Lena Luthor

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Lena Luthor is a fictional character, in DC Comics' Superman series.

1 Original version
2 Modern version
3 Appearances In Other Media
4 External links

[edit] Original version

Lena Luthor was originally Lex Luthor's younger sister, appearing irregularly in DC Comics' from 1961 to 1975. Lena had empathic abilities.

After Lex became evil, his family changed their last name in shame to the anagram 'Thorul'. As a result, Lena never knew she had an older brother, as Lex Luthor himself (with occasional help from Supergirl and Superman) worked to keep her from learning the truth.

[edit] Modern version

Post Crisis on Infinite Earths, Lena Luthor is the child of Lex Luthor and Countessa Erica Del Portenza. She was named after a childhood friend of Lex's who had been killed by their foster father, Casey Griggs. After Lena's birth, Lex took advantage of Countessa Erica's wish to be unconscious at child birth by keeping her permanently drugged and unconscious at his corporate headquarters, not wishing to share his daughter's love with anyone else.

However, when Brainiac 13 arrived from the 64th century, a still-infant Lena was given to him by her father in return for control over the B13 technology that had infected Metropolis. She returned to visit Lex Luthor during the Our Worlds at War crossover, where she had apparently been aged to adolescence by Brainiac 13. Lena played a sneaky role during the event, helping Luthor and his allies beat Imperiex by feeding her father information while secretly manipulating events to benefit Brainiac 13. At the end of the crossover, Brainiac 13 and Imperiex are both destroyed, and Lena is regressed to infanthood and returned to her father by Superman.

In the Superman's Metropolis miniseries the artificial intelligence controlling the B-13 technology believed itself to be Lena Luthor. When it created a human body (female, but bald) to persue a romantic relationship with Jimmy Olsen, Superman confronted her with the real Lena Luthor, making her realise her personality was a computer simulation of Lena's.

[edit] Appearances In Other Media

A version of Lena Luthor appeared in two episodes of the "Superboy" TV series which aired from 1988 to 1992. In the two-part story "Know Thine Enemy", Lena appears in flashbacks to Lex Luthor's childhood while Superboy experiences Lex's life through a device Luthor invented called a "psychodisk". Young Lena is played by Jennifer Hawkins. In part one, Lena and Lex are frequently abused by their father. Young Lex is very protective of Lena, and tries to stop his father from beating her, only to get a beating himself. Lex and Lena dream of one day escaping from their less-than-perfect home life. Eventually, Lex urges Lena to go spend the night at a friend's house and builds a bomb with which he plans to kill his parents while Lena is away. He has taken out a life insurance policy on them and plans to collect it after their deaths. He eventually does kill them, though the scene is not depicted in the episode because Superboy escapes the psychodisk recording before it can happen.

In part two, the adult Lena appears, played by Denise Gossett. Lana Lang seeks out Lena, who has faked her own death and changed her name to escape the curse of the Luthor name. Her apparent death has driven Lex over the edge, causing him to construct a series of bombs that will wipe out all life on earth, leaving only android duplicates of himself and Lena on the planet. Because Lena is the only person Luthor claims to have ever loved, Lana believes she can stop his mad plan. Lena is taken to Luthor's underground hideout and attempts to get him to stop the countdown on his bombs. Luthor denies that he ever loved Lena, but the android duplicate of Lex stops the countdown with seconds to spare and attempts to get Lena to stay with him so they can have the better life they had always dreamed of. Lex deactivates the android and Lena leaves, never to be seen again.