Lex Luthor (Earth-One)
From DC Database
Go ahead, Superman -- try and fight back! Your peanut-brain can't control your dinosaur-size body! 
- -- Lex Luthor [[ |[src]]]
Contents |
History
Early Life
Lex Luthor grew up in the suburbs of Smallville, Kansas with his parents and sister, Lena. Although forced to live the life of a farmer's son, he never acquired a farmer’s heart. Instead, Luthor's lifelong ambition was to become the world's greatest scientist.
As a teenager, Luthor learned about the existence of Smallville's own hometown hero – Superboy. He followed Superboy's adventures with great zeal and soon became the young Kryptonian's greatest fan. Through excessive compulsion and pleading, Lex was able to convince his parents to move to Smallville in order to allow Lex to be close to his hero.
Becoming Luthor
One day, Luthor was plowing a field in his tractor when he noticed Superboy's limp form wavering in front of him. The Boy of Steel had found himself in close proximity to deadly green Kryptonite, so Luthor moved the rock to a safe distance with his tractor.
Afterwards, Luthor invited Superboy back to his workshop. Superboy found a veritable shrine erected in his honor, with walls and benches decorated with various souvenirs from Superboy's many exploits. To show his gratitude, Superboy constructed a brand new state-of-the art laboratory for the eager would-be scientist.
With the new lab equipment at his disposal, Luthor set about experimenting with his many chemical solutions. He even created a non-sentient protoplasmic entity out of some of the more rare chemicals that Superboy provided him. Using the protoplasm as a template, Luthor sought to create an antidote to Kryptonite poisoning. It was his intention to present the antidote to Superboy as a gift, as a means of solidifying their friendship. He succeeded in creating the antidote, but in his excitement, he knocked over a beaker, which set the laboratory ablaze.
Superboy flew past the lab and noticed smoke pouring out of the windows. Noticing that Luthor had exposed Kryptonite in the lab, Superboy remained outside and quickly decided to extinguish the fire in the lab with a gust of his super-breath which would put out the fire and remove the Kryptonite to a safe distance. Superboy successfully extinguished the fire, but the blast accidently mixed various chemicals together that destroyed all of Luthor's experiments. These gases passed onto Luthor's head, destroying his hair and left him completely bald. Enraged at the devastation of his work and his personal appearance, Luthor accused Superboy of destroying his experiments on purpose out of jealousy. From that moment onward, Lex Luthor became the sworn enemy of Superboy.
Lex soon began acting on his criminal impulses to attack Superboy with his ever-increasing array of weapons and devices. But despite theie fearsome powers, Superboy always managed to defeat Lex and send him to the Smallvile Juvenile Detention Center. Fearing that their son would never reform his ways, Lex's parents decided to move away from Smallville and changed their name to "Thorul" in hopes to raise their daughter in a relatively peaceful life away from the evil Lex. Despite this name change, Lex would later find his sister and find some sort of reconcilation with her and her children despite his evil nature.
Hero of Lexor
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Abandoned by his family and growing ever more frustrated in his ever increasing list of failed attempts to prove his superiority over Superman, Lex would create ever more intense programs and schemes to dominate the Earth which ultimately led to him leaving Earth. It would be during one of these outer space explorations that Lex would find Lexor which would become his primary refuge from the rest of the galaxy that regarded him for his evil deeds of open conquerance. The people of Lexor accepted Lex for restarting their long lost scientific creations which Lex originally sought to use in his plans for conquering Earth. But he was able to use them and trick Superman to helping him save Lexor from destruction. Grateful for their new protector they accepted Lex as their hero and First citizen.[1] Lex in turn was honestly pleased with these people having conquered them through his reluctant kindness than his driven ambition. Lex would mostly settle down on Lexor taking a wife and fathering a son. Lex would largely remain on Lexor until the planet was destroyed by his really never-ending battle with Superman whom Lex regarded as the sole reason for planet's destruction. In truth, Lex instigated the battle against Superman.
Once again deemed as villian throughout the known universe, Lex renewed his personal battle against Superman with an increased dedication to make Superman suffer.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Luthor continued in his plans to dominate the Earth and known universe even during the Crisis on Infinite Earths where he once again teamed up with his known ally Brainiac who had by this time adopted a more robotic form. It would be at this time that he would witness the death of his Earth-Two counterpart Alexei who dared to challenge Brainiac's and Lex's ambitions. Lex and the surviving villians would once again decide to side with the heroes temporarily when the Anti-Monitor resurfaced after being nearly killed by the efforts of the Flash (Barry Allen) and Supergirl who were both killed by the Anti-Monitor.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
No known superhuman powers but a beyond superhuman intellect, which he used to create super scientific devices for an amazing range of effects.Abilities
- Genius-Level Intellect: Lex has used various formulas and devices to augment his incredible genius to perform a host of effects, but most were either temporary by nature or proved too dangerous to his physiology to maintain without suffering detrimental longterm effects.
- Robotic Engineering: Lex Luthor was an expert robotocist and was perpetually creating new robotic inventions with which to foil Superman.
Strength level
Lex possesed the normal human level strength of a human male his age who engaged in no regular physical exercise. On many occasions, many artists portray Lex as an out-of-shape man with sagging jowls on his face.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Lex possessed hundreds of thousands of devices that he directly created himself, as well as enhanced and assisted in creating ranging from his most noted Lexorian Warsuit that was supposed to be able to allow him to fight on a par with Kal-El that replaced his earlier forcefield projection suit that protected him from extensive impact weapons and pressures to the materials he used to create the Bizarros.
Transportation
Many extensive and exotic devices such as an interdimensional transporter that he used to travel between dimensions.
Weapons
Extensive cache of super-science weapons that Lex used in his plans to conquer the known universe and in his personal battle with Superman.
Notes
- This version of Lex Luthor (Earth-One), including all history and corresponding appearances, was erased from existence following the collapse of the Multiverse in the 1985-86 Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series and is now considered apocryphal.
- There is a noted discrepancy between Lex Luthor's chronological age in relation to that of Superman's. Both men are approximately the same age, as revealed when they first met as teenagers in Adventure Comics #271. However, in Adventure Comics #253, Superboy passed Luthor on the street, and Luthor was significantly older than the Boy of Steel, and still had a head full of hair (even though he had lost it during his first encounter with Superboy). No explanation has ever been provided for the discrepancy, nor has the Earth-One canonicity of the older Luthor ever been repudiated.
- Lex Luthor originally had brown hair unlike his other dimensional counterparts who had naturally red hair. Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two for example had a full head of hair and was clean shaven; Alexander Luthor, Sr. of Earth-Three was bald with a red goatee; and the modern incarnation of Luthor was first shown with a receding mane of red hair.
- A common misconception is that Lex's full name is "Alexander" akin to other interdimensional counterparts such as the New Earth Luthor, but this is erroneous as his full name is simply Lex.
Trivia
- In 1986, author Alan Moore wrote a two-part imaginary tale which represented the swan song saga of the Pre-Crisis Superman family of characters. Beginning in Superman (Volume 1) #123 and concluding in Action Comics #583, the story revealed that Lex Luthor had cybernetically interfaced with his old partner Brainiac. This plot device was later revisited in several of the final season episodes of Justice League Unlimited, in which Luthor was the leader of a cadre of super-villains. Luthor's team was reminiscent of the Legion of Doom from the Challenge of the Super Friends animated series.
- In the WB/CW television series Smallville, a young Lex Luthor (played by Michael Rosenbaum) becomes close friends with Tom Welling's Clark Kent. Their friendship (and subsequent falling out) is similar to the original flashback meeting between the Silver Age Luthor and Superboy. Like the original story, young Clark is indirectly responsible for Luthor's hair loss, although in Smallville, it is actually radiation from the meteor shower (caught in the wake of Clark's rocket ship) that ultimately causes Lex's hair to fall out.
- After a time-traveling adventure with Superman, Lex Luthor inadvertently caused the infamous San Francisco earthquake of 1906. [2]
Recommended Reading
- Action Comics
- Superboy (Volume 1)
- Super Friends
- Superman (Volume 1)
- World's Finest (Volume 1)
- Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #14
Related Articles
- Lex Luthor image gallery
- Lex Luthor (Earth-One) appearances list
- Lex Luthor quotes page
- Superman (Earth-One)
See Also
- Discuss Lex Luthor (Earth-One) on the forums
- Appearances of Lex Luthor (Earth-One)
- Character Gallery: Lex Luthor (Earth-One)
- Quotations by Lex Luthor (Earth-One)
- Images featuring Lex Luthor (Earth-One)
Links and References
- Lex Luthor at Wikipedia
- Lex Luthor article at Supermanica
- Lex Luthor article at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
- Lex Luthor article at JLA Database
