Alexis Luthor (Earth-One)

Lex Luthor

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"Go ahead, Superman -- try and fight back! Your peanut-brain can't control your dinosaur-size body!"

--Lex Luthor

Real Name: Lex Luthor
Some mistakenly think Lex's full name is "Alexander" akin to other interdimensional counterparts such as the Earth-Three Luthor but this is a mistake as his full name is simply Lex
Nicknames: None
Former Aliases: Defender of Lexor
Other Current Aliases: Lex Thorul (legally changed name of his family)

Status

Occupation: Scientist; would-be world conqueror; former hero of Lexor; criminal mastermind
Legal Status: Lex Luthor is a citizen of the United States of Earth-One with a criminal record as well as on several other populated planets both inside and outside his native Earth-One dimension; First citizen of Lexor
Identity: Public
Marital Status: Widowed
Group Affiliation: Former partner of Brainiac; former member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains; leader of several superpowered and non-powered criminal groups
Base of Operations: Primarily Metropolis; formerly Smallville; formerly the planet Lexor; multiple laboratories and bases native to Earth-One dimension and other external dimensions

Origin

a

Place of Birth: unspecified but suggested near Smallville, Kansas
Known Relatives: Ardora (wife, deceased); Lex Luthor, Jr (son, deceased); Lena Thorul (sister); Jeff Colby (brother-in-law);
First Appearance: Earth 1 specific origin revealed Adventure Comics 271 (1960)
(contended) Superman (Volume 1) #90
Final Appearance: Crisis on Infinite Earths #12

History

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.

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.

File:Adventure comics271.jpg

Superboy accidently creating his life-long foe

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.
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. 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.
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.
Lex survived the Crisis but was reformated into a new being in the new universe which was seemingly a composite of all the previous primary versions of Luthor -- minus of course the Earth-Three Alexander's truly heroic heart -- as a ruthlessly dangerous and successful business tycoon who tries on numerous occasions to marry his native incarnation of Lois Lane (like Alexander actually did).

Characteristics

Height: x'xx"
Weight: xxx lbs (xxx kg)
Eyes: Eye colour unknown
Hair: (as a teenager) brown; (as an adult) bald
Unusual Features: Lex Luthor went prematurely bald at a young age due to a laboratory accident.

Powers

Known Powers: No known powers.
Known Abilities: No known abilities.
Strength Level: Strength level unknown

Miscellaneous

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 Kal-El Superman (Earth-One).

Notes

The character of Lex Luthor was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Lex Luthor originally had BROWN hair unlike his other dimensional counterparts, Alexei Luthor of Earth Two and Alexander Luthor, Sr. of Earth Three and the Modern Age incarnation who was first shown with a receding main of red hair.

Other Media

This section pertains only to the Pre-Crisis version of Lex Luthor.

The first media appearance of the bald-headed and thus thought of Earth-One Lex Luthor was in the fifteen-chapter 1950 movie serial known as Atom Man vs. Superman. However Luthor had been bald since the mid 1940s despite being in the so called "Golden Age" era that is attributed to Alexei Luthor of Earth Two who ALWAYS had his full red hair. Lyle Talbot played the role of the villainous Luthor and starred opposite Kirk Alyn's titular protagonist, Superman. In this storyline, Luthor embodies the archetype of the mad scientist and threatens the citizens of Metropolis with various death-rays, teleportation devices and super-scientific explosives. In the tradition of comic storytelling devices, this version of Luthor functioned as both an Earth-One and Earth-Two incarnation of the character.

The first animated version of Lex Luthor was featured in the 1966 animated series, the The New Adventures of Superman where he appeared in three episodes.

Voice actor Stan Jones provided the voice for Lex Luthor on the 1978 animated series the Challenge of the Super Friends. This version of Luthor was very similar to the Pre-Crisis Earth-One version in that he was a highly intelligent scientist, armed with a never-ending supply of futuristic gadgets and prone to fits of triumphantly villainous laughter. Although commonly recognized as the nemesis of Superman, this Luthor waged war against not only the Mand of Steel, but the entire Justice League of America. To consolidate his power base, he gathered together his own band of criminals and united them under the banner of the Legion of Doom. Although each member of the Legion possessed their own motivations, they all agreed to follow Luthor's lead in each of their endeavors. Luthor's Legion were governed by two simultaneous objectives: the defeat of the Super Friends, and total conquest of the Earth. Although the Legion of Doom succeeded in capturing the Super Friends on many occasions, they have never managed to decisively defeat them.

Arguably, the most famous version of the Luthor character to date was the one portrayed in the 1978 Warner Bros. feature film, Superman: The Movie, as well as its numerous sequels. The role was initially played by Gene Hackman with a revisionist characterization later provided by Kevin Spacey for the 2006 film Superman Returns. Hackman's portrayal of Luthor was more comically aloof than his comic book counterpart, often bandying words with colorful cohorts such as the sycophantic Otis, and the voluptuous Eve Teschmacher. In the movies, Luthor was less the mad scientist portrayed in earlier depictions, and more of an ambitious grifter, with grandiose dreams of over-the-top real estate scams. In Superman: The Movie, Luthor purchases vast expanses of western desert, with the intention of raising its value by wiping the state of California off the map. Naturally, Superman (played by Christopher Reeve) foils Luthor's plan and saves the day. Superman takes Luthor to prison, but it isn't long before the follically-challenged Luthor is free and plotting out his next scheme. Hackman's character eventually aligns himself with three evil Kryptonians, who, like himself, wish to take over the planet Earth (which they mistakenly refer to as the planet Houston). Luthor even succeeds in sweet-talking the Kryptonian commander, General Zod, into making him the ruler of Australia. Luthor's dreams of an empirical Outback are quickly shattered however, as Superman manages to rid Earth of the three Kryptonians and arrest Luthor once again. Hackman reprised the role of Lex Luthor one final time in the franchise's third sequel, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. In this film, Luthor is out of prison and seeking to destroy Superman by pitting him against his own solar-powered creation, Nuclear Man.

In 2005, director Bryan Singer began filming Superman Returns. Superman Returns is tangentially tied to the continuity of the first two Superman films, while ignoring Superman III and IV. For Superman Returns, actor Kevin Spacey donned the skullcap and offered forth his portrayal of the Man of Steel's arch-rival. To maintain consistency, Spacey patterned his version of Luthor after the work originally provided by Gene Hackman in the previous films. Ironically, Superman Returns is not the first time that Spacey has played a bald megalomaniacal genius. The 2002 comedy Austin Powers: Goldmember featured a film-within-a-film entitled Austinpussy (which was originally slated to be the name of the actual movie). Spacey appeared in a cameo portraying the role of Dr. Evil, a character nominally played by series creator Mike Myers. Modern DC comic writers payed tribute to Spacey's Lex Luthor in the 2006 storyline, Up, Up, and Away, an eight-part saga which crossed over between alternating issues of Superman (Volume 1) and Action Comics. Although released in 2006, the Luthor of Superman Returns is intended to reflect the Silver Age Lex Luthor.

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.

External Links

References

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #14

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