Alexander Luthor, Jr.

**Alexander Luthor, Jr.** is a fictional character and hero in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. He first appeared in *Crisis on Infinite Earths* #1 (April 1985), but his first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #46 (March 1986). He was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.

## History

### Origin

Alexander Luthor was born in the alternate universe of Earth-Three. On Earth-Three, there were numerous super-villains but only one hero. Earth-Three was for years terrorized by its equivalent to the Justice League of America, an evil organization known as the Crime Syndicate of America. The only man to successfully defend that earth from the Syndicate was Alexander Luthor, Sr.. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Earth-Three and the rest of its universe were attacked by the Anti-Monitor in his quest to overwhelm his matter-based counterpart and recreate the universe in his own evil image. Though the Anti-Monitor succeeded in destroying Earth-Three, Luthor and his wife, the Lois Lane of that reality, managed to protect and save their only son, the infant Alexander, Jr. Placing him in a special experimental transportation capsule, Luthor, Sr. managed to send his son through the dimensional barriers and the anti-matter wave, and into the relative safety of the Earth-One universe, where Luthor had previously met the Justice League and other heroes. There, the infant Luthor materialized on the abandoned Justice League Satellite, where he was discovered and taken by Harbinger at the behest of The Monitor.

### Crisis on Infinite Earths

The Monitor soon discovered that Luthor's passage through the anti-matter storm had granted him power over both matter and anti-matter, while also dramatically accelerating the child's aging process. Within days, Luthor had both the body and mental faculties of a young adult. He also had the power to serve as a human bridge between universes, an ability that would become critical when the heroes of the various positive-matter universes needed to enter the Anti-Monitor's realm and defeat him. Following the Monitor's death, Alexander (along with Harbinger and Pariah) led the heroes and villains of six universes against the Anti-Monitor, badly injuring him (though ultimately not killing him).

Luthor's final act of heroism would also prove to be his undoing. After the surviving universes had been merged and their history altered, a resurgent Anti-Monitor was only defeated after Luthor was used as a vessel for Darkseid's Omega Effect and the Superman of Earth-Two finally pounded the weakened Anti-Monitor into submission. After the Anti-Monitor's death, and with destruction for the remaining heroes approaching, Luthor revealed to Superman that he had saved Superman's wife, Lois Lane-Kent, from being erased from existence as so many others had. The threesome, as well as the Superboy of Earth-Prime, who no longer had a place in the new Post-Crisis universe, but could live eternally in a paradise-like dimension that Luthor transported them to using what he believed to be the last of his dimensional powers.

### Witnesses to New Earth

From Luthor's "paradise", the four un-aging refugees of the Pre-Crisis universe were able to watch the events that occurred on New Earth for many years. However, their paradise was anything but. As time passed on, the four could watch everything from their world and could easily change their surroundings within their world. However, Kal-L found out that Lois was dying of old age and that, despite his best efforts, couldn't revitalize her within this world. As well, Superboy-Prime was becoming more and more angry at the world and his fate. This was coupled with Alexander's jealousy of Superboy-Prime and Kal-L – Prime for having a childhood he could never have and Kal-L for having the future he could never have. After witnessing Superboy-Prime smashing one of the walls, causing history on New Earth to be altered, he set his plans in motion. He told Prime of the fact that, on the day that they escaped into their paradise, he had seen a hellish world - which turned out to be Apokolips itself - and that they could have used that to return to Earth. After showing the death of Prime's parents and girlfriend, he was able to convince him to change New Earth and the two of them escaped their world.

### Beginning of the Infinite Crisis

Escaping from the false paradise, Luthor set in motion a master plan that would have devastating consequences for the universe. Luthor secretly had Superboy move entire planets in an effort to shift the center of the universe away from Oa, subsequently provoking a galactic war between Rann and Thanagar. Using the resources of a commandeered Brother Eye, Luthor gathered intelligence on the super-powered community of the new combined universe and mustered the forces of the OMACs in attacking an increasingly-fragmented heroic community. Meanwhile, while disguising himself as the Lex Luthor of the current reality, Luthor preyed upon the fears of the super-villain community in order to form a new Society of Villains which, united, could bring down the heroes of New Earth, and build the machines Luthor would need to fulfill his ambitions. Finally, Luthor struck at the mystical forces of the universe by manipulating the Spectre (currently untethered by a human host), into hunting down and destroying magic itself.

During this time, he would return to their "paradise", convincing Kal-L and Lois that they hadn't left until it was the right time and allowing the four of them to permanently escape their world. During this time, he convinced Kal-L that this plan would result in Lois's restored health.

With his plans set in motion, Luthor became confident enough to finally reveal his presence to Kal-L's cousin, Power Girl, who had until recently not remembered that she was also a survivor of the former Earth-2. Luthor told her that the current reality was corrupt because it had used Earth-1 as a template, and that, with her help, he and her cousin could re-form the universe with Earth-2 as its basis. Claiming that this new reality would help Lois Lane-Kent recover from her illness, he was able to convince a distraught Kal-L to go along with his plans, even though Power Girl and Lois herself remained unsure.

### Master Plan

As his schemes reached fruition, Luthor was finally ready to reveal his ultimate plan. By using the databases of the Brother Eye, Luthor had managed to determine which of the modern reality's super-powered beings had originally come from the various "infinite Earths" of the pre-Crisis universe, and which beings could be used to direct the outcome of Luthor's own universe. He used the Society to build a massive dimensional "tuning fork" (which the villains mistakenly believed would be used to erase the memories of their enemies), that would allow Luthor to take advantage of the raw power brought about by the change in the nature of magic that had occurred during the Spectre's war against sorcery. Focusing the device on the new center of the universe (a point concurrent with the center of the former Earth-2's universe), Luthor would be able to split the universe into a multiverse once again, and then sift through the realities to take the pieces he wished to retain and destroy those he wished removed from existence.

### Ultimate Failure

With the massive device activated (and representatives from various realities chained to it), Luthor began taking the steps he believed would result in the creation of a new universe formed by his own will. Though he appeared to be successful in recreating the multiverse, his multiverse was not, in fact, the reality that had existed before the previous Crisis. The recreated Earth-Two was a barren and unpopulated husk, and ultimately proved unable to save the life of Lois Lane-Kent. It was this revelation that finally snapped Kal-L out of his deluded megalomania. Meanwhile, Superboy-Prime learned that his own universe would not and could not be brought back, and that, in fact, that had never been Luthor's true intention. This caused him to go on a mad spree of destruction that could not be stopped by Luthor or anyone else.

Luthor was then discovered by several heroes, including Batman, who briefly considered killing him after the latter blasted and seriously injured Nightwing. Wonder Woman, still reeling from the repercussions of her pre-meditated killing of Maxwell Lord, managed to stop Batman from making the same mistake she had, and the heroes left Luthor alone as another group of heroes attempted to stop the murderous rampage of Superboy-Prime. Meanwhile, Luthor's plan was ultimately defeated when the Superboy of New Earth sacrificed his life in destroying Luthor's machinery and freeing the people Luthor had kidnapped and exploited.

Unable to attain his goal and apparently de-powered, Luthor went into hiding, but his respite would be brief. The Joker, angry at having been ignored during the events of the past year and not allowed to "play" with the Society, joined with Lex Luthor in tracking Alexander down. Lex taunted Alexander, stating that the latter's biggest mistake had been in underestimating him and excluding the Joker from the Society. The Joker then proceeded to severely burn half of Alexander's face with his trademark acid, and killed Alexander by shooting him in the face.

### Aftermath

Lex later used Alexander's corpse as a cover for Lex's own criminal activities. Having modified Alexander's corpse so that it would more closely resemble Lex's own body, and after planting colored contact lenses in his eyes, Lex Luthor revealed Alexander to the press and explained that Alex was an extradimensional being who had been impersonating Lex for some time. Having effectively disposed of the criminal charges and bad press that had arisen during the end of Luthor's presidency, Lex was able to return to his civilian guise of a generally law-abiding businessman and scientist. Alexander's corpse was later entombed in the Hall of Justice.

### Blackest Night

During the Blackest Night, Alexander Luthor was revived as a Black Lantern and traveled to the reformed Earth-Prime. There, he confronted the powerless Superboy-Prime, who has been occupied in trying to figure out his fate. Alexander goaded his former ally to fight him and even giving Kal-El Prime his armor which restored his Kryptonian powers. Alexander also brought along those whom Superboy-Prime had killed since their release, reanimating them as Black Lanterns to aid him in defeating Prime. When Superboy-Prime escaped to New York City, Luthor and the other Black Lanterns, ironically, rescued the workers within the DC Comics office building from Superboy-Prime's wrath as he teleported them back to Prime's basement. Before they could kill him, Superboy-Prime put on a Black Lantern Ring, which reacted to Prime's mixed emotions and resulting in a burst emotional energies which destroyed Luthor and the Black Lanterns.

Following the events of Convergence, it is presumed that Alexander Luthor, Jr. is once again a hero, since the ending of Convergence retroactively prevented the collapse of the original infinite Multiverse, which means that Earth-3 was never destroyed. As a result, Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s transformation from a superhero to a supervillain never occurred.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Unique Physiology**
	+ **Energy Absorption**
	+ **Energy Bursts:**
	+ **Duplication**
	+ **Dimensional Travel:** Alexander can teleport between different dimensions.
	+ **Flight**
	+ **Shape-Shifting:** Alexander could alter his physical apperance and stature at will.
	+ **Power Distribution:** Alexander could increase Superboy-Prime's strength to a level that he could push planets.
	+ **Warp Creation:** Luthor could create portals between any two locations that he chooses and travel through. These portals can convert positive matter into antimatter and vice-versa.

### Abilities

* **Genius Level Intellect**
* **Gadgetry**

### Weaknesses

* **Power Loss:** Overuse of his powers weakens him.
* **Power Limitation:** Luthor could not actually change history or bring back the original versions of the Earths that existed before the Crisis. Though Luthor was able to create many facsimiles of the infinite realities, these "Earths" were brittle and fragile, and many were completely devoid of life. The duplicates of his reality's people were also imperfect, and it seemed that Luthor did not have the ability to truly physically alter the actual individuals who existed post-Crisis.

## In other media

*Main article: Alexander Luthor Jr. In other media*