Lionel Luthor

Lionel Luthor is a male villain that features in Smallville.

Biography

Lionel Luthor was the son of Scottish immigrants Lachlan Luthor and Eliza Luthor who lived in Suicide Slums. When he became a teenager, he would conspire with Morgan Edge to have his parents killed so that he could collect the insurance money which he used to create LutherCorp. This would lead to a life of criminal dealings that continued into his adult years. Prior to the 1980's, he would marry a woman by the name of Lillian and have his first child after their marriage that they named Alexander Luthor who was born in 1980. At this time, a woman by the name of Pamela Jenkins was taken by the Luthor family as the nanny of the household. In 1981, he would have an affair with Pamela with his second child Lutessa Lena Luthor being born. When the girl was nine, Lionel had her placed in the orphanage run by Granny Goodness. At some point, Luthor would become part of an secret society astronomy club called Veritas with the Teague, Queen, and Swann families that awaited the arrival of an alien being that they called 'The Traveler'. His wife Lillian would at one point go through his briefcase where she found information relating to Veritas but Lionel would catch her in the act and warn her never to go through his things again. When Lex was eleven years old, Lionel would have his second son with his wife who was named Julian Luthor but unknown to him, Lillian had suffered from severe post-partum depression leading her to smothering the child. This act was witnessed by the young Lex Luthor but he would claim responsibility for the death in order to protect his mother. Due to this event, the relationship between Lionel and his son Lex became strained as he blamed the boy for Julian's death. At some point, Lillian began to suffer from a heart condition that would only worsen over the rest of her life. To care for his ill wife, Lionel hired a nurse by the name of Rachel Dunleavy who was tasked with assisting her. During this time, Luthor would have an affair with Dunleavy leading to the birth of his illegitimate offspring Lucas Luthor though the child was given away for adoption. In 1989, Lionel had a business meeting in Smallville and took his son with him with the two being caught in the meteor shower. Once it passed, he would find Lex in the cornfield where exposure from the meteors had caused him to go completely bald. He took his son to the hospital where he was helped to get there by the Kent family. For their help, he felt indebted to them and this allowed Jonathan Kent to approach Lionel Luthor to get his aid in forging the papers needed to formally adopt Clark Kent. However, Jonathan Kent had to make the difficult choice to convince the Ross family into selling their property to Lionel Luthor who used the acquired land to build a LutherCorp Plant. During this time, Lionel had dispatched a search team as he believed that the Traveler had arrived on Earth during the meter storm with them uncovering Davis Bloome. He would have the boy stay with him at Luthor Mansion to test him to determine if he was the Traveler but uncovered he found the wrong child and in anger he had his men throw onto the streets of Metropolis.

Notes

• Lionel Luthor was an original creation created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar for Smallville where he was portrayed by actor John Glover.
• In Superman: Secret Origin v1 #2, the comic version of the character was shown to be a ginger haired violent abusive drunk father to Lex Luthor and Lena Luthor with the family living in a run down house in Smallville. Lex was responsible for cutting the brake lines of his fathers truck in the hope of him dying as a result but Superboy saved him with the hysterical Lionel Luthors words of a flying boy in a cape leading him to be sent to lockup by Chief Parker until he sobered up. However, Lionel suffered from a heart attack and died leading to Lex's aunt coming in to care for him along with his sister Lena. The news of his fathers demise left Lex Luthor joyous as he had cashed in an insurance policy in his fathers name allowing him to leave Smallville for Metropolis in order to build his empire. Lionel Luthors name was shown on the Farm State Insurance Co. policy plan.

Appearances

• Smallville:

External Links

• Wikipedia Entry

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