Lex Luthor Trivia
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45 free Lex Luthor trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Lex Luthor has been Superman's archenemy since Action Comics #23 in April 1940, and he has had more reinventions than almost any villain in comics: a red-haired mad scientist in a flying city, the bald genius whose hair loss started as an artist's mistake, the teenage Smallville rival, the 1986 corporate tycoon modelled on Trump and Hughes, the kryptonite-ringed businessman who lost a hand, a president of the United States, a Justice League member and, briefly, a Martian-human god called Apex Lex. This quiz covers all of it, plus his screen life: Lyle Talbot in a 1950 serial, Gene Hackman's comic foil, Michael Rosenbaum's slow-burn Smallville arc, Clancy Brown's animated voice, Kevin Spacey, Jesse Eisenberg, Jon Cryer and Nicholas Hoult. Expect questions on LexCorp, Mercy Graves, Lena, Pete Ross, Neron, the Everyman Project and the Elseworlds where he becomes the Joker or marries Lois. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play in sets of ten or print it for comic-shop night.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Lex Luthor first appeared in April 1940, two years after Superman's debut, in which comic?
Action Comics #23
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.
Q 02Which duo created Lex Luthor?
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
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.
Q 03In DC's comics since the 1986 reboot, 'Lex' is short for which first name?
Alexander
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.
Q 04What colour was Luthor's hair in his earliest appearances?
red
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.
Q 05In Superman Returns, Luthor steals Kryptonian crystals from the Fortress of Solitude to grow what?
A new landmass
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.
Q 06Which DC series, then home to the Superboy strip, gave Luthor the name 'Lex' and a Smallville boyhood in 1960?
Adventure Comics
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.
Q 07In his Silver Age origin, which creation of teenage Lex did Superboy accidentally destroy?
artificial life
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.
Q 08What first name was retroactively given to the Golden Age Luthor of Earth-Two?
Alexei
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.
Q 09In Silver Age comics, which relative of Lex grew up as 'Lena Thorul'?
His sister
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.
Q 10Which two creators reinvented Luthor as an evil corporate executive in 1986's The Man of Steel?
Marv Wolfman and John Byrne
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.
Q 11In which Metropolis district was the post-Crisis Luthor born?
Suicide Slum
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.
Q 12How did the teenage post-Crisis Luthor get the funds that launched his rise?
insurance money from his parents' deaths
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.
Q 13What is the name of Luthor's Metropolis company?
LexCorp
Q 21Which telepath wiped Luthor's knowledge of Superman's secret identity?
Manchester Black
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.
Q 22In 'Public Enemies', President Luthor secretly injected himself with a kryptonite-laced version of what?
Venom
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.
Q 23Who briefly became president after Luthor fled the White House?
Pete Ross
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.
Q 14What did Luthor's kryptonite ring, worn to keep Superman at bay, eventually do to Luthor himself?
Gave him cancer
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.
Q 15Luthor faked his death and returned in a cloned body posing as his own son from which country?
Australia
'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.
Q 16Which demon restored Luthor's health in exchange for his soul during Underworld Unleashed?
Neron
Neron, the demon behind Underworld Unleashed (1995), restored Luthor's body; Lex agreed because he did not believe souls existed.
Q 17In the 1978 film Superman, Luthor plans to create new beachfront property by sinking which state into the sea?
California
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.
Q 18Luthor's run for president in the comics was boosted by his help rebuilding which earthquake-shattered city?
Gotham 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.
Q 19To whom did Luthor hand control of his company before entering the White House?
Talia al Ghul
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.
Q 20Which city in Kansas did Imperiex destroy after President Luthor sat on an advance warning?
Topeka
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.
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.
Q 24Superboy, the clone Lex covets, is a hybrid of Superman's DNA and whose?
Lex's own
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.
Q 25Why was Superman powerless on Lexor, the planet whose people hailed Luthor as a hero?
It orbited a red sun
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.
Q 26In Final Crisis, Luthor helped shut down which weapon Darkseid was using to enslave humanity?
the Anti-Life Equation
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.
Q 27In the New 52, Luthor fed tips as 'Icarus' to which reporter?
Clark Kent
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.
Q 28Which super-team did Luthor join after helping defeat the Crime Syndicate in Forever Evil?
the Justice League
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.
Q 29In Year of the Villain, Luthor became 'Apex Lex', part human and part which shape-shifting alien race?
Martian
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.
Q 30In the Elseworlds tale Speeding Bullets, a disfigured Luthor adopts which identity?
The Joker
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.