LEX LUTHOR

PERSONAL DATA First Appearance: (original): Action Comics #23 (April 1940) (current): Man of Steel #4 (November 1986)

  A successful, though corrupt, Metropolis businessman who owned the city until the arrival of Superman, who was able to get the man arrested, though only briefly, for the first time. From that moment, Luthor hated Superman and devoted much of his energies to humiliating, discrediting or killing the hero, though he never succeeded. Beset with troubles on all sides, Luthor eventually faked his own death, coming back in a cloned body, claiming to be his own son. Believed by most to be a good man, this Luthor romanced Supergirl and often worked in collaboration with the heroes of Earth when the need arose. Although Superman and a few others saw through him, Luthor has managed to keep his name squeaky-clean, so much so that he has now been elected president of the United States of America, a situation which many people find very worrying. However, thus far his leadership has been uncontroversial, and the entire world, in fact, looked to him in the midst of the recent Imperiex crisis.