Lex Luthor (Lois & Clark)

An incredibly private man, Luthor allows little to become known about his early life. Luthor came from a wealthy family, but was orphaned at the age of 14 when his parents were killed in a car crash. Luthor took over his first business at the age of 21,^[1] with rumors that the take-over was hostile. He had been at one point married to, and subsequently divorced, Dr. Ariana Carlin.

In the present day, Luthor is the third richest man in the world,^[2]^[3] behind businessman Arthur Chow, of Hong Kong, and Elena Pappas, of Athens, Greece, with a net worth of over $20 billion, and an annual income of an additional $2 billion.^[3] Luthor owns or has a stake in numerous businesses, corporations, and philanthropic ventures around the world, including The Luthor Home for Homeless Children, Lex*Tel Communications,^[1] The Lexor Hotel,^[4] and Luthor Technologies.^[2]

Despite the charm he exudes to the public, Luthor is secretly a ruthless and power-hungry individual involved in many criminal enterprises. Luthor also has an obsessive hatred of Superman, who occasionally foils his schemes, but is just as often oblivious to them. Financial gain and the defeat of Superman are more often than not the motives behind his illegal actions. Luthor's schemes have included sabotaging the Project Pegasus space laboratory in order to propel his own privately-owned laboratory,^[1] and funding the creation of a group of fighters with motorized prosthesis which he hoped could defeat Superman in combat.^[3]

A solitary person, Luthor has no close friends or family. He does share some connection with his right-hand man, Nigel St. John, and, to a lesser extent, his consultant Asabi. However, it is always very clear in their interactions that St. John and Asabi are still employees of Luthor, and not equals. Luthor is also a ladies man, and has had a number of romantic interests, including Lois Lane and Dr. Antoinette Baines.^[1]

Luthor commits suicide by jumping off the balcony of his top floor penthouse. He is brought back from the dead by his personal physician Dr. Gretchen Kelly. He loses his hair as a temporary side effect of the re-animation process, and finds that in his absence he has lost his entire fortune and been supplanted as ruler of the Metropolis crime scene by Intergang, who manipulate Luthor as a pawn to acquire kryptonite for them. When he kills Kelly and attempts to reclaim Lois Lane, Superman stops him and prevents him from killing himself once again, sending him to prison to serve a double life sentence.^[5]

A year later, he escapes from prison thanks to a clone of the President granting him a pardon^[6] and kidnaps Lois Lane, replacing her with a clone just before her wedding.^[7] He discovers Superman's true identity, so he directs a brainwashed Lois to kill Superman with a Quantum Disruptor, but she fires a warning shot instead. Luthor is killed in the resultant collapse of his underground subway hideout, this time with no one to bring him back due to his short-sighted murder of Kelly.^[8]

Notes

This version of the character is exclusive to the continuity of the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and is an adaptation of Luthor. The original character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and first appeared in Superman #4.
Lex Luthor was portrayed by John Shea.

Trivia

Unlike other version of Lex Luthor, he has a full head of hair for the majority of the series. The actor, John Shea, addressed this by stating "Hey, this is the '90s. Do you think a billionaire like Luthor couldn't get himself a full head of hair?" He lost his hair upon his revival from the dead, but grew it back later.

Lex Luthor (Lois & Clark)

Contents

History

Notes

Trivia

Related

Footnotes