Lionel Luthor (Smallville)

**Lionel Luthor** is one of the main protagonists of the CW television series, *Smallville*, serving as the main antagonist of Seasons 1-3, the secondary antagonist of Season 4 and a major protagonist/antihero in Season 5-7. He is the father of Lex Luthor and Tess Mercer who was the CEO of LuthorCorp and the husband of the late Lillian Luthor. Lionel used to be an unethical businessman who mistreated his son and did whatever it took to discover Clark's secret. However, after holding the Crystal of Water, one of the three Stones of Power, he became an emissary for Jor-El and subsequentially became an avid supporter and ally of Clark Kent.

Lionel was portrayed by John Glover, who also played the Riddler in *Batman: The Animated Series*, Dr. Jason Woodroe in *Batman and Robin*, and Mr. Sivana in the DC Extended Universe film Shazam.

He was based on Jules Luthor from DC Comics.

## Biography

### Early Life

Lionel Luthor was born to Scottish immigrants Eliza and Lachlan Luthor. During his childhood, Lionel was often a victim of abuse at the hands of his alcoholic mother and controlling father. As a kid, he joined the rough crowd within the Suicide Slum district of Metropolis, meeting Morgan Edge.

Around the late 1970s, with Morgan's help, Lionel set off an explosion in his parents' apartment, killing them. After their deaths, Lionel never shed a tear at their funeral and used their life insurance money to find his own company, LuthorCorp. He gave half of the money to Edge, and their shady business with each other lasted long into adulthood.

Prior to the 1980s, Lionel eventually married Lillian Luthor and had one son with her, Alexander (nicknamed Lex). However, Lionel was an unfaithful husband, sleeping with a variety of women and having various affairs, which unintentionally caused erect between Lionel and Lex. In 1981, he had an affair with Lex's nanny, Pamela Jenkins, which resulted in their daughter, Lutessa Lena, being born. He gave her up for adoption when she was 9 years old and eventually placed her in the care of the Mercers.

In 1984, after his wife got sick, Lionel hired Rachel Dunleavy to be Lillian's personal nurse. Their affair resulted in Lionel's second son, Lucas, born in 1985, who he forced Rachel to give up for adoption in order to keep their affair a secret.

### Meteor Shower of 1989

Wanting to greet the Traveler himself, Lionel arranged for a on a business meeting in Smallville in 1989; however, He took 9-year-old Lex with him when Lillian convinced him to spend quality time with his father. However, the luthers were caught in the meteor shower. Lionel found Lex in the cornfield, completely bald, and was helped by the Kents to get him to the hospital. Because of that, Lionel had made it possible for the Kents to adopt Clark, and Jonathan Kent had to make the painful decision to convince Pete Ross' family to sell their property to Lionel to build his LuthorCorp Plant. However, Lionel secretly blackmails Jonathan into doing so, threatening to reveal the myserious origin of his adopted son.

Simultaneously Lionel sent men out into the field where Clark's spaceship crashed landed. They found a small boy out in the field and Lionel had him brought to his home, where he befriended Lionel's 9-year-old son. However, after five days, Lionel realized that they have grabbed the wrong child and mercilessly threw him out on the streets of Metropolis. The guards who abandon him turn into the villainous creature Doomsday and kills it his escort. The child grew up to me Davis Bloome, a paramedic who was unaware of his Kryptonian side.  Realizing Jonathan and Martha's son, Clark, was the true Traveler, Lionel left him to be raised by the Kents.

### Becoming a father again

In 1991, Lionel's wife got pregnant a second time and gave birth to their second son, Julian. However, Lillian did not want to have children in the first place and told Lionel he would pit their sons against each other and that she wanted a divorce. Lionel, however, refused to hear her pleas and forced her to bond with Julian by holding him. However, Lillian smothered Julian to death when he was an infant. Lex took the blame to protect his mother, causing Lionel to resent his son more than ever.

### Losing Lillian

Lillian was later diagnosed with terminal cancer and died in the year 1993, leaving Lionel a widower. It wasn't until her death, years later, when Lionel was told the truth about Julian's death by Lex in 2004. After Lillian's death, Lionel banned Christmas from the house and his son's relationship fell apart.

## Trivia

* In the original comics, The name of Lex's father was Jules Luthor and his wife's name was Agnes. However, in the rebooted timeline, "Jules" is renamed "Lionel' in honor of John Glover's character from Smallville. However, Lillian is the name of Lionel's sister from The Comics and his wife's name is Leticia. *Supergirl*, a series that was a spin-off of the Smallville's spiritual successor Arrow, also renamed Lex's parents as Lionel and Lillian as well.
* He is one of the few characters who has the initials "LL" and the only character who's name starts with the same letter it ends in (L), along with his sons, Lucas and Lex Luthor, Lana Lang, Lois Lane, Linda Lake, his daughter Tess (who's full birth name is Lutessa Lena Luthor), Lillian Luthor, Laura Lang, Lewis Lang, Lara Lor-Van, Louis Leery, Lightning Lad (whose real name is Garth Ranzz, and Lachlan Luthor.
* Both Lionel Luther from Earth 1 and Earth 2 are fairly similar. They showed favoritism towards Clark. They were each killed by two of Clark's enemies, and Earth 1 Lionel was murdered by his own son Lex and Earth to Lionel was sacrificed to Darkseid.