Superman: Birthright

In Mark Waid's version of Superman's origin in Superman: Birthright, Lex is shown to be roughly five years older than Clark. Waid felt the current incarnation of Lex as a business man who never paid for his crimes made Superman seem "ineffectual", and he is portrayed closer to his Silver Age roots of a mad scientist.[citation needed] Like in the TV series Smallville, his father Lionel is pompous, arrogant, and somewhat distant towards his son. Being an outcast in Smallville, Clark befriends him, but they separate as Lex gets further obsesses with contacting alien civilization. When Clark feels sick due to the Kryptonite being used in his plan, Lex banishes him from his lab and ends up disfiguring himself in an explosion. All of his hair is burned off, and Lionel is killed in the ensuing fire. Years later, Lex comes into conflict with Superman, as he attempts to recreate the accident that cost him his hair to contact extraterrestrials.