Lena Luthor

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

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis version

In Silver Age continuity, Lena is Lex Luthor's younger sister. After Lex began his villainous career, his family changed their last name in shame to the anagram 'Thorul' and told Lena that Lex had been killed in a mountain-climbing accident. Soon after this they were killed in an auto accident. 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. Lena appeared irregularly in DC Comics' from 1961 to 1975. Lena had psychic/empathic abilities, gained from touching a Space Brain that Luthor was experimenting on before he became a villain. In 1981, Lena lost her powers after brain surgery, and the decision was made to tell her the truth about Luthor. After the initial shock, there were signs of reconciliation after Luthor discovered he had unwittingly aided another criminal's conspiracy against Lena, and he was deeply apologetic.^[1]

Post-Crisis version

Lena Luthor (infant version), as seen in Action Comics #763 (March 2000).

Lena Luthor (Brainiac-Teen version), as seen Adventures of Superman #595 (October 2001).

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Lena Luthor is the daughter of Lex Luthor and Contessa Erica Del Portenza. She is named after Lex's foster sister who had been killed by their foster father, Casey Griggs. After Lena's birth, Lex takes advantage of Contessa 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 (Although he himself avoids attending the birth to provide himself with a clear alibi for an assassination attempt he arranged at the time).

When Brainiac 13 arrives from the 64th century, the modern Brainiac possesses the infant Lena to escape being deleted by his future self.^[2] Even after Brainiac leaves Lena's body, Luthor trades her to Braniac 13 for control of the future technology that has transformed Metropolis.^[3]

Lena returns to visit Lex Luthor during the Our Worlds at War crossover, where she has apparently been aged to adolescence by Brainiac 13. Lena plays 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. She is ultimately convinced at the end to side with her father. 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, who tells Luthor that he now has a second chance to try to be a man instead of a god.

Following Our Worlds At War, Lena appears infrequently, sometimes shown as still having Brainiac discs on her forehead.

In the Superman's Metropolis miniseries the artificial intelligence controlling the B-13 technology believes itself to be Lena Luthor. When it creates a human body (female, but bald) to pursue a romantic relationship with Jimmy Olsen, Superman confronts her with the real Lena Luthor, making her realize her personality is a computer simulation of Lena's.

Lena has not appeared since Luthor lost the presidency, and her current status is unknown.

Post-Infinite Crisis version

In Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #3, Legionnaires Polar Boy, Wildfire, and Dawnstar travel to Smallville during the 20th century, back to when Superman was still a suburban legend. The three heroes arrive to the Luthor household, where they hear a young Lex Luthor arguing with his father about his mother and sister.^[4]

In the revived Adventure Comics, Lena is Lex Luthor's younger sister and grew up alongside Lex until he left Smallville. Lex made certain to cover-up his Smallville history, and that included disavowing a connection to his sister. Lena is now an invalid, living in Smallville with her daughter Lori. Lori became friends with Superboy, but both were shocked to find Luthor on Lori's doorstep, intent on taking control of Superboy again and claiming he can cure Lena's condition.^[5] With Superboy's help Luthor indeed cures Lena, but he then undoes his cure, claiming he only helped her to prove to Superboy that he could and that so long as Superman lives, he will never reveal how he did it. Currently Lena is under the care of Wayne Enterprise doctors, thanks to Red Robin.^[6]

Other versions

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade

Lena Thorul is a main character in the series. She is Lex Luthor's thirteen-year-old sister who attends the same boarding school as Supergirl. Lena hates superheroes, and specifically blames Supergirl for the recent misfortune that has befallen her brother (in the first issue Supergirl was accidentally responsible for Lex Luthor's capture). Unaware that Linda Lee is really Supergirl just as Linda is unaware that Lena Thorul is related to Lex Luthor, the two become best friends and roommates. Though sweet and fun when interacting with Linda (who Lena perceives as an outsider just like herself), Lena is hostile and suspicious towards everyone else. This is particularly true in regards to Linda's evil doppelganger Belinda Zee (Superiorgirl).

As the series progresses, Lena's xenophobia becomes increasingly apparent. It is revealed that Lena is in secret communication with her older brother, waiting for the correct time to enact a complicated revenge scheme against Superman. When Linda'a identity is inadvertently exposed to Lena by the time-lost duplicate of Supergirl known as Supragirl, Lena goes over the edge and takes control of the minds of half the students in the school (the other half being transformed into Bizzaro's by SuperiorGirl).

Lena begins to question her hatred when confronted by the manipulations of reality by Mxyzptlk and by Supergirl's willingness to save all of reality from the 5th dimensional imp. While Supergirl is battling Mxyzptlk, Lena is critically injured. Supergirl forces a truce between Luthor and Superman so that they can save Lena. Luthor saves his little sister, but the cost of her survival is that her hatred is now directed at her own brother.

At the series end, Lena is referenced to be recovering in the hospital.

Smallville

In 2012, the television series Smallville was continued through the comic book medium. Written by Bryan Q. Miller, who also wrote for the show, which the story sets six months after the final episode of its final season, and Lutessa Lena Luthor's (Tess Mercer) death is ruled a suicide. However, Lex Luthor apparently has a ghostly encounter with her at a street corner of Metropolis.^[7] It is later reveals that Tess's consciousness bond to Lex's mind when she poisoned him, forcing Lex to find a way of separating Tess from himself while he tries to regain his memories.^[8] Her friends eventually discover what happened, and extract her memories from Lex's mind and upload it to the Watchtower's computer until they can clone a new body for her.

In other media

Television

• Lena Luthor appeared in the Superboy TV series two-part story "Know Thine Enemy" with the young version played by Jennifer Hawkins and the adult version played by Denise Gossett. In the first part, Lena appears in flashbacks of Lex Luthor's childhood while Superboy experiences Lex's life through a device Luthor invented called a "psychodisk". Frequently abused by their father, Lex is very protective of Lena and tries to stop their 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 because Superboy escapes the psychodisk recording before it can happen. In the second part, it revealed that Lena faked her own death and changed her name to escape the curse of the Luthor name but is found by Lana Lang. 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.

Cassidy Freeman as Tess Mercer (Lutessa Lena Luthor) in Smallville.

• The final season of Smallville reveals that Tess Mercer (played by Cassidy Freeman) is really Lutessa Lena Luthor (portrayed by Leigh Bourke). Lionel Luthor left Lutessa at Granny Goodness's orphanage where Granny's powers were used to suppress Lutessa's memories of her true identity and was eventually adopted by the Mercers of Louisiana under her father's arrangements. In the episode "Abandoned", Tess eventually learns the truth of her past once she reviews the orphanage's records and is distraught knowing that she's Lionel's daughter.^[9] In the series finale, Tess discovers that Lex Luthor knew they're siblings all along. When Lex kills her due to claiming it will save her from being like her brother, Tess infects Lex with a poison that erases all memories, informing her brother as she dies that Clark Kent had already saved her from that fate.

• In the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Clash", the Lena Luthor Memorial Hospital is one of the buildings of Lexor City (Lex Luthor's city) that gets destroyed during a fight between Superman and Captain Marvel.

Miscellaneous

• Lena Luthor appears in the second Robot Chicken DC Comics Special Robot Chicken DC Comics Special 2: Villains in Paradise, voiced by Sarah Hyland. Lex Luthor has her interning at the Legion of Doom's coffee shop called "Hall of Doom Coffee" during spring break since the court order says that Lex gets custody of Lena on weekends and holidays. Her plight of having to work on spring break and not being with her boyfriend is understood by Gorilla Grodd as they follows each other on a social network. When Lex finds out that Lena has snuck away to go to spring break to be with her boyfriend upon finding Scarecrow's nephew Calvin working in Lena's place, Lex pilots the Hall of Doom to a beach location to find her while the other Legion of Doom members take advantage by taking a vacation. Lex finds out that Lena's boyfriend is Superboy when he finds her after an incident where some of the Legion of Doom members mistook the Justice League's private beach for a nude beach. As Lex tells Lena that she is not to see Superboy again, Superman tells Superboy never to see Lena again. Both Lena and Superboy tell about their love romance for each other to the other heroes and villains in a song parody of "Summer Nights". As the Justice League and the Legion of Doom argue about Superboy and Lena's relationship, the group is attacked by an enlarged Starro (which was previously flushed down the Hall of Doom's toilet by Captain Cold). Starro attacked both sides and overwhelmed them until seeing Lena and Superboy in a romantic moment and stopped attacking which ended with Starro getting killed upon Green Lantern sending a boat construct with Batman in it through Starro. Lena and Superboy are later seen at the wedding of Gorilla Grodd and Bizarro.

References

External links

• Short biography on Lena Thorul - From Supermanica
• Short biography on Lena Luthor - From Supermanhomepage