IGN Entertainment, Inc.

180px
Type	Division of News Corporation[1]
Founded	September 1996
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Key people	Roy Bahat (President and General Manager) Peer Schneider (Senior Vice President for Content and Publisher)
Industry	Video game journalism
Owner	News Corporation
Employees	64
Parent	News Corporation
Subsidiaries	AskMen GameSpy Industries GameStats
Website	www.ign.com
Alexa rank	323 (March 2012[update])[2]
Registration	Free IGN Insider Founder's Club
Available in	English, German, Swedish
Current status	Active

IGN is an American global entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment. Videogame-related channels include PC Games, Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS, iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Portable, Xbox Live, Wireless, Retro, and Android games.

IGN's corporate parent is IGN Entertainment, which owns and controls separate sites, such as GameSpy, GameStats, VE3D, TeamXbox, Vault Network, FilePlanet and AskMen.

History[link]

IGN Entertainment's former headquarters in Brisbane, California.

Created in September 1996 as the Imagine Games Network, IGN was founded by publishing executive Jonathan Simpson-Bint and began as five individual websites within Imagine Publishing: N64.com (later renamed ign64.com), PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation.com and Ultra Game Players Online. In 1998, the network consolidated the individual sites as system channels under the IGN brand. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation; U.G.P.O. dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation was put "on hold" when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived Daily Radar brand. Then-parent company Snowball.com held an IPO in 2000, which subsequently bombed with the burst of the dot-com bubble.

In June 2005, IGN reported having 24,000,000 unique visitors per month, with 4.8 million registered users through all departments of the site. IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa.^[3] In September 2005, IGN was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's multi-media business empire, News Corporation, for $650 million.^[4] Currently, the IGN website contains categories that include games, music, TV and film-related topics. IGN celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 12, 2008.^[5] IGN was headquartered in the Marina Point Parkway office park in Brisbane, California, until it relocated to a smaller office building near AT&T Park in San Francisco on March 29, 2010. On May 25, 2011, IGN sold its Direct2Drive division to Gamefly for an undisclosed amount.^[6]

Subsidiaries and spin-offs[link]

The role-playing video game interest website Vault Network was acquired by IGN in 1999.^[7] GameStats, a review aggregation website, was founded by IGN in 2002. GameStats includes a "GPM" (Game Popularity Meter) rating system which incorporates an average press score, average gamer score as well as the number of page hits for the game.^{[citation needed]} The Xbox interest site TeamXbox, and the PC game website VE3D were acquired in 2003.^[8][9] In 2005 IGN Entertainment merged with GameSpy Industries,^[10] the merger also brought the game download site FilePlanet into the IGN group; as of 2011 both FilePlanet, and the GameSpy website still operate as a video game related web sites. IGN Entertainment acquired the online male lifestyle magazine AskMen.com in 2005.^[11]

Scoring[link]

Original scale[link]

A member of the IGN staff writes a review for a game and gives it a score between 0 and 10, which is assigned by increments of 0.1 and determines how much the game is recommended. The score is given according to the individual aspects of a game, like presentation, graphics, sound, gameplay and lasting appeal. Each game is given a score in each of these categories, but the overall score for the game is an independent evaluation, not an average of the scores in each category.^[12]

IGN rarely gives a game a score of 10. Since the 1990s, IGN has awarded 10s to the following games:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64, 1998)^[13]
2. Checkered Flag (Atari Lynx, 1999)
3. Joust (Atari Lynx, 1999)
4. Shanghai (Atari Lynx, 1999)
5. Pokémon Red and Blue (Game Boy, 1999)^[14][15]
6. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (Game Boy Color, 1998)^[16]
7. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Game Boy Color, 1999)^[17]
8. Soulcalibur (Dreamcast, 1999)^[18]
9. Pokémon Yellow (Game Boy, 1999)^[19]
10. Mario Golf (Game Boy Color, 1999)
11. Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (NeoGeo Pocket Color, 1999)^[20]
12. SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (Neo Geo Pocket Color, 2000)
13. Magical Tetris Challenge (Game Boy Color, 2000)
14. Metal Gear Solid (Game Boy Color, 2000)
15. Pokémon Gold and Silver (Game Boy Color, 2000)^[21][22]
16. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages (Game Boy Color, 2001)^[23][24]
17. Dragon Warrior III (Game Boy Color, 2001)^[25]
18. Grand Theft Auto IV (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 2008)^[26]
19. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PlayStation 3, 2008)^[27]
20. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010)^[28]
21. Halo: Reach (Xbox 360, 2010) [The original UK review.] ^[29]
22. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 2010)^[30]
23. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (PlayStation 3, 2010)^[31]
24. Chrono Trigger (Wii Virtual Console, 2011)^[32]
25. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PlayStation 3, 2011)^[33]
26. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii, 2011)^[34]
27. Infinity Blade II (iOS, 2011)^[35]

Later scale[link]

On August 3, 2010, IGN announced that the site would be changing to a new scoring scale. Instead of a 100-point scale, where games are scored in increments of 0.1, all future reviews will use a 20-point scale where games are scored in increments of 0.5. Under both systems, the maximum possible score a game can receive is 10.0. The scoring change is not retroactive: all scores on reviews written before the change will remain the same. This change also does not affect the scoring system for reader reviews.

Other sections[link]

In 2000, Snowball.com purchased an E-federation called the Internet Wrestling Organization (IWO).^[36] Since Snowball owned both IWO and IGN, IWO would go on to become IGN's first official E-Fed, even doing a column on the website. IGN For Men: This section officially closed down on October 2, 2001. It is no longer updated. IGN has sites such as IGN Stars and AskMen.com that fulfill much of the function of the old IGN For Men site. IGN Wrestling met its end in early 2002, when many of the staff departed. Interviews with professional wrestling personalities and coverage of wrestling games has been folded into IGN Sports, currently headed by Jon Robinson. IGN Sci-Fi: Largely dead since 2002, this section of the site included movie news, comic book reviews, anime coverage and other associated items. It has since been discontinued. The site, SciFI.ign.com, now redirects to the recently created SciFiBrain.ign.com, which covers some of the content of the old Sci-Fi site.

In 2002, IGN launched a dedicated videogame FAQs site specifically designed to host user-submitted guides.^[37] This was launched following the cancellation of affiliation with GameFAQs.^[38] In 2004, IGN launched GameStats, which serves as a more unbiased rating network, as it takes in scores from every corporately owned game rating site and averages them all into one score to give a general idea of the quality of a game. IGN also launched Direct2Drive.com in 2004. Its primary focus is selling digital downloads of full PC and Mac video games, as well as anime, comics and game guides. In 2005, IGN launched its comics site, which is devoted to not just the staple Marvel and DC titles, but also manga, graphic novels, statues and toys.

In 2006, IGN launched its television site. It provides interviews with various television celebrities, in addition to a TV schedule, TV trivia and TV news. Akin to IGN FilmForce, IGN's TV section has a variety of exclusive clips from upcoming television shows. In 2006, IGN launched regional versions of the site based in the UK and Australia, which both share the same information as the American site but with added content authored from editors within each respective region. When visiting IGN.com from either the UK, Australia or Sweden, the site automatically redirects you to your localised version using geolocation software. Each version of the site has a modified logo with the UK, Australian or American flags beneath the IGN symbol. On May 30, 2006, IGN Dreamcast was restarted; however, none of the Dreamcast updates were posted on the main IGN webpage.

In 2007, IGN launched its anime site. It provided features on anime and manga, including trailers and free episodes. It also included reviews of manga and anime from other sections of IGN, such as IGN Comics and IGN DVD. The anime channel was dropped after IGN redesigned the site. In 2008, IGN launched its Retro channel to mark IGN's 10th anniversary.^[39] To coincide with the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, IGN created Super Smash Bros. World Site. On the site, people can submit their user created stages from the game and download ones made by other people. IGN subsequently launched a similar website called GTA 'Hood on April 29, 2008, for Grand Theft Auto IV.

April Fools pranks[link]

On April 1, 2008, IGN released a movie trailer that parodied Halo (Xbox 360 exclusive) and has since been hated by the internet.

References[link]

External links[link]

	San Francisco Bay Area portal
	Companies portal

• Official website
• IGN Channel on YouTube

Luthor redirects here. For other uses, see Luther (disambiguation).

Alexander "Lex" Joseph Luthor is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Superman, and is also a major adversary of Batman and other superheroes in the DC Universe. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, he first appeared in Action Comics #23 (April 1940). Luthor is described as "a power-mad, evil scientist" of high intelligence and incredible technological prowess.^[1] His goals typically center on killing Superman, usually as a stepping stone to world domination. Though he periodically wears a powered exoskeleton, Luthor has traditionally lacked superpowers or a dual identity.^[2]

The character was originally depicted as a mad scientist who, in the vein of pulp novels, wreaks havoc on the world with his futuristic weaponry. In his earliest appearances, Luthor is shown with a full head of red hair; despite this, the character later became hairless as the result of an artist's mistake. A 1960 story by Jerry Siegel expanded upon Luthor's origin and motivations, revealing him to be a childhood friend of Superman's who lost his hair when a fire destroyed his laboratory; Luthor vowed revenge.^[3][4]

Following the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the character was re-imagined as a Machiavellian industrialist and white-collar criminal, even briefly serving as President of the United States. In recent years, various writers have revived Luthor's mad scientist persona from the 1940s. The character was ranked as the 8th Greatest Villain by Wizard on its 100 Greatest Villains of All Time list.^[5] IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time ranked Luthor as #4.^[6]

Publication history[link]

Creation and development[link]

By some accounts^{[citation needed]}, the seeds for Luthor's character first appeared in The Reign of the Super-Man, also written by Siegel and Shuster. In the original short story, a bald scientist uses a formula created from a piece of alien meteor to give a vagrant named Bill Dunn telepathic abilities, which Dunn abuses for personal gain. The scientist battles Dunn and is killed, but by the end of the story Dunn realises his power is going and soon he will have to rejoin the bread line. Although Luthor would not appear until two years after Superman's debut, a central theme to his character—a dichotomy of science versus superpowers—was in place.^[7][8] The character's original incarnation, as drawn by Joe Shuster, appeared only twice between 1940-1941. In his debut, "Luthor" (who is referred to only by his surname) is a wily genius who resides in a flying city suspended by a dirigible. Having taken control of several European countries through his machinations, he tries to provoke a war between the two fictional nations of Galonia and Toran with the help of the crooked Galonian General Lupo planning to set all the nations of the world at war, but is stopped by Superman. Superman first 'sees' Luthor in a cave which Lupo has gone into to contact him. On a stone slab a face appears which Lupo talks to. Superman goes in and tries to make Lupo tell him who Luthor is, but the face reappears and a green ray slices the stricken General in half.^[9][10] He describes himself as "an ordinary man, but with the brain of a super-genius." He sends his two henchmen to get Clark, they find Lois in his room and seize her to prevent her speaking, then take her up to the base where she meets Luthor. One of the guards is not under Luthor's command and leaves a note in Clark's room which tells him Lois is in danger. Superman follows the plane to the dirigible. Luthor attempts to kill Superman after threatening to kill Lois, but despite being weakened by his destruction ray, Superman is able to destroy it. At the end of the story, Luthor was apparently killed when Superman caused the dirigible to crash. He returns in Superman #4, first trying to use a stolen Earthquake machine and challenging Superman to a duel of his science vs Superman's powers, which Superman wins; however, this was just a distraction to allow him to steal the machine. Despite Superman destroying his base, Luthor apparently escapes, with Superman destroying the machine and the scientist who made it committing suicide to prevent its reinvention. In a story in the same issue, he is also shown to have created a city on the sunken Lost Continent of Pacifo and to have recreated prehistoric monsters, which he plans to unleash upon the world after draining oil wells dry. After Clark and Lois fly there, a pterodactyl attacks their plane, killing the pilot. Though Superman defeats it, he sees that shock has placed Lois in a coma. Luthor apparently dies here after being attacked by his monsters, after which Superman breaks the city's glass cover, causing the ocean to destroy it. Clark then takes Lois to a doctor who revives her, and proceeds to cover the story. However, Luthor returns in Superman #5 with a plan to place hypnotic gas in the offices of influential people, intending to throw the nation into a depression with the help of corrupt financier Moseley. By the end of the story, he is once again defeated.

In his earliest appearances, Luthor is shown as a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair. Less than a year later, however, an artistic goof resulted in Luthor being depicted as completely bald in a newspaper strip.^[11] The original error is attributed to Leo Novak, a studio artist who illustrated for the Superman dailies during this period.^[12] One theory is that Novak mistook Luthor for the Ultra-Humanite, a frequent foe of Superman who, in his Golden Age incarnation, resembled a balding, elderly man.^[12] Other evidence suggests Luthor's design was confused with that of a stockier, bald henchman in Superman #4 (Spring 1940);^[12] Luthor's next appearance occurs in Superman #10 (May 1941), in which Novak depicted him as significantly heavier, with visible jowls.^[12] The character's abrupt hair loss has been made reference to several times over the course of his history. When the concept of the DC multiverse began to take hold, Luthor's red-haired incarnation was rewritten as Alexei Luthor, Lex's counterpart from the Earth-Two parallel universe. In 1960, writer Jerry Siegel altered Luthor's backstory to incorporate his hair loss into his origin.

In the origin story printed in Adventure Comics #271 (April 1960), young Lex Luthor is shown as an aspiring scientist who resides in Smallville, the hometown of Superboy. The teenage Luthor saves Superboy from a chance encounter with Kryptonite. In gratitude Superboy builds Luthor a laboratory, where weeks later he manages to create an artificial life-form, which Luthor loved as if his own child. Grateful in turn to Superboy, Luthor creates an antidote for Kryptonite poisoning. However, an accidental fire breaks out in Luthor's lab. Superboy uses his super-breath to extinguish the flames, inadvertently spilling chemicals which cause Luthor to go bald;^[8] in the process, he also destroys Luthor's artificial life form. Believing Superboy intentionally destroyed his discoveries, Luthor attributes his actions to jealousy and vows revenge. Luthor's revenge first came in the form of grandiose engineering projects in Smallville to prove his superiority over the superhero, only to have each go disastrously out of control and require Superboy's intervention. The mounting embarrassments further deepen Lex's hate for Superboy for supposedly further humiliating him and he unsuccessfully attempted to murder the superhero.^[13] This revised origin makes Luthor's fight with Superman a personal one, and suggests that if events had unfolded differently, Luthor might have been a more noble person. These elements were played up in various stories throughout the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Elliot S. Maggin's novel Last Son of Krypton.^[14] This revenge causes Luthor's family to disown him and change their names to Thorul. It also leads to years of Superman, Luthor, and Supergirl concealing the truth from Luthor's sister, Lena Thorul. She was told her brother died in a rock-climbing accident. She has ESP powers due to touching one of Luthor's inventions. Once she found out about Luthor being her brother and briefly lost her memory. However Luthor broke out of prison and gave her flowers he had developed that removed the bad memory from her mind.

In Crisis on Infinite Earths, Alexei Luthor is killed by Brainiac,^[15] and is subsequently erased from history with the rest of the DC multiverse.

1980s-1990s[link]

In the 1986 limited series The Man of Steel, John Byrne redesigned Lex Luthor from scratch, intending to make him a villain that the 1980s would recognize: an evil corporate executive. Initially brutish and overweight, the character later evolved into a sleeker, more athletic version of his old self. In an example indicative of Byrne's realistic approach, Luthor is no longer recounted as having lost his hair in a chemical fire; rather, his hairline is shown to be receding naturally over time. Marv Wolfman, a writer on Action Comics who had one conversation with Byrne prior to Luthor's reboot^[16] recalled:

The Modern Age Lex Luthor is a product of child abuse and early poverty. Born in the Suicide Slum district of Metropolis, he is instilled with a desire to become a self-made man. As a teenager, he takes out a large insurance policy on his parents without their knowledge, then sabotages their car's brakes, causing their deaths. Upon graduating from MIT, Luthor founds his own business, LexCorp, which grows to dominate much of Metropolis.

Luthor does not physically appear in The Man of Steel until the fourth issue, which takes place over a year after Superman's arrival in Metropolis. When Lois Lane and Clark Kent are invited to a society gala aboard Luthor's yacht, terrorists seize the ship without warning, forcing Superman to intervene.^[18] Luthor observes Superman in action, and once the gunmen are dispatched, hands the hero a personal check in an attempt to hire him. When Luthor admits that he had not only anticipated the attack, but had arranged for it to occur in order to lure Superman out, the Mayor deputizes Superman to arrest Luthor for reckless endangerment. This, coupled with the indignation that Superman is the only person he could not buy off, threaten, or otherwise control, results in Luthor's pledge to destroy Superman at any cost. As such, he is more than willing to help other businessmen destroy other superbeings. He was instrumental in the apparent death of Swamp Thing, which jeopardized many lives as the Parliament of Trees attempted to replace him.^[19]

Despite general acceptance of Byrne's characterization, as evidenced by subsequent adaptations in other media, some writers have called for a return to Luthor's original status as a mad scientist. Regarding the character's effectiveness as a corrupt billionaire, author Neil Gaiman commented:

Luthor's romantic aspirations toward Lois Lane, established early on in the series, become a focal point of the stories immediately following it.^[21] He is shown making repeated attempts to court her during The Man of Steel, though Lois plainly does not return his feelings.^[22]

Modern depictions[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011)

Superman: Birthright, a limited series written by Mark Waid in 2004, offers an alternate look at Luthor's history, including his youth in Smallville, and his first encounter with Superman. The story has similarities to the 2001 television series Smallville,^[23] which follows Clark Kent's life as a teenager and into early adulthood. One plot element shared by the comic and the show is Lex Luthor's problematic relationship with his wealthy father, Lionel.

Birthright also reinvents the Silver Age concept of Luthor befriending Clark Kent as a young man. During a failed attempt to communicate with Krypton, an explosion erupts which singes off Luthor's hair.^[24][25] Waid's original intention was to jettison the notion of Lex Luthor being an evil businessman, restoring his status as a mad scientist. However, he ultimately conceded that the CEO Luthor would be easier for readers to recognize. In Birthright, Luthor remains a wealthy corporate magnate; in contrast to Byrne's characterization, however, LexCorp is founded upon Luthor's study of extraterrestrial life, thereby providing a link between himself and Superman.^[23][26] In the retrospective section of the Superman: Birthright trade paperback, Waid explains:

Birthright was initially intended to establish a new origin for Superman and Luthor.^[28] However, to Waid's disappointment, the canonicity of the series was eventually discredited by stories which followed it.^[29] A concise biography for Luthor, later outlined in Action Comics #850, first appeared in the 2007 limited series Countdown to Final Crisis.^{[volume & issue needed]} Luthor's current origin appears to be a synthesis of aspects from the Silver Age continuity and the The Man of Steel mini-series. Recent changes to DC Comics continuity were revealed to have been a result of the 2005 Infinite Crisis mini-series.

As outlined in a backup profile in the 52 weekly series,^{[volume & issue needed]} the post-Action Comics #850 Lex Luthor in this continuity is the son of business mogul Lionel Luthor and his socialite spouse, Leticia. As shown previously in Superman: Birthright and the pre-Crisis stories, he spends part of his adolescence in Smallville, Kansas, where he meets Clark Kent, Lana Lang, and Pete Ross. However, in the 2009-2010 series Superman: Secret Origin, Lex, his father, and his sister Lena Luthor are poor and Lionel is an abusive alcoholic.^{[volume & issue needed]}

In both versions, Lex Luthor leaves Smallville "under a cloud of rumor and suspicion", when his father is mysteriously killed. Luthor leaves behind his sister and migrates to Metropolis, where he founds LexCorp.^{[volume & issue needed]} Luthor becomes so powerful that he controls all the media in Metropolis and uses it to reinforce his public image as a wealthy benefactor. Rival newspaper Daily Planet had always stood free, condemning Luthor's actions in an outrageous editorial signed by Perry White. As a result, when Clark Kent is first inducted into the Planet, the newspaper is almost bankrupt, dilapidated and unable to afford new reporters. Thanks to Clark Kent's appearance as Superman and Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen being given exclusive interviews and photographs, the paper's circulation increases 700%.

The paper's return is interrupted when the US Army, led by Lois's father, General Sam Lane, forcibly shuts down the business. General Lane attempts to force Lois to tell them everything she knows about Superman, who is now a fugitive after he fled a military interrogation. Thanks to Jimmy's help, Lois manages to escape to help Superman. Sam arrives and orders Superman and Lois arrested. However, the crowd turns on the Army, and Superman orders the crowd to stop, telling them that they, not the Army, not Lex Luthor, nor himself, are meant to be Metropolis's saviors.^{[volume & issue needed]} Knowing Luthor's role in the Army's attack against him, Superman confronts him and tells him that Metropolis doesn't belong to him: "You don't own us." Lex objects, since Superman isn't from Earth. Superman replies, "This is my home", and leaves. Luthor holds Superman responsible for Luthor losing his complete grip over the people of Metropolis, a grudge that lasts for an eternity. In both "JLA" and "52," Grant Morrison states that Luthor's ego leads him to believe that the only reason Superman commits good deeds is to somehow strike at Luthor and prove who is better, arguing that it is impossible for Superman to be as good as he appears to be.

Many times, Luthor has stated that he could have aided the entire human race if not for Superman's interference, claiming that he gives humanity a goal that they could realistically strive to duplicate, while Superman makes them reach for the impossible. However, both Superman and Conner Kent have called him out on the hypocrisy of this statement, noting that he has regularly turned down easy opportunities to willingly help others, simply because he would have sacrificed an opportunity to kill Superman by doing so. They believe this shows that Luthor's ego is more important to him than humanity. Even when Superman was depowered after the Battle of Metropolis^[30] and remained out of sight for a year, the only thing Luthor accomplished in that time was the self-sabotaged 'Everyman' project, where "found [himself] a big destructive machine so [he] could break things", claiming that Superman drove him to it.^[31] This idea was further reinforced when Luthor was briefly merged with a near-omnipotent entity that sought peace after its difficult 'childhood'. While merged with the entity, Luthor had the power to bring peace and bliss to the entire universe, potentially becoming a hero greater even than Superman, but Luthor fought against that power simply because he would have had to share that bliss with Superman as well.

Fictional character biography[link]

Silver age[link]

In the pre-Crisis continuity, Lex Luthor's driving ambitions are to kill Superman and enslave Earth as a stepping stone to dominating the universe.^[32] In Action Comics #271 (1960), Superman acknowledges that Luthor "could have been a mighty force for good in the world, yet he chose to direct his great scientific brain into criminal channels."^[33] Although none of his attempts to kill Superman work permanently (though a classic non-canonical story from 1961 entitled "The Death of Superman" has Luthor finally killing Superman after lulling him by pretending to go straight, although Supergirl then arrests him and he is exiled to the Phantom Zone),^[34][35] Luthor routinely manages to escape from prison and threaten the world again.^[25]

Though he is a noted criminal on Earth, Luthor is revered on the alien world of Lexor, where he rediscovered the planet's lost technology and rebuilt society for its inhabitants. He apparently lost a fight to Superman so that water could be transported to the desert planet, as he had reactivated digging machines but discovered he could not find water. He and Superman had originally gone to the world to have a proper fight as Superman did not want to appear cowardly after Luthor over a radio challenged him to a fight, as this planet had a red sun meaning Superman lost his powers there. As a result, he becomes a hero in the eyes of Lexor's people, whereas Superman is detested as a villain.^[36] He eventually marries a local woman named Ardora,^[37] with whom he fathers a son, Lex Luthor, Jr. After its debut,^[38] Lexor appears sporadically in various Superman comics as Luthor's base of operations, where he wages assaults on Superman. During one such battle, an energy salvo from Luthor's battlesuit accidentally overloads the "Neutrarod"—a spire Luthor had built to counter Lexor's geological instability—resulting in the annihilation of Lexor's inhabitants, including his wife and son. Luthor eventually returns to Earth, unable to accept his own role in Lexor's destruction and blaming Superman for it.^[39]

During the 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, Luthor allies himself with fellow Superman foe Brainiac to recruit an army of supervillains spanning the DC multiverse, intending to take advantage of the confusion caused by the Crisis. However, once it becomes clear that it is as much in their interests to save the multiverse as anyone else's, Luthor and Brainiac reluctantly ally their faction with Superman and the other heroes. At the conclusion of the series, reality is altered so that each of the different universes fall into their proper place, converging into one. Afterward, Luthor is subsequently returned to prison with all his memories of the alliance forgotten. Luthor's trademark battlesuit from this era—a heavily-armored, flight-capable suit with kryptonite fixtures embedded in its gauntlets^[40]— was designed by George Pérez as part of the Super Powers toyline in the early 1980s and introduced as Luthor acted as Lexor's sovereign. It has reappeared in recent continuity, most notably during Infinite Crisis.

Modern age[link]

As part of the continuity changes which followed The Man of Steel and Superman: Secret Origin, Luthor is shown actively participating in the creation of three Superman villains, Parasite (indirectly), Bizarro (the failed result of an attempt to clone Superman), and the cyborg Metallo. Upon discovering that Metallo is powered by a 'heart' of kryptonite rock in Superman (vol. 2) #2, Luthor steals it in order to fashion a kryptonite ring for himself. He wears the alien ore around his finger as a symbol that he is untouchable, even to the Man of Steel, after carrying out a series of kidnappings to try to determine the nature of the connection between Superman and Clark Kent. However, although computer analysis of the assembled data revealed that Clark Kent and Superman were the same person, Luthor dismissed the results because he believed that he 'knew' that someone as powerful as Superman would never choose to live a normal human life.^[41] Luthor eventually suffers from severe cancer brought on by long-term radiation exposure to the ring;^[42] before this, kryptonite was mistakenly assumed to produce a 'clean' radiation that is harmless to humans. His hand requires amputation to prevent the cancer's spread,^[43] but by then it has already metastasized, and his condition is terminal.

Luthor decides to fake his own death by piloting a prototype jet on a proposed trip around the world and crashing it in the Andes; this is merely a cover for the removal of his brain from his cancer-ridden body and the growth of a cloned body around it, whereupon he passes himself off as his hitherto unknown, illegitimate 21-year-old son and heir, Lex Luthor II. His deception is benefited by a vibrant new body with a beard and full head of red hair, as well as assuming an Australian accent as part of his fake backstory.^[44] As Luthor II, he inherits control of LexCorp and seduces Supergirl (a protoplasmic clone of an alternative universe Lana Lang), due to his resemblance to her creator (the alternative universe's Luthor).^[45] Luthor's clone body eventually begins to deteriorate and age (and lose its hair) at a rapid rate, a side-effect of a disease that affects all clones. Meanwhile, Lois Lane discovers proof of Luthor's clone harvesting and false identity;^[46] with help from Superman, she exposes the truth, and a despondent Superman helps to apprehend Luthor. In the end, Luthor becomes a permanent prisoner in his own body, unable to even blink, and swearing vengeance on Superman.

Aid comes in the form of the demon Neron; Luthor is offered full health in exchange for services and his soul. Not believing in the existence of souls, he agrees.^[47] Returning to Metropolis, Luthor freely turns himself over to the police and is put on trial. He is acquitted on all counts when Luthor claims to have been kidnapped by renegade scientists from Cadmus Labs, who replaced him with a violent clone that is allegedly responsible for all the crimes with which Luthor is charged.^[48]

President of the United States[link]

Deciding to turn to politics, Luthor becomes President of the United States, winning the election on a platform of promoting technological progress. His first action as president was to take a proposed moratorium on fossil-based fuels to the U.S. Congress.

Luthor is assisted by the extreme unpopularity of the previous administration's mishandling of the Gotham City earthquake crisis (as depicted in the No Man's Land storyline in the Batman titles), and his own seemingly heroic efforts to rebuild Gotham. After six months, Gotham is restored and rejoins America. Ironically, Batman ultimately learns that the entire debacle was the fault of Luthor alone as he attempted to take control of Gotham by forging deeds for the land in his name, which results in Bruce Wayne severing all commercial ties between the U.S. government and his company, Wayne Enterprises, in protest of Luthor's election as President. Luthor responds in turn by arranging for the murder of Wayne's lover, Vesper Fairchild, and framing Wayne for the murder (as seen in Bruce Wayne: Fugitive).

An early triumph of Luthor's first term occurs during the Our Worlds at War comic book crossover, in which he coordinates the U.S. Army, Earth's superheroes, and a number of untrustworthy alien forces to battle the main villain of the story arc, Imperiex. As it is eventually revealed, however, Luthor knew about the alien invasion in advance and did nothing to alert Earth's heroes to it, leading to the destruction of Topeka, Kansas, by an Imperiex probe.

Removal from office[link]

The initial story arc of the Superman/Batman ongoing series depicts the fall of Luthor's reign as U.S. President. In "The World's Finest" (more commonly referred to as "Public Enemies"), a cadre of superheroes eventually break ranks from the Justice League to oppose Luthor. Batman, who had previously forbidden any attempt to unseat Luthor from office by force, led the storming of the White House. This was predicated by an attempt on Luthor's part to link Superman to a kryptonite asteroid that is hurtling toward Earth, claiming that he had 'evidence'- which he declined to share while claiming that it would make the public laud his actions if they knew it- that the asteroid was being drawn to Earth by Superman, offering a billion dollar reward for Superman's capture that pitted Superman and Batman against an army of villains, all of whom they defeated. Luthor even attempted to send a team of heroes after them under the leadership of Captain Atom- the team consisting of Major Force, Black Lightning, Power Girl, Starfire, Katana and Green Lantern, but this plan failed when Katana and Power Girl quickly sided with Superman and Batman and Major Force was apparently killed, Power Girl noting that Luthor had assumed in his arrogance that the heroes would obey him simply because he was President. When the Justice Society's forced attempt to stop them by sending Hawkman and Captain Marvel against them met with failure and resulted in Superman and Batman briefly infiltrating the White House, Luthor, in an enraged and desperate gambit after Superman's rapid defeats of his plans, used a variant combination of the "super-steroid" Venom (a chemical associated with the Batman villain Bane), liquid synthetic Kryptonite, and an Apokoliptian battlesuit to fight Superman directly.

The madness that is a side effect of Venom takes hold, and during the ensuing fight with Superman and Batman, Luthor admits he had traded the creature Doomsday to Darkseid in return for weapons during the Our Worlds at War crisis; in doing so, he inadvertently provides a confession which is captured on video by Batman. Returning to the LexCorp building to regroup after Superman damaged his battlesuit, Luthor finds that the acting CEO, Talia Head, has sold the entire company to the Wayne Foundation, forcing Luthor to escape and go into hiding. Following Luthor's bankruptcy and total disgrace, Vice President Pete Ross briefly assumes his place as President. Luthor serves fewer than three years.

In 2009, the story of Luthor's rise and fall as U.S. President was adapted as a direct-to-video animated film entitled Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.^[49]

[edit] Infinite Crisis

Alexander Luthor, Jr. (the son of Earth-Three's version of Luthor) returned to the DC Universe along with other survivors from Crisis on Infinite Earths as part of a scheme to create a perfect Earth, under the pretense of restoring Earth-Two. To this end, he assumed Luthor's identity and created a new Secret Society of Super Villains. In response, the real Luthor took on the identity of Mockingbird and formed the third incarnation of the Secret Six in order to counter Alexander's organization.

Luthor confronts his impostor in Infinite Crisis #3, but is intercepted by Superboy-Prime (a teenage version of Superman from Earth-Prime), who is allied with Alexander. After discovering that his hybrid clone/"son" Conner Kent (Superboy) was injured by Prime, Luthor contacts Robin and gives him the means to help Superboy recover. Later Luthor himself goes to Titans Tower and slips Conner a crystal shard which shows the location of Alexander's Arctic Fortress. At the end of Infinite Crisis #7, Luthor oversees Alexander's execution at the hands of the Joker.

[edit] 52

In the opening weeks of 52, the Gotham City Police Department finds what appears to be Luthor's body in an alley. John Henry Irons examines the body at S.T.A.R. Labs and notes that the corpse was altered postmortem to make it resemble Lex Luthor. During a press conference, the genuine Luthor publicly states that the body is that of an impostor from another Earth, and the true culprit of the crimes with which Luthor is being charged.^[50] Though Alexander's body had a missing finger and a different appearance from Lex at the time of his death, 52 editor Stephen Wacker has confirmed that the body found in Gotham is indeed Alex, and that Luthor had it altered before the police discovered it.^[51]

Luthor immediately sets out to build a church, which he names the Luthoran Church; he becomes spokesman for a new procedure, created by the Everyman Project, that engineers ordinary citizens to develop superpowers. During the autopsy of Alexander Luthor Jr., he secretly exposes John to the chemicals involved in his creating his new army of superheroes, turning John into a literal man of steel. When approached by John's niece Natasha Irons, Luthor gladly allows her to be one of his first test subjects. Using Natasha and several other volunteers, Luthor forms his own team of superheroes which are introduced as the new Infinity Inc. In Week 21, Infinity Inc. is in the midst of a battle with Blockbuster (which Luthor has created as well), when he demonstrates that he can 'shut off' the powers of each of his agents; this results in the death of his speedster, Trajectory.^[52]

At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, Luthor sets in motion a calculated plot to discredit Supernova, a new hero who has taken over defending Metropolis in Superman's absence. Luthor triggers a mass-shutdown of the powers of everyone who has undertaken the Everyman program, except for the members of Infinity Inc. As multiple flight-powered Everymen plummet to their deaths, underground gas mains rupture from the impact, which adds civilians to the death toll. Millions of dollars worth of damage is caused. Luthor's plot ultimately fails when Supernova is able to minimize the disaster with a spectacular rescue.^[53]

While investigating Luthor in order to root out his motive, Natasha Irons discovers that Luthor has been testing himself to see if he is compatible with the artificial metagene treatment.^[54] John Henry Irons leads an assault on Luthor's building; despite the destruction of his armor during the fight, he confronts Luthor — only to find himself badly outclassed, as Luthor demonstrates nearly all of Superman's powers. Luthor considers conquering Earth and renaming it Lexor. However, Natasha uses her uncle's hammer to trigger an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down the synthetic metagene long enough for Steel to knock Lex unconscious.^[55] Lex is disgraced as a result, and later faces indictment when the members of the Everymen realize they have been used.

[edit] One Year Later and Countdown

One year after the events of Infinite Crisis, Luthor has been cleared of over 120 criminal counts ranging from malfeasance to first-degree murder relating to the New Year's Eve massacre from 52. However, his role in the massacre has permanently ruined his public image and thanks to the machinations of Doctor Sivana, he has lost most of his wealth and all of his control over his newly reformed LexCorp, which is now being run by Lana Lang. He blames Clark Kent for writing several articles unraveling his schemes and pledges vengeance on Metropolis after an angry mob jeers him on the courthouse steps. After amassing large quantities of Kryptonite, including kidnapping the supervillains Metallo and the Kryptonite Man, Lex uses it to power a Kryptonian battleship controlled through a "sunstone" crystal.^[56] Superman manages to destroy the Kryptonite-powered ship and recover the crystal- simultaneously confronting Lex with the fact that, despite his claims that Superman has been 'holding him back' from helping humanity, the only thing he accomplished with Superman being absent for a year was to find a large robot that he used to try to destroy everything-, but Lex manages to escape custody yet again.^[57]

Lex later sends Bizarro after the newly arrived "Superboy", only for the creature to be defeated by Superman. Undaunted, Luthor gathers together a new Revenge Squad to fight against invading Kryptonians led by General Zod, leaving Superman alive to provide assistance simply because he believed that this 'invasion' was proof that he had been right about Superman all along and he wanted Superman to live with that knowledge.

In JLA, Luthor (alongside Joker and Cheetah III) gathers together a new "Injustice League" and, outfitted in a new version of his warsuit, sets out to destroy the Justice League with them. On a related note during this section, he was responsible for creating the third Shaggy Man and the third Blockbuster.

Luthor plays a large role in the Countdown to Final Crisis tie-in event, Salvation Run. Having been sent to the prison planet after his Injustice League was defeated, Lex quickly assumes control of the amassed villains, receiving competition only from Joker and Gorilla Grodd, who convince half of the villains to join them. He does fight the Joker until the battle was interrupted by an attack by Desaad's Parademons. After the attack, Luthor manages to get the villains off the planet with a makeshift teleporter, secretly powered by Neutron, Heatmonger, Plasmus, Warp, and Thunder and Lightning. When called a "monster" by Thunder, Luthor claims it is the ones who sent them there who are the real monsters, and that he is the hero. He later sets the teleporter to self-destruct after he uses it, killing the attacking Parademons, and his living batteries.

Final Crisis[link]

In Justice League of America (vol. 2) #21, Luthor can be seen associating with Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains and placed in its Inner Circle. Lex Luthor wanted Libra to prove himself, so Libra sends Clayface to blow up the Daily Planet building. As Lex Luthor attempts to ambush Libra after learning that he is a prophet of Darkseid, Lex Luthor soon ends up surrounded by Justifiers. Libra tells Lex Luthor to make a final choice... swear an oath to Darkseid or become a mindless slave. In Final Crisis #5, Lex Luthor is seen when Libra blames Calculator for cracking the computer codes that will help the resistance. Lex Luthor is silent on the matter, but has been picked to lead the rearguard action against the heroes at Blüdhaven. He assumes it's an honor, but he doesn't look very pleased. Libra later figures out Luthor had been the mole in the Society of Super Villains. Luthor, in league with Doctor Sivana, seemingly destroys Libra and overturns the Anti-Life Equation being broadcast into the Justifiers' helmets.^[58] He subsequently assists Superman in leading the assault against Darkseid's forces, noting that Superman can consider this a legendary first team-up between 'good' and 'bad'- with Luthor's side taking the credit for the win-, Superman accepting the deal due to the stakes. Luthor later assists Superman and his remaining allies in constructing the new Miracle Machine to reset the universe and recreate the universe without Darkseid^[59]

New Krypton[link]

Luthor ended up imprisoned for his crimes, but rather than going to jail General Sam Lane had him serve out his sentence working for the secretive Project 7734. While still forced to wear chains, Luthor was assigned the job of accessing the knowledge stored within the captured Brainiac,^[60] who had recently been defeated by Superman (as seen during the "Brainiac" storyline). Luthor successfully accessed Brainiac’s brain and after Metallo and Reactron were taken to Kandor as prisoners of the Kryptonians who had now settled on Earth he used Brainiac to reactivate the Coluan’s ship that was also being held in Kandor. Brainiac’s robots attacked the Kryptonians, providing a distraction as Metallo and Reactron used their Kryptonite hearts to kill their captors and murder Zor-El.

After his success with Brainiac, Luthor was given the seemingly dead body of Doomsday, who had been defeated by the Kryptonians,^[60] to study as it had “potential”.^[61]

Luthor later manages to use Brainiac's connection to his ship to kill the soldiers assigned to watch him. Brainiac manages to free himself from Luthor's control, forcing him onboard the ship, and the two make their escape.^[62] The two are later shown to have entered into an alliance, with Brainiac promising Luthor the Earth when he is done with it. While reading newspapers to catch up on what happened during his imprisonment, Luthor learns of the resurrection of Superboy.^[63] Lex quickly returns to Smallville, where it is revealed that his physically and mentally handicapped sister Lena Luthor is still alive, and living with her daughter Lori. In an effort to mockingly prove his abilities to Superboy, Lex agrees to cure his sister's illness. With Superboy's aid, Luthor manages to cure Lena, allowing her to walk and think logically again for a brief moment, before he then quickly reverses the process, leaving Lena completely catatonic, and informs Superboy that so long as Superman is alive, he will never reveal how he did it. Luthor escapes with Brainiac, leaving Superboy, Lori, and Krypto horrified at his cruelty. Because Luthor now sees Superboy as a failed experiment of using the "wrong alien DNA," he and Brainiac create another binary clone with their own genetics for another plan against the entire House of El.^[64]

[edit] Last Stand of New Krypton and War of the Supermen

As part of his participation in Project 7734, Luthor sends a robot double of himself with Brainiac on a mission to attack New Krypton. While there, the Luthor robot tampers with the body chemistry of the previously-captured Reactron.^[65] Shortly thereafter, Reactron kills himself, initiating a chain reaction which ultimately destroys New Krypton and all but a handful of its 100,000 Kryptonian inhabitants. Supergirl's mother Alura (who had assumed leadership of the planet) is among the casualties.^[66] For his efforts, Luthor receives a presidential pardon for his past crimes.^[67]

[edit] Blackest Night

During the Blackest Night event, when word got out that apparently everyone around the world who have died are rising as undead Black Lanterns, Luthor isolates himself in his safehouse in fear that all the people he had murdered over the years would also reanimate and seek revenge on him.^[68] His fear is justified as his victims, including his deceased father, arrive, seeking to feast on his avarice-filled heart. However, Luthor escapes after receiving a power ring fueled by the orange light of avarice and becomes a deputy of the Orange Lanterns. Luthor arrives at Coast City and joins the battle against the Black Lantern Corps.^[69] Luthor engages battle with the Black Lantern versions of Superman and Superboy. However, the Agent Orange Larfleeze wants Luthor's ring off, as the alien does not want to share his power with him, resulting in them battling each other for it despite all of the dangers around them.^[70] Luthor is able to use all of the people he has killed as his own Orange Lanterns, and seeks to add Superman to their numbers.^[71] Luthor is quickly overwhelmed by his greed, and sets out to steal the rings of his fellow inducted Lanterns, taking Scarecrow's yellow ring and attempting to steal Mera's red one, but is held back by the Atom(wielding the ring-staff of the Indigo tribe) and the Flash wearing a Blue Lantern Ring. When deputy Violet Lantern Wonder Woman uses her magical lasso to restrain Luthor, under its spell of truth, Luthor is forced to confess that he secretly wants to be Superman.^[72] When Nekron is defeated, Larfleeze takes the ring from Luthor, leaving him powerless, and allows Luthor to remain on Earth with the Green Lanterns (although Sinestro notes that this is the first time Larfleeze has given anyone anything).^[73]

In the aftermath of the crisis, Luthor, craving the power of the orange light, recovers and operates on several Black Lantern remains in an attempt to find one with a ring still on its finger. He is then visited by Larfleeze, who demands to know what is important to the people of Earth. Luthor responds with "power", which Larfleeze already possesses, and "land", which intrigues the alien.^[74]

[edit] Brightest Day: Action Comics-"The Black Ring"

After the conclusion of the New Krypton event, Luthor became the lead character in Action Comics and will remain so until issue #900.^[75] Written by Paul Cornell, the first story entitled "The Black Ring" explores Luthor's more aggressive lust for power in the wake of his exposure to a power ring in the Blackest Night event. After being infused with the Orange Light of Avarice, Luthor begins a universal quest to locate the energy of the Black Lantern Corps.^[76]

During the midst of the Brightest Day event, Deathstroke and his new team of Titans are hired to assassinate Luthor while he is visiting Midway City with Nava Mendelssohn, his new personal assistant and bodyguard. When the Titans ambush Lex's convoy and begin killing his hired mercenaries, Nava takes him into the sewers, where she is shot and apparently killed by Deathstroke. It is then revealed that Luthor himself had paid the Titans to fake an attempt on his life, in hopes that it would draw out conspirators within LexCorp.^[77] Nava's injuries soon heal, and she reveals herself to be a shapeshifter named Facade, who had murdered and impersonated the real Nava in order to get close enough to Lex to kill him. After a massive battle, Deathstroke and Osiris are able to defeat Facade, and then turn him over to Lex. In the end, LexCorp scientists are shown performing experiments on the captured Facade, while Luthor assembles his staff and reveals that he knows that it was one of his employees who had hired the creature in the first place. Luthor warns them not to try such a tactic again, as he will turn them into his next morbid experiment if they do.^[78]

While searching for the energy of the Black Lantern simultaneously dispatching various Doomsday 'clones' created from the original to distract Earth's heroes by sending them after the other members of the Superman family with the aid of a robotic duplicate of Lois Lane created to give him an honest opinion on his actions, Luthor encountered Brainiac in space while attempting to alter the last of the Black Lantern energy, acting upon an unspoken theory of his. Brainiac revealed that Loisbot was an unwilling pawn in his bid to hijack Luthor's quest. Luthor then replied that he had anticipated this for some time, and he then attacked Brainiac and snapped his neck, temporarily incapacitating him. Loisbot pleaded for Lex's forgiveness, and he accepted her apology. However, after he altered the four remaining black spheres, he opened a Phantom Zone portal which unleashed an extremely powerful, monstrously large being which prepared to kill all life in the universe, because the negative emotions of sentient creatures hurt it. Luthor promptly impaled Loisbot's head, allowing himself to be infected with Krypontian technology which he used to engage the monster on a mental plane of existence. Grappling with the creature, Luthor's body and mental essence suddenly fused with it, learning that it evolved in the Phantom Zone and now seeks to escape from the grief and anger of the Zone prisoners. Using his new power, Luthor draws Superman to him, attempting to drive Superman mad by forcing him to experience the human emotions that he believes the alien merely fakes to blend in. However, Luthor is outraged when he learns that Superman's defining moment of tragedy is the loss of his father. Luthor is unable to cope with the fact that not only was his greatest enemy raised by humans, but he also had a father he would actually mourn rather than the anguish Luthor endured in his own relationship with his father. As Luthor becomes one with the creature, Superman and Mr. Mind who has been aiding Luthor's search realise that the creature allows Luthor to create a feeling of peace and bliss throughout the entire universe, at the cost of never allowing him to cause any harm to another being at the same time. Superman attempts to appeal to Luthor about the potential of doing something even he never accomplished, but Luthor is unable to let go of his hate for Superman, costing him control of the entity as well as his memory of everything he learned or did while he was merged with it and it departs for another part of the universe. Luthor is ultimately defeated when he falls into one of the Phantom Zone holes created by the creature, seemingly forever.^[79]

The New 52[link]

In the Post-Flashpoint DC Universe, Luthor appears as a representative the government has recruited to investigate and bring down Superman. Based on background signage seen throughout the New 52 books (including Justice League) Lexcorp also exists. Luthor is hired by General Sam Lane to capture Superman in his early years by setting a trap for him by creating an accident in a train. Superman barely stops the train and is left unconscious. Lex collects Superman and subjects him to a series of tests to ascertain his strengths and weaknesses. He tortures Superman until the latter manages to escape.

Relationships and family[link]

In the pre-Crisis continuity, Luthor is shown as having very few personal attachments. Shamed by his crimes, his parents (Jules and Arlene) disown him, move away, and change their name to the anagram "Thorul". Luthor has a younger sister named Lena, an empath who grows up unaware of her familial connection with the noted supervillain. Lena, like Lex, also attended Regis High School. Protective of his sister, Luthor takes measures to hide his fraternity, and is assisted towards this end by both Superman and Supergirl. Lena Thorul later marries FBI agent Jeff Colby^[80] (who had once arrested Lex), later giving birth to a son, Val Colby.^[81] Jeff Colby dies some time later.^[82] After Lena has brain surgery the decision is made to reveal the truth about Luthor to her. There is some reconciliation between them when Luthor discovers he was an unwitting party to a conspiracy against Lena, which was masterminded by his cellmate "Sam", who wanted revenge against Colby. He is deeply apologetic to Lena.^[83]

In the Post-Crisis continuity, Lena is the name of Lex's adopted sister when he was living in a foster home. She is accidentally killed by their foster father when she refuses to try to trick Lex out of his inheritance. Lex later names his baby daughter after her. However, following the events of the Infinite Crisis, Luthor's history was again altered, re-introducing Lena as his sister. Unlike the Pre-Crisis version, Lena is well-aware of history with Lex, having grown up alongside him, with only an abusive father. She has no empathic abilities, and is a paraplegic with a teenaged daughter, Lori, both of whom still live in Smallville.^[84] Unlike his pre-Crisis version, Lex has little love for his sister, having abandoned her with an unnamed aunt after their father dies of a heart attack. Lex even goes so far as to cure Lena's illness, and then immediately undoes the process, leaving her completely catatonic, solely in order to make a mocking point to Superboy and Superman.^[85] Lena is currently under the care of the best doctors from Wayne Enterprises, hired by Red Robin.

Lex Luthor himself later marries Ardora of the planet Lexor and, in Action Comics #544 (June, 1983), first learns of his infant son by Ardora, Lex Luthor, Jr. A short time later, Lexor is destroyed and both Ardora and Lex, Jr. die as a direct result.

The Pre-Crisis Luthor also has a niece named Nasthalia Luthor who is an occasional thorn in Supergirl's side.^[86]

In post-The Man of Steel continuity, Luthor is childhood friends with Perry White and it is revealed that Luthor is the biological father of Perry's dead son Jerry White.^[87] Lex Luthor has been married eight times, though the first seven marriages occurred off-panel in Luthor's past. His eighth marriage to Contessa Erica Alexandra Del Portenza (aka the "Contessa") is based on mutual greed;^[88] the Contessa buys controlling interest in LexCorp after Luthor is indicted, compelling him to marry her in order to regain control of his company. The Contessa becomes pregnant^[89] and starts using the unborn child to dominate Lex into doing her bidding. Luthor's response is to imprison her while she is drugged during childbirth, keeping her in a permanently-unconscious state. The Contessa later escapes to an island mansion,^[90] but upon being elected President, Luthor targets her home with a barrage of missiles and destroys it.^[91] Luthor's daughter Lena was the avatar of The Tech, the remnant cyberware of Metropolis after Brainiac 13's advancing the city to a futuristic state was undone.

James D. Hudnall's Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography further expands on Luthor's origin. The story details how Luthor was sent to live with a foster family following the sabotage of his parents' car. His foster parents, Casey and Emily Griggs, conspire to embezzle his insurance, and coerce their daughter, Lena, into seducing Lex in order to learn the location of the money. Due to her own romantic feelings toward Lex, Lena refuses, and is beaten to death by her father. Lex is absent from the home at the time of the murder, having been talked into going to a football game by his schoolmate Perry White.^[92] Once he has established his preeminence in Metropolis, Luthor takes vengeance on Griggs, secretly hiring him to assassinate Frank Berkowitz, the city's popular four-term mayor, who refuses to knuckle under to Luthor's dominance, then personally killing him once the deed is done.^[93]

As an adult, this incident motivates Luthor to begin an affair with Perry's wife, Alice, during a period when Perry is missing and assumed dead. Alice becomes pregnant shortly afterward, though the timing of the conception means an equal possibility of either Luthor or White being the father. The child, Jerry White, later learns of his true parentage during his late teens, shortly before being killed by a local street gang he is associated with. The loss of a potential heir weighs heavily on Luthor's mind, particularly when he is dying of cancer; while mulling over his fate, Luthor visits Jerry's gravesite.^[94]

Luthor has shown an unusual level of compassion for Conner Kent, a hybrid clone created from the DNA of Superman and Luthor himself. After Conner's death at the conclusion of the Infinite Crisis, Luthor is shown visiting a memorial statue of Conner in Metropolis and placing flowers there.^[95] More than once Luthor addresses Conner as his son. Following Conner's resurrection, Luthor is shocked and decides to locate him. When Brainiac accuses him of showing paternal feelings for Conner though, Luthor denies it, saying that he only wants his property back, and has no fatherly feelings towards Superboy. Apparently, Luthor is no longer affectionate to the Boy of Steel after the event at his sister's house, and now seeing Superboy as a "failed experiment" due to using "a wrong alien DNA" to combine with his own. Luthor creates another binary clone with Brainiac using their genetics, which implies that it would becomes a threat to Superboy.

In the alternate future timeline of Titans Tomorrow,^[96] in which Conner still exists, Luthor acts as a caring, fatherly figure to him.^[97]