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 eventually returns to Earth, unable to accept his own role in Lexor's destruction and blaming Superman for it.

In the end, Luthor becomes a permanent prisoner in his own body, unable to even blink, and swearing vengeance on Superman.

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.

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.

His formerly gray " skin " now gleaming golden like at the end of Tabula Rasa, his powers have evolved to the point where the combined League, including nearly all of its reserve members, were unable to hold him off while the Atom and Lex Luthor attempted to devise a weapon capable of defeating him using the original plans for the Android designed to neutralize Amazo's nanotechnology.

Maxwell Lord spent the next years training to be more ruthless and powerful than his father was, methodically enacting his revenge against the Chimtech administration board members, but was unable to prevent Lex Luthor from acquiring his former property and adding it to the already immense LexCorp.

Although Brainiac 13 was able to gain control of several android superheroes, such as the Red Tornado, Hourman, and the Metal Men, and use them against Superman, Superman discovered during a fight with the Eradicator — attempting to stop the Kryptonian program from ' hi-jacking ' the B13 virus and using it for its own ends — that Brainiac 13 could not cope with Kryptonian technology because he was not compatible with it, giving Superman a plan to stop Brainiac's scheme, tricking Luthor into connecting a Kryptonian battlesuit to one of Brainiac's power conduits and subsequently working with the reactivated Red Tornado to break Brainiac 13 down into his respective nanobots and trap him in the suit.

Meanwhile back in the past Cyborg makes a deal with Skynet-leaving a message in a Terminator's skull about Superman's weaknesses and subsequently allying himself with a T-X sent back from the future to assist him -, while Supergirl, Superboy, and even Lex Luthor continue to protect Sarah and young John from wave after wave of Terminator cyborgs, the later models being specifically upgraded to cope with the Superman family.

Clark Kent starts out best friends with Lex Luthor, whom he meets after saving the latter's life.

( Boyhood friendship with Lex Luthor had been the basis of a Superboy adventure published in 1960,

In different ways to Luthor, Clark also does not have fully ideal relationship either with his adoptive father, Jonathan, nor with an A. I.

DC Comics produces material featuring a large number of well-known characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Aquaman, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern and the Flash, along with superhero teams Justice Society, the Justice League, the Teen Titans, and the Doom Patrol as well as antagonists such as Lex Luthor, the Joker, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, Sinestro, the Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, General Zod, Brainiac and Darkseid .< ref > Benton, Mike.

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.

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.

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.

The teenage Luthor saves Superboy from a chance encounter with Kryptonite.

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.

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.

This version of Luthor appears to have little personal dislike for Superman, other than the fact the hero interferes with his criminal schemes.

When Lex Luthor tries to use his Kryptonite ring on Superman, it doesn't work due to the fact that Superman was actually Batman in disguise.

Supergirl then reveals to Superman that Brainiac shrunk the Kryptonian city of Kandor and placed it in a bottle, that the Brainiac that Superman has been fighting all these years was in fact a swarm of nanomachines sent by the real Brainiac to look for Superman that had possessed Milton Fine, Doomsday, the Brainiac 2. 5 android, and finally Lena Luthor, and that no one has ever seen the actual Brainiac.

In keeping with the fact that these " Imaginary Stories " allowed for much grimmer stories that usual, it ended with Lex Luthor killing the Kents and Batman trying to murder him in revenge.

Mack enjoys the fact that her character was created specifically for the show, because she feels like she does not have to worry about being compared to someone else in the same role, which she likens to people comparing Michael Rosenbaum ’ s performance as Lex Luthor to Gene Hackman ’ s portrayal in the Superman film series of the 1970s – 1980s.

Superman is even ordered by the " President " ( in fact a computer generated front for Lex Luthor and Brainiac ) to stop Batman.

However, it is revealed that Amazo was not seeking revenge on Luthor as initially thought, but in fact was looking for his philosophical advice on the meaning of existence.

Superman follows her to Hell to fight for the souls of Jimmy Olsen and Perry White's son Jerry ( who in fact was the son of Perry's wife Alice and Lex Luthor ).

These may or may not have been deliberate, or even conscious decisions, for instance, it is generally acknowledged that the bald Lex Luthor was an artist's error, but the fact of the similarity remained.

Little is revealed about this Blockbuster, save for the fact that Luthor possesses some measure of control of his actions and level of strength.