuse from both of his parents, without any intervention from any "man in the sky", immensely traumatized him, which in turn induced Alexei to gain a militantly misotheistic view of God, believing that if God were omnipotent, then he logically could not be omnibenevolent and vice versa, thereby solidifying his belief that power could not be innocent and referred to the antithesis of that as the "oldest lie in America".

Somewhat ironically, despite his misotheism, Alexei had a penchant for constantly implementing allusions to major figures of both pagan and biblical theology, with him notably comparing himself to Prometheus, General Zod to Icarus, Superman to Zeus, Horus, Apollo, Jehovah, and Superboy to Aries and Satan. He even compared himself to the biblical God in one way, claiming to hate "the sinner, not the sin". When making these allusions, however, Alexei tended to cast these theologies' supreme gods in a not very discreet negative light to the point that Wonder Woman was visibly enraged by Alexei's description of Zeus and the Old Gods. Thor himself nearly choked the twitchy man to death for his comments about the "All-Father".

Ironically, while the egregious abuse would make Alexei immensely despise his father, he would eventually come to share some of his father's traits as an adult, with Alexei's exceptional intelligence, and ruthless malevolence. Hence, Alexei projected his childhood trauma and theological resentment onto the godlike beings such as Superman, Superboy, Wonder Woman and Thor, determined to prove to both himself and to humanity at large that the alien superheros, while being supremely powerful, were actually not supremely good, and in fact abominable frauds. Hence, while Alexei claimed to hate "the sinner, not the sin", he specified that their sin was existing. However, Alexei notably did not have the same hatred towards General Zod, and actually seemed to admire him, with Alexei tearfully remarking that the latter had "[flown] too close to the sun."

Alexei had several prominent fears, the biggest of which, even more than that of losing his own life, being his fear of losing power and control, the cause of which was largely due to a difficult and traumatic upbringing. Therefore, Alexei valued control above all else, so much so, that he placed himself above Superboy, and almost asked Superboy to tear him apart, in one of their confrontations.

After the death of his father and disappearance of his brother, Alexei continued to garner as much power as he could get his hands on, being quick to order the Fortress of Solitude to teach him all about the knowledge from 100,000 alien worlds, thereby expanding his already brilliant mind, finally becoming even more godlike in his own eyes. Indeed, Alexei appeared to be so satisfied with his success, as he claimed not to know how to lose, that he cared little about being imprisoned for his numerous unspeakable crimes shortly thereafter, and gleefully awaited the imminent arrival of Darkseid.

Alexei also has a somewhat dry, black, and sadistic sense of humor, and love for both witty puns and visual metaphors. In addition, Alexei seemed to be well-versed in American pop-culture, making quite a few references from it as well, notably "The Midnight Ride", "Alice in Wonderland", "Lolita" and the "Wizard of Oz."

## Relationships

### Family

#### Lex Luthor Sr.

**Lex Sr.**: "*Believe me Lex, your brother will never change. I've watched him over the years. The boy's a sociopath.*"
**Lex Jr.**: "*And I wonder which side of the family tree he got that from.*"
―Lex Luthor Sr. and Lex Luthor Jr. discuss Alexei Luthor[src]

#### Lex Luthor Jr.

**Lex**: "*You disappoint me. As always.*"
**Alexei**: "*If I'm... if I'm such a letdown, why don't you just kill me?*"
―Lex Luthor Jr. and Alexei Luthor[src]

### Enemies

#### Superboy

"*I hate what you represent. First it was your daddy and the Justice Society. Now it's the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic four and your little hoodlum of heroes.*"
―Alexei Luthor to Superboy[src]

## Powers and Abilities

### Abilities

**Gifted Businessman**:

**Genius-level Intellect**: Luthor possessed a genius level intellect.

**Multilingual**:

## Appearances

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