Lex Luthor is a fictional character from the television series Smallville. He was a series regular from the pilot episode until the season seven finale, and has been played continuously by Michael Rosenbaum, with various actors portraying the character as a child throughout the series. The character of Lex Luthor, first created for comic books by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1940 as nemesis of Superman, was adapted to television in 2001 by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar—this is only the third time the character has been adapted to alive action television series. The character has also appeared in various literature based on the Smallville television series, none of which directly continues from or into the television episodes.
In this 2001 series, Lex Luthor is sent to Smallville, by his father Lionel Luthor, to run the local LuthorCorp fertilizer plant. After driving his car off a bridge, he is saved by Clark Kent and quickly develops a new friendship with the farm boy. As the series unfolds, Lex's curiosity about Clark and all things connected to Clark ultimately destroys their friendship. Lex's relationship with his father is tension-filled from the start of the show, and eventually comes to an end when Lex murders his father in an effort to discover Clark's secret.
The Smallville incarnation of the character is first introduced as a morally ambiguous character, who walks a fine line between good and evil. Lex is an inquisitive person, and it is that curiosity that drives him to attain as much power as possible as the series progresses—it will ultimately lead him to being Clark's greatest enemy. Michael Rosenbaum has been nominated for and won a Saturn Award and a Teen Choice Award for his portrayal of Lex Luthor on Smallville. After seven seasons as a series regular, Michael Rosenbaum left the show, but reprised the role for the two-hour series finale.
History[]
Life in Smallville[]
Lex Luthor, introduced in the pilot as the son of billionaire Lionel Luthor, is sent to Smallville by his father to run the local fertilizer plant. As a child, he is caught in the first meteor shower that renders him completely bald. Years later as a young adult, Lex first meets Clark Kent saving his life from drowning and the two quickly become friends. Lex tries to be a good guy for most of the early seasons, but his motives are usually driven by curiosity for the unexplained, like the day Clark rescued him from drowning. Over the course of seven seasons—beginning in the pilot episode on the day Clark rescued him from drowning—Lex has been trying to uncover the secrets that Clark keeps.
In season one, Lex hires Roger Nixon, a reporter for the tabloid newspaper The Inquisitor, to discover how he survived the automobile accident where Clark saved him from drowning. All the evidence points to Clark having been hit by Lex's car, but Lex refuses to believe that is what happened so Nixon attempts to expose Clark to everyone. Around the same time, Lex also enlists the help of Dr. Hamilton; Hamilton is commissioned to study the effects of the meteor rocks. Hamilton finds an octagonal disc, with unknown symbols imprinted on the disc's surface that match those on Clark's ship, while searching for traces of an alien ship that landed in Smallville in 1989. The disc is eventually stolen by Nixon in an attempt to open Clark's ship.
In season two, Lex's curiosity with the symbols continues. Lex first kills Nixon before the reporter can kill Jonathan Kent for protecting Clark from Nixon. When Clark discovers the Kawatche Caves under a LuthorCorp construction site, Lex opts to be the curator of the caves to preserve them after he notices symbols on the cave walls that match the symbols on the disc, as well as an octagonal shape in the wall of the cave that would fit the disc perfectly. His interest grows more and more when he finds Clark constantly in the caves, and later with a piece of paper that appears to indicate that Clark has deciphered the language on the cave walls — although, Clark denies being able to read the language. Lex's company eventually loses the Kawatche caves to Lionel as his father has also developed an interest in the caves and the octagonal disc. During all this, Lex also met and courted Dr. Helen Bryce (Emmanuelle Vaugier) but Helen would try to kill him on their honeymoon.
Path to darkness[]
Season three revealed why Lex endured Lionel's harsh parenting; his father blames him for his younger brother Julian Luthor's death, however, Lex took the blame to protect the true killer, his mentally unwell mother Lillian Luthor, from Lionel's wraith. Also, Lex's curiosity into the symbols (and Clark) leads to a blowout between the two. When Lionel gives Clark a key to a room in the Luthor Mansion where Lex has been collecting information on Clark's family, Clark informs Lex that their friendship "is over". In season four, Lex replaces his father as LuthorCorp's CEO and turns his attention turns toward finding three ancient stones, which contain the same symbols as those in the cave and on the disc. He fails to find all three stones but suspects that Clark did, and used the stones to find the treasure of knowledge they were supposed to have led to, often having confrontations with Jason Teague. Around this time, Lex's lifestyle of bedding women and then leaving them the next day would catch up to him when one that he had previously slept with attempts to kill him.
In season five, Lex becomes obsessed with uncovering Clark's secret; he breaks three metahuman criminals out of Belle Reve and sends them to the Kent Farm, where they hold several people close to Clark hostage. The scheme amounts to nothing, however, and Clark cuts Lex out of his life completely upon finding out. His curiosity into the symbols, which he believes to be alien in nature, results in Brainiac arranging him to be possessed by the spirit of the Kryptonian criminal Zod. In season six, Lex married Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) after deceiving Lana into being pregnant with his child. Upon learning the truth, Lana faked her own death and attempted to pin the murder on Lex.
Villain of the story[]
Season seven displayed Lex's descent into darkness; he has a brother-like relationship with Grant Gabriel, the new editor of the Daily Planet newest editor, until it's revealed Grant is actually a clone of Lex's late brother. After Lex buys the Daily Planet, Grant attempts to keep Lex from being controlling, thus Lex has his brother's clone murdered and staged as a failed mugging. Lex then discovers that the previous symbols are connected to the secret organization Veritas, which his father is a part of. The Veritas members learned that an alien visitor known as "The Traveler" would arrive in Smallville during the meteor shower of 1989. At this time, Lex realizes that Lionel has been covering up the Traveler's existence and subsequently kills his own father for it. He eventually discovers that the Veritas members knew of a means to control the Traveler, so Lex sets out to find the device. The device, an orb he finds in the mantle above a fireplace in the Luthor mansion, leads Lex to the Fortress of Solitude, where he is confronted by Clark. Having finally discovered Clark's secret, Lex uses the orb to bring down the Fortress around Clark and himself.
Death[]
In season eight, Lex is missing and Tess Mercer is put in charge as Lex's hand-picked successor. Tess wants Lex found, until Lex is revealed to have surgically-implanted a nano-transmitter in Tess's optic nerve. Wanting revenge, Lex uses a kryptonite bomb to have Lana's stolen bio-enhanced suit, designed to absorb and emit kryptonite radiation, absorb the radiation to de-activate the bomb and subsequently never be able to go near Clark again without fatal effects. Oliver Queen discovers Lex's location and uses a bomb to blow up Lex's travelling medical transport, seemingly killing him.
Resurrection[]
Season ten revealed that Lex had manufactured a number of clones in an attempt to use to heal himself. However, the majority of these clones are flawed and would age at an accelerated rate. One clone of Lex (Mackenzie Gray), aged approximately twenty years older than the original, attempted to get revenge on Clark by trying to kill Lois Lane but died before he could finish. The 2-hour series finale reveals Lex had used the parts of other clones to create a composite one but lacked a heart. After an alternate-reality version of his father sacrifices himself to Darkseid, Lex speaks with Clark, telling his former friend he accepts they have a destiny as enemies, but neither of them can fulfill their roles unless Clark defeats Darkseid by inspiring humanity. Lex later meets with Tess, and fatally stabs his sister, however, Tess poisons him with a specialized neurotoxin that removes all of Lex's memories. The series ends by shifting seven years into the future, where Lex had been elected as the President of the United States.