Lex Luthor (DCAU)
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| Justice League/Justice League Unlimited: Characters | Villains | Episodes | Cast and crew | Movies | Comics | Video games | Broadcasting | Awards | DVD releases |
| Lex Luthor
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| Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster |
Lex Luthor a DC Comics supervillain and Superman's nemesis, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, appreared in several episodes of Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited. He was voiced by Clancy Brown.
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
- The Last Son Of Krypton, Part II
- The Last Son Of Krypton, Part III
- A Little Piece Of Home
- The Way Of All Flesh
- The Main Man, Part I
- Stolen Memories
- My Girl
- Blasts From The Past, Part I
- Identity Crisis
- Target
- Solar Power
- Brave New Metropolis
- Ghost in the Machine
- World's Finest, Part I
- World's Finest, Part II
- World's Finest, Part III
- Prototype
- A Fish Story
- Legacy, Part I
- Legacy, Part II
- Injustice For All, Part I
- Injustice For All, Part II
- Tabula Rasa, Part I
- Tabula Rasa, Part II
- A Better World, Part II
- Hereafter, Part I
- The Return
- Clash
- Question Authority
- Flashpoint
- Panic in the Sky
- Divided We Fall
- I Am Legion
- To Another Shore
- Dead Reckoning
- The Great Brain Robbery
- Grudge Match
- Alive!
- Destroyer
[edit] Cameos
- The Main Man, Part I
- Livewire
- Apokolips... Now, Part II
- Legends, Part I
- Only a Dream, Part I
- A Better World, Part I
- The Doomsday Sanction
[edit] Mentions
[edit] Movies
[edit] Superman: The Animated Series
In the 1990s cartoon Superman: The Animated Series and the subsequent Justice League animated series, Luthor was voiced by actor Clancy Brown of Highlander and Buckaroo Banzai fame (Brown originally auditioned for the role of Superman/Clark Kent, but that part went to Tim Daly instead). Luthor in this version was again a corrupt businessman, and again his hatred of Superman ultimately brought down his empire. According to the creators' commentaries on the First set of DVDs, this version of Luthor was inspired by Telly Savalas' interpretation of Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
[edit] Justice League
After he was revealed as a criminal and lost his business empire (in the first season of Justice League), his characterization turned more toward the original conception of the character as a criminal genius obsessed with destroying Superman. Later, Luthor's character turned in an opposite way of his comics counterpart; he was pardoned after helping the Justice League defeat their alternate evil counterparts, the Justice Lords, with a power disruptor and implied to the press that he was thinking of going into politics.
[edit] Justice League Unlimited
In the second season of Justice League Unlimited, Luthor announced he was running for President of the United States. It was later revealed to be a ruse to enrage Superman. Luthor was revealed to be financially backing Project Cadmus, a shadow government organization devoted to stopping the League if they ever turned on the earth. Luthor then betrayed them, hi-jacking the League's space-based laser to take out Cadmus leaving the impression the League had attacked the United States government. While attempting to place his mind in a duplicate of A.M.A.Z.O., he was thwarted by Amanda Waller of Cadmus. At this point, it was revealed that Brainiac had possessed Luthor, secretly controlling his actions. After the two merged into a more complete being using alien nanotechnology, Luthor and Brainiac attempted to destroy the world but were stopped by The Flash.
Luthor returned later to join the Legion of Doom, but, ironically, not as the leader (Gorilla Grodd was the leader). Luthor agreed to join in order to obtain the last remaining piece of Brainiac, which Grodd has in his possession. Luthor is obsessed with rebuilding Brainiac, as what is left of him is inhabiting Luthor's mind, giving him a sort of multiple personality disorder. It is unclear to the viewer, however, if Brainiac really exists and inhabits his mind or if he is simply a mad figment of his imagination. Later on, using the failure of Grodd's silly masterplan to turn all humans into apes as pretext, Lex Luthor shot Gorilla Grodd and took over as leader, and imprisons Grodd.
After taking over as leader of the Legion, Luthor went back to obsession of trying resurrect Brainiac. Using the power of the Legion headquarters, Luthor spent tireless hours trying to bring a fragment of Brainiac back online. After nearly destroying the power supply, Luthor had Tala use her magic to garner any information from the fragment. Tala shows Luthor a vision of Brainiac's base (seen in the episode "Twilight") before its destruction and Luthor reconfigures the Legion base into a spaceship with hyperspace capability.
During the journey to the remnants of Brainiac's base, Tala frees Gorilla Grodd and he mounts an insurrection against Luthor with fellow Legion members. The battle caps off with Luthor fighting Grodd in hand-to-hand combat. Just as Grodd moves to use his telepathic power on Luthor, Luthor uses his belt to take over Grodd's mind. Afterwards, Luthor forces Grodd into an airlock and jettisons him into space.
The Legion, back under Luthor's power, returns to their task of resurrecting Brainiac. Luthor hooks Tala up to a machine, reminiscent of Brainiac's machine used against Superman, to transmutate remnants of Brainiac's base back into a working body of Brainiac. Before Luthor begins the process, Metron stops time and appears to him warning that he may be unleashing something that will affect the past, present and future. Luthor, still obsessed with becoming a god, ignores him and the process begins.
However, although the process is successful, Luthor ends up resurrecting Darkseid, who attempts to destroy the Legion. The remnants of the Legion, under Luthor, go to the Justice League Watchtower to warn to the superheroes of the threat and insist on a temporary alliance in the defence of the planet. With the aid of the New God Metron, Luthor manages to acquire the Anti-Life Equation long sought by Darkseid, and uses it on the lord of Apokolips, apparently sacrificing his own life in the process.
[edit] Superman: Brainiac Attacks
Lex Luthor was also featured in this direct-to-video animated movie. Lex's character designs from Superman: The Animated Series, his job as a criminal businessman and his bodyguard Mercy Graves were used for this movie, but this version of Luthor acted similar to Gene Hackman's Luthor from Superman: The Movie. He constantly spouted one-liners and at one point threw a Tiki Torch Luau to celebrate Superman's presumed death. Lex Luthor was voiced by Powers Boothe in this movie.
Template:Spoiler Luthor's role in this movie, which was not made to fit into the continuity of the DC Animated Universe despite using its character/set designs and voice actors, had him forming an alliance with Brainiac (this is also treated as the first meeting between the two). He placed Brainiac in a new robot body and sent him to destroy Superman. Afterwards Brainiac would pretend to be defeated by Luthor and then leave Earth to conquer a different planet, while Luthor would appear as a hero to a people and then continue his quest to rule Earth. Naturally this plan failed, and it ended with a usual "Luthor under investigation" ending.
[edit] Design
Due to Lex Luthor's pronounced lips and tanned skin, it's easy to think he is African-American. This is due to the Telly Savalas inspiration for his look - the reason for which is that producer Bruce Timm thought of Clancy Brown's take on Luthor as a "cultured thug", the same way he saw Savalas' Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Timm's favorite Bond film).
Sometimes, the animated Luthor is portrayed as being distinctly darker than the people around him, and sometimes (like the shot in "A Little Piece of Home" where Luthor literally puts his face right into Superman's) his skin color is exactly the same as everybody else. Timm is rumored to quip that his Lex Luthor must "tan easily."
[edit] Action figures
