Lex L Luthor

> I *own* Metropolis. My technology built it, my will keeps it going, and nearly two-thirds of its people work for me whether they know it or not. Even you have to admit, it's a model of efficiency. And yet, I've often thought... why limit myself to just one city?
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**Lex Luthor** was a powerful businessman and criminal mastermind. He was widely considered to be one of Earth's most brilliant minds and Superman's arch-nemesis.

## History

### Origins

Little is known about Lex Luthor's origins, but he was an admirably self-made man. With the aid of his natural genius and his general lack of conscience, Luthor assembled a vast fortune and founded LexCorp. Through a combination of Luthor's ruthless business tactics and genuine ingenuity, LexCorp quickly became one of the largest corporations in the United States. Now clearly the most powerful man in Metropolis, Luthor's ego and pride drove him to try and position himself as the face of the city, donating millions to charity and erecting libraries, schools, and hospitals in his name.

However, at heart, Luthor was a devious, shrewd, and cold egotist. In his mind, Metropolis was to be an empire, with Luthor as its absolute ruler and proverbial emperor. LexCorp forced virtual monopolies on public works, technology, transportation, and even became a major defense contractor—all with the underlying goal of collecting more and more power and wealth for the greedy Luthor at the expense of anyone in his way.

### Challenged by an alien

 File:Lex and Superman meet.png
It was this lust for power that eventually made him the sworn enemy of Superman. From the start, the very idea of an alien who appeared to be human possessing incredible power to perform acts of good disturbed Luthor. However, that reasonable suspicion soon erupted into personal jealousy and malicious intent. The fact that Luthor could not bribe or hire the newcomer, or alter the public's perception of Superman's actions, angered him even more. Luthor would soon scheme against Superman on a regular basis; attempting at various times to ruin Superman's reputation or destroy him outright.

His drive to eliminate Superman became so strong, that he even became willing to hire psychopathic criminals such as the Joker to kill him. However, the attempts often painted Luthor in an unflattering light, but he managed to cover his trail often enough to avoid prosecution.

 File:Lex.png  In the early years, perhaps Luthor's most horrific plan involved collecting a drop of blood from a Kryptonite-weakened Superman and using it in cloning experiments. No successful clones were created—in fact, many were inhumanely destroyed. One massively flawed clone would escape after mutating into the white-skinned Bizarro.

## Powers and abilities

Early in Superman's career, Lex proved reluctant to directly engage Superman, preferring to leave physical confrontations to the hired help (primarily chauffeur/bodyguard Mercy Graves.) However, as his obsession with Superman grew, Luthor employed more destructive and elaborate technology in his pursuit of the Kryptonian, to the point where he would attempt to engage Superman in combat on several occasions.

## Personality

Lex Luthor is intelligent, successful, and likes nothing better than for "lesser beings" to recognize and admire him as a leader of men. Lex's enormous legitimate accomplishments are dwarfed by his own egotistical view of himself. Lex sees himself as a modern renaissance man and the standard for human personal achievement. He has the charisma of a natural leader and the education to take advantage of this trait; however his ambitions almost always undermine the trust and faith of his allies and subordinates, and often lead to dismal failure.

Failure infuriates Luthor more than almost anything in the world; his entire existence revolves around the idea of success and superiority. His goals of being seen as the "savior" of Metropolis and his later failed bid for the power of Brainiac clearly demonstrate Lex's obsessions. Once Lex's mind merged with that of Brainiac, his desire to become a superior being reached immeasurable heights. The temptation of almost god-like power and knowledge tormented Lex for months as he tried to reconstruct and reactivate Brainiac by any means necessary.

Though Luthor usually demonstrates great restraint and self-control, he never forgets a slight. When angered, Luthor's rage is uncontrollable and will only subside when it is properly sated by success or revenge. Because of this super-heated temper, it is Lex's ultimate undoing that his position in life is (in Lex's mind alone) threatened by the mere existence of Superman. Luthor's true villainy was and is heavily fueled by his sheer envy of Superman; the hero was born with abilities far beyond those of mortal men like Lex and overshadowed Luthor as Metropolis's favorite son from the day of his first public appearance. Had Luthor never acted upon his jealousy of Superman, he might have been no more than an extremely high-powered (if corrupt) captain of industry. However, Luthor's reckless attempts to destroy Superman (and later, the Justice League) made him instead one of the most dangerous criminals in existence.

However, despite all his negative points, Luthor is not without scruples. Given the situation, he will aid Superman and the Justice League in their battles against more powerful foes, such as the Justice Lords and Darkseid. In the case of the Justice Lords, however, he had been promised a presidential pardon in return, while in the battle against Darkseid, Luthor was willing to give his life to destroy the ruler of Apokolips, ending Darkseid's reign of terror once and for all. Numerous times, it is shown that, despite their animosity, Superman and Luthor have a grudging respect for one another, shown when Superman offers to help Luthor in any way he can after learning his enemy has cancer, and when Luthor expresses remorse over Superman's apparent death and attends his funeral, even embracing a weeping Lois Lane and admitting to her that he too will miss Superman. In fact, it appears that Luthor's personal enmity against Superman has in a way become his true meaning of life. He also made clear that while he did have bitter enmity to the Man of Steel, even he would not go as far as to jeopardize the welfare of the planet just to settle his grudge, even if he could, as he stated to Lois Lane when she accused him of hiring Luminus to use his satellites to block the sun's yellow rays to cripple Superman while he was in jail (when Luminus had in fact gone renegade). Similarly, when he had learned that Lois Lane had not only been the target of an assassination against her, but one of LexCorp's devices had also been in her vehicle at the time, he not only denied being involved in the assassination (largely because he would have made sure not to have left any evidence directly implicating him to the crime if he wanted her dead), he also personally promised to look into who was responsible.

### Personal relationships

Luthor's air of superiority affects all of his relationships, including his romantic entanglements. After briefly dating Lois Lane prior to Superman's first appearance, the reporter broke it off with Luthor due to a severe dislike of his personality.

Bodyguard Mercy Graves seems to have had a romantic relationship with Lex, however she too was often at odds with Lex's cold and domineering manner. It is not known if their on-again/off-again personal relationship continued up to Lex's time as leader of the Legion of Doom, though Mercy's career with LexCorp continued seemingly uninterrupted during their personal disagreements.

Lex also had a brief relationship with another of Clark's flames, Lana Lang. Lana, who was an internationally renowned fashion designer, briefly had a relationship with Luthor, while at the same time, attempting to regain the attention of Clark/Superman. Lana went so far as to spy on Luthor for Superman. When Luthor found out, he had one of his henchmen try and kill Lana, thus, of course, ending the relationship.

## Background information

* In the comics, Lex's career as a successful businessman was an alteration made to the character in the 1980s. Prior to that, the character had almost always been depicted as the stereotypical mad scientist (except for the *Superman* movies, which showed a Luthor that was essentially a malevolent land-snatcher with a talent for invention.)
* Lex's appearance in the DCAU was partially based on actor Telly Savalas and his portrayal of the James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in *On Her Majesty's Secret Service* (opposite George Lazenby as James Bond).
* Lex's green combat suit is a trademark of the character; since the suit was introduced in the 1980s, most animated and DC Comics versions of the character have worn a similar suit in some form or another.
* Clancy Brown had originally auditioned for Superman, but the creative team asked him to read for Lex Luthor instead.
* In *Superman: The Animated Series,* Lex Luthor is inspired by John Byrne's re-working of the character.

## Appearances

*Superman: The Animated Series*
* "The Last Son of Krypton, Part II"
* "The Last Son of Krypton, Part III"
* "A Little Piece of Home"
* "The Way of All Flesh"
* "Stolen Memories"
* "The Main Man, Part I"
* "My Girl"
* "Tools of the Trade" **(Entirely Mentioned Only)**
* "Blasts From the Past, Part I"
* "Livewire" **(Cameo)**
* "Identity Crisis"
* "Target"
* "Action Figures" **(Cameo)**
* "Solar Power"
* "Brave New Metropolis" (alternate universe)
* "Ghost in the Machine"
* "World's Finest"
* "The Hand of Fate" **(Entirely Mentioned Only)**
* "Bizarro's World" **(Entirely Mentioned Only)**
* "Prototype"
* "Heavy Metal" **(Entirely Mentioned Only)**
* "Apokolips... Now!, Part II" **(Cameo)**
* "Little Big Head Man" **(Entirely Mentioned Only)**
* "A Fish Story"
* "The Demon Reborn" **(Entirely Mentioned Only)**
* "Legacy"

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 ***Burnett, Alan***, ***Dini, Paul*** (writers) & ***Riba, Dan***, Timm, Bruce (directors) (September 6, 1996). "The Last Son of Krypton, Part III". *Superman: The Animated Series*. Season 1. Episode 3 (airdate). Episode 3 (production). ***Kids WB!***.
2. ↑ ***Goodman, Robert*** (writer) & ***Tomonaga, Kazuhide*** (director) (September 26, 1997). "Solar Power". *Superman: The Animated Series*. Season 2. Episode 11 (airdate). Episode 24 (production). ***Kids WB!***.
3. ↑ ***Bader, Hilary J.*** (writer) & ***Geda, Curt*** (director) (September 19, 1997). "Target". *Superman: The Animated Series*. Season 2. Episode 7 (airdate). Episode 19 (production). ***Kids WB!***.
4. ↑ ***Bader, Hilary J.*** (writer) & ***Tomonaga, Kazuhide*** (director) (September 14, 1996). "A Little Piece of Home". *Superman: The Animated Series*. Season 1. Episode 5 (airdate). Episode 5 (production). Kids WB!. DVD Pop-Up Trivia
5. ↑ Superman: The Animated Series' Clancy Brown Shares His Take on Lex Luthor (cbr.com)[1]
6. ↑ Men of Steel by Rob Allstetter - Wizard Magazine #59 (Jul. 1996)

## External links

* Lex Luthor at Wikipedia
* Lex Luthor at the DC Database