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Lex Luthor is one of the main antagonists of the DC Animated Universe. He is the main antagonist of Superman: The Animated Series, a major antagonist in Justice League and the main antagonist of Justice League Unlimited. He was a billionaire and a criminal mastermind. He also was one of the most brilliant minds of the Earth and one of Superman's greatest foes.
He was voiced by Clancy Brown, who also voiced Dr. Neo Cortex, Hades, Savage Opress, Silas, Mr. Krabs, The Evil Entity and also portrayed The Kurgan and General Wade Eiling.
Biography
Superman: The Animated Series
Lex Luthor is the founder and CEO of LexCorp. He grew to resent Superman when he stole his spotlight as Metropolis' savior, and usually invested heavily in some of the Man of Steel's greatest foes, such as Metallo and Livewire. He sought to kill Superman for shutting down his major operations and costing him a lot of money. Although Superman already put away many of Luthor's co-conspirators, he could never convict Luthor himself due to lack of evidence. He was also known for his betrayals on many associates, causing many to leave LexCorp; the only one left was Mercy Graves. Lex also is shown to hate Batman as well, as he is an intellectual rival who teamed up with Superman to fight him when he and Joker teamed up, preventing Superman from being killed by Joker's kryptonite in the process. In Legacy, he was thrilled, the whole world turned against Superman when Darkseid brainwashed him and let him loose to take over and invade Earth. But Superman snapped out of it and earned the world's trust back and dismissed the charges against him.
Justice League
Luthor later fought the Justice League, but was subsequently defeated, exposed as a crook, and sentenced to prison. He also learned that he had a terminal form of radiation poisoning as a result of carrying around a chunk of Kryptonite for years, leaving him with only a few more months to live. He then joined up with Cheetah, Star Sapphire, Shade, Copperhead (who would be in jail and replaced by the Joker), Solomon Grundy and Ultra-Humanite, forming the Injustice Gang, in an attempt take down the Justice League, but failed. Luthor later "redeemed" himself by aiding the Justice League in defeating the Justice Lords and was given a full pardon.
Justice League Unlimited
After being freed from prison and cleared of all charges, Luthor reestablished his company and later entered politics and ran in the U.S. Presidential Elections. However, still bent on destroying Superman, he created Project Cadmus and succeeded in ruining the Justice League's reputation twice: once by causing Superman and Captain Marvel to fight each other, causing great destruction in the city, and again by taking control of the Watchtower's orbital cannon and causing it to fire on a Cadmus-related building in New Mexico.
Luthor's malevolent plans were later exposed by Batman and the Justice League, only for Brainiac to reveal that he had been dormant inside Lex ever since the episode Ghost in the Shell. Luthor later convinced Brainiac to fuse with him because they both could reach their ultimate goals. He then battled the Justice League, proving to be one of the group's most difficult foes. However, the Flash was able to separate the two after tapping into the Speed Force.
Luthor went back to jail with a damaged psyche. After Luthor escaped prison again thanks to The Key, Gorilla Grodd offered him membership in the newly formed Legion of Doom. Joining only to revive and refuse with Brainiac, Luthor eventually overthrew Grodd and took over the Legion (who did not oppose him after they learned Grodd's ultimate plan was to turn humanity into apes). Eventually, Lex's quest to revive Braniac lead the Legion into space, where he found a version of Brainiac that had been destroyed years earlier. However, Tala freed Grodd and he and a faction of the Legion fought Luthor and his supporters (which included the likes of Giganta, Bizarro, Toyman, Sinestro, Cheetah, Star Sapphire, Evil Star, etc.) After killing Grodd and trapping and absorbing Tala's magic to resurrect Brainiac, Lex discovers that he had accidentally resurrected Darkseid instead.
Luthor and the rest of the surviving Legion members barely escaped from Darkseid and made their way to Earth, where Luthor warned the Justice League, and he and his allies reluctantly team-up with them to fight against Darkseid and his army. Before the battle against Darkseid, Luthor points out to the Justice League that he doesn't want to help them save the world, but get revenge on Darkseid for destroying Brainiac and ruining his plans, before he and the Justice League go back in being enemies again as usual. He later left the battle with Metron and discovered the Anti-Life Equation. Returning to Earth with the Equation, he offered to share the knowledge with Darkseid, and they both disappeared in a spark of light. While they are presumed dead by the public, members of the Justice League have theorized they will eventually return yet again. However, it was revealed that both Luthor and Darkseid are now part of the Source Wall, that is the fate that occurs to all creature that solved the Anti-Life Equation, like them.
Equipment and Abilities
Former Powers
- Scientific Deity Physiology: In order to Transcend his own mortality and limitations, Lex Luthor bargained to fuse with Brainiac, so that Brainiac can grant him all of his knowledge, powers and immortality; and Lex Luthor can allow Brainiac to transcend his programming's limitations. However, a fully empowered Flash was abel to destroy Brainiac and separate Lex form it, returning Lex back to normal with a damaged sanity
- Superhuman Strength: Even before transcending into a complete Scientific Deity, Brainiac endowed Lex with incredible superhuman strength, being able to lift up large objects and toss them easily. He could even take down Batman with his brute strength alone and rag-dolled The Question until the Question had sustained multiple painful injuries.
- Superhuman Speed: The fusion of Lex and Brainiac can react and move at super speeds.
- Superhuman Durability: The fusion of Lex and Brainiac could take the most strongest and focused strikes of Superman with little damage. However, powerful blows from a fully empowered Flash was able to destroy Brainiac and all the cybernetics of his body.
- Superhuman Intelligence: The fusion of Lex and Brainiac had the collective knowledge of Brainiac as well as Lex Luthor's innovative faculties, allowing Brainiac to transcend his limitations and become extremely powerful.
- Regenerative Healing: The fusion of Lex and Brainiac can regenerate at a fast pace. Brainiac was able to heal both his technological parts as well as Lex's biological parts.
- Immortality: Lex has stated that he has finally become immortal and can live forever.
- Technology Manipulation: The fusion of Lex and Brainiac can manipulate and absorb technology into their database as well s instantaneously understand its operations, no matter how advanced. The fusion of Lex and Brainiac can even create constructs and objects out of nanotechnology such as soldiers, a copy of the Justice Lords as well as a Shotgun to try to execute The flash.
- Energy Projection: The fusion of Lex and Brainiac can project powerful blasts of energy which could even bypass the near invulnerability of Superman.
Abilities
- Genius-Level Intellect:
- Near-Inexhaustible Wealth:
- Advanced technologies:
Former Weaknesses
Relationships
Friends and Allies
- Mercy Graves - Personal Bodyguard and Chauffeur.
- Bizarro - Creation and Ally.
- Metallo † - Hitman and Ally.
- Toyman - Friend and Ally.
- Livewire - Friend and Ally.
- General Hardcastle † - Ally and Associate.
- Giganta - Teammate and Ally.
- Sinestro - Friend and Ally.
- Joker - Greatest Ally.
- Cheetah - Friend and Ally.
- Solomon Grundy † - Teammate and Ally.
- Star Sapphire - Teammate and Ally.
- Evil Star - Teammate and Ally.
- Killer Frost - Teammate and Ally.
- Atomic Skull - Teammate and Ally.
- Volcana - Teammate and Ally.
- Brainiac † - Friend, Ally and Assimilation.
Enemies
- Superman - Archnemesis and Greatest Foe.
- Lois Lane - Enemy.
- Daniel Turpin † - Enemy.
- Supergirl - Enemy.
- Batman - Second Archenemy.
- Wonder Woman - Enemy.
- The Flash - Third Archenemy.
- Green Lantern - Enemy.
- Hawkgirl - Enemy.
- Martian Manhunter - Enemy.
- Gorilla Grodd - Enemy and Former Leader.
- Tala - Enemy and Former Ally.
- Darkseid - Enemy.
- Amanda Waller - Enemy and Former Ally.
- Justice League - Sworn Enemies.
Gallery
Images
Videos
Trivia
- Clancy Brown later reprised his role as Luthor in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
- His fusion with Brainiac is a reference to an idea that film director Tim Burton had for his unmade Superman Lives film. According with Burton's idea, Brainiac and Luthor would merge and became a creature named Lexiac.
- Although both Luthor and Darkseid's fate are left unexplained in the series, show's late writer Dwayne McDuffie explained in his own website that Luthor and Darkseid are now part of the Source Wall because they solved the Anti-Life Equation. It's completely unknown if this means that they are dead or not.