Lena Luthor II (Prime Earth)

Lena Luthor is the teenaged daughter of Lex Luthor.

History

Origins

When Lena was born, Lex traded her to Brainiac 13 in exchange for advanced technology from the future. Brainiac 13 raised Lena in the future and forced her to serve as his avatar in the present. Following the Imperiex War, Lena was rescued by Superman and returned to Lex who purged her of all traces of Brainiac 13, leaving scars on her forehead in the shape of Brainiac's insignia and traces of green in her hair.^[2] Afraid of what Brainiac would do to Lena if he got her again, and unable to think of a way to protect Lena while keeping her with him, Lex sent her to live with her grandmother Leticia Luthor on a private island where the two of them were effectively held prisoner by Lex. He would make brief, sporadic visits to the island but never spoke to her.^[3][4]

The Unchained

After Lex was imprisoned he lost control of the island, allowing Lena and Leticia to leave.^[2] When Lex signed over LexCorp to Superman, it triggered precautionary measures in the company bylaws. Leticia, who had a seat on LexCorp's board of directors, travelled to Metropolis to confront Lex and investigate whether he had the right to make the transfer. She brought Lena along, despite it being supposedly too dangerous for her to return to the city.^[3]

When Leticia took Lena to Stryker's Island Penitentiary to visit Lex, it was attacked by a crazed villain known as The Chained. The Chained blamed Lex for his father's death and decided to kill Lena to punish him, but she was saved by Superman and Superboy.^[5] Lex insisted that Lena needed to leave Metropolis, but she and Leticia chose to remain. Lena took a job at the rechristened Supercorp to spite her father. At Supercorp she met LL-01, a hologram programmed with Lex's memories and personality.^[6]

Lena asked LL-01 for LexCorp's files on her, which turned out to be a brief and purely factual account of her life. Lena was disappointed but Leticia showed up without warning and told her that Lex wrote so little about her because he was ashamed of what he had done to her; and scared of her because she was smarter than him. Suddenly, Mercy Graves announced that Superman had disappeared and the entire company needed to determine where he had disappeared to. Lena ran to join Mercy and Lois Lane in the command centre, but while they were working on where Superman had gone the Lex Luthor Revenge Squad attacked the tower. A mysterious figure in a Warsuit burst in and quickly restrained Lois and Mercy.

Lena assumed the attacker was Lex, but she took off her helmet and revealed that she was Leticia. Lena asked what she is doing and Leticia claimed that she started LexCorp and is taking it back. Lena fled and saw Superman, just returned from the past. She yelled at him to run, but the Revenge Squad threw a Kryptonite gas grenade at them and Superman was overcome. The squad exposed him to Red Kryptonite that induced extreme anger, and he flew to Stryker's and dragged Luthor back to Supercorp. Lena begged Superman not to kill her father, but Lex told Graft that he has made a major error by assuming that Superman was only angry at him. Superman viciously attacked the Revenge Squad and easily defeated them. Lex told Lena to run but Lena says they needed to stay and help Superman. Superman grabbed Lex and Lex stabbed him with a shard of Green Kryptonite that countered the effects of the Red Kryptonite, but also severely weakened him.

Outside, Leticia released a cloud of synthetic Kryptonite gas developed by Lex across the city. The synthetic affected humans in the same way as Kryptonians, meaning it would kill everyone in Metropolis if it was not stopped.^[2] As Superman would be instantly killed if his containment suit failed and he was exposed to the altered Kryptonite, Lex flew out in his old Superman armour to fight Leticia while Superman, Lena and the Supercorp scientists tried to find a way to disperse the Kryptonite. They eventually found a way to neutralise the Kryptonite and sent Lex information on what to do, but he refused to do anything until he had defeated Leticia. Superman told Lex that saving lives should be his priority and that this was his chance to prove he had changed. Luthor begrudgingly released an energy wave that dispersed the Kryptonite, and while he was distracted Leticia attempted to shoot him down. However, Lena had anticipated this and remotely deactivated both their armours. They fell out of the sky but Superman caught and saved them both.^[7]

House of Brainiac

On the day Lex began his work release at Supercorp, Metropolis was attacked by an army of Robots and Czarnians working for Brainiac. Luthor told Lena she needed to flee the city, but before they could do anything the Czarnians smashed into the building and trapped Lena in a bottle. She, along with anyone in Metropolis with powers, was abducted and taken to the Skull Ship, which then teleported out of the solar system.^[8]

Brainiac forcibly and painfully installed Lena as a living processor in his ship's systems. Lex entered Brainiac's system to save her and destroy the hive mind linking Brainiac with his alternate selves.^[4] He and Lena were able to fight through Brainiac's defences and reach the core of Brainiac's hive mind. Lex directly interfaced with Brainiac's mind and began deleting it, despite Lena warning him that he would be overwhelmed by Brainiac's greater intelligence. Lex seemingly succeeded and Lena extracted them both from the system. They escaped the exploding Skull Ship with the Super-Family, but when they returned to Earth Lena found that Lex's mind had also been erased.^[9]

Absolute Power

Supercorp was attacked by the Bureau of Sovereignty, who arrested Parasite and Livewire and stole Siobhan Smythe's powers. Lena, Siobhan, Lex and Jimmy Olsen were able to get away and, when the Bureau left, they snuck back into the ransacked building, believing that the Bureau would not return after clearing it. Lena hoped that being back in the building would trigger Lex' memories, but unfortunately it did not.

Lena accessed the tower's systems in order to send an encrypted signal for help, but when she did she noticed that one of Lex's Warsuits was missing. Suddenly, a squad of Bureau soldiers lead by Peacemaker and Peacewrecker burst in, having been tasked by Green Arrow to bring in all of Supercorp's technology. They attacked the group but they were rescued by Lois, wearing the missing warsuit.^[10] The group escaped to Lena's apartment. Mercy Graves tracked them down and told them that Superman had lost his powers, but was alive and on a mission to find the magical Dark Roads.^[11]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Enhanced Intellect: Lena is a living supercomputer, every cell in her body possesses a computational power beyond the most advanced machines. This gives her a superhuman ability to absorb, recall and process information. Lex believes that her mental capabilities surpass Brainiac's 12th Level Intelligence and are effectively infinite.^[4][2]

Abilities

• Science

Weaknesses

• Accelerated Aging: (Formerly) Lena's enhanced mental processes caused her to rapidly age until Lex was able to stabilise it.^[4]

Notes

• Lena Luthor was created by Dan Jurgens, first appearing in Superman (Volume 2) #131. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Lena Luthor first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Superman (Volume 6) #7 by Joshua Williamson and Gleb Melnikov.

Related

• 14 Appearances of Lena Luthor II (Prime Earth)
• 3 Images featuring Lena Luthor II (Prime Earth)
• Quotations by or about Lena Luthor II (Prime Earth)
• Character Gallery: Lena Luthor II (Prime Earth)

Footnotes