Metropolis Mailbag: Lex Luthor II's backstory?
redlanterns asked:
imagine ive only ever real one 80s-90s superman comic (this is true) what exactly is the deal with lions-mane lex luthor? why does he have hair? why is he dating kara of all people? what is going on. i found an image of him today and when using reverse image search found your blog. please help i don't know why he has an entire mane and a maybe-20-at-most girlfriend
Do you want the long version or the short version? Because either way I'm giving you the long version, sorry.
*cracks knuckles*
Okay, so when John Byrne rebooted Superman in 1986, he established that baby Kal-El's Kryptonian spaceship had a chunk of kryptonite lodged into it – in The Man of Steel #1, teenage Clark Kent gets sick when he gets near the ship for the first time (since he came out of it, I mean) because of the kryptonite, not due to the shock of learning he's an alien or because he had a big plate of chili earlier or something. We also see that a mysterious figure is creeping on young Clark and his Earth dad as they visit the spot where the ship is hidden:
Later, in The Man of Steel #4, we're introduced to Lex Luthor for the first time and he has (some) red hair on his head, but he's pretty much the same "older businessman who hates Superman" character you're probably familiar with, unless your only exposure to the Superman franchise is through Dawn of Justice, in which case I'm so sorry.
Anyway, in The Man of Steel #6 (the end of Superman's new origin), Superman realizes that someone has stolen his baby spaceship – it turns out that leaving advanced alien tech laying around in the middle of a field in Kansas isn't such a good idea after all. The next month in the all-new Superman #1, we find out that the thief was the same mysterious figure who's been stalking Superman since he was young – it's a crazy scientist who spent years tracking down the spaceship after it landed on Earth, finally found it, and used the kryptonite on it to build a radioactive-meteor-powered Terminator called Metallo. Metallo kicks Superman's ass in this issue (because, again, kryptonite), but just when he's about to kill him, someone conveniently kidnaps him.
In Superman #2 we find out that the kidnapper was a jealous (and by now completely bald) Lex Luthor, because he wanted to kill Superman himself, and also steal the kryptonite while at it. In fact, Luthor is such a big fan of kryptonite that he makes himself a fancy kryptonite ring and goads Superman with it.
After all, it's just a radioactive rock from outer space; what's the worst that could happen? We find out a year later in Action Comics #600, when Luthor discovers he has cancer due to wearing that ring all day and has to have his hand amputated and replaced with a robot one. But that wasn't enough to stop the cancer – by Action Comics #660 in 1990, the disease has spread to Luthor's entire body and he only has a few months to live. So, one day, Luthor says "fuck it," gets on a supersonic jet plane, crashes it on some mountains, and dies.
…OR DOES HE?
Over the next few months, LexCorp's lawyers discover that Luthor left everything to a secret son he's got stashed away somewhere, so they start looking for him. Meanwhile, because LexCorp is freaking everywhere in Metropolis and Luthor's henchmen suck at running the company, the whole city falls into an economic depression. Just when the city is at its lowest point, with a huge blackout and riots and even the Daily Planet about to go broke, Luthor's secret heir shows up in Action Comics #671, and it turns out he's sexy, long-haired, and Australian.
Lex Jr. fixes the company's (and thus Metropolis') problems and quickly becomes a hero to the city. And for a while there, it actually looked like the kid was on the up and up. Meanwhile, Supergirl comes back after a long absence, but she's not the "Superman's cousin" Supergirl you know, she's… a whole other can of worms I will gladly explain in another long-ass post if anyone asks, because that's what I was put on this planet to do. What's important is that this Supergirl was created by an alternate dimension Luthor who was also good and sexy (but not Australian), so when she meets Lex Jr. in 1992\xe2\x80\xb2s Action Comics #676, she gets a little Electra thing going and instantly falls in love with him. Seriously, they start making out like five seconds after meeting.
But, plot twist: Luthor's son wasn't good, or Luthor's son. Because they…
Action Comics #678 reveals the years-long con: turns out Luthor faked his death in that plane crash and hired a disgraced cloning specialist (from another looooong storyline) to make him a new, cancer-free body under his exact specifications. Yes, he specifically asked for thick hair, and thick who knows what else. He even planned Metropolis' economic crisis to set up his "son" as the city's savior and steal some public love from Superman. The one thing he didn't plan was for a Supergirl whose main kink is\xc2\xa0"Lex Luthor but good" to fall on his lap; that was just a happy accident.
And that's why in some comics Lex Luthor has long red hair and is dating Supergirl, who isn't actually a teenager in this version… she's like two years old, and made of goo, so it's even grosser. Ugh, fine, here's a tl;dr: Lex was dying of radioactive poisoning for wearing kryptonite bling so he cloned himself a younger body, faked his own death, pretended to be his hair-having non-evil son, and hooked up with a Supergirl from another universe who happened to love hair-having non-evil Luthors.
Lex Jr.'s storyline actually continued until Action Comics #700, and we're about to make a post about #694, so keep an eye on the blog to find out what happened to the character! (Or just check Wikipedia, but we'd prefer if you read the blog.) (And also checked out our humble Patreon!)