Luthor Family

Nothing is further known about the Luthor family of origin, but the Luthors are first shown as a middle-class family farm household established by traveling salesman Jules Luthor in the suburbs of Smallville, a little rural town in Kansas, after marrying one of t

Luthor Family
Gallery
Official Name	Unknown
Aliases	Thoruls
Identity	Public
Universe	Earth-One · New Earth · Prime Earth · Arrowverse · · ·
Affiliations
Enemies	Kent Family
Origin
Origin	Smallville, Kansas, Suicide Slum
Creators	Jerry Siegel · Kurt Schaffenberger
First appearance	Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #23 (February, 1961)

The Luthor Family, the ancestors of Lex Luthor go back many years within the United States and Metropolis with many of its members playing a prominent role in the history of Metropolis and Smallville.

History

Earth-One

Nothing is further known about the Luthor family of origin, but the Luthors are first shown as a middle-class family farm household established by traveling salesman Jules Luthor in the suburbs of Smallville, a little rural town in Kansas, after marrying one of the locals who would become Arlene Luthor. Soon after they had three children, an unnamed eldest daughter, Lex and Lena. Sometime later the unnamed daughter eloped to Europe as a teenager and eventually sired Nasthalthia Luthor. Since Jules was often away for work, it was up to Arlene to raise her children, and when he grew up, Lex helped with the farm; as the woman soon realized, however, he was far too smart to be a farm boy: he was a natural-born genius and prodigious inventor, who felt limited in the suburbs. In order to grant their son more stimuli, the Luthors moved to Smallville, where Lex became a fan of the local hero, Superboy, and even started helping him. Soon enough, an unfortunate series of events led Lex to consumed by envy and paranoia, and he started a lethal competition with Superboy: while trying to kill the hero, Lex also endangered the entire Smallville more than once, using his intellect to build futuristic but deadly machines. In disgust of his criminal acts, the Luthors disowned their first born son and banished him from the household, eventually leaving Smallville forever. In order not to be found and avoid the shame Lex Luthor brought upon the Luthor name, the Luthors changed their name into “Thorul” (a simple anagram of Luthor), and they told Lena that her beloved older brother had died in a tragic car accident. Quite ironically, both Arlene and her husband were eventually killed in a true tragic car accident, and their daughter Lena was raised in an orphanage.

Lex Luthor would eventually be imprisoned at the Smallville Juvenile Detention Center for his criminal acts before engaging in usual patterns of escaping prison to repeatedly plague Superboy and the Earth with acts of scientific terrorism. Superboy made the decision to rename himself as "Superman." Under that name and the shield of the "S," Kal-El would lead the vanguard of a new age of heroes. In contrast, Lex would remain the Kryptonian hero's most implacable foe, at the head of a growing tide of creative villainy.

Lex eventually embarked on a journey to a faraway world orbiting a red sun and challenged Superman to fight him there in single combat, as Superman's powers would be negated under such conditions. After an initial battle, the two archfoes wandered through the desert for days until Luthor discovered the remnants and people of a great civilization and helped these benighted aliens regain some of the technical standards of their lost civilization. With help from Superman, Luthor restored the planet’s splendor and was credited with this magnanimous deed by the aliens, who would rename their planet Lexor out of gratitude. Over the years, Luthor made frequent visits to Lexor, where he was regarded as a hero and a savior while Superman was thought of as a villain for opposing him. On his fourth visit, Lex married a local named Ardora and siring a son dubbed Lex Luthor Jr. Their lives would be cut short when Lex’s warsuit accidentally overloaded a seismic device tied to the planet's core called a Neutrarod during a battle with Superman, which detonated Lexor and killed Ardora, her son Lex Jr., and millions of Lexorians died in the resulting explosion. This act would continue to cement Lex’s hatred of Superman, which would last in the form of his descendent Rohtul, 1000 years in the future.

Lena Luthor would eventually marry FBI agent Jeffrey Colby and sire a son named Val Colby, ignorant of her relation to the Luthor name, albeit discovering the relationship later on. Jeffrey Colby would eventually die in an unexplained incident, leaving behind his wife and son. Nasthalthia Luthor would later return in follow in her Uncle Lex’s criminal footsteps and endeavored to help him in his war against his Kryptonian enemies, hoping he would reward her loyalty.

Earth-Three

The Luthor family is shown consisting of the prominent scientist and the Earth’s greatest superhero Lex Luthor Sr., the Earth’s version of Lois Lane and their son Lex Luthor Jr.. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Earth-Three and the rest of its universe were attacked by the Anti-Monitor in his quest to overwhelm his matter-based counterpart and recreate the universe in his own evil image. Though the Anti-Monitor succeeded in destroying Earth-Three, Luthor and his wife, the Lois Lane of that reality, managed to protect and save their son before being destroyed and managed to send his son to Earth-One.

The Earth-Three Luthor line ended during the Infinite Crisis when Lex Jr., now driven insane from his experiences in another dimension after the Crisis of Infinite Earths and attempt to recreate his Earth and the multiverse in his image, was killed by the Joker and Lex Luthor of the New Earth.

New Earth

The Luthors are first presented as a lower-class family living in the poverty stricken area of Metropolis known as Suicide Slum, with Lex Luthor as the child of abusive parents, with a fierce desire to better himself. And as a teenager, young Lex engineered the deaths of his parents by paying off or threatening their auto-mechanic to sabotage their automobile in order to profit from a large life insurance policy he had taken out in their names, and went on to found his own company LexCorp. Further developing his company, Lex would eventually have an affair with the Alice White, wife of Perry White, siring a son named Perry White Jr. Perry White Jr would eventually perish, ending Luthor’s chance of a male heir to his legacy.

Luthor been married eight times in his life, though the first seven marriages occurred off-panel in Luthor's past sometime before Superman showed up in Metropolis. While his previous seven marriages were hinted to have been based on love, Luthor's eighth marriage to the Contessa was a marriage that was based on mutual manipulation and greed. The Contessa had bought controlling interest in LexCorp after Luthor was exposed as evil, forcing Lex into a marriage with her in order to regain control over the company. The marriage was doomed from the beginning as the two fought constantly and never loved each other. The Contessa became pregnant with Lex's child and began using the unborn child to dominate Lex into doing her bidding. Luthor's response to the Contessa's actions was to use her desire to be unconscious during childbirth to lock her in the basement of his corporate headquarters in a permanently-drugged unconscious state. Luthor took over as a single father to his daughter, Lena and vowed never to marry again. During Luthor’s campaign for US presidency, the Contessa was assassinated under Luthor’s order and Lena went missing and was presumed dead after the Imperiex War.

The events of Infinite Crisis and Alex Luthor's attempts to rewrite history actually led to alterations in Lex Luthor's personal history. In the newly created timeline, the current Luthor family has a long history with the city of Metropolis. Some of Lex's ancestors were among the pilgrims who founded the city, others were amongst the Native Americans who were there to meet them. Over the centuries, the Luthor family became wealthy and influential. Lex's great-grandfather Wallace Luthor being a millionaire industrialist and arms supplier at the beginning of the 20th Century. Wallace lost his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929, and went to his grave a pauper after having to declare bankruptcy. The family fortune would not be rebuilt until the arrival of Lex Luthor, the son of abusive alcoholic Lionel Luthor and his wife Letitia. Lex cared little for his parents, though he did love his sister Lena. In his teens, he lived for a time in Smallville with his aunt, also called Lena, and there met the young Clark Kent and his friends Lana Lang and Pete Ross. Lex eventually left Smallville under a cloud of suspicion after his father died in mysterious circumstances (engineered by Lex, though this could not be proved) and absconded with insurance money granted by his father’s death. Leaving his sister in Smallville, Lex went to Metropolis and, as before, founded LexCorp, while his sister stayed in Smallville and eventually sired a daughter named Lori Luthor.

Trivia

• In the Prime Earth continuity, the trademark red hair of Luthors comes from Hannah Alexandria Luthor becoming pregnant with the child of Jimberly Jimmington Olsen, after the two engaged in a relationship despite the disapproval of both their families. This makes Lex a distant cousin to Jimmy Olsen.

See Also

• 6 Appearances of Luthor Family
• 1 Images that include Luthor Family
• Organization Gallery: Luthor Family

Links

• None.