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149-473: At the climax of a fight between the Justice League and a giant robot remote-controlled by Lex Luthor , it falls over, threatening to crush Flash , Green Lantern , Hawkgirl , and J'onn J'onzz . In trying to stop the robot, Flash creates a tornado-like vortex just as the robot's energy core explodes, transporting the four heroes to Seaboard City, an idyllic 1950s locale in a parallel Earth. There, they meet

298-497: A car accident so he can inherit their life insurance and create a better life for himself, creating LexCorp. He marries and divorces several times and desires a romance with Lois Lane. When Superman appears, Luthor takes advantage of a terrorist attack to see the hero in action and then attempts to make him an employee. But the Man of Steel, acting as a special deputy of Metropolis, arrests him for endangering people by not warning authorities of

447-697: A cave somewhere outside of Seaboard City. Among its members are: Elements of the Justice Guild are seen within the Arrowverse : Lex Luthor Alexander Joseph " Lex " Luthor ( / ˈ l uː θ ɔːr , - θ ər / ) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics . The character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster . Lex Luthor originally appeared in Action Comics #23 (cover dated: April 1940). He has since endured as

596-441: A combination of Earth and alien technology (including tech from the other-dimensional world Apokolips ) and armed with different forms of kryptonite in the gauntlet. Lex Luthor of Earth-One teams up with Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two. It is shown that Alexei is arguably colder and more villainous, perfectly willing to destroy all of Earth in order to prove his superiority, whereas Lex hesitates to do so because he had no desire to rule

745-431: A complex frame. Soon after Luthor discovers evidence that leads him to conclude Clark Kent is Superman, the 2001 Our Worlds at War saga begins, in which Topeka, Kansas is destroyed in an attack by the alien Imperiex . Luthor is warned of the impending attack beforehand but alerts no one so Earth can enter a great war and he can prove his leadership to the world. Luthor coordinates the U.S. Army, Earth's superheroes, and

894-491: A creates a kryptonite ring for himself. He wears the radioactive ore around his finger as a symbol that he is untouchable, causing the Man of Tomorrow pain and weakness whenever he approaches. Not realizing humans can be affected by severe or long-term meteoric radiation exposure , Luthor eventually suffers from Kryptonite poisoning. He had his right hand amputated to prevent the cancer's spread, and not long afterwards, said kryptonite ring (which he kept in cold storage prior to

1043-506: A differing set of styles and aggressively sought talent from Asia and Latin America. The X-Men were originally created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby . However, the title never achieved the popularity of other Lee/Kirby creations, and by 1970, after a brief run with Neal Adams' more realistic Silver Age style, Marvel ceased publishing new material and the title was turned over to reprints. But in 1975 an "all-new, all-different" version of

1192-736: A disfigured mutant with reality-warping abilities that he used to recreate his destroyed town and resurrect the Justice Guild, making it look like the nuclear war never happened. Angrily, Ray goes on a rampage and tries to kill the JL, while distracting the JGA with a giant red robot. The Guild heroes are initially unsure of what they should do because they know that defeating Ray will undo the illusion and everything in it, including themselves. Ultimately, they decide to stop Ray, reasoning that if they could sacrifice themselves to save their world once, they could do it again. The Guild attack Ray, overwhelming his powers and ending

1341-427: A distant arid planet orbiting a red star, Luthor challenges Superman to a fight since Kryptonians lose power when exposed to red sun radiation. Befriending the planet's inhabitants, Luthor aids them in rediscovering lost technology that restores the water supply and helps the society rebuild. As a result, Luthor becomes a hero in the eyes of the planet, whereas his enemy Superman is detested as a villain. The people rename

1490-549: A fake while Batman keeps the actual ring. Superman, upon learning that Lex Luthor was about to be elected president, flew off in a fit of rage and split one of Saturn's small moons in half with one fly through. Before he takes office in the White House , Luthor cuts ties with his own company LexCorp, turning over leadership to Talia al Ghul , using the alias Talia Head, daughter of international terrorist cult leader Ra's al Ghul , one of Batman's greatest enemies. Luthor's popularity

1639-597: A few African-American characters. Archie largely switched to paperback digest format in the late 1980s. Children's comics were still popular with Disney reprints under the Gold Key label along with Harvey 's stable of characters which grew in popularity. The latter included Richie Rich , Casper and Wendy , which eventually switched to digest format as well. Again Marvel and DC were unable to emulate their success with competing titles. An 'explicit content' market akin to

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1788-553: A few unconventional comic book series from the period featured one or more villains as their central character ( Super-Villain Team-Up , Secret Society of Super Villains , The Joker ). Archie Comics dominated the female market during this time with their characters, Betty and Veronica having some of the largest circulation of titular female characters. Several clones were attempted by Marvel and DC unsuccessfully. Several Archie titles examined socially relevant issues and introduced

1937-508: A few. In the mid-'70s, DC launched numerous new titles such as Jack Kirby 's New Gods and Steve Ditko 's Shade, the Changing Man . Jenette Kahn would eventually take the helm of the company in 1976. The company followed this up in 1978 with the " DC Explosion " where the standard line of books increased in page count and 50 cent price. Many of these titles added backup features with various characters. However, DC greatly overestimated

2086-412: A fire in his lab and he calls on Superboy to save him. The Boy of Steel puts out the fire but, in the process, accidentally destroys the artificial life form and the years of research notes that led to its creation, while fumes from the chemical fire cause Luthor's hair to fall out. Unwilling to hold himself responsible for the lab fire and the destruction of his own life's work, Luthor decides that Superboy

2235-746: A focal point of the stories immediately following it. He is shown making repeated attempts to court her during The Man of Steel , though Lois plainly does not return his feelings. In the Superman Adventures comic line based on the TV series of the same name, Luthor's backstory is identical to that of the Post-Crisis origin with slight changes. Luthor is shown originating in Suicide Slum, his intelligence outshining other children, fueling his ambition to have all of Metropolis look up to him one day. Luthor's baldness

2384-411: A god and just be a man. Soon afterward, Superman's confronts the telepathic Manchester Black . Realizing Superman is a true hero and therefore true heroism is possible, Black decides to make up for his actions against the Man of Steel and Lois Lane by removing Lex Luthor's knowledge that the Man of Steel is Clark Kent. Following the publication of Superman: Birthright in 2003–2004, Luthor's history

2533-460: A library, where they discover that all the books on the shelves have blank pages, and going to the basement, they find a brick wall behind the basement door. After Hawkgirl smashes through it, they find a battle-scarred subway tunnel, and an old newspaper (dated to the same day as the final Justice Guild comic). The newspaper’s headline reveals that the Justice Guild had been killed in a nuclear war which destroyed Seaboard City forty years prior, causing

2682-426: A lifeless world and doesn't want his sister to die. They even extend their alliance to Ultraman when Earth-Three's Lex Luthor is a good guy. All three villains were defeated by Superman of Earth-One, Superman of Earth-Two, and Lex Luthor of Earth-Three. 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

2831-528: 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 , which follows Clark Kent 's life as a teenager and into early adulthood. One plot element shared by the comic and the show is the problematic relationship between Lex and his father Lionel . Along with this, Birthright restores

2980-433: A line of books by comic-book veterans such as Jack Kirby, Mike Grell and Sergio Aragonés , for which the artists retained copyright and shared in royalties. In 1978, Will Eisner published his " graphic novel " A Contract With God , an attempt to produce a long-format story outside the traditional comic book genres. In the early 1980s Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly began publishing Raw magazine, which included

3129-471: A lot more credit for their creations, even though they were still ceding copyrights to the companies for whom they worked. Pencil Artists were allowed to keep their original artwork and sell it on the open market. When word got out that Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were living in poverty, artists such as Neal Adams, Jerry Robinson and Bernie Wrightson helped organize fellow artists to pressure DC in rectifying them and other pioneers from

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3278-587: A metaphor for real-world minorities, became wildly popular. Other well-known "relevant" comics include the " Demon in a Bottle ", where Iron Man confronts his alcoholism, and the socially conscious stories written by Steve Gerber in such titles as Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown . Issues regarding female empowerment became trends with female versions of popular male characters ( Spider-Woman , Red Sonja , Ms. Marvel , She-Hulk ). Writers and artists began getting

3427-499: A new, powerful version of the Justice League of America, Lex decides this is Superman's direct challenge to his own power, so he creates a new Injustice Gang in response. Along with his new teammates, Lex acquires a powerful artifact known as the Worlogog, which can warp space and time. The Injustice Gang kills several people while attacking the League then lures the heroes into a trap, but then

3576-453: A number of untrustworthy alien forces to battle the main villain of the story arc. Although Lex Luthor is able to devise a plan to destroy Imperiex's body, the plan is subsequently hijacked by Brainiac 13, requiring Superman to propose a new plan where Darkseid and Luthor coordinate their efforts to defeat Imperiex by sending him back in time. Following the battle, Superman retrieves Lena and returns her to Lex, advising Luthor to stop trying to be

3725-502: A plane crash in the Andes and secretly has his brain transferred to a cloned body, one younger, taller, with full hair, and more physically fit. With aid from trusted assistants, the now physically 21-year-old Luthor presents himself to the world as his own hitherto unknown, illegitimate son and heir from Australia , Lex Luthor II , who only wishes to do good and can't be judged by the actions of his father. He quickly manipulates and recruits

3874-520: A powerful alien is around to protect them and solve problems. During the Blackest Night crossover, Wonder Woman restrains Luthor with her magic lasso and under its spell of truth he confesses he secretly wants to be Superman, revealing that beneath all his blustering, Luthor covets Superman's powers for himself. When Superman was out of sight for a year, Luthor used the time to create the "Everyman" project intending to create new superheroes to replace

4023-406: A powerful alien, the kind of companion Luthor had often hoped for and believed would see him as a peer, instead looks on him with disapproval and moral judgment. This, along with Superman interfering with his criminal agenda and openly disrespecting Luthor in front of the media, motivates Lex to humiliate and destroy the alien hero. Bronze Age of Comic Books The Bronze Age of Comic Books

4172-462: A promise of payment of some kind), Lex only finds friendship with Clark, impressed by the young man's knowledge though also finding him naive. Luthor discovers kryptonite meteors in Smallville and uses the radioactive mineral as a power source for his experiments. When Clark sees the machine and feels ill from proximity to kryptonite, Luthor mistakes his reaction to mean the young man doesn't believe in

4321-456: A relic from Lexor's lost age. After one of Luthor's still-active satellites threatens the people of Earth, he concludes Superman will soon come to Lexor to take him back to Earth authorities. With the underground lab's resources, he spends weeks creating a "warsuit" — highly destructive, flight-capable power armor — to finally match the Kryptonian in physical combat and counter his powers. To test

4470-539: A scheme to pull off a series of crimes based on the four elements of earth, air, water, and fire as part of a contest to see which of them can pull off the best crime related to those elements, and by doing so will lead the IGA in their next criminal activity. Doctor Blizzard wins when he takes Flash and Black Siren as hostages, and leads the IGA in robbing the Seaboard City Mint and escaping by blimp. The IGA are defeated by

4619-410: A scientific genius in the 1990s in stories such as The Final Night . By 2000, it was said that Luthor's genuine accomplishments in several scientific fields is what helped create LexCorp and make it so successful so quickly (in early Post-Crisis stories, Byrne suggested that Luthor was recognized as a brilliant inventor and great scientific mind, but had largely withdrawn from his laboratory in favor of

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4768-450: A son by Ardora, Lex Luthor Jr. He spends the next several weeks with his new family before discovering Lexor suffers from the same planetary instability that destroyed Krypton. While creating a "Neutrarod" tower to stabilize the planetary core, Luthor's pathological hatred for Superman resurfaces and he reflects on feeling unsatisfied in life without their conflict. The villain then unearths an ancient underground laboratory of great technology,

4917-590: A stepping stone to dominating the universe, believing a man of his intellect deserves such power. On several occasions he joins forces with Superman's enemy Brainiac (though the two often betray each other as well). Lex is repeatedly imprisoned, but his genius allows him to routinely escape. He also makes it a point to be out of prison on the birthday of Albert Einstein, regarding it as a holiday. A famous non- canonical "imaginary story" from 1961 entitled "The Death of Superman" has Luthor finally succeed in killing Superman after pretending to reform and befriend him. On

5066-713: A studio artist who illustrated for the Superman dailies during this period. One hypothesis is that Nowak mistook Luthor for the Ultra-Humanite , a recurring mad scientist foe of Superman who, in his Golden Age incarnation, resembled a balding, elderly man. Other evidence suggests Luthor's design was confused with that of a stockier, bald henchman in Superman #4 (Spring 1940); Luthor's next appearance occurs in Superman #10 (May 1941), in which Nowak depicted him as significantly heavier, with visible jowls. The character's abrupt hair loss has been made reference to several times over

5215-529: A suit of mechanized armor that gives him enhanced strength, flight, advanced weaponry, and other capabilities. While Lex is primarily depicted as a supervillain allied with other villains, such as Metallo , Parasite and Bizarro , and frequently leading DC supervillain teams such as the Legion of Doom , he has also been portrayed as an antihero who will ally himself with Superman and other heroes against common enemies such as Brainiac and Darkseid . The character

5364-492: A supervillain, however, he has often come into conflict with Batman and other superheroes in the DC Universe . Lex Luthor is physically an ordinary human and has no natural superpowers, but he is a genius with a high aptitude for business, politics, science, and technology. He is typically portrayed as a mad scientist lacking a secret identity , costume, or other elements of supervillains, but he occasionally wears his warsuit,

5513-431: A weapon from the U.S. Army capable of causing earthquakes. Superman battles and defeats Luthor, then destroys the earthquake device. The scientist who made the device commits suicide to prevent its reinvention. In a story in the same issue, Luthor creates a city on the sunken Lost continent of Pacifo and populates it with recreated prehistoric monsters he plans to unleash upon the world. Superman thwarts his plans and Luthor

5662-461: Is Superman and almost always he denies this possibility, unable to imagine a man of such power spending half his time pretending to be average since in his mind, such a possibility would be too humiliating to bear. In stories appearing in JLA and 52 by Grant Morrison , Luthor cannot bring himself to believe Superman is truly altruistic and deeply cares about a planet that is not his native world, concluding

5811-441: Is a mad scientist, corrupt businessman, or both, Luthor's ego is a defining trait in all his incarnations; he believes he is entitled to both popularity and power. While each incarnation initially wants the adoration of others and control over either Smallville or Metropolis, the goal eventually rises to control over Earth and possibly universal domination. Luthor's other defining trait is his obsession to destroy Superman and humiliate

5960-469: Is a sign Luthor does not truly desire the deaths of innocents and still has the potential to be a good man. Luthor marries Contessa Erica Alexanda Del Portenza, a near-immortal and formidable woman with her own agenda. After the birth of their daughter Lena, Luthor attempts to raise the girl without her interference. After several clashes, Luthor has the Contessa seemingly killed by a missile barrage. Later on,

6109-458: Is also marked by the cancellation of most titles in the genres of romance, western, and war stories that had been mainstays of comics production since the 1940s. Most anthologies, whether they presented feature characters or not, also disappeared. They had been used since the Golden Age to introduce new characters, to host characters that lost their own title or to feature several characters. This had

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6258-463: Is altered (and the new canon is quickly referenced in both Superman comics and the series Superman/Batman that begins in 2004). In the new history, Luthor is only a few years older than Clark Kent and his family moves to Smallville when he is a teenager. Possibly abused by his father Lionel, and alienated from others by his intelligence and his ignorance of certain social cues and behaviors (he does not understand why gifts are given on birthdays without

6407-642: Is an informal name for a period in the history of American superhero comic books , usually said to run from 1970 to 1985. It follows the Silver Age of Comic Books and is followed by the Modern Age of Comic Books . The Bronze Age retained many of the conventions of the Silver Age, with traditional superhero titles remaining the mainstay of the industry. However, a return of darker plot elements and storylines more related to relevant social issues began to flourish during

6556-718: 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 before it rejoins the United States. Batman learns Luthor attempted to take control of Gotham by forging deeds for its lands in his own name. This results in Bruce Wayne severing all commercial ties between

6705-518: Is at fault, renewing his need for vengeance. In his subsequent stories, he regularly uses the Lexorian warsuit. The warsuit was designed by George Pérez as part of the Super Powers toyline in the early 1980s before being introduced into the comics in 1983. The suit vanished in 1986 after Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted DC Comics continuity, but was reintroduced in 2004, now said to be built with

6854-557: Is created by genetic manipulation, essentially giving him 50% Superman's DNA and 50% DNA of a human being, revealed years later to be Luthor himself. Luthor's clone body eventually begins to deteriorate, causing him to lose his hair and age at an accelerated rate, a side-effect of a disease affecting all clones. Lois Lane discovers proof of Luthor's clone harvesting and false identity and exposes him with help from Superman. Desperate to evade arrest, Luthor activates technology left on Earth by Brainiac, destroying large sections of Metropolis in

7003-455: Is defeated. The Joker gains control of the Worlogog, but is then telepathically attacked, becoming temporarily sane and remorseful. Before the killer's mind reverts, Luthor has Joker use the Worlogog to revise history so that those killed no longer died. With the deaths removed and little physical evidence linking him to any wrongdoing, Luthor is free to go. While Batman concludes Luthor simply used Joker to avoid murder charges, Superman believes it

7152-664: Is depicted as a diabolical genius and is referred to only by his surname. He resides in a flying city suspended by a dirigible and plots to provoke a war between two European nations. Lois Lane and Clark Kent investigate, which results in Lois being kidnapped. Luthor battles Superman with a green ray but he is ultimately defeated, and Lois is rescued. Superman destroys Luthor's dirigible with him still on it, implying Luthor may have died. Stories ending with Luthor's apparent death become common in his earliest appearances, with him turning up alive later on. Luthor returns in Superman #4 and steals

7301-434: Is never explained, save for a brief depiction of him with blond hair in childhood; it is assumed the hair loss was natural. Luthor's parents die during his teenage years, however, their deaths are indeed accidental. Lex uses the insurance to pay for his tuition to MIT and then founds LexCorp. His hatred of Superman is explained as the citizens of Metropolis have admired the Man of Steel more than him. Superman: Birthright ,

7450-515: Is physically approximately in his true age. His soul is later restored after Neron is defeated by Captain Marvel and the Trickster. Returning to Metropolis, Luthor submits to a trial. He claims all his crimes were committed by a violent clone created by renegade scientists from Cadmus Labs who secretly held the true Luthor hostage. Luthor is acquitted of all charges. He later arranges to reacquire his old kryptonite ring. When Superman and others form

7599-425: Is released from jail quickly and has the charges dropped, the humiliation of being publicly arrested and processed, coupled with indignation that Superman refused to work for him, results in the villain pledging to destroy Superman simply to prove his power. Despite general acceptance of Byrne's characterization, which led to its influence in media adaptations, DC Comics writers began bringing back his quality of being

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7748-507: Is seemingly killed by the dinosaurs he created. Luthor returns in Superman #5 with a plan to place hypnotic gas in the offices of influential people so he can throw the nation into a depression with the help of corrupt financier Moseley. The story ends with Superman defeating him. In these early stories, Luthor's schemes are centered around financial gain or megalomaniacal ambitions; unlike most later incarnations, he demonstrates no strong animosity toward Superman beyond inevitable resentment of

7897-493: Is shown that Alexei is arguably colder and more villainous, perfectly willing to destroy all of Earth in order to prove his superiority, whereas Lex hesitates to do so because he had no desire to rule a lifeless world and doesn't want his sister to die. Years later, Lex Luthor and the villain Brainiac recruit an army of super-villains during Crisis on Infinite Earths , including Alexei Luthor from Earth-Two. When Alexei argues that

8046-456: Is simply an amoral and brilliant man driven by a simple desire for power, the Silver Age incarnation was given a more developed personality and backstory. Teenage Lex Luthor is an aspiring scientist who resides in Smallville and greatly admires its local hero Superboy . After Lex saves him from kryptonite , the Boy of Steel builds him a private laboratory in gratitude. After "thousands of experiments,"

8195-413: Is something he would never do himself, Luthor dismisses the computer's findings and concludes both the machine and its programmer are at fault. As a nod to the previous continuity, Luthor has his lab create high-tech armor that resembles the Lexorian warsuit. Rather than act directly, he has an employee don the armor and attack Superman for him. The man is defeated and cannot testify against Luthor because

8344-539: The DC Multiverse . Alexei Luthor is present and complains this army does not need two Luthors; Brainiac kills Alexei in response. At the conclusion of the series, reality is altered so that each of the different universes converge into one. Luthor is subsequently returned to prison with all his memories of the Crisis forgotten. This incarnation of Lex Luthor met his end in the non-canonical two-part story " Whatever Happened to

8493-527: The Manhattan Project . In 1956, DC Comics reimagined the Flash with a new secret identity, costume and origin. This led to the new Silver Age of Comics and the first DC Comics reboot, with characters across the board being reimagined or having their histories and nature redefined. The earlier Golden Age stories of Superman and Batman were later said to have taken place on Earth-Two , a parallel universe that

8642-650: The New Universe and X-Factor (an extension of the X-Men franchise). After the Bronze Age came the Modern Age of Comic Books . According to Shawn O'Rourke of PopMatters , the shift from the previous ages involved a "deconstructive and dystopian re-envisioning of iconic characters and the worlds that they live in", as typified by Frank Miller 's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and Alan Moore 's and Dave Gibbons ' Watchmen (1986–1987). Other features that define

8791-484: The Silver Age concept of Luthor befriending Clark Kent as a young man. The two find a kinship in both feeling like outsiders and sharing a wish to explore outer space and discover alien alife, despite one resenting humanity and the other hoping to understand and be accepted by it. Lex discovers kryptonite samples in Smallville and uses them as a power source for a machine he hopes will pierce space and time so he can communicate with Krypton . When Clark falls ill approaching

8940-458: The archenemy of the superhero Superman . Lex Luthor was depicted as a narcissistic and egotistical mad scientist from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. Since the mid-late 1980s, he has more often been portrayed as the power-obsessed CEO of LexCorp . He wishes to rid the world of Superman, ostensibly because he views Superman as a threat to humanity, but in reality because he envies Superman's popularity and influence. Given his high profile as

9089-731: The 1930s and 1940s extremely valuable. DC experimented with some large-size paperback books to reprint their Golden Age comics, create one-shot stories such as Superman vs. Shazam and Superman vs. Muhammad Ali as well as the early Marvel crossovers. The popularity of those early books also opened up a market for specialty shops. The existence of these shops made it possible for small-press publishers to reach an audience, and some comic book artists began self-publishing their own work. Notable titles of this type included Dave Sim 's Cerebus and Wendy and Richard Pini 's Elfquest series. Other small-press publishers came in to take advantage of this growing market: Pacific Comics introduced in 1981

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9238-502: The 1930s and 1940s. Newer publishers, such as Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics, negotiated contracts in which creators retained copyright to their creations. One of the most significant developments during the period was a substantial rise in the number of black and other non-white minority superheroes. Before the 1970s, there had been very few non-white superheroes (Marvel Comics' Black Panther and Falcon introduced in 1966 and 1969, respectively, being notable exceptions) but starting in

9387-532: The 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Elliot S. Maggin 's novels Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday . The Golden Age version of Luthor appears again as a villain still alive and well on Earth-Two . To distinguish him from the modern-day Lex Luthor, the original incarnation is shown as having kept his red hair and is retroactively given the first name Alexei. In DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (1982), Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two and Lex Luthor of Earth-One team up. It

9536-575: The Apes , Godzilla , Logan's Run , Indiana Jones , Jaws 2 , 2001: A Space Odyssey , Star Wars ), TV shows ( The Six Million Dollar Man , Lost in Space , The Man from Atlantis , Battlestar Galactica , Star Trek , The A-Team , Welcome Back Kotter ), toys ( G.I. Joe , Micronauts , Transformers , Rom , Atari Force , Thundercats ), and even public figures ( Kiss , Pope John Paul II ). Though not necessarily "non-superhero",

9685-550: 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 him and Superman. In the retrospective section of the Superman: Birthright trade paperback , Waid explains: Despite my own personal prejudices, I say we leave Lex

9834-716: The Gray Mouser . They also took over the licensing of Edgar Rice Burroughs 's Tarzan from longtime publisher Gold Key and began adapting other Burroughs creations, such as John Carter , the Pellucidar series, and the Amtor series . Marvel also adapted to comic book form, with less success, Edwin Lester Arnold 's character Gullivar Jones and, later, Lin Carter 's Thongor . The murder of Spider-Man 's longtime girlfriend, Gwen Stacy , at

9983-461: The JL and the IGA and are handed over to the police. Meanwhile, Hawkgirl discovers graves of the JGA, prompting her and Lantern to probe deeper into inconsistencies found in the "perfect" Seaboard City, such as how some, if not all dangers in it happen to come from out of nowhere. The two question the driver of the local ice cream truck about their suspicions, but he only responds to their questions with unspecific answers before driving away. They go to

10132-411: The Justice Guild comic book to be cancelled on the Justice League's Earth. Hawkgirl and Lantern show this knowledge to Flash, J'onn and the JGA; shocked, the JGA deny that their existence is nothing more than an illusion. J'onn suspects Ray Thompson is the key to the bizarre state of this reality. Ray denies knowing anything, but J'onn makes a telepathic link with him, causing him to reveal his true form:

10281-558: The Justice Guild of America members Tom Turbine, The Streak, the Green Guardsman, Black Siren, Catman, and their sidekick/mascot Ray Thompson. They first fight when Green Lantern and Flash stop a robbery by Justice Guild enemy Music Master and the Guild mistakes them for thieves. After the Streak sees Flash save Ray from pieces of a falling building, he realizes the League aren't criminals and stops

10430-646: The Justice Guild's exploits; this is a nod to the explanation Gardner Fox provided for the JSA / JLA link in his September 1961 story Flash of Two Worlds in which the Barry Allen Flash of Earth-One encounters Jay Garrick , his Earth-Two counterpart. They help the JGA fight a group of their enemies called the Injustice Guild of America, who are based on Golden Age DC supervillains, consisting of Music Master, Sportsman, Sir Swami, and Doctor Blizzard. The IGA engage in

10579-448: The Kryptonian, then later attacks Metropolis with a long-buried Kryptonian warship. Returning to action, Superman points out that Luthor had a year to prove his old argument that he could help others and improve Earth if Superman didn't interfere with his life, but instead of curing disease or making technological breakthroughs, all he did was focus on increasing his power and finding "a big destructive machine so [he] could break things." In

10728-515: The Man of Tomorrow? " that closed out the Pre- Crisis Superman continuity of the Silver and Bronze Age. Luthor finds Brainiac 's robotic head, hoping to revive the villain for a new team-up. Instead, Brainiac takes control of Luthor's body, forcing him to be a host as he attempts to destroy Superman. Luthor later begs a superpowered Lana Lang to kill him, who does so. Brainiac retains control of

10877-660: The Silver Age or simpler cartooning of the Golden Age. The so-called "House Style" of DC tended to imitations of Adams' work, while Marvel adopted a more realistic version of Kirby's style. This change is sometimes credited to a new generation of artists influenced by the popularity of EC Comics in the 1950s. Artists who could distinguish themselves from these House Styles would achieve some renown. Such names include Berni Wrightson , Jim Aparo , Jim Starlin , John Byrne , Frank Miller , George Pérez and Howard Chaykin . A secondary line of comics at DC, headed by former EC Comics artist Joe Orlando and devoted to horror titles, established

11026-482: The Superman comics and the series Superman/Batman made references to the canonicity of the new origin series. But after Infinite Crisis ended in 2006, new stories discredited parts of it and it was officially replaced by the 2009–2010 series Superman: Secret Origin . Superman: Secret Origin revised Lex's backstory so that he now again had a sister Lena. While he knew Clark as a teenager in Smallville, he rejected

11175-688: The Titans of the Bronze Age of Comics was launched in 2003, and lasted for four years. During the Silver Age, comic books frequently had several features, a form harkening back to the Golden Age when the first comics were anthologies. In 1968, Marvel graduated its double feature characters appearing in their anthologies to full-length stories in their own comic. But several of these characters could not sustain their own title and were cancelled. Marvel tried to create new double feature anthologies such as Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales which did not last as double feature comic books. A more enduring concept

11324-468: The U.S. government and his company, Wayne Enterprises . In response to Wayne Enterprises severing ties with his government, Luthor arranges the murder of Wayne's lover, Vesper Fairchild , and frames Wayne for the murder (as seen in Bruce Wayne: Fugitive ), the plan being more successful than Luthor anticipated when his chosen assassin of David Cain realizes Wayne's identity as Batman and sets up

11473-523: The United States , winning the election on a platform of promoting technological progress. His first action as president is to take a proposed moratorium on fossil-based fuels to the U.S. Congress . On the night of the election, Batman threatens that Luthor can keep the kryptonite ring or the White House but not both. Later on, Superman, Batman and Lois Lane seemingly try to steal the ring only to be thwarted. In actuality, they manipulated Luthor into retrieving

11622-462: The X-Men was introduced by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum in Giant-Size X-Men #1, with Chris Claremont as uncredited assistant co-plotter. Claremont stayed as writer on just about all X-Men-related titles, including spinoffs, for the next sixteen years, after which other regular writers such as Louise Simonson , Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell joined and Claremont eventually left. One of

11771-459: The actual Guild died) had on him. He remarks to Hawkgirl that the JGA taught him the meaning of the word hero, a commentary on the bright, optimistic Golden and Silver Age's contrast to the Bronze and Modern Age 's grittiness and angst. Among the members of the Justice Guild are: A group of super-villains whose goal is to eliminate the Justice Guild and rule the world. They make their headquarters in

11920-493: The alien hero, either by displaying his own superiority by achieving victory without the benefit of superpowers or to prove the Man of Steel is motivated by selfish desire rather than altruism. Many times, Luthor has claimed he could create a better way of life for the entire human race if not for Superman's interference with his work; he has even argued that the Man of Tomorrow's presence not only invites danger, it actually encourages human society not to strive for greatness because

12069-418: The appeal of so many new titles at once, sales dropped severely during the harsh 1978 winter and it nearly broke the company and the industry, including Charlton Comics ; this event has been called the " DC Implosion ". Marvel eventually gained 50% of the market and Stan Lee handed control of the comic division to Jim Shooter while he worked with their growing animation spin-offs. As the Bronze Age began in

12218-449: The armor's neural control unit destroys his mind. Along with this, Luthor participates in the creation of two Superman villains, Parasite (indirectly) and Bizarro (a failed attempt by Luthor's scientists to clone Superman). When Superman fights the cyborg Metallo , Luthor intervenes. In Superman (vol. 2) #2, discovering Metallo is powered by a 'heart' of kryptonite that can hurt and potentially kill Superman, Luthor steals it and

12367-458: The army doesn't need two Luthors, Brainiac agrees and executes him. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986), DC rebooted its universe yet again, creating the "Post- Crisis " reality. 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 . Byrne intentionally chose to base this new depiction of Luthor on

12516-468: The authorities, Superboy declares they are even now and expresses hope Lex will "straighten out" and use his intelligence to help humanity rather than try to prove his superiority or waste time seeking power and vengeance. Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #23 (1961) reveals the Silver Age Lex Luthor parents are Jules and Arlene and that he has a younger sister Lena. When Lex becomes a criminal,

12665-413: The boardroom). Regarding the character being a corrupt billionaire rather than a mad scientist, author Neil Gaiman commented: It's a pity Lex Luthor has become a multinationalist ; I liked him better as a bald scientist. He was in prison, but they couldn't put his mind in prison. Now he's just a skinny Kingpin . Luthor's romantic aspirations toward Lois Lane, established early on in the series, become

12814-423: The body for a short period of time before rigor mortis sets in, then abandons it, running out of power shortly afterward. As part of the continuity changes which followed The Man of Steel and Superman: Secret Origin , Alexander "Lex" Joseph Luthor is a corrupt businessman profiting from many hidden criminal operations. This Luthor grew up a poor child alongside Perry White , later causing his parents' death via

12963-419: The books loudly proclaimed on their covers to promote sales. The Spider-Man drug issues were at the forefront of the trend of "social relevance" with comic books noticeably handling real-life issues. The above-mentioned Green Lantern/Green Arrow series dealt not only with drugs, but other topics like racism and environmental degradation. The X-Men titles, which were partly based on the premise that mutants were

13112-478: The businessmen Donald Trump , Ted Turner , and Howard Hughes as well as Satan . Initially brutish and overweight, the character later evolved into a sleeker, more athletic version of his old self. 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 recalled: I never believed

13261-533: The character in television series, while Lyle Talbot , Gene Hackman , Kevin Spacey , and Jesse Eisenberg have portrayed the character in films, and Nicholas Hoult is set to play him in the upcoming film Superman . Several actors have provided Luthor's voice in animated adaptations, including Clancy Brown , Mark Rolston , James Marsters , Giancarlo Esposito , Marc Maron , and Max Mittelman . In his first story appearance, Action Comics #23 (April 1940), Luthor

13410-439: The citizenry's scorn, Lex's hate for Superboy only grew in rationalization of his failures. This revised origin makes Luthor's fight with Superman a personal one and suggests that if events had unfolded differently, Luthor might have grown to be a more noble person. Luthor's ego preventing him from personal growth and the tragedy that he and Clark could have been a force for good together are played up in various stories throughout

13559-548: The course of his history. In 1960, writer Jerry Siegel altered Luthor's backstory to incorporate his hair loss into his origin. During World War II , the War Department asked for dailies of the Superman comic strip to be pulled. The strips in question were created in April 1945 and depicted Lex Luthor bombarding Superman with the radiation from a cyclotron. This violated wartime voluntary censorship guidelines meant to help conceal

13708-460: The criminal businessman he's been for the past 17 years. The Lois & Clark producers liked it, the WB cartoon guys liked it ... so clearly, it works on some level. My concern is that, at least in my eyes, the fact that Luthor's allowed to operate uncontested for years makes Superman look ineffectual. Birthright was initially intended to establish a new origin for Superman and Luthor. Immediately,

13857-714: The death of her father in Amazing Spider-Man #90 and the beginning of the Dennis O'Neil / Neal Adams tenure on Batman . In 1971, Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief Stan Lee was approached by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story, " Green Goblin Reborn! ," which portrayed drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. At that time, any portrayal of drug use in comic books

14006-586: The early 1970s this began to change with the introduction of characters such as Marvel's Luke Cage (who was the first black superhero featured in his own comic book in 1972) of the Defenders , Storm of the X-Men , Blade , Monica Rambeau of the Avengers, Misty Knight , Shang-Chi , and DC's Green Lantern John Stewart , Bronze Tiger , Black Lightning , Vixen and Cyborg of Teen Titans , many of whom were black (with

14155-411: The early 1970s, and the medium reverted by the mid-1970s to selling predominantly superhero titles. A concern with social issues had been a part of comic book stories since their beginnings: early Superman stories, for example, dealt with issues such as child mistreatment and working conditions for minors . However, in the 1970s relevance became not only a feature of the stories, but also something that

14304-406: The early 1970s, popularity shifted away from the established superhero genre towards comic book titles from which superheroes were absent altogether. These non-superhero comics were typically inspired by genres like Westerns or fantasy & pulp fiction. As previously noted, 1971's revised Comics Code left the horror genre ripe for development and several supernaturally-themed series resulted, such as

14453-582: The early serialization of Spiegelman's award-winning graphic novel Maus . Comics sold on newsstands were distributed on the basis that unsold copies were returned to the publisher. Comics sold to comic shops were sold on a no-return basis. This allowed small-press titles sold through the direct market to keep publishing costs down and increase profits, making viable titles that otherwise would have been unprofitable. Marvel and DC began taking advantage of this direct market themselves, publishing books and titles distributed only through comic book shops. This period

14602-414: The effect of standardizing the length of comics stories within a narrow range, so that multiple stand-alone stories would appear within a single issue. The underground comix of the 1960s counterculture continued, but contracted significantly and were ultimately subsumed into the emerging direct market . One commonly used ending point for the Bronze Age is the 1985–1986 time frame. As with the Silver Age,

14751-540: The end of the Bronze Age relates to a number of trends and events that happened at around the same time. DC Comics published Crisis on Infinite Earths , which overhauled the history of the DC Universe and several of the company's major characters, and revitalized sales for the company, again making it a serious market contender against Marvel. During this period Marvel published the crossover Secret Wars , cancelled Defenders and Power Man and Iron Fist , and launched

14900-452: The end of the careers of many of the veteran writers and artists of the time, or their promotion to management positions and retirement from regular writing or drawing, and their replacement with a younger generation of editors and creators, many of whom knew each other from their experiences in comic book fan conventions and publications. At the same time, publishers began the era by scaling back on their superhero publications, canceling many of

15049-404: The era are a higher amount of adult-oriented material, the X-Men becoming Marvel Comics' "dominant intellectual property", and the comics distribution system being reorganized throughout the industry. These changes would also lead to the appearance of new independent comic book publishers in the early 1990s—such as Image Comics , with titles like Spawn and Savage Dragon which also boasted

15198-535: The exception of Shang-Chi himself). Additionally, Jewish superheroes became more visible with the appearances of Marvel's Kitty Pryde of the X-Men and Moon Knight , respectively. Characters such as Luke Cage, Mantis , Misty Knight, Shang-Chi and Iron Fist have been seen by some as an attempt by Marvel Comics to cash in on the 1970s crazes for kung fu films. However, these and other minority characters came into their own after these film trends faded, and became increasingly popular and important as time progressed. By

15347-478: The experiment, that he also thinks Lex is lying or "crazy" as others do. The machine then explodes and Luthor survives but loses his hair as a result of radiation. Years later, his scientific research, largely based on his ideas about alien life, results in a small fortune that he uses to create LexCorp. When Superman appears in Metropolis, Lex is angered the man won't bow to his control and takes it very personally that

15496-490: The family moves away from Smallville and changes its name to Thorul (an anagram ) to start a new life free of him. Lena Thorul is a toddler at the time and grows up not remembering her real last name, while her parents say her older brother died in a mountain climbing accident. Lex later watches over the adult Lena, making sure she does not discover her connection to one of Earth's greatest villains. As an adult, Lex Luthor's driving ambitions are to kill Superman and rule Earth,

15645-447: The fight. The Justice Guild were comic book characters on the Justice League's Earth about whom Green Lantern read as a child. He claims without the comics, he may not have his ring today, as the comics taught him what it means to be a hero. J'onn J'onzz hypothesizes that the JGA writers had a subconscious link to their Earth during flashes of "inspiration" which were actually psychic memories of

15794-455: The fire, Luthor concludes Superboy intentionally sabotaged his work, jealous of the young scientist's achievements, and swears revenge. Luthor creates grandiose engineering projects to prove his superiority over the superhero, but each one fails and causes problems that Superboy then solves. Luthor then makes his first attempt to murder the Last Son of Krypton and fails. Instead of bringing him to

15943-512: The first of which was Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man . This was followed by a second Superman and Spider-Man, Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men vs The New Teen Titans . Another title, The Avengers vs. the Justice League of America was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by George Pérez with plotting by Roy Thomas, but was never published, reflecting the later animosity between

16092-526: The fourth issue, which takes place over a year after Superman's arrival in Metropolis. Terrorists seize Luthor's yacht, forcing Superman to intervene. Satisfied at the hero's performance, Luthor attempts to hire him, admitting he knew about the incoming attack and allowed it to occur so he could see how Superman responded (assuming that the Man of Steel would arrive in time). Enraged, the Mayor deputizes Superman to arrest Luthor for reckless endangerment. Although Luthor

16241-538: The hands of the Green Goblin in 1973's Amazing Spider-Man #121–122 is considered by comics scholar Arnold T. Blumberg to be the definitive Bronze Age event, as it exemplifies the period's trend towards darker territory and willingness to subvert conventions such as the assumed survival of long-established, "untouchable" characters. However, there had been a gradual darkening of the tone of superhero comics for several years prior to " The Night Gwen Stacy Died ", including

16390-529: The harm he has caused them. During the battle, Luthor releases an energy salvo that accidentally overloads the Neutrarod, resulting in the complete destruction of the planet Lexor and all its inhabitants, including Ardora and Lex Jr.. Similar to how he reacted after the destruction of his lab in Smallville, Lex is unable to process his grief and accept his responsibility for Lexor's destruction. He psychologically blocks part of his own memory to convince himself Superman

16539-454: The hero's constant interference with his plans. Luthor's obsessive hatred of Superman came later in the character's development. In Luthor's earliest appearances, he is shown as a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair. Less than a year later however, an artistic mistake resulted in Luthor being depicted as completely bald in a newspaper strip. The original error is attributed to Leo Nowak ,

16688-487: The hero's good deeds are often actually passive-aggressive ways of flaunting his power and popularity to Lex. When the hero joins forces with others to form a new, powerful version of the Justice League of America, Lex decides this is Superman's direct challenge to his own power, and establishes an "Injustice League" composed of various supervillains to rival them. While the Golden Age Luthor (later named Alexei Luthor)

16837-434: The illusion. Subsequently, the city's residents are freed from the illusion, thanking the League for giving them a future. The League then returns to their own Earth using a space-time machine created by Tom Turbine before his death and powered by Green Lantern's ring. Back on his own Earth, John Stewart ponders of how much the JGA comics meant to him when he was young and the impact the comics' cancellation in 1962 (the year

16986-490: The impending terrorist attack. Humiliated, Luthor swears revenge, repeatedly letting Superman know about his criminal schemes but never leaving him enough evidence to bring the man to justice again. Luthor becomes obsessed with Superman and gathers all information on him and his associates, leading a computer analysis to conclude Clark Kent and Superman are the same person. Unable to believe someone as powerful as Superman regularly hides his powers and pretends to be average, as that

17135-479: The long-term editor of the various Superman titles, retired to be replaced by Julius Schwartz . Schwartz set about toning down some of the more fanciful aspects of the Weisinger era, removing most Kryptonite from continuity and scaling back Superman's nigh-infinite—by then—powers, which was done by veteran Superman artist Curt Swan together with author Denny O'Neil . The beginning of the Bronze Age coincided with

17284-475: The love of the public, Luthor swears vengeance. Following changes to continuity in 2016's DC Rebirth , the history from Superman: Secret Origin is still largely intact, though it has also been revealed that for a time Lionel Luthor worked as a scientist for Vandal Savage and that this led to a brief friendship between Lex and J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter , when both were children. Whether he

17433-412: The machine, Lex mistakes his reaction as doubt in the young scientist's ability and sanity. Feeling betrayed, Lex continues the experiment but an explosion erupts, the radiation blast causing his hair to fall out. Luthor leaves Metropolis and years later his scientific work, largely based on his ideas about alien life, results in a fortune he uses to create LexCorp. When Superman appears, Lex is angry that

17582-520: The market, changing the medium from one dominated by a few large publishers to a more diverse and eclectic range of books. In 1970, Marvel published the first comic book issue of Robert E. Howard 's pulp character Conan the Barbarian . Conan's success as a comic hero resulted in adaptations of other Howard characters: King Kull , Red Sonja and Solomon Kane . DC Comics responded with comics featuring Warlord , Beowulf and Fritz Leiber 's Fafhrd and

17731-498: The market, which played a key role in their becoming the overall market leader among comic publishers. Suddenly many titles featured reprints: X-Men , Sgt. Fury , Kid Colt, Outlaw , Rawhide Kid , Two-Gun Kid , Outlaw Kid , Jungle Action , Special Marvel Edition (the early issues), War is Hell (the early issues), Creatures on the Loose , Monsters on the Prowl and FEAR , to name just

17880-400: The mid-1960s; DC cancelled most of its superhero titles other than those starring Superman and Batman, while Marvel cancelled weaker-selling titles such as Dr. Strange , Sub-Mariner and The X-Men . In their place, they experimented with a wide variety of other genres, including Westerns, horror and monster stories, and the above-mentioned adaptations of pulp adventures. These trends peaked in

18029-527: The mid-1980s, Storm and Cyborg had become leaders of the X-Men and Teen Titans , respectively, and John Stewart briefly replaced Hal Jordan as the lead character of the Green Lantern title. Starting with Neal Adams' work in Green Lantern/Green Arrow a newly sophisticated realism became the norm in the industry. Buyers would no longer be interested in the heavily stylized work of artists of

18178-456: The most apparent influences from this series was the creation of what became DC Comics' answer to X-Men's character-based storytelling style, The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez , which became a highly successful and influential property in its own right. Wolfman would associate himself with the title for sixteen years, while Perez established a large fan base and a sought-after pencilling style. A successful cartoon based on

18327-405: The new Supergirl (a protoplasmic being), who falls in love with him due to his resemblance to her lost love and creator, the Luthor of a parallel Earth. When Superman is seemingly killed by the living weapon Doomsday , the genetic research facility Project Cadmus creates a seeming clone of the hero called Superboy (Kon-El) . As Earth science cannot perfectly replicate Kryptonian DNA, Superboy

18476-486: The newspaper almost bankrupt. Superman's arrival challenges Luthor's image and brings renewed interest to the Planet when he does exclusive interviews with their staff. Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen, and Lois Lane work together to oppose Luthor's power and Superman tells the public they should strive to achieve great things themselves and not wait for others to be their saviors. Angry at Superman's interference and blaming him for losing

18625-471: The niche Underground Comix of the late '60s was ostensibly opened with the Franco-Belgian import Heavy Metal Magazine . Marvel launched competing magazine titles of their own with Conan the Barbarian and Epic Illustrated which would eventually become its division of Direct Sales comics. The paper drives of World War II and a growing nostalgia among Baby-Boomers in the 1970s made comic books of

18774-535: The original Luthor. Every story would begin with him breaking out of prison, finding some giant robot in an old lab he hid somewhere, and then he'd be defeated. My view was if he could afford all those labs and giant robots he wouldn't need to rob banks. I also thought later that Luthor should not have super powers. Every other villain had super powers. Luthor's power was his mind. He needed to be smarter than Superman. Superman's powers had to be useless against him because they couldn't physically fight each other and Superman

18923-473: The other boy's attempts to form a friendship. Resentful toward his alcoholic and abusive father, Lex arranges his parents to die in a car accident and uses the insurance money to leave Smallville and start a better life. After studying under the villains Ra's al Ghul and Darkseid , he founds LexCorp and uses his PR, resources, and media control to set himself up as a near-savior in Metropolis. The Daily Planet opposes Luthor and he retaliates in ways that leave

19072-526: The period, prefiguring the later Modern Age of Comic Books. There is no one single event that can be said to herald the beginning of the Bronze Age. Instead, a number of events at the beginning of the 1970s, taken together, can be seen as a shift away from the tone of comics in the previous decade. One such event was the April 1970 issue of Green Lantern , which added Green Arrow as a title character ( Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76). The series, written by Denny O'Neil and penciled by Neal Adams (inking

19221-418: The planet Lexor and it becomes a regular home base and retreat for Luthor in-between his efforts to fight Superman and take over Earth. He later meets a local woman named Ardora (first called "Tharla" but renamed "Ardora" in later stories as well as the reprint of her first appearance). The two eventually fall in love and marry. Deciding to retire permanently, Luthor returns to Lexor and learns he has fathered

19370-422: The popular The Tomb of Dracula , Ghost Rider and Swamp Thing . In the science fiction genre, post-apocalyptic survival stories were an early trend, as evidenced by characters like Deathlok , Killraven and Kamandi . The long-running sci-fi/fantasy anthology comic magazine Metal Hurlant and its American counterpart Heavy Metal began publishing in the late '70s. Marvel's Star Wars series

19519-453: The powerful alien, the kind of companion he'd often hoped for, looks on him with disapproval and openly disrespects him in front of the media. For this and his interference with Luthor's criminal operations, the scientist businessman decides to humiliate and destroy the alien. Waid's original intention was to jettison the notion of Lex Luthor being an evil businessman, restoring his status as a mad scientist. He ultimately conceded, however, that

19668-451: The process. In the end, Luthor becomes a prisoner in his own body, unable to move or even blink, internally swearing vengeance on Superman. During the crossover Underworld Unleashed , the demon-lord Neron offers Luthor full health and vitality in exchange for services and his soul. Not believing in the existence of souls, Lex agrees and is restored, regaining the physical fitness of his Lex II body but again lacking head and facial hair, and

19817-402: The storyline "The Black Ring", Luthor is endowed with cosmic powers that could enable him to bring peace and bliss to the entire universe and therefore achieve his dream of being more respected than Superman, but he ultimately chooses to renounce his new powers when he realizes that his greatest enemy would never suffer again if he used them. At times, Lex has been shown evidence that Clark Kent

19966-570: The storyline was entitled " Snowbirds Don't Fly ," and it revealed that the Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy had become addicted to heroin . The 1971 revision to the Comics Code has also been seen as relaxing the rules on the use of vampires, ghouls and werewolves in comic books, allowing the growth of a number of supernatural- and horror-oriented titles, such as Swamp Thing , Ghost Rider and The Tomb of Dracula , among numerous others. However,

20115-421: The suit, Luthor performs several acts of destruction on Lexor, feigning ignorance when he hears about the "mystery marauder" and telling Ardora he has no knowledge of the armored man. When Superman arrives, Luthor dons his warsuit and attacks, now obsessed with the need to best the hero in combat and prove his superiority. The people of Lexor are shocked to realize he is the mystery marauder and does not care about

20264-453: The surgery) would be stolen. Eventually coming into the possession of Superman, who in turn entrusts it to Batman, tasking the Dark Knight to use it if the Man of Steel ever becomes corrupt or falls under the control of another. But removing the tainted limb was a mere half measure, as his affliction had already metastasized rendering Lex's condition terminal. Luthor fakes his death in

20413-548: The time-traveling villain Brainiac 13 infuses Metropolis with technology from the future while his ancestor Brainiac, in need of a new physical vessel, mentally inhabits young Lena's body. Brainiac 13 offers Luthor control of the technology if Luthor turns over Brainiac and hands over his daughter. He later tells Superman that he has a "kingdom" now as a result of his deal, adding "As for my princess... I can always make another." Deciding to turn to politics, Luthor becomes President of

20562-483: The tone of horror comic stories had already seen substantial changes between the relatively tame offerings of the early 1960s (e.g. Unusual Tales ) and the more violent products available in the late 1960s (e.g. The Witching Hour , revised formats in House of Secrets , House of Mystery and The Unexpected ). At the beginning of the 1970s, publishers moved away from the superhero stories that enjoyed mass-market popularity in

20711-514: The two companies. Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter was not pleased that DC wanted the fourth company crossover to include The New Teen Titans , DC's best-selling title at the time, as he wanted the crossover to be the X-Men and the Legion of Super-Heroes. This led to Shooter's decision to stall and cancel the JLA/Avengers project. Beginning around 1970, Marvel introduced vast numbers of reprints into

20860-463: The weaker-selling titles, and experimenting with other genres such as horror and sword and sorcery . The era also encompassed major changes in the distribution of and audience for comic books. Over time, the medium shifted from cheap mass market products sold at newsstands to a more expensive product sold at specialty comic book shops and aimed at a smaller, core audience of fans. The shift in distribution allowed many small-print publishers to enter

21009-451: The young scientist creates an artificial life-form of "primitive protoplasm." Overjoyed, he accidentally causes a chemical fire in the lab. Superboy puts out the fire, inadvertently spilling other chemicals, destroying the artificial life-form and the accumulated research notes that led to its creation. The chemical fumes also cause Lex's hair to completely fall out. Enraged he has lost years of research but unwilling to accept responsibility for

21158-668: Was banned outright by the Comics Code Authority , regardless of the context. The CCA refused to approve the story, but Lee published it regardless. The positive reception that the story received led to the CCA revising the Comics Code later that year to allow the portrayal of drug addiction as long as it was depicted in a negative light. Soon after, DC Comics had their own drug abuse storyline in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85–86. Written by Denny O'Neil with art by Neal Adams ,

21307-505: Was by Adams or Dick Giordano ), focused on "relevance" as Green Lantern was exposed to poverty and experienced self-doubt. Later in 1970, Jack Kirby left Marvel Comics , ending arguably the most important creative partnership of the Silver Age (with Stan Lee ). Kirby then turned to DC , where he created The Fourth World series of titles, starting with Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 in December 1970. Also in 1970, Mort Weisinger ,

21456-474: Was jealous of his intellect and caused the fire himself. Believing he's been betrayed by his hero and friend, Lex swears revenge. His first attempts at that are grandiose scientific and engineering projects around Smallville to steal Superboy's thunder. When these attempts, for which, unknown to Luthor, Superboy was supportive as consolation that Lex was at least being constructive in his vendetta, each go disastrously awry and force Superboy to intervene while earning

21605-512: Was part of the larger DC Multiverse . The Silver Age version of Luthor was introduced in Adventure Comics #271 (April 1960), now given the first name "Lex" (later said to be short for Alexis, eventually retconned as Alexander) and an origin story . Originally hero-worshiping Superboy, teenage Lex Luthor of Smallville is determined to prove he is Earth's greatest scientist by creating artificial life. His recklessness and inexperience causes

21754-517: Was ranked 4th on IGN ' s list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time and as the 8th Greatest Villain by Wizard on its 100 Greatest Villains of All Time list. Luthor is one of a few genre-crossing villains whose adventures take place "in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended". Scott James Wells , Sherman Howard , John Shea , Michael Rosenbaum , Jon Cryer , Titus Welliver , and Michael Cudlitz have portrayed

21903-875: Was simply not as smart as Luthor. As originally presented in the Post- Crisis version of the DC Comics Universe, 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 of great power and influence. As a teenager, he takes out a large life 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 fully appear in The Man of Steel mini-series until

22052-557: Was that of the team-up book, either combining two characters, at least one of which was not popular enough to sustain its own title ( Green Lantern/Green Arrow ). Even DC combined two features in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes and had team-up books ( The Brave and the Bold , DC Comics Presents and World's Finest Comics ). Virtually all such books disappeared by the end of the period. Marvel and DC worked out several crossover titles

22201-739: Was very popular with a nine-year run. Other titles began from characters originally found in 20th century pulp magazines or novels. Noteworthy examples are the long running titles Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan (the latter was published as a magazine, bypassing the Comics Code), as well as Master of Kung-Fu . The early success of these titles soon led to more pulp character adaptations ( Doc Savage , Kull , The Shadow , Justice, Inc. , Tarzan ). During this period, Charlton, Western Publishing / Gold Key , Marvel and DC also regularly published official comic book adaptations for various projects, including popular films ( Planet of

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