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When Lex Luthor challenged Superman to a fair fight, the Man of Steel accepted and built a space-craft to take them to a world that orbited a red sun. That planet would come to be called Lexor.

Lexor was a world that orbited a red sun, where Lex Luthor earned the admiration of the people by restoring their lost technology. It was arid until Lex's intervention, and they made him their leader and revered him like a messiah; even naming the planet "Lexor" in his honor.

History

When Lex Luthor challenged Superman to a fair fight, the Man of Steel accepted and built a space-craft to take them to a world that orbited a red sun. That planet would come to be called Lexor.

Under the red sun, Superman struggled; but was ultimately victorious. Lex fled, and came across the dregs of an advanced civilization. Quickly comprehending the planet's technology, Luthor began restoring their irrigation. He reactivated robots to dig a well, but they would ultimately be unsuccessful at finding water.

By the time Superman arrived in the Capital City, Lex had learned their language and become the people's hero, and thus his enemy Superman was cast as the villain. The adversaries fought man-to-man once more, but Luthor threw the match and pleaded to be taken back to Earth, as he was afraid to tell his new admirers that he had failed to find more water. Lex pledged to return, and left with Superman.[1]

Their spacecraft left Lexor's solar system for one with a yellow sun, and Luthor persuaded a re-energized Superman to stop at a frozen planet and throw mountains of ice back to Lexor. The planet awash in water, Superman was happy to let Luthor take the credit, while Luthor was afraid that Superman had seen him "go soft".

Imprisoned on Earth, Luthor received a present from Superman: a photograph taken through a super-telescope in Superman's Fortress of Solitude, showing that a statue of Luthor had been erected on Lexor.[1]

Lex realized that he liked the adulation of the Lexorians, and found that he was experiencing compassion -- a new feeling for Luthor -- so much so that he would not allow Brainiac to steal from them. Lex soon met the Lexorian woman he would marry, who originally called herself Tharla.[2] When they said their wedding vows she was named Ardora, and she lived up to the name, being faithful to Lex to a fault.[3]

Superman returned a number of times to try and arrest Luthor, but the red sun in the Lexorian system stripped him of his Superpowers, and the populace of Lexor regarded him as a villain. Luthor had studied the ancient high technology of Lexor, and had developed a ray which gave him temporary superpowers; which he used as the costumed "Defender".[4]

Superman eventually revealed the truth of Lex Luthor's crimes to both Ardora and the people of Lexor. While Ardora stood by her man, the citizens of Lexor revolted, pulled down the statue of Luthor, burned his books and smashed his machinery.[5]

The Last Days of Lexor

In the years between visits from Lex Luthor, Ardora had somehow calmed the population and won back their trust. Fresh from defeat at the hands of the Man of Steel, Luthor recuperated in the arms or Ardora and basked in the love of his people. Ardora had bore him a son, and in his long absence his child had grown into a toddler.[6]

Lexor 002

Final destruction of Lexor

A robot that Luthor had left unattended on Earth attacked Metropolis, and Lex knew that Superman would yet again come for him. Paranoid, Luthor built his very first Warsuit with old-time Lexorian tech, and tested it on his own citizens and infrastructure as the Mystery Marauder.

Meanwhile, the planet Lexor had become unstable, and through his observations, Luthor discovered that there was a chain reaction building in the core. He built and installed a Neutrarod which modulated the core neutrons, temporarily saving the planet; though the Neutrarod would ultimately be its doom.[6]

Superman had developed a coating which allowed him to briefly maintain his powers under Lexor's red sun, and confronted Luthor. Luthor boasted about his control of the Warsuit, and the people of Lexor were outraged when they realized that they had been used and attacked by their own hero.

Lex blasted Superman with every deadly type of energy his suit possessed, but the energy reflected off of Superman and struck the embedded Neutrarod. Lexor's chain reaction was initialized — and neither Superman or Luthor could have stopped it - and the planet died in flames with Ardora and Lex Luthor, Jr. just out of Luthor's reach. Superman returned to Earth, believing that Luthor had died with Lexor, but the villain survived. Unable to accept his culpability in the disaster, Luthor swore new and fresh vengeance against Superman.[6]

Within the New Earth reality, Lexor was apparently destroyed by Brainiac.[7]

Lexor Details

Language

The natives of Lexor spoke Lexorian; a language that both Lex Luthor and Superman have learned through a Lesson Machine that Luthor restored.[1] The phrase that Ardora first identifies herself by -- "I'm Tharla"[2] -- may actually have had meaning in the Lexorian language rather than being strictly her unmarried name.

Geology

Lexor was an arid, sandy planet. Otherwise unremarkable, the planet produced one of the rarest minerals in the universe, the Rainbow Crystals, which irradiate and "slow the electroencephalic action" of the brain. It was the prevalence of these crystals in their homes that caused the Lexorians to revert to barbarism. Lex Luthor was exposed to them for some time during his month-long honeymoon on Lexor, before Superman gathered them all and threw them into the sun.[4]

The brain-deadening effect of Rainbow Crystals that remained in the environment could also explain how Lex Luthor regained Lexorians trust after they revolted. They first turned against Lex during Superman's funerary fly-by; suffering from Luthor-created Virus X[5] but rebuilt his statue and infrastructure by the time he next returned.[6]

In a twist of fate, Luthor discovered that Lexor had an unstable core, and would detonate as Superman's home planet of Krypton had done. Lex created a device he called the Neutrarod which tapped the planet's core and slowed the chain reaction.[6]

Justice

The courtroom on Lexor operated very much like an Earth court; with a judge, prosecutor, defendant and jury. The jury was composed of three Lexorians -- one from each generation. Capital crimes resulted in the unconvicted defendant being housed on death row, and their method of execution was the Stone Room. The Stone Room housed a ray which petrified the condemned.[8]

Metahumans

Lexor had one super-hero and two super-villains. The costumed creep that everyone feared was Superman. Whereas their hero was named "The Defender", and possessed many of the powers that Superman would have had under a yellow sun, including flight, invulnerability, super-strength and X-ray vision. The Defender was secretly Lex Luthor; who gained temporary superpowers from the superpower granting ray he'd restored.[4]

In Lexor's final days, Superman donned a protective coating to briefly retain his powers, and battled Lexor's first domestic supervillain -- the Mystery Marauder; who was soon revealed to be Lex Luthor testing his prototype War Suit.[6]

Wildlife

A number of terribly dangerous animals and plants existed on Lexor, such that the Lexorians must have perpetually been on guard: jellyfish that appeared to be a pond, waiting to trap passers-by; or deadly poison-thistle weeds that killed with a touch.

  • Dorulgs: Huge voracious birds that raided Lexorian crops, and were repelled by Lex Luthor's ingenuity.[1]
  • Living Lake: A terrestrial jellyfish that could appear to be a pond or lake, which lured its prey with the promise of water, but drowned and consumed them.[3]
  • Madness Flower: A large fragrant plant whose pollen caused temporary insanity in those who inhaled a sufficient quantity. Superman's lawyers, Vel-Quenner and Garn Abu, tried to use his previous proximity to the madness flower as the basis for a "temporary insanity" defense at his murder trial.[3][8]
  • Poison Point Thistle Flower: A noxious weed that grew in the Capital City, where the thistles contained a fast-acting poison that killed on contact. Lex Luthor's wife Ardora came within a hair's breadth of killing Superman with one.[9]
  • Thought Beast: A wrinkled, single-eyed beast that created a truth-field that compelled anyone near it to tell only the truth. These animals were very reclusive, and the shock of more than two minds within its truth field would kill the beast.[3][8]

Points of Interest

  • Ancient Gladiatorial Arena
  • Convocation Centre
  • Luthor Library
  • Statue of Lex Luthor
  • Two unnamed Moons
  • The Neutrarod

Residents

Alexis Luthor Earth One 0003

Ardora meets Luthor

Notes

  • This version of Lexor, including all history and corresponding appearances, was erased from existence following the collapse of the original Multiverse in the 1985–86 Crisis on Infinite Earths event and later restored following the rebirth of the infinite Multiverse during the Dark Crisis of 2022-2023. Even though other versions of the character may have appeared, this information does not apply to those versions.
  • A future vision of Lexor is shown to Lex Luthor in Prime Earth continuity by the Totality, though it is eventually revealed to be a falsity shown to him by Perepetua.[11]

Recommended Readings

See Also

Links and References

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