Lionel Luthor
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Lionel Luthor is a fictional character in the CW Network television series Smallville, played by John Glover. He is the father of Lex Luthor, and founder and former CEO of LuthorCorp.
Lex's father also made several appearances or mentions in the original Superman comics upon which the show is based.
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[edit] The comics
In the Silver Age era Superman comics, Lex Luthor's father, Jules, was a fairly nondescript individual who moved his family to Smallville, where his son became friends with Superboy. However, after Lex turned to a life of crime, Jules disowned his son, moving with the rest of his family (which included his wife, Arlene, and Lex's young sister, Lena) out of Smallville and, in shame, changing their last names to "Thorul" (an anagram for "Luthor").
Following John Byrne's 1986 revamp of Superman's origins, Lex's parents' backstory was altered so that they were killed in an automobile accident perpetrated by their son. Lex had taken out a large life insurance premium on the couple, which he used to launch his conglomerate, LexCorp.
With the 2004 comic series Superman: Birthright, Lex's family history has been altered yet again, incorporating elements similar to the Smallville television show as well as Silver Age aspects and fusing them with the family story provided in Byrne's revamp. Now according to Superman canon, Lex killed his parents, but hired an actor to play his father, Lionel, when he moved to Smallville.
In Teen Titans (3rd series) #26, a flashback shows Lex Luthor naming the Superboy clone "Project Lionel", after his father. However, this scene takes place in Superboy's mind, so is not reliable, especially as Luthor is portrayed as the familiar bald figure, whereas at the time the flashback is set, he had shoulder-length hair and a beard (of course, this may simply be a continuity error, and/or the writers thought that the readers would be confused if the Luthor in the flashback was the long-haired version).
While some think this appearance was done to make Lex look similar to John Glover's Lionel Luthor, this is untrue. During the '90's, at which point Superboy was introduced, Lex Luthor had cloned himself into a new body, which had long red hair and beard. This, of course, predated Glover's Lionel Luthor.
[edit] Smallville
In the television series Smallville, Lionel Luthor is very different from his comic book counterparts, who were fairly quiet and low-key individuals. Lionel shares many characteristics with the comic book version of Lex Luthor; rather than Lex orchestrating the deaths of his parents for the insurance money (as in post-Crisis comic continuity), it is Lionel who arranges the murders of his parents with the help of criminal Morgan Edge.
Lionel's past is only vaguely alluded to during the show. He was born to Scottish immigrants Lachlan and Eliza Luthor, and raised in Metropolis' Suicide Slum area. Morgan Edge is stated to have been his only childhood friend. Lionel's father allegedly abused him (implying a familial cycle of abuse that continues with Lex), and Edge testifies in Shattered that Lionel's mother was too "gin-soaked" to help him. Lionel still harbors deep resentment toward his long-dead father. His relationship with Edge, as well as their criminal dealings, continued well into their adult years after their lives have taken divergent turns, as seen in the episodes "Phoenix" and "Shattered".
According to Lionel, he was working an odd job at a print shop at the time of his parents' deaths (cf. "Relic"). Lionel used the insurance collected upon the arson that claimed his parents to launch his company Luthor Industries, later known as LuthorCorp. Between the time of the murders and the founding of his company, Lionel attended an Ivy League school, where he embellished his beginnings to cover up the truth of his own poor background. This habit of glorifying his family roots continued for decades, as Lex was under the impression that his father came from Scottish nobility until he dug up evidence to the contrary in the episode "Relic." Lionel went so far as to import an antiquated Scottish mansion brick-by-brick to Smallville, claiming it was the Luthors' ancestral home.
Sometime before the 1980s, Lionel married a woman named Lillian, who came from a wealthy family. Together, they had a child, Alexander "Lex" Luthor (named for Alexander the Great), in 1980, who became a self-described "brat." Lionel's relationship with his son was never ideal, as he was irked by Lex's timid personality (cf "Pilot"). For her part, Lillian was appalled by the way Lionel made Lex feel like nothing. When Lex was 9, Lillian insisted that Lionel spend more time with him, but this only resulted in Lionel taking Lex along to finalize a business deal in Smallville. A meteor shower occurred; in the blast, Lex's hair was completely seared off.
Faced with having a disfigured and cowardly son as an heir, Lionel insisted on having another child with Lillian (despite her age and waning health), whom he named Julian (presumably after Julius Caesar). Lillian foresaw Lionel pitting both boys against one another to earn his affection. This fact (coupled with a psychotic bout of postpartum depression) moved her to smother Julian shortly after his birth (cf. "Memoria"). Lex stumbled upon his mother seconds after she had killed him and took the blame for his brother's death upon himself. Enraged, Lionel attacked Lex, and their relationship has never recovered. Lillian's health deteriorated rapidly following her son's death, and she grew sicker and sicker, dying months later, sometime after Lex's thirteenth birthday (cf. "Wither").
It later came to light that early in the marriage, Lionel began having numerous affairs, including one with a woman named Rachael Dunleavy. Their relationship would produce an illegitimate son, Lucas, who was only five years younger than Lex (cf. "Prodigal"). Lionel watched from afar as Lucas grew up and became a gambler and criminal, living most of his life on the streets. Lionel used his influence to intervene in his son's life, keeping him away from any immediate danger, but he never met Lucas face-to-face. When Lex discovers he has a half-brother, he surmises that Lionel's intent was to conduct an experiment with his two heirs; one grows up with everything while the other grows up with nothing (cf. "Prodigal").
At the beginning of the show, Lionel is mostly preoccupied with running his company, while occasionally bribing city officials to overlook Lex's less-than-exemplary conduct in Metropolis. Lex was kept away at private school for the majority of his younger years. An outcast due to his baldness, Lex eventually snapped and attacked his one-time friend named Duncan Allenmeyer, resulting in Duncan walking into the path of a car. Lionel paid off his mother and suppressed publicity of the incident, falsely reporting that Duncan had died, when really he was being kept alive through life support. Lionel also paid off officials when Lex was suspected of a murder in nightclub. Despite these repeated interventions, by 2001 Lex was rapidly becoming a liability for him.
After Lex gets kicked out of Metropolis University, an exasperated Lionel exiles him to running a LuthorCorp fertilizer plant in Smallville. Lionel demonstrates a perversely adversarial relationship with his son, and constantly throws tests in Lex's path to determine whether he is "strong" enough to inherit LuthorCorp.
[edit] Personality and characteristics
Lionel is a criminal sociopath; lying and deceit are his most powerful weapons. He uses his limitless wealth and knowledge of human nature to lure individuals into making deals with him, which he then holds over their heads indefinitely. If a person dares to back out of their "agreement" with Lionel, they are met with swift retaliation (costing them their job, blacklisting their family members, and in extreme cases, having them killed).
Lionel runs his business according to a Darwinian-type philosophy, one placing great worth on being able to adapt and survive. Kindness and sentiment do not fit into Lionel's outlook; as such, he was not impressed with Lex's timid personality when he was young (as seen in the episodes "Pilot" and "Memoria"). Unlike the comic book Lex Luthor, who takes extraordinary measures to be loved by the people of Metropolis, Lionel breeds hate from all around him, believing it is hatred that leaves people at their weakest (cf. "Exodus").
Tragically, Lex is among Lionel's many victims, as Lionel frequently puts his son in harm's way under the motive of "making Lex stronger", though there are other examples of Lionel exhibiting outright cruelty, such as stealing his girlfriend or terminating all of Lex's employees en masse (cf. "Tempest"). Ironically, even paradoxically, however, he still claims to love Lex, and defends him against others at nearly all costs. Also, despite his poor treatment of her, Lillian appears to have been the great love of his life, and he speaks about her fondly, using her as the measure for other women.
In several episodes, Lionel is shown to have a romantic affection for Martha Kent, who reminds Lionel of his late wife. During the second season, a blind Lionel hires Martha as his personal assistant due to her previous experience in the business world. He values her business savvy and attempts to woo her — to her husband, Jonathan's, ire. When Martha comes across files that Lionel has on Clark, their relationship turns frosty. She then quits her job and their communication all but evaporates. However, after the death of her husband, Martha accepts Jonathan's recently won State Senate seat. Consequently, Lionel spends increasingly more time around her (assisting and mentoring her in her dealings in the State Senate) and it is obvious that his feelings for Martha have not changed. Fearful of and disgusted by the connection, Clark forbids Lionel to talk to Martha at all, but with time begins to begrudgingly tolerate the situation. In "Rage," after she and Lionel almost kiss, Martha acknowledges that there is something between them, although she says that she isn't ready to explore it.
[edit] "Where do I sign?"
The first time Lionel set foot in Smallville when the show begins was in 1989. He flew in from Metropolis via helicopter with his son, Lex, in tow (cf. "Pilot"). Lex's mother wanted him to spend some time with his father, but Lionel took Lex along to sign a business deal instead.
When Lex wandered away into a cornfield, a sudden meteor shower occurred, and the boy was swept up in the wake of a massive explosion caused by a large meteor. When Lionel finally uncovered Lex's crumpled body hidden beneath stalks of corn, nearly all of Lex's hair had literally been blown off.
In the aftermath of the meteor shower, Jonathan and Martha Kent were driving in a pickup truck with a 3-year-old boy (a young Clark Kent, who had just arrived along with the meteors in a spaceship) in tow when they see Lionel waving frantically for help on the side of the road. When Jonathan discovered the now-bald Lex, he helped Lionel get him to their truck and offered to drive them both to the hospital. Once Lex was safe and sound, Lionel handed Jonathan his card and promised to help him whenever he or his family were in need (cf. "Lineage").
Jonathan later took Lionel up on his offer when he realized that he needed forged adoption papers to avoid any suspicion falling upon Clark. Lionel obliged, but when he arrived at the Kent Farm to deliver the papers, he also asked Jonathan to convince the Ross brothers (Pete Ross' father and uncle) to sell their famous creamed corn factory to LuthorCorp. Jonathan naturally refused, but Lionel threatened to report him to Child Services if he did not comply, leading to the construction of the Smallville LuthorCorp plant, which in turn led to the toxic pollutants that resulted from it; this was why Jonathan held such enmity toward Lionel.
During the show's first season, Lionel maintained his distance, flying in to Smallville only to cover up some of his plant's more nefarious projects and to intimidate Lex into doing what he wants. Lex disregarded Lionel's orders to terminate employees to raise quarterly earnings and instead found ways of increasing the plant's profits without costing any jobs. Rather than be pleased, Lionel saw this as an act of insolence. When Lionel gave his opening speech to the workers at a celebratory meeting, he announced that he was closing the plant. An infuriated Lex tried to reopen it by seeking a loan, but when Lionel arrived back in town to inform him that he had just bought Smallville's only bank, the two erupted into a verbal match.
A tornado struck Smallville during their argument, and the roof of the Luthor Mansion was ripped apart, pinning Lionel beneath a giant wooden beam. Lex was hesitant to save his father, but relented and took him to the medical center. There, Lionel underwent a dangerous procedure to prevent total paralysis, but in the process, his ocular nerve was damaged, leaving him blind.
Lionel continued to run LuthorCorp even without his sight. For a time, he was forced to live with Lex in his mansion and appointed Martha Kent as his personal aide. During this time, Lionel had his very first encounter with Clark Kent in the Luthor Mansion (cf. "Red"). During this time, Clark was severely affected by Red Kryptonite, limiting his inhibitions and leading to him engaging a federal marshal while standing next to the blind Lionel. Clark fired several rounds into his own palm, letting the flattened bullets fall harmlessly to the floor. Lionel appeared unscathed at the end of the episode, displaying an odd interest in Clark and holding the spent bullets in his hand.
By the mid-season episode "Prodigal", Lionel is exposed as of hiding his blindness for at least a few weeks, but it turns out that his eyesight returned naturally, yet he kept it hidden from the world, meaning that several episodes where Clark has been forced to use his powers in front of a (supposedly) blind Lionel are thrown into question.
[edit] Kryptonite experiments and the Kawatche Caves
Over time, Lionel was intrigued by Lex's friend Clark Kent, and the mystery of the local Kawatche Caves. He devised several schemes to learn who (and what) Clark really was and, more importantly, where he came from. Lionel's interest was further piqued by the fact that he knew for a fact that the Kents did not properly adopt Clark, because he himself assisted with the forging of their adoption papers.
It was of some debate whether or not Lionel knew about Clark's abilities. In the episode "Nocturne", Clark used his super-strength in front of a supposedly-blind Lionel. More recently, it has been revealed (in the show's 100th episode, "Reckoning") that Lionel does in fact know about Clark's abilities, and may have been aware of them as far back as the second season, during several points when Clark used his powers with an allegedly blind Lionel present. Lionel only knew for sure what Clark was hiding when he was turned into a vessel for the essence of Clark's Kryptonian birth father, Jor-El.
Clark Kent and the caves were Lionel's primary missions, along with concealing the genetic butchery going on behind LuthorCorp's walls. For all appearances a harmless agribusiness, Lionel had, in reality, geared LuthorCorp research toward experimenting on Smallville's meteor rocks (Kryptonite) and testing them on living organisms. One employee who worked in one of Lionel's labs, Earl Jenkins, became so contaminated with Kryptonite that he experienced violent tremors and died.
A blood sample taken from Clark was leaked to Lionel, who used its restorative properties to revive dead patients, among those Lana Lang's would-be killer Adam Knight. Lastly, Lionel seemed to have been conducting illegal cloning experiments, as he successfully duplicated a perfect (albeit homicidal) clone of Lana's deceased childhood friend, Emily Dinsmore.
At first, Lionel's ambitions seemed purely motivated by greed. Later, we learn that Lionel is driven by self-preservation; he is dying of a rare hepatic disease and must produce a cure before it becomes terminal.
Lex survived many attempts on his life and his business, no thanks to his father. All Lex really wanted from his father were the things that are foreign to Lionel: kindness, respect, and love (cf. "Truth"). Lionel divulged in the episode "Relic" his disdain for his own father, who was abusive and died in a tenement fire in Suicide Slum. It becomes evident that Lionel actually planned the fire himself, and used the insurance on his parents' deaths to build LuthorCorp. This act came back to haunt him when Lex, obsessed with avenging himself on his father, dug up evidence of his involvement in the arson with his childhood friend Morgan Edge (cf. "Shattered"). Lionel attempted to erase this information from Lex's memory by committing him to an asylum and subjecting him to dangerous shock treatments (cf. "Asylum").
This only delayed the inevitable, however, as Chloe Sullivan, another victim of Lionel's extortion, stepped forward to help Lex put him away. Since the statute of limitations on murder doesn't run out, Lionel was held in a maximum security prison, pending a hearing. He attempted to snuff out Chloe, the key witness against him, by sending a crazed meteor freak after her, but intervention by Clark and Lois Lane derailed his plan. A fearless Chloe testified and the court found Lionel guilty, sentencing him to ten years to life.
Unfortunately, Lionel proved no less dangerous behind bars. He got revenge when crooked FBI agents arrange for the bombing of Chloe's safehouse and Lex's alcohol is spiked with poison. It is never revealed for sure whether it was Lionel who ordered either of these killings. Lex's men managed to detect the bomb under the safehouse in time and smuggled Chloe and her father out just as the building exploded, but the poison Lex ingested afterward left his body in catastrophic condition and he barely survived.
[edit] Born again
In Season Four, Lionel was found sick and dying in prison. He lured Lex to the visiting room under the pretense of making amends, but his true intention was to steal Lex's body using a Kryptonian artifact so he could run LuthorCorp in Lex's stead. The plan backfired when Clark interceded, and Lionel ended up switching bodies with Clark (cf. "Transference"). Clark was left frail and dying in prison, while Lionel was allowed to walk free and abuse Clark's powers in sadistic and violent ways.
The transfer was temporary, and Lionel appeared to have no memory of inhabiting Clark's body. Additionally, Clark's soul seemed to cleanse the disease from Lionel's system, leaving him miraculously healed. Lionel, having no explanation for this "miracle," seemed transformed by the experience into being a "good" man. His conviction was soon mysteriously overturned, and Lionel was released from prison, renouncing the evil acts he committed. It should be noted, however, that even when he was supposedly "good", Lionel still denied having killed his parents, when all signs pointed to the contrary.
Lex took Lionel (who was without a home) into his mansion in order to keep an eye on him. Lionel declared himself committed to a more noble cause, and planned to form a charitable foundation, an idea so foreign coming from Lionel that Lex had to suppress laughter. Lionel refused to drop his new attitude for a moment, however, and asked Lex to hold a function for his new organization at LuthorCorp Plaza. At first, Lex was inspired by Lionel's apparent dedication to his work and agrees, but was soon replaced by Alexander, his vengeful alter-ego who emerged from within his subconscious following exposure to Black Kryptonite (cf. "Onyx").
Alexander imprisoned Lex in the basement and took his place, canceling the entire function behind Lionel's back. When an appalled Lionel barged into his office, Alexander challenged him to a violent fencing match. Alexander did not believe Lionel was truly changed, and told him he was just deluding himself. Lionel's rage boiled over and he brutally retaliated by knocking Alexander down. Alexander got up and slashed Lionel across the cheek before leaving. Lionel returned to the mansion the next night, when Alexander had been suppressed and Lex was back. Lex had no knowledge of what transpired between his father and his other self. Lionel seemed to have shaken off his philanthropy, whether by accident or design.
In the season finale, "Commencement", Lionel revealed his deceitful nature once again, blackmailing Lex to give him the Kryptonian stone in Lana Lang's possession or else he would report Lana's unintentional killing of Genevieve Teague to the police. While Lex later tried to bargain with his father over the stones, the Kryptonian stone in Lionel's pocket gave off a massive force of energy, putting Lionel in a coma. Lex ordered his men to place Lionel in an upstairs bedroom, fully expecting him to die in the coming meteor shower. Before departing, Lex told Lionel that he was now the son Lionel raised him to be.
However, Lionel was discovered to have survived the meteor shower (possibly thanks to Jor-El's essence, which now resided within him), and was now instilled with all the knowledge of Krypton. However, the immense downloading of information into his mind left Lionel in a catatonic state. In a bitter reversal, Lex had his father institutionalized until he could find some way of getting information out of him.
[edit] Conduit for Jor-El
Lionel later became a host for Jor-El, coming to life when he sensed that Clark had been fatally shot while he was completely powerless. While possessed by Jor-El, Lionel exhibited Kryptonian powers by breaking out of the asylum, retrieving Clark's lifeless body, and taking him to the Fortress of Solitude via the portal in the cave (cf. "Hidden").
Jor-El resurrected Clark and restored his powers, explaining to Clark that when Lionel was exposed to the energy the Kryptonian stone contained, his body became a vessel for him to inhabit if Clark ever needed his aid.
Clark hoped that Lionel had no memory of the event; indeed, Lionel reappeared in remarkably good spirits at Lex's mansion, claiming he had absolutely no awareness of anything that happened following the meteor shower. Lionel returned to business as usual, forming an alliance with an overseas partner who was affiliated with the Apex Group. He used his new position and funds to bankroll Jonathan Kent's senatorial campaign.
In the episode "Reckoning", Lionel visited Jonathan to congratulate his win, and showed him a picture that will "destroy their family" if it ever got out. This provoked Jonathan to attack Lionel, which in turn caused his fatal heart attack. Later, in the episode "Oracle", Lionel explained that it was a misunderstanding; he never got a chance to explain his true intentions. Apparently, it is as much in Lionel's interest to protect Clark's secret as anyone else.
Lionel returned to Metropolis, attempting a takeover of LuthorCorp, using the Apex Group as a facade. The bid fails, but Lex had enough of Lionel trying to steal back his company and brought him onboard as an outside advisor.
In the episode "Mercy", Lionel summons Clark to his office to confess to him that he has had full knowledge of Clark's true nature and name since he held one of the crystals that formed the Fortress of Solitude. Clark does not trust Lionel and warns him to stay away from him and his mother, and storms out. As soon as Clark leaves, Lionel is overcome with a headache. He scrambles to his desk and drops to his knees to frantically start jotting down something on a sheet of paper.
In the episode "Oracle", it is revealed that Lionel doesn't understand what he is writing down, as it is in Kryptonian script, but he believes that what he is writing down is meant for Clark to see. At the end of the episode, we learn that he's been repeatedly writing down "Zod is coming." In the same episode, Jor-El takes control of Lionel once again when Professor Milton Fine assumes the form of Jonathan Kent and tells Clark he must kill Lionel. When Clark cannot do it, "Jonathan" attacks Clark, but Lionel, his eyes glowing eerily, immobilizes the impostor, using some unseen power to destroy the sinister Kryptonian artificial intelligence. Immediately afterward, Lionel's eyes return to normal and, like before, he claims to remember nothing.
In the following episode, "Vessel", Lionel gives counsel to Clark regarding his situation and what is required of him to stop the coming of General Zod. He claims that sometimes a hero must commit an evil act for the betterment of society, even if it's murder. When it is revealed that Lex has been transformed into a vessel for General Zod, Lionel goes to find his son. There is a verbal altercation between the two and Lex (who has been given Kryptonian abilities) strikes his father and sends him flying into a vehicle. Lionel survives the fight and tells Clark that he has to do what must be done. Clark is taken aback by his ruthlessness, but cannot argue with him as Lionel's reasoning is sound.
During the Metropolis riots caused by Milton Fine's computer virus, Lionel is attacked in his limo along with Chloe Sullivan while the two are trying to escape to LuthorCorp Plaza, the only safe haven in sight. Chloe asks that Lionel try to decipher the Kryptonian script again to see if there's some way to fight Zod, but Lionel claims his connection to Jor-El is severed and that all his knowledge has been lost. At the end of the episode, Lionel is shown alone in his office, hastily translating more Kryptonian script (which he allegedly can no longer read) into the word "POWER".
While Lionel's alliegiance is unclear, he continues to hide Clark's secret from the public; In Justice, Lionel provides a false alibi for Clark when he and other superpowered vigilantes destroy 33.1, Lex Luthor's mutant-testing facility. However when Lana was thinking of breaking her marriage to Lex, Lionel threated to kill Clark if she broke the engagement.
[edit] External links
- "Rarefied Air: A Lionel Luthor Character Study", an essay written by kelex
- Lionel Luthor profile at the Smallville Wiki
- Lillian Luthor profile at the Smallville Wiki
| Episodes: Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 • Season 6 |
| Characters |
| Clark Kent • Lana Lang • Lex Luthor • Chloe Sullivan |
| Lionel Luthor • Lois Lane • Jimmy Olsen • Martha Kent • Oliver Queen • Jonathan Kent |
| Pete Ross • Jason Teague • Whitney Fordman |
| Guest characters |
| Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 • Season 6 |
| Related information |
| Smallville DVD releases • Media information • Kryptonite • Kryptonian Crystals |
