45 Fun Facts About Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor first appeared in April 1940, two years after Superman's debut, in which comic?

Action Comics #23 introduced him only as 'Luthor', a schemer pushing two European nations into war from a base slung beneath a dirigible; Superman wrecked the airship and took the villain for dead.

Which duo created Lex Luthor?

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Luthor in 1940; seven years earlier their first 'Superman', in a self-published 1933 story, had himself been a bald villain bent on ruling the world.

In DC's comics since the 1986 reboot, 'Lex' is short for which first name?

Alexander Joseph Luthor is his full name in the modern comics; for his first twenty years he was simply 'Luthor', and the nickname Lex arrived only in a 1960 story about his boyhood.

What colour was Luthor's hair in his earliest appearances?

Luthor had a full head of red hair when he debuted in 1940; about a year later an artist's slip left him bald, and the mistake became his trademark look.

In Superman Returns, Luthor steals Kryptonian crystals from the Fortress of Solitude to grow what?

A new landmass in the Atlantic was the plan: it would have swamped the United States and killed billions, and Luthor laced its crystal with kryptonite so that Superman could not stop it.

Which DC series, then home to the Superboy strip, gave Luthor the name 'Lex' and a Smallville boyhood in 1960?

Adventure Comics #271 told 'How Luthor Met Superboy!': the two were teenage friends until a lab accident cost Lex his hair, and he blamed the Boy of Steel and swore revenge.

In his Silver Age origin, which creation of teenage Lex did Superboy accidentally destroy?

Lex had created an artificial life form; Superboy's super-breath put out the lab fire but spilled chemicals that dissolved the creature and left Lex bald.

What first name was retroactively given to the Golden Age Luthor of Earth-Two?

The Earth-Two Luthor was named Alexei in DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (1982); Brainiac killed him in Crisis on Infinite Earths, deciding one Luthor was enough.

In Silver Age comics, which relative of Lex grew up as 'Lena Thorul'?

His sister Lena was a toddler when their parents left Smallville and rearranged the family name; told that her brother was dead, she later befriended Supergirl, who helped keep the secret.

Which two creators reinvented Luthor as an evil corporate executive in 1986's The Man of Steel?

Marv Wolfman and John Byrne reworked him for The Man of Steel; Wolfman reasoned that a man who could afford giant robots would not need to rob banks.

In which Metropolis district was the post-Crisis Luthor born?

Suicide Slum was Metropolis's poorest quarter; the post-Crisis Lex grew up there beside Perry White, then clawed his way out to become the most powerful man in the city.

How did the teenage post-Crisis Luthor get the funds that launched his rise?

He collected insurance money from his parents' deaths: Lex had secretly insured them, then had their car's brakes sabotaged, and the payout became the seed of his business empire.

What is the name of Luthor's Metropolis company?

LexCorp arrived with the 1986 reboot; in his first story as its boss Luthor let terrorists storm his yacht to watch Superman at work, tried to put him on the payroll, and was arrested instead.

What did Luthor's kryptonite ring, worn to keep Superman at bay, eventually do to Luthor himself?

Gave him cancer: radiation from the ring forced the amputation of his right hand, and when the disease kept spreading he faked his death and had his brain moved into a cloned body.

Luthor faked his death and returned in a cloned body posing as his own son from which country?

'Lex Luthor II' arrived from Australia with a full head of hair, a beard and an accent learned from tapes, and soon won over the protoplasmic Supergirl, Matrix.

Which demon restored Luthor's health in exchange for his soul during Underworld Unleashed?

Neron, the demon behind Underworld Unleashed (1995), restored Luthor's body; Lex agreed because he did not believe souls existed.

In the 1978 film Superman, Luthor plans to create new beachfront property by sinking which state into the sea?

California was the target: Luthor aimed a reprogrammed nuclear missile at the San Andreas Fault, and Superman had to dive into the fault line and mend it to stop the coast sliding away.

Luthor's run for president in the comics was boosted by his help rebuilding which earthquake-shattered city?

Gotham City had been written off by Washington after its earthquake in No Man's Land; Luthor's firm led the rebuilding, and the goodwill helped carry him to the White House.

To whom did Luthor hand control of his company before entering the White House?

Talia al Ghul, as 'Talia Head', ran the firm during his presidency and then sold the whole company to the Wayne Foundation, leaving the fugitive Luthor with nothing.

Which city in Kansas did Imperiex destroy after President Luthor sat on an advance warning?

Topeka was wiped out in the Our Worlds at War invasion; Luthor had kept the warning to himself so that Earth would be drawn into a war he could be seen to lead.

Which telepath wiped Luthor's knowledge of Superman's secret identity?

Manchester Black erased the secret from President Luthor's mind as an act of repentance; in a 2022 story Luthor killed Black while harnessing his telepathy to make the whole world forget as well.

In 'Public Enemies', President Luthor secretly injected himself with a kryptonite-laced version of what?

Venom, the super-steroid that powers Bane, was laced with liquid kryptonite; it made Luthor stronger but so irrational that he confessed his crimes mid-fight and ended up a fugitive.

Who briefly became president after Luthor fled the White House?

Pete Ross, a boyhood friend of Superman's from Smallville, had been Luthor's vice president; he took over when Luthor fled, then quickly resigned.

Superboy, the clone Lex covets, is a hybrid of Superman's DNA and whose?

Teen Titans (2003) revealed Conner Kent was grown from Superman's DNA and Lex's own; Luthor later used a mental trigger to turn him against the Titans.

Why was Superman powerless on Lexor, the planet whose people hailed Luthor as a hero?

It orbited a red sun, so the two enemies fought there as equals; Luthor revived the planet's lost technology, and its grateful people renamed their world after him and cast Superman as the villain.

In Final Crisis, Luthor helped shut down which weapon Darkseid was using to enslave humanity?

The Anti-Life Equation was being fed into the helmets of Darkseid's Justifiers; Luthor and Dr Sivana seized control of them, then Lex fought beside Superman in what he called a first team-up of good and bad.

In the New 52, Luthor fed tips as 'Icarus' to which reporter?

Clark Kent did not know that his informant 'Icarus' was Luthor, who was leaking a corrupt media mogul's secrets while quietly cutting a deal with the alien Collector of Worlds.

Which super-team did Luthor join after helping defeat the Crime Syndicate in Forever Evil?

The Justice League took Luthor in after Forever Evil, when his band of villains beat the Crime Syndicate and the public hailed him as a hero; the wary heroes let him join only grudgingly.

In Year of the Villain, Luthor became 'Apex Lex', part human and part which shape-shifting alien race?

Martian DNA was part of the goddess Perpetua's gift when she remade him as Apex Lex; the new powers came with the Martians' old weakness to fire.

In the Elseworlds tale Speeding Bullets, a disfigured Luthor adopts which identity?

In Speeding Bullets (1993) an accident leaves Luthor chalk-white and unhinged, and he re-emerges as the Joker of that world; Kal-El there was raised by Thomas and Martha Wayne.

In Superman: Red Son, Luthor is married to which character?

Lois Lane is Lois Luthor in Red Son (2003); her husband, a genius scientist, becomes president, outwits the Soviet Superman and goes on to cure every known disease.

In Amalgam Comics, Luthor was merged with a Marvel villain to become which character?

The Green Skull blended Luthor with Captain America's foe the Red Skull: a war profiteer who dosed himself with a serum made from a green meteorite, which prolonged his life but left him skull-faced.

In a much-memed 1978 children's dictionary of DC heroes, Luthor is shown making off with forty of what?

Cakes: The Super Dictionary taught the word 'forty' by showing Luthor wheeling away forty of them; the page became an internet joke, and a 2011 Superman comic made the theft canon.

Who played Luthor opposite Christopher Reeve's Superman, starting in 1978?

Gene Hackman played Luthor in three films; when director Richard Donner was fired from Superman II, Hackman declined to return for reshoots, so a body double and a voice impersonator filled in.

Who played Luthor in 2006's Superman Returns?

Kevin Spacey was the only actor Bryan Singer considered, having won an Oscar in Singer's The Usual Suspects; his Luthor leaves prison and marries a rich widow to inherit her fortune.

Who played Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?

Jesse Eisenberg played Luthor as a young tycoon who manipulates Batman into fighting Superman, kidnapping Superman's mother to force the duel; he ends the film in prison.

Who played Luthor in the 2025 film Superman?

Nicholas Hoult first went after the role of Superman himself and screen-tested for it; James Gunn gave that part to David Corenswet and cast Hoult as the envious billionaire Luthor instead.

Who played Lex Luthor for seven seasons of Smallville?

Michael Rosenbaum played Lex from 2001 to 2008, starting out as the teenage hero's friend after being pulled from a car that had plunged off a bridge; the friendship slowly soured into enmity.

Which sitcom veteran played Luthor on Supergirl and in Crisis on Infinite Earths?

Jon Cryer first joined the family in 1987 as Lex's nephew Lenny in Superman IV; three decades later Supergirl cast the Two and a Half Men star as Lex himself.

Who voices Luthor across the DC Animated Universe, starting with Superman: The Animated Series?

Clancy Brown originally auditioned to voice Superman; the producers had him read for Luthor instead, and he has voiced the villain in cartoons and games ever since 1996.

Which bodyguard serves Luthor in the DC Animated Universe?

Mercy Graves was created for Superman: The Animated Series in 1996 as Luthor's bodyguard and chauffeur, and later migrated into the comics.

Who played Luthor in the 1950 serial Atom Man vs. Superman?

Lyle Talbot had played Commissioner Gordon in the 1949 Batman and Robin serial; a year later he switched sides as the screen's first live-action Luthor, who doubles as the masked Atom Man.

In Smallville, who played Lex's father Lionel Luthor?

John Glover played Lionel Luthor for Smallville's first seven seasons, until Lex killed him by shoving him through his office window.

Which Superman villain did Luthor's scientists create in a failed attempt to clone Superman?

Bizarro was Dr Teng's botched attempt to clone Superman for Luthor in The Man of Steel #5 (1986); the flawed copy burst into dust in a mid-air collision, and the dust restored a blind woman's sight.

In Kingdom Come, the older Luthor leads which group against Superman's militarised heroes?

Luthor's Mankind Liberation Front, with Vandal Savage and a brainwashed Captain Marvel, opposed the superhumans in Mark Waid and Alex Ross's 1996 Kingdom Come.