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.

This revenge causes Luthor's family to disown him and change their names to Thorul.

Grodd is released from Luthor's mental grip and then shot into space, all the while screaming threats of revenge.

By some accounts, the seeds for Luthor's character first appeared in The Reign of the Super-Man, also written by Siegel and Shuster.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lex Luthor has been married eight times, though the first seven marriages occurred off-panel in Luthor's past.

Lex Luthor's adolescence in Smallville, first as Superboy's friend and then his foe, was one of the elements of Superman's history removed by the The Man of Steel.

The first one was in " History of Doom " when the Hall of Justice computer runs a tape showing Lex Luthor's origin.

52 presents Jacob Colby as one of the first official subjects for Lex Luthor's " Everyman Project ".

Although the character of Lex Luthor's father was first introduced in Superman comics by Jerry Siegel in 1961 and has since appeared in other Superman-related media under different names, Smallville represents the first time the character has become an intricate part of a Superman adaptation.

He first appears as a member of Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang.

52 presents Gerome McKenna as one of the first official subjects for Lex Luthor's " Everyman Project ".

The alternate version of Superboy who took Luthor's life was shown wearing a black leather jacket and sunglasses which bears some resemblance to the Conner Kent version of Superboy as he first appeared in the " Death of Superman " storyline.

The latest Blockbuster first appeared in the pages of the series 52 wherein he is directed into battle against Lex Luthor's team of superheroes, Infinity, Inc.

Amazo proved to be more than a match for the League when he copied their combined powers ; however, Luthor's downfall came when the Martian Manhunter allowed Amazo to copy his powers and read Luthor's mind, discovering that he was just using him all along.

Superboy uses his super-breath to extinguish the flames, inadvertently spilling chemicals which cause Luthor to go bald ; in the process, he also destroys Luthor's artificial life form.

Parallax sacrifices his life to reignite the Sun, simultaneously using his powers to safely restore it to its original form without causing any side-effects such as the mass flooding that would have resulted if the sun had been restored purely by Luthor's plan.

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.

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.

After Zor-El is assassinated by Luthor's agents, Alura takes over leadership of Kandor.

During Infinite Crisis, Nyssa and her sister connive to use Talia's membership in Luthor's Secret Society of Super Villains in order to take over the planet.

Ultraman calls a meeting, discovers Luthor's absence, and begins plotting to take over the positive matter universe, while Power Ring and Johnny Quick discuss the possibility of counterparts to themselves.

Luthor's team now has over two hundred members with a six-member core team consisting of Luthor, Talia al Ghul, Doctor Psycho, Deathstroke, Black Adam, and the Calculator.

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.

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.

Together, they locate and attack Alexander Luthor's tower, the center of the Crisis, only to be repelled by Superboy-Prime.

Cadmus was later shown to be backed by Lex Luthor, who only financed the project in a grab for superpowers of his own ; a new AMAZO robot with Luthor's conscious mind implanted in it.

She claims to be " the only one in Luthor's entire company who can get away with calling him Lex ".

In recent years, various writers have revived Luthor's mad scientist persona from the 1940s.

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.

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.

Lois is initially sceptical that Lex could have fathered these adult men, but Clark Kent insists that no one can be sure of Luthor's true age since he was " a master of deception.

Clark had been working with Perry and Jimmy to expose Luthor before being captured, and they have enough evidence to get the police to barge in on Luthor's wedding to arrest him.

Because his powers have been sapped by Luthor's kryptonite, Clark is unable to stop the villain from killing himself, however Luthor returns from the dead in Season 2.

However, thanks to Plastic Man infiltrating the group disguised as the Joker, coupled with Luthor's inability to understand the true motivations of heroism ( meaning that he underestimated what he would have to do to win Green Arrow's allegiance ), the League were able to turn the tables on Luthor's plot, subsequently taking the Stone from Luthor after taking out the other members of the Gang.

This episode adapted Lex Luthor's silver age comic book origin, in which Superboy rescues Lex from a lab accident that causes him to lose all of his hair, becoming the familiar bald villain Superman fans have come to recognize.

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.

Luthor's actions in bringing the two Earths into contact will unintentionally result in the two Earths merging into the same space and destroying each other, with the JLA and CSA being powerless to stop it due to their being on Earths where they, by the nature of the respective universes, cannot win.