WHY does Lex Luthor hate Superman? Main reason? Is it Lana ?

Question

Thanks phillip, I thought Smallville would be connected.

Answer 1

In the old comics, Lex and Superboy were the best of friends until the day Lex was in his boyhood lab (and didn't we all want one of those as a kid?) was on the verge of creating life. But something went wrong, things exploded, and Superboy just barely saved Lex's life... but something in the lab accident caused his hair to fall out, and he blamed it on Superboy. Thus began his lifelong goal to destroy Superman by inventing all kinds of diabolical devices... but never, strangely enough, Rogaine. :)

In the newer books (post-1980s), Luthor was reborn as a ruthless businessman who pretty much owned all of Metropolis until Superman's arrival led to his first public humiliation. He's been after Superman ever since, both covertly (by funding other super-villains) and overtly through his own dastardly schemes.

There are four reasons why comic-book Lex has such a mad-on for the Man of Steel:

1. Ego. Before Superman blew into town, Luthor's word was unquestioned and it was pretty much a given he could do whatever he wanted. After Superman's arrival, the good citizens of Metropolis had a new hero (Luthor, despite his evil ways, enjoyed the attention he got as a philanthropist) and his ego couldn't take it. As the mayor of Metropolis once said, "Correction, Lex... you're now the second-most powerful man in Metropolis."

2. It's just business. Luthor had a hand in every transaction that happened in Metropolis, legal or otherwise. Once Superman arrived and started busting up various crime rings, it cut into Luthor's profits, and the one you don't do is mess with another man's money.

3. Screw business -- it's personal. When Superman blew into town, Luthor made a habit of wearing a ring with kryptonite in it. Over the years, the low-level radiation, thought harmless to humans, ended up costing him his hand and eventually his life (he came back as his own clone, though -- it's too silly to go into here). This storyline was used in the "Justice League" cartoon series to good effect -- it's easy to see how Luthor would blame Superman for almost taking away the one thing his money couldn't buy.

4. Xenophobia. In recent years, writers have had fun playing with a new motive for Luthor: his raging xenophobia. As one of the world's most brilliant men, he sees himself as the best that humanity has to offer... and it galls him to see an alien living among us, especially one who's so powerful that us mere mortals have no choice but to hope he never decides to push us around. Luthor's constant quest to better Superman is a way for him to cast himself as humanity's best hope against "foreigners" infiltrating and taking over what us humans have worked so long to build. (Any parallels to modern-day real life are, ahem, entirely coincidental.)

I'm sure the TV series will end up with Luthor feeling some huge betrayal he'll never forgive Clark for -- maybe he'll realize in the final show that Clark hid his powers from him all this time and he'll take that as a huge insult. We'll see. The best villains are the ones who don't see themselves as villains.

Just my two cents,
M.

Answer 2

The television show, Smallville and Lana Lang has nothing to do with the true reason why Lex Luthor hates Superman, so much . Yes, it is true that Lex Luthor blames Superman for ruining his scheme of world domination and making him bald. This is shown and told to us in Adventure Comics # 271, when we are first introduced to the origin of Lex Luthor.

Answer 3

Underground man is right. The reason used to be that, as a boy, Superboy saw smoke comming out of a building and used his super breath to put out what he thought was a fire. In doing so, he wrecked lex Luthors lab. Ironically, Lex had been working on a cure from Kryptonite for Superboy at the time and wrecking the experiment, now trashed, also caused Lex to loose all his hair. After that, they have been bitter enemies.

Of course, DC went through some shake ups to reinvent their universe with some continuity. I have no idea what the current explanation is.

Answer 4

The real reason that Lex Luthor hates Superman is simple. Lex wants to, needs to be the greatest at everything. Superman represents everything that Lex can't be. And on top of everything, the world loves Superman and they hate Lex Luthor.

Lex knows that no matter what he does he will never be Superman. That is why all of his schemes are to ultimately humilate and discredit Superman. Bring him down.

Answer 5

In the beginning Lex Luthor and Superman were friends. Lex was a genius and came up with a lot of inventions.

However one day one of Lex's expirment's blew up. It happened so fast that Lex wasn't aware of it, but Superman saw it and stopped it before a toxic chemical could hit Lex in the face.

But he couldn't get every drop and a small amount landed on Lex's head and it killed every hair follicle on Lex's head and all his hair fell out, making him bald.

From Lex's point of view it looked like Superman knocked over the vial on purpose, he was unaware that there was an explosion and he said the Superman knocked it over on purpose because it would have been a fantastic success on the war on crime and people wouldn't need Superman as much anymore.

Superman tried to explain that it was an accident, that there was an explosion and he was protecting his friend from toxic chemicals but he couldn't get the small amount that landed on Lex Luthors head.

However Lex said that was a lie, the chemical would have helped police catch crooks without Superman's help and therefore Superman was jealous. Lex said that Superman had always been jealous of Luthor's genius because his genius and inventions were better at fighting crime than Superman and his powers. His inventions would mean there would be no need for Superman and therefore Superman destroyed the experiment on purpose and in doing so caused the solution to come into contact with his head making him permanently bald.

Lex didn't set out to be evil, but he refused to be friends with Superman anymore and became determined that his genius was a better crime fighter than Superman's super powers.

However as time went on Lex became obsessed with the desire to prove that he was better than Superman and the only way to prove that was the better man was to engage in a head to head confrontation with Superman. So Lex tried to commit a crime using science that Superman even with his powers would be unable to prevent.

Superman did prevent the crime and humiliated Lex Luthor. Luthor was then shown sitting in jail (he got a short sentence because it was his first crime) where Luthor swore he would overcome Superman and prove to everyone that he was the better person by becoming the greatest criminal in history.

The more Superman thwarted Luthor, the more depraved Luthor became and he set up his criminal empire to get back not only at Superman but also to get punish the people of the world because they treated Superman as a hero. Now you know.

Answer 6

It has to be a combination of reason. after all the story is always presented in different timelines and universes. The longest running show in which Clark and Luthor interact I would have say is Smallville.
Lex befriended Clark after Clark mysteriously saved his life. Lex was even encouraging of Clark dating Lana at one point. He later on became jealous of Clark because he felt he can never be the good person that Clark was. Lex was always fighting with his demons and his inner self. Lex also became angered because he knew that Clark was holdinbg back on his secret and lying to him. As time went on Lex DID become jealous of Clark's new born relationship with Lana after she divorced from Lex. But then, if we look into the mind of Lex, was he just trying to make Clark look guilty for not being open with him as he supposedly was open to Clark, and encouraging him to reveal his secret in hopes of utilizing it to gain power? Maybe we will never know the true answer.

Answer 7

The Lana tie-in is only on the tv show. There are several reasons why Luthor hates Superman.

When Luthor was first introduced (back in 1938), he was just a criminal. Siegel and Schuster, who invented Superman had previously done a story, “The Reign of the Superman” which did not appear in comics. That superman was a bald villain! It was too much of a good idea to get rid of, so when they needed a villain that could stand up to the Man of Steel, they dusted off their old concept and named him Luthor. So he was intended to be Superman’s arch-nemesis from the beginning.

When Superboy (the adventures of Superman when he was a teen) was introduced, he and Luthor were pals. (Lex was the only person on his intellectual level, that he could really talk to.) Luthor saved him from Kryptonite once, so Superboy built a fancy scientific laboratory for him. Luthor promptly created life and found a way to immunize Superboy against Kryptonite permanently.

But there was an accident, a fire in the lab. (In at least one version, it started when Lex was whooping with joy over realizing that his experiment worked and he created life, and knocked over a beaker of flammable chemicals.) Superboy was flying by and blew out the flames with his super breath. However, he also blew some acid onto the experiment, which destroyed it, and onto Lex’s head, which caused all his hair to fall out instantly. Luthor went crazy and decided Superboy did it out of jealousy, because Luthor would have received the Nobel Prize. And he hated Superboy ever since.

That was the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths version. Post Crisis, there had never been a Superboy, because his powers developed more slowly. So they had to have a new origin story for Luthor.

The new Luthor was an unscrupulous businessman, not a scientist. (Why he had to steal, when he could build giant robots and lease them out to construction and demolition firms, was always beyond me.) They made him an awful lot like Kingpin in marvel comics. In fact, thereis a rumor that Kingpin and Luthor are suing each other for trademark infringement… but I digress.

Luthor had scientists working for him, but he was not a scientist. He was the head of Lexcorp, a huge conglomerate business. They had their fingers in everything. Shortly after Superman first started his public career, Luthor was having a party aboard his private yacht, with lots of bigwigs and celebrities, including the mayor of Metropolis. Luthor had arranged for a fake terrorist attack, to try to attract Superman’s attention, so he could make him a job offer!

The Mayor was infuriated, and deputized Superman as a Metropolis police officer, because nobody else would arrest Luthor. Luthor spent the night in jail and hated Superman ever since. Luthor’s main problem was in thinking that everybody else, deep down, was as selfish and dishonest as he was; he was just bolder about putting his ideas into effect. He could not understand why Superman refused the bribe (big salary) he offered.

Later, when Metallo (the menace with the Kryptonite heart) appeared, and was defeated by Superman, Metallo was recovered by Lexcorp. Luthor had learned that the Kryptonite hurt Superman, so he took the Kryptonite and had it made into a ring he could wear. This kept Superman at bay for a long time.

However, even though the K radiation was not very harmful to non super people, it did give Luthor cancer in that hand over a long period of time. So he had to have it amputated, and they had given Luthor a new reason to hate Superman. Eventually, the cancer killed Luthor, but he had himself cloned and put his brain in the clone and posed as his own son and inherited his own empire, and went on planning Superman’s death.

You get the idea.

18 MAR 07, 2251 hrs, GMT.

Answer 8

It varies by source.
In old comic books it was the Lab explosion that cost Lex his hair Superman/boy saved Lex, but Lex thought he was interfering.

In the Films, Lex wanted to test Superman,Lex considered himself a genius and saw defeating Superman as the ultimate test of that genius.

In the Superboy series, Lex was an arrogant a--hole and Superboy foiled his many schemes, and also caused the baldness in the first season finale.

In various forms there was a romantic rivalry as well, in 'Lois and Clark' Lex and Lois had dated but parted, soon before Superman appeared, and Lex felt that had Superman not appeared he could have won Lois back.

In Smallville Lex envies Clark for "his inconspicuous life, loving family, and devoted girlfriend".

In most Billionaire Lex arcs, Lex has influence over the majority of Metropolis, employing 2/3's(?) of its people. and LexCorp Plaza is the tallest building in the city so everyone is forced to "look up to him" literally as well as figuratively.
Again L&C used this one, because at the end of the Pilot, Superman is hovering outside of Lex's balcony and tells Lex that if he ever wants to see him all he has to do is "Look up."

Birthright(the latest comic book retcon of his origins) has added xenophobia to the mix, which Lex then manipulates and generates in the public.

The ultimate reason, which encompasses all of these is 'Pride'. Lex sees himself as the definition of greatness whether as a mad scientist, master criminal, billionaire, politician, or billionaire scientist. and no matter what form of Lex is causing problems, Superman always stops him. also in the 'Superman cost Lex his hair' stories, if we assume Lex was supposed to have a full 'lions mane of rich red hair' Superman stole that from him and altered his looks.

Answer 9

I remember it having to do with Lex Luthor going bald and Superman having something to do with it (Fantastic Four had a similar situation with Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom, where an experiment disfigured Von Doom).

Answer 10

Luthor hates Superman because he is diabolical and Superman stands in the way of many of his schemes.