LuthorCorp
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| LuthorCorp | |
 |
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| Type | Fictional |
|---|---|
| Founded | early 1970s |
| Headquarters | Metropolis |
| Key people | Lionel Luthor, Founder Lex Luthor, Chairman & CEO |
| Industry | Agricultural research Medical research Bionic research Real estate development Defense contracting |
LuthorCorp is a fictional company in the CW Network television series Smallville. It was run by Lionel Luthor, the father of Lex Luthor, since the company's creation until Lionel was arrested for murder. After that, and as of 2006, it has been run by Lex.
LuthorCorp was originally dedicated to the manufacture of fertilizers, but has since diversified into many different areas, specializing in biotech. LuthorCorp Plant #3 has underground labs holding secret (and possibly illegal) research into genetically modifying living organisms using meteor rocks (Kryptonite).
Some of the LuthorCorp areas include the following:
- Agricultural research: The company tried to irradiate seeds with Kryptonite in order to speed up their growth rate and raise their resistance to the even the harshest elements.
- Medical research: LuthorCorp had a defunct subsidiary, Metron Pharmaceuticals, which was revived and used to fund studies into bringing back the dead using a drug that had to be injected daily. The serum was infused with platelets from Clark Kent's blood. LuthorCorp's medical research also undertook Project 1138, which was designed to develop a cure to a strange strain of rabies that turned its victim into a vampire-like parasite. The research also included illegal experiments on human cloning. The company also has a secret research section, called 33.1, which investigates the effects of kryptonite on subjects affected by it.
- Bionic research: A subsidiary of LuthorCorp, SynTechnics, focused on creating robotic exoskeletons out of unwilling test subjects.
- Real estate development: The neighborhood in which Chloe Sullivan and her father, Gabe, formerly lived in, Pleasant Meadows, was a LuthorCorp development. When Gabe Sullivan was briefly given a promotion, he and Chloe moved to Bratt Flats, a luxury community overlooking a golf course. This community may also have ties to LuthorCorp.
- Defense contracting: Most of the military-oriented development going on at LuthorCorp has occurred under Lex's watch. The first example was a drug called "Levitas" produced for the US Army, called the "ultimate interrogator", but the chemical was lethal to the user. Later, Lex rebooted an old project of his father's: a chemical which, when inhaled, forced the subject to live through their worst nightmare. Most of the test subjects died of heart failure, and dozens more were infected when the chemical leaked from the Smallville plant and got into the atmosphere. Following that, Lex began development on "Leviathan", a sonic-based naval weapon. This sector of LuthorCorp has not done considerably well, partly because of its high failure rate, and partly because Clark Kent dismantles most products that come out of this division.
LuthorCorp is a frequent bone of contention between Lex and Lionel; the fact that their relationship is already strained makes their power struggle over the company even more intense.
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[edit] History
[edit] Pre-1989
Lionel Luthor was born in late 1944 in the poverty-stricken Suicide Slum area of Metropolis, to Scottish immigrants Lachlan and Eliza Luthor. In the early 1960s, Lachlan and Eliza both died in a fire that engulfed their tenement, securing a surprisingly high life insurance inheritance considering their lowly status. Around the mid-1960s, Lionel used this money, with a small bank loan, to set up a holding company, Luthor Industries, and bought a run-down fertilizer factory in Granville, Kansas.
Applying to business the philosophies of writers such as Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, and Nietzsche, as well as some possible illegal tactics as well, Lionel slowly turned the plant round, making his first million around 1970, investing profit into buying land of struggling local farmers, and then evicting them and commencing real estate development projects on their land. In the early 1970s, Luthor Industries was re-christened "LuthorCorp" and went public, bringing even more money to Lionel's growing pockets.
By the mid-1970s, Lionel was by far the richest man in Granville, but realized that true greatness would come in Metropolis. Moving back to his place of birth, he commenced several real estate projects around Metropolis, most notably the Edgecliff Condos in Suicide Slum, the Luthor Dome sports arena, the Metropolis Alexandria Hotel, and LuthorCorp Plaza at the very centre of the city, where projects went on throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In the mid-1980s, Lionel decided to return to the agribusiness arena that had made him his first fortune, purchasing a second fertilizer factory in the Edge City area of Metropolis, increasing the amount of fertilizer LuthorCorp was selling, but more importantly, reducing the Kansas competition.
In the late-1980s, LuthorCorp was producing enough fertilizer for Lionel to decide that it could be potentially be more profitable to put pressure on competitors by building another factory instead of buying theirs. LuthorCorp still needed a factory building to transform into a fertilizer plant, so in 1989, Lionel traveled to Smallville. By blackmailing one of the locals, Jonathan Kent, LuthorCorp was able to purchase the Ross Creamed Corn factory and turned it into their third fertilizer plant. It provided employment for 2,500 Smallville residents. LuthorCorp also started a major real estate development in Smallville, De Lex Estates, using land obtained the same way as in Granville.
[edit] Post-1989
LuthorCorp established a fourth fertilizer plant in Bludhaven, just outside Gotham City in one of Kansas' neighboring states (either Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, or Oklahoma), and about four of each of the following types of factories: farm equipment, food preservative, and food packaging. These were built mainly in the third world, making LuthorCorp a multinational, although a couple were built in the US and Canada. LuthorCorp also bought Metron Pharmaceuticals, a global pharmaceutical company. Research sections were set up in the fertilizer plants to work on improving the fertilizer, including forays into hydroponics and hormones. LuthorCorp also bought a world-champion football team, the Metropolis Sharks.
By the mid-1990s, Lionel became a billionaire; by October 2001, he was a multi-billionaire and one of the five richest men in the world. In October 2001, LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant #3 was the subsidiary making the greatest loss. Lionel sent his son Lex to attempt to create a profit, promising that if he succeeded, he would promote Lex to a LuthorCorp Plaza office as Executive Vice President.
By May 2002, Lex had turned the plant around by increasing quarterly earnings without costing any jobs. Lionel flew in for a special ceremony at the plant held specifically for this event, but he had specifically ordered Lex to make the tough decision of terminating employees. In his opening speech, Lionel laid off all 2,500 employees and closed the plant. Lex immediately tried to subvert the decision by acquiring loans, but Lionel bought the Smallville Savings and Loans and turned him down, spurring Lex to use his deceased mother's shares of LuthorCorp to buy himself out.
By November 2002, Lex broke off from LuthorCorp to form his own splinter company, LexCorp. He arranged a secret meeting with the managers of the Smallville plant to stage a coup, but in January 2003, Lex's takeover bid of LuthorCorp was crushed when he discovered his home and office were bugged with listening devices. Later that month, Lionel paid off Sheriff Ethan Miller to leak him sensitive information about the plant managers so Lionel could blackmail them into siding with him over Lex. LexCorp was officially bought out by LuthorCorp.
In February 2003, Lionel seized all of Lex's assets when a lost heir, Lucas Dunleavy, surfaced for the first time in Edge city and allied with Lionel. However, in the end, Lionel agreed to return LexCorp to Lex as well as all of his assets if he agreed to come back to work for him.
In October 2003, after recovering from being stranded for months after his plane crashed, Lex returned and was given a position as Executive Vice President, as promised. In May 2004, Lex uncovered evidence of Lionel's involvement in the murder of his parents. Lionel was indicted and LuthorCorp fell under Lex's leadership. In September 2004, Lionel was found guilty and sentenced to prison. LuthorCorp shares suffered heavily with its CEO in jail.
Lex made the cover of Forbes, promising to rebuild LuthorCorp bigger than ever. He also illustrated some unique insights into the future of modern business. By October 2005, Lex shifted LuthorCorp's product line from agribusiness to an emphasis on defense contracting. In February 2006, Lionel became an affiliate of the multi-national Apex group and attempted a hostile takeover in their name. He mysteriously dropped his takeover bid after a meeting with Lex at LuthorCorp Plaza. By April 2006, Lionel was brought back as an outside advisor to LuthorCorp.
[edit] Other continuities
In the novelization of Superman Returns, written by Marv Wolfman, LuthorCorp is mentioned as being established by Lex Luthor's grandfather, Alexander, and driven to collapse by Lex's (unnamed) father, hence the younger Luthor's life of crime.
