Lex Luthor, other supervillains, and various civilians have learned the secret identity several times, though their knowledge is usually been removed through various means ( the boxer Muhammad Ali is one of the very few to deduce the identity and retain the knowledge ).

Later in the film, when the need to change is more urgent ( as he believes the city is about to be poisoned by Lex Luthor ), he simply jumps out a window of the Daily Planet offices, changing at super-speed as he falls ( the film merely shows the falling Kent blurring into a falling Superman ) and flies off.

Lex Luthor's father, Lionel Luthor, is an unscrupulous industrialist with whom Lex has a troubled relationship.

The younger Luthor slightly envies Clark's ' clean-cut ' and wholesome parents ( who disapprove of Clark's friendship with Luthor ), while Clark is impressed with Luthor's wealth while failing to understand some of the manipulations he carries out in his interactions with others.

Even in his better days, Luthor is highly ambitious for power and wealth, at one time noting that he shares his name with Alexander the Great.

Alexander Joseph " Lex " Luthor is a fictional character supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics.

Luthor is described as " a power-mad, evil scientist " of high intelligence and incredible technological prowess.

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.

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.

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.

Luthor attempts to kill Superman after threatening to kill Lois, but despite being weakened by his destruction ray, Superman is able to destroy it.

In his earliest appearances, Luthor is shown as a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Modern Age Lex Luthor is a product of child abuse and early poverty.

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.

As outlined in a backup profile in the 52 weekly series, the post-Action Comics # 850 Lex Luthor in this continuity is the son of business mogul Lionel Luthor and his socialite spouse, Leticia.

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.

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.

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.

For a brief period, the Daily Planet itself came under the ownership of LexCorp, but Luthor quickly became disenchanted with what he considered the low profit margins of the newspaper business.

The Amazon forces, commanded by Wonder Woman, attack Superman but are quickly defeated, along with a collection of " super-menaces " ( including Atomic Skull, Parasite and Doomsday ) that Luthor has put together over the years.

Pete was Vice-President of the United States under Lex Luthor and briefly served as President following Luthor's impeachment but quickly resigned.

Lois decides to confront Lex Luthor about her discoveries, but is quickly captured by the true person responsible for the Liberators and the discrediting of the Justice League.

His joy is cut short when Lex Luthor, overwhelmed by the orange light of Avarice, steals his ring.

In " The Secret Revealed ," a super-computer constructed by Lex Luthor calculated Superman's true identity from various information that had been assembled by his staff, but Lex dismissed the idea because he could not believe that someone so powerful would want another, weaker identity.

Metallo was soon kidnapped and his power source forcibly removed by Lex Luthor who, after discovering its debilitating effects on Kryptonians, created a ring with a kryptonite gem to keep Superman at bay.

Following orders issued by Lex Luthor and Lana Lang, LexCorp starts stockpiling and selling it to government facilities and weapon makers.

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.

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.

" 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 ), Luthor routinely manages to escape from prison and threaten the world again.

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.

Luthor's trademark battlesuit from this era — a heavily-armored, flight-capable suit with kryptonite fixtures embedded in its gauntlets — 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.

Luthor eventually suffers from severe cancer brought on by long-term radiation exposure to the ring ; before this, kryptonite was mistakenly assumed to produce a ' clean ' radiation that is harmless to humans.

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.

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.

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.

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 ).

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.