Lex Luthor
Alexander "Lex" Luthor is a DC Comics character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster , an adversary of Superman's . Lex Luthor first appeared in US Action Comics # 23 (April 1940) in 1940.
Importance over time
From 1940 to the early 1980s, Luthor was a mad scientist trying to bring Superman to his knees with death rays, robotic extermination machines, or new forms of kryptonite . Lex Luthor, who is usually portrayed as bald, but wears a wig or has red hair , depending on the version , has no supernatural superpowers, but the mind of a genius, and he tried to destroy Superman, to gain wealth or to rule the world in himself to tear.
From 1985 onwards, the entire DC universe was completely reorganized in the course of the events surrounding the parallel earth crisis and Lex Luthor was also reoriented. Luthor went from mad scientist to power-hungry industrialist. With his business empire LexCorp , he controls almost the entire business world of Metropolis . Even the Daily Planet , the newspaper that Superman's alter ego Clark Kent works for, is part of that empire. Lex Luthor was President of the United States in 2000 .
biography
Lex Luthor comes from an old family from Metropolis, which became completely impoverished at the end of the Second World War. He grew up in the poorest area of Metropolis, the suicide slums . When Lex was thirteen, his alcoholic, hopelessly falling out parents were killed in a car accident; the cause of the accident is still unclear to this day (it is sometimes claimed that Lex had a hand in it). The young Luthor received $ 3,000,000 from his parents' life insurance and went to live with foster parents, the Griggs couple. It soon turned out that the Griggs, who were taking in rows and numbers of orphans, were interested only in his money. After Lena, a young orphan, died, Luthor evolved into the ruthless and determined egomaniac he is today in order to survive in this hostile environment.
As a young man, Luthor met the Contessa Erica Alexandra del Portenza, with whom he soon started a relationship. Luthor founded his company LexCorp, which quickly developed into one of the most influential global corporations and consolidated its power. For a long time, Luthor was the most powerful and influential man in Metropolis. As a respected and feared businessman and head of LexCorp, he controlled all of Metropolis, including bribery, murder and terror. Research institutions as well as television and radio stations were part of his empire. Luthor succeeded like no other in manipulating public opinion and bribing powerful people on his side. Luthor has been married several times over the years. According to his own admission, he almost succeeded in making the reporter and later love of Superman, Lois Lane , his seventh wife.
Luthor saw himself as the heart and soul of Metropolis until Superman appeared. He arranged a test to test Superman's abilities and then offered him a seemingly friendly partnership, which Superman refused. Luthor learned very quickly that you can't buy Superman's service and loyalty. Since then, he has made it his goal to defeat Superman and take back his old place as the most powerful man in Metropolis. Luthor tried again and again to kill him - but unsuccessfully.
When the scientist Emmet Vale discovered the material kryptonite, the radiation of which can weaken and even kill Superman, and used it as an energy source for the cyborg Metallo , Luthor had Metallo captured and made a ring from the kryptonite in order to keep Superman at bay at all times. Over time, however, the radiation also poisoned Luthor, and doctor Gretchen Kelley was ultimately forced to amputate his hand and replace it with a prosthesis. When he discovered that the rest of his body was meanwhile also affected by radiation poisoning, Luthor developed a diabolical plan: he set off on a previously announced test flight in an experimental aircraft and crashed over the Andes as planned. When Superman recovered the body from the wreck, he was convinced that the Lex Luthor chapter was closed once and for all.
But Dabney Donovan , a scientist from the Cadmus project , created a young clone out of Luther's unirradiated brain and eyes, which he also freed from various “genetic defects”, such as the predisposition to baldness. The young Luthor pretended to be his own son, who grew up in a secret Australian hideout, and took over the management of LexCorp, always trying to make amends for the crimes of his "father".
He began a relationship with Supergirl , who through him felt reminded of her creator, the "good" Lex Luthor from another universe. After an attempted murder of his martial arts trainer Sasha Green, his personal physician revealed that Lex II was in fact the clone of the first Luthor. Just as Lois Lane wanted to make this disclosure public, Luthor, who was infected with a clone virus, destroyed the city center of Metropolis in a great battle, which was later rebuilt by Superman and a few other heroes.
Shortly afterwards, the seriously ill Luthor fell into a coma. He spent many months in the care of STAR-Labs until he was finally resurrected with the help of kryptonic technology. The physically weakened Luthor then entered into a pact with the prince of Hell Neron and received a healthy, strong body in exchange for his soul. The only thing Luthor had not thought of in this deal was hair.
In the meantime, the Contessa Erica Alexandra del Portenza had taken over the management of LexCorp. When Luthor met his old friend some time later in a casino in Monaco, their love flared up again and after a long, secret relationship, the two married. After their honeymoon, Luthor had to stand trial. He managed to obtain an acquittal by posing as "real Lex Luthor" and blaming a "clone" for the crimes. Since then, Luthor has been the official head of LexCorp again.
He has now also regained his kryptonite ring, which Batman had owned for a long time . His marriage was short-lived; after the Contessa had given him a daughter who Luthor named Lena (after the only person he had really loved), Luthor had the Contessa immobilized with medication and put into an artificial coma, so that he now has sole custody of his daughter and Heiress owns.
After Luthor rebuilt Gotham City, which had been devastated by the earthquake, he declared his candidacy for president. Luthor took advantage of the newly acquired reputation as "the man who saved Gotham" from completely. And his reputation and popularity kept getting better, even an assassination attempt by a crazy waitress could not stop him, on the contrary, it even contributed to his popularity.
As the election campaign entered the hot phase, Lex formed an alliance with both Aquaman , King of Atlantis, and Batman's archenemy Ra's al Ghul . After all, Luthor won the election for President of the United States by a large margin and Superman had to congratulate his archenemy on his victory for better or worse. During his tenure as president, Lex appointed Ra's al Gul's daughter Talia as LexCorp's new executive director. He appointed Clark's childhood friend Pete Ross to serve as Vice President and appointed Lois Lane's father, General Sam Lane, to be Secretary of Defense .
Many superheroes, particularly Superman and Batman, viewed Luther's growing power with discomfort. When Batman broke into the White House to get the kryptonite ring back from Luthor because he believed the power of the US, LexCorp and the ring was too much for a man, he was caught by Lex. He threatened to expose his identity and that of all his fellow campaigners and to incite all the power of the USA on his neck.
Movie and TV
Lex Luthor appears in the movies Superman I , Superman II - Alone Against All , Superman IV - The World on the Edge , Superman Returns and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice .
The character of Lex Luthor was also adopted in many adaptations of the Superman comic. Gene Hackman gave him a humorous twist in the Superman films of the late 1970s and 1980s . In the television series Lois and Clark , John Shea portrayed him as a slippery businessman. In the series Smallville , John Glover plays Alexander's father Lionel Luthor , one of the authors' own creations, while Michael Rosenbaum plays the young Luthor. Kevin Spacey played his role in Superman Returns from 2006 . In the 2015 movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , he is played by Jesse Eisenberg . In the series Supergirl he is played by Jon Cryer .
Luthor appeared frequently in the Superman animated series of the 1960s and 1970s. In the series of 1988 and in the Superman -Animationsserien 1996 Luthor took over the role of power-hungry businessman one who was involved in shady dealings, and did everything to destroy Superman. In 1996 he appeared in the pilot for the series and was responsible for introducing various elements over the course of the series. Luthor was the first to discover the material kryptonite and was responsible for the creation of two opponents of Superman, the kryptonite-powered cyborg Metallo and the faulty clone of Superman, Bizarro .
In the television series The League of the Just , the story of Luther continues. Here, Luther's criminal activities are exposed by the Justice League and he becomes ill with cancer caused by kryptonite. Since then, Lex has been wearing some kind of armor that prevents the cancer from spreading. He is later cured of cancer by Brainiac who was in his body.
Luthor resumes his old role as a scientist and, together with other super villains, forms the "Injustice Gang". After helping avert a global crisis, Lex is pardoned by the government. He takes over the reins of LexCorp and tries to redress his crimes. But Luthor secretly works with the secret government organization Project Cadmus and tries with their help to ruin the reputation of Superman and the Justice League. The series ends with a story arc in season four in which Lex Luthor is hired by the intelligent, criminal gorilla Grodd as a member of his criminal organization. Luthor initially joins in because he tries to re-establish his broken connection with Brainiac, but eventually rebels and takes over the organization himself. His efforts to rebuild Brainiac result in Superman's old enemy Darkseid being brought back to life and attacking Earth. Superheroes and supervillains must pull together to avert the destruction of the earth, and ironically, it is Luthor who saves the earth by transforming himself into a god-like being and giving Darkseid what he has long been looking for: the anti-life equation. Luthor is spoken by the actor Clancy Brown in both series .
In the animated series Young Justice , Luthor is one of the leaders of an organization called "the Light". And like in the comics, he's Superboy's human DNA donor. Luthor is spoken by the actor Mark Rolston .
The name itself
There were always discussions about what “Lex” stands for as an abbreviation. Different variants were Alexis, Alexei and Alexander. However, Alexander, after Alexander the Great , is the appropriate name, as he is also called by his former nanny (at least in the TV series: 1.19). Originally Lex was probably not intended to be an abbreviation. The Latin meaning of lex as law is interesting .
Luthor is one of many characters in the world of Supermans whose name is an alliteration of LL, as well as Lois Lane , Lucy Lane , Lana Lang , Lionel Luthor and Lori Lemaris .
See also
Web links
- Give me your lunch money - "If Lex Luthor was starting out today" (comic by "The Joy of Tech", English)