Lex Luthor is a powerful and influential businessman, and owner of LexCorp. He was formerly Secretary-General of the United Nations. Luthor is one of the leaders of the Light.
Lex Luthor has a conniving and Machiavellian personality. He is calm, soft-spoken, and unfailingly polite, thus manipulating unwitting people into getting his way. His soft-spoken nature and charm places him in a positive light to the public.
Despite his resplendent appearance to the public, behind the scenes, his goals are almost always motivated by profit. This amoral desire to maximize profits has typically put him on the wrong side of superheroes.[4]
Physical appearance[]
Lex Luthor is tall and appears to be in good shape, being moderately built. He is bald, has green eyes, and high cheekbones.[4]He had red hair prior to balding.[6]
History[]
Early life[]
Luthor is the CEO of LexCorp, a sizable conglomerate based in Metropolis, as well as a founding member of the Light. Behind the facade of honest business, Luthor also organized black market arms trades and other shady deals.[4] He was the founder and first chairman of Cadmus, and initiated Project Match and Project Kr. To prevent another genetic failure like Match, Luthor gave his DNA to combine with Superman's to create the Weapon of Project Kr.[3]
When Aqualad, Robin and Kid Flash broke into Cadmus, Mark Desmond requested an audience with the Light, and briefed them on the incident. He informed them that the three heroes had been apprehended and asked what to do with them. Luthor ordered him to clone them.
This plan ultimately came to naught, and the heroes broke out with Superboy, after terminating Desmond's regime. Luthor dismissed Vandal Savage's concerns about leaving Guardian in charge of Cadmus without the influence of the Genomorphs, claiming that they had subtler means of control. However, he expressed some apprehension with the Justice League employing youth to do their "dirty work".[7]
When Sportsmaster reported the loss of the batch of Kobra-Venom due to the young heroes' interference in Santa Prisca, L-6 conjectured that maybe they could reverse engineer the only salvaged vial. He then pointed out that this was not the first time the young heroes had thwarted their operations, recalling the breaking and entering of Cadmus and the destruction of Mister Twister, with L-1 now deeming the young heroes to be their new enemies.[8]
After the Fog was destroyed, Sensei reported to the Light that they had successfully stolen data from STAR Labs, but were unable to get data from Wayne Tech due to the young heroes' interference.[9]
When Psimon reported the foiling of their experiments on extraterrestrial technology in Bialya at the hands of the young heroes, L-4 dismissed the loss of both Superboy and the Sphere. She claimed instead that their "new partners"' delivery system was operational and with it, they would acquire more technology that would hopefully overpower both the Sphere and Superboy.[11]
Luthor was brought in as an independent arbitrator in the peace talks between North and South Rhelasia, but he was not impartial: together with Ra's al Ghul, he planned an intricate gambit that would reunite the two under the Light's "guidance". The League of Shadows would attack the summit, driving the two feuding leaders together. Red Arrow became an unwitting pawn in this game, as he was tracking the assassin Cheshire at the time. Luthor dragged him further into it and even offered to hire him, but Red Arrow refused.
After the summit was saved by Red Arrow, Aqualad and one precision shot from Luthor's driver and bodyguard Mercy, both Rhelasians signed the treaty and multiple LexCorp contracts as well. The Light was quite pleased.[4]
Lex Luthor was attending a video conference, along with the rest of the members of the Light, when the Riddler and Sportsmaster arrived with the regenerated remains of the echinoderm.[13]
Lex Luthor contacted Superboy with an ultrasound frequency; because Superman was off-planet, Superboy would be the only one to hear. Luthor wanted to meet him in East Potomac Park.
Luthor told Superboy that he, as the new director of Cadmus, had discovered there was another super-clone. This caused Superboy to investigate. However, Luthor full-well knew about "Match"; he simply lured Superboy back to Cadmus to make him investigate missing genomorphs. In the process, he wanted to make Superboy dependent on him. He revealed that Project Kr worked with incomplete Kryptonian DNA, and the gaps were filled with human DNA. Special shields could suppress these genes and give Superboy his full Kryptonian powers.
Superboy eventually discovered that he had been manipulated, but Luthor had still achieved his goals. Not only did he reveal that he himself was the contributor of Superboy's human DNA, but he also confronted Superboy with the reality that Superman would never accept him with that lineage. Superboy was on the verge of attacking Luthor when he managed to escape by uttering a code word, "Red Sun".[3]
Luthor ordered Superboy to Santa Prisca, with the promise of more shields. It was part of the Light's plan to force him, Miss Martian and Artemis to change sides, lest their secrets be revealed. Once there, Luthor made sure to stop Superboy with "Red Sun".
It didn't go as planned: the rest of the Team were nearby, and ambushed them. Luthor had to evacuate, and took the injured Queen Bee with him. Though Aqualad barred their way, Mercy blasted him away. They escaped by helicopter, despite Rocket's attempt to stop them.[14]
Ten months after the revelation that Red Arrow was a clone, the young archer and his allies tried to learn more from Luthor by shadowing him. Luthor was too smart to give anything valuable away.[16]
2013[]
Luthur was present in Genomorph City when Superboy and Superman led their allies in liberating the Genomorphs.[17]
The Light's latest plan, raising Tiamat, required a lot of preparation and planning. Luthor stepped up his robotics production and met several times with Riddler at varying locations, including Gotham's Museum of Antiquities, which had a Babylonian wing.[18]
Luthor met one last time with Riddler, this time in a Russian museum. Red Arrow, who had been tracking him all this time for information about his cloning, was disappointed to learn all of Luthor's activities were related to an entirely different project.[19]
In the final stages of the project, Luthor personally headed a drilling operation near Atabey's Shrine to find a relic. He was aided by Black Manta and Bane and their foot soldiers. The combined force managed to capture Aquaman, who was investigating nearby and got too close. Aqualad and Alpha Squad arrived, and in the ensuing fight, Manta ran interference allowing Luthor to escape with the relic. He boarded a hovercraft, which was soon attacked by the heroes. He gave up the artifact and escaped once again.[20]
Luthor was looking out to the force field bubble encasing Metropolis from LexCorp, when Otis requested his attention for something he was told on the walkie.[21]
Metropolis December 1, post-14:01EST
Otis told Luthor that the force field surrounding Metropolis had freed Match, and that all attempts to contain him had failed.[22]
Lex Luthor was present at the conference held with Black Manta, in which Vandal Savage lauded the latter for his efforts and officialized his induction into the group.[23]
In his office, Luthor was busy with late-night paperwork for the Light when Mercy handed him a note revealing Speedy had left his hospital bed. Moments later, they were startled by a rocket, fired from an adjacent rooftop. Both could make it safely under Luthor's desk in time.
Mercy was concerned with Luthor's safety, but he insisted on getting a briefcase from his vault first. He gave Otis the order to look for the would-be assassin, and then followed Mercy to the car park. Speedy confronted them and ordered them to disarm. Instead, Mercy attacked him. While the two fought, Luthor stood by, unmoved. He complimented the boy on his strategic skills.
He eventually defeated Mercy by blowing up her cybernetic arm with detonation cord. He quickly pulled the same move on Luthor and threatened to blow his arm off. Luthor was still unmoved and showed Speedy they were not alone. Otis and his men had arrived and aimed at Speedy. Luthor revealed he had another trick up his sleeve: preparation. He had anticipated an attack by Speedy ever since he was liberated from his freezing cell in Tibet, and acquired the perfect bargaining chip: a cybernetic arm, more advanced than Mercy's, to replace the arm they stole from Speedy. Settling for satisfaction over vengeance, Speedy accepted.[24]
The members of the Light met with Sportsmaster, who wanted reparations for the death of his daughter. Luthor offered monetary compensation, but Sportsmaster demanded the death of Kaldur'ahm, a suggestion that was rejected and was followed by Deathstroke replacing Sportmaster as the Light's enforcer.[26]
Lex was in an office at LexCorp Farms when the alarm sounded. Suspecting the security cameras had been hacked, he told Mercy to try a frequency override, which revealed the presence of several Team members. Mercy was about to call security, but Lex told her it was unnecessary, as Black Beetle soon arrived on the scene.[26]
LexCorp Farms April 8, post-23:13CDT
Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage surveyed the damage left by the Team, with Luthor noting the Team never touched the most profitable product, a line of Reach fruit drinks. Luthor remarked one bottle contained everything the body needed, with Savage adding that it contained everything the Reach needed it to need. Back in Lex's office, Luthor suggested to Savage that the Light needed its own team of young operatives.[26]
Lex Luthor arrived in his limo at a bus station. He told Mercy that sending Red Volcano to attack STAR Labs had worked marvelously and now he wanted to seal the deal with the four teens who had been abducted by the Reach and, more recently, were being tested at STAR Labs. He got out and approached the four. Virgil Hawkins recognized him and Lex said he knew about the four, had been watching them for weeks, and arranged to have the power cut off at STAR Labs and the arrival of the press to distract Blue Beetle, telling the four teens that Beetle was now an agent of the Reach. Eduardo Dorado Jr. retorted that Lex had been working with the Reach and made their drink, to which Lex replied he suspected he was being used by the Reach, a feeling he believed the runaways were familiar with. He told them he had the resources to protect them and allow them to control their own destinies.[27]
Luthor called the four runaways because he had a gift for them: a Fatherbox. With that, they were to infiltrate the Warworld and rescue the Team. What he didn't tell them was that they would be a distraction, so Deathstroke could steal the Warworld's crystal key.[28]
Unspecified location May 30, 00:33MDT
As soon as the four heroes returned to their hideout, Luthor welcomed them home with a video feed. Arsenal, who had tagged along, was quick to tell them of Luthor's evils, but Luthor rebutted. He had promised the runaways a possibility to deal a blow to the Reach—which they did. For the teens, it was a reason to sever their ties with Luthor.[28]
Luthor worked with Blue Beetle to create Reach-tech Eggs laced with the LexCorp anti-Reach virus as Captain Atom briefed a number of heroes about the plans to disable the MRDs.[29]
North Magnetic Pole June 20, 13:48UTC
After the Flash and Impulse were too late to shut down the final MRD and prevent it from going chrysalis, Luthor advised them to run in the opposite direction of the vortex's energy flow to siphon off its energy. Kid Flash later arrived to assist and the three speedsters were able to absorb the chrysalis' energy, but it came at the cost of Kid Flash's life.[29]
The Watchtower July 4, 21:16EDT
Justice League members watched footage of G. Gordon Godfrey's show, who announced Tseng's resignation as UN Secretary-General and suggested his guest, Lex Luthor, take Tseng's place.[29]
2016-2018[]
Luthor was indeed elected as Secretary-General, and made sure several resolutions were passed that obstructed the Justice League and heavily curtailed other heroics.[30] Even for humanitarian missions, the League would need approval, a lengthy process that could cost lives.[31]
2018[]
In January,[32] the Joker attacked the UN in revenge for the Light using the Injustice League as proxies without telling him. Luthor was present during the attack, and was named specifically by Joker in his rant. The Bat-family defused the Joker venom bombs before the Joker detonated them.[33]
Secretary-General Luthor chaired a meta-human summit in the General Assembly. It started off with Catherine Cobert announcing the resignation of several Justice Leaguers, including Batman and Green Arrow, out of disapproval with the UN regulations. He spun it into a story of how these heroes did not want to play fair. It was met with opposition from Atlantis and Themyscira, but no other nations spoke up for them.[31]
Lex received a call in his UN office from Vandal Savage to make arrangements to deal with an unknown alien armada approaching Earth. With the Justice League spread thin thanks to the Light's effort, there was little Lex could offer, leaving Savage to handle the situation himself.[34]
Luthor met with the other members of the Light to discuss plans to have Forager killed by Lobo, and to prevent Ocean-Master's revenge on the Justice League.[35]
The Light met to discuss the outcomes of their operations; the death of Ocean-Master and the confirmation of a new team under Nightwing's leadership.[35]
Luthor addressed the UN general assembly following the Justice League's raid on meta-human trafficking sites associated with Goode Goggles. Though he was happy to see many meta-teens rescued, he criticized the League for failing to liaise with local authorities, meaning that the perpetrators largely escaped.[36]
Luthor was interviewed on The G. Gordon Godfrey Show. He defended his oversight of the Justice League, and cited him giving control of LexCorp to his sister while acting as UN Secretary-General as an example of proper limitation of power, though he refused to comment on whether he had any influence on the decision for LexCorp and Goode World Studios to donate 16 million dollars to the Meta-Human Youth Center.[36]
On November 7, Lex and Lena joined Gretchen Goode at the Meta-Human Youth Center to hand over the donation cheque.[36]
Lex held a press event for the UN climate summit, which came under B.I.F. attack as planned. The Outsiders intervened, with Kid Flash getting injured. Lex immediately asked Simon M'Barra's permission to call in the Justice League, and the Flash soon arrived and ended the fight. Lex then used the situation as proof of both the Outsiders' recklessness and that his oversight of the League worked.
Later, Lex received a call from Cassandra Savage, who had been part of the op, asking about its success. Lex admitted that he would have liked for Troia and Garth to have been killed, but the op had succeeded in its main objective of discrediting the Outsiders. When Savage remarked that the Outsiders would know they had been set up, he replied that knowing meant little if they could not prove it.[37]
Luthor was interviewed on The G. Gordon Godfrey Show following the Outsiders' rescue of a girl in Dublin. Luthor was glad the girl was safe, but deplored the destruction of a factory in the process. Luthor asserted that the parents of the Outsiders were not happy with their antics, and called for a registry of all heroes. G. Gordon Godfrey contradicted Luthor, showing supportive social media posts made by the Outsiders' guardians and others. Backstage, Luthor confronted Godfrey for going off-script, but Godfrey told him he needed a wake-up call that his attacks were only fueling the Outsiders' popularity. Luthor took this on board and set out to co-opt the Outsiders.[37]
Lex set up a group of meta-teens loyal to him, Infinity, Inc., to eventually displace and subvert the Outsiders.[5]
From his LexCorp office, Luthor monitored Infinity, Inc.'s trending status on social media. He checked in again later while on his helicopter, but the Outsiders were still outperforming them.[39]
In his limousine, Luthor monitored Infinity Inc.'s trending data as they faced off against Killer Frost. After her defeat, they out-trended the Outsiders. The group joined him in the limo afterward.[39]
Along with the rest of the Light, Luthor watched Tod Donner's report about the Justice League taking down a meta-human trafficking ring in outer space. The Light decided to proceed with the next step of their plan.[17]
Luthor and Deathstroke coordinated their operations in Markovia while the rest of the Light video-conferenced in. The groups' agreement, Terra was instructed to publicly kill Beast Boy. This would discredit the Outsiders and allow Luthor to call for meta-human registration, with Infinity Inc. volunteering.
Terra ended up defying her orders, and it was revealed the Team knew about her working with Deathstroke all along. Luthor was angry Deathstroke had allowed Batman to read his micro-expressions to tell he was lying. They were interrupted by Black Lightning who with Cyborg's help hacked in via Terra's comm.[5]
Luthor was ultimately pleased with how things unfolded, however, with Brion Markov killing Baron Bedlam and usurping the throne still serving his ends.
Later at the United Nations, Lightning presented the evidence he and Cyborg had obtained, showing he had broken UN rules by secretly running LexCorp and was linked to meta-trafficking, including the formation of Infinity Inc.[5]
Luthor dismissed Lightning's allegations as "fake news" and called for tightening of libel laws. He was interrupted by Superboy who revealed Luthor's role in Cadmus and Superboy's creation. Garth called for an immediate vote of no-confidence in Luthor.
On February 20, Luthor resigned as UN Secretary-General. He still faced multiple indictments.[5]
Despite Luthor's ongoing legal troubles, the Light discussed their victories, as they now controlled Markovia through the "Puppet King" Brion, thanks to their newest member Zviad Baazovi. Savage briefed them on his meeting with Darkseid and remarked that they should keep an eye on Halo.[5]
2020[]
At some point, Luthor took Juan Cordero under his wing after the young man found out he was a Meta-human. Luthor ingratiated himself with Juan by giving his mother a job at LexCorp and getting his sisters into good schools. Luthor told Juan a series of lies and half-truths about his relationship with Superboy, painting him as an ungrateful son, whom Cordero vowed to replace. Lex convinced Juan to undergo a number of surgeries to become the cyborg Metallo.[40]
Luthor called into a Light conference. Baazovi updated the others on the meta program in Markovia. He was interrupted when a panicked Klarion abruptly left.[41]
Somehow Luthor became aware of the large chunk of Kryptonite found in Vlatava and concocted a plan to obtain it by abducting its courier to STAR Labs, Perdita Vladek, so he could use it as Metallo's power supply.[40]
Luthor discussed Perdita's rescue with Mercy and Otis, when several members of the Justice League discreetly snatched him away to warn him that Perdita was now off-limits. A shaken Luthor was returned to his office.[43]
Abilities[]
Genius-level intelligence: Luthor is a highly intelligent strategist, manipulator, and businessman. He attempted to profit from a peace negotiation between North and South Rhelasia, and negotiated an arms deal between their leaders after he had Mercy Graves demonstrate her weapon capabilities while saving him from the assassination attempt he orchestrated.[4] He later manipulated Superboy into releasing Match, so that the locations of Cadmus's missing Genomorphs could be located.[3] He provided Arsenal with his cybernetic arm in exchange for not being killed, having prepared for the confrontation years in advance.[24] He arranged the power outage that facilitated the runaways' escape from STAR Labs and sent Red Volcano to attack the location, as well as called the press to distract Blue Beetle in order to speak with the runaways.[27] He later had the runaways infiltrate the Warworld to rescue the Team as a distraction while he had Deathstroke, whom he referred to as "a bishop," steal the crystal key.[28] Luthor also speaks several languages, including English, Spanish,[14] and Japanese.[27]
Lex Luthor is Superman's most prominent enemy. Originally, he was created as a simple bald mad scientist, similar to Doctor Sivana and the Ultra-Humanite. In the 1980s however, Luthor was re-imagined as a corrupt businessman whose hatred of Superman is more due to a xenophobic dislike of an alien being held in higher regard than himself.
Young Justice marks Lex Luthor's fourteenth animated appearance. Previous portrayals of Luthor have included The New Adventures of Superman, Super Friends, the Ruby/Spears Superman animated series, the DCAU (Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited), Superman: Brainiac Attacks, Krypto the Superdog, The Batman, Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: New Frontier, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, All-Star Superman and Batman: Brave and the Bold.
