Creation and Development

By some accounts[citation needed], the seeds for Lex's character first appeared in The Reign of the Super-Man, also written by Siegel and Shuster. In the original short story, a bald scientist uses a piece of alien meteor to give a vagrant named Bill Dunn telepathic abilities, which Dunn abuses for personal gain. Although Lex would not appear until two years after Superman's debut, a central theme to his character—a dichotomy of science versus superpowers—was in place.[7] [8] The character's original incarnation, as drawn by Joe Shuster, appeared only twice between 1940-1941. In his debut, "Lex" (who is referred to only by his surname) is a wily genius who resides in a flying city suspended by a dirigible. Having taken control of several European countries through his machinations, he tries to provoke a war between the two fictional nations of Galonia and Toran, planning to set all the nations of the world at war, but is stopped by Superman.[9] [10] He describes himself as "an ordinary man, but with the brain of a super-genius."

In his earliest appearances, Lex is shown as a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair. Less than a year later, however, an artistic goof resulted in Lex being depicted as completely bald in a newspaper strip.[11] The original error is attributed to Leo Novak, a studio artist who illustrated for the Superman dailies during this period.[12] One theory is that Novak mistook Lex for the Ultra-Humanite, a frequent foe of Superman who, in his Golden Age incarnation, resembled a balding, elderly man.[12] Other evidence suggests Lex's design was confused with that of a stockier, bald henchman in Superman #4 (Spring 1940);[12] Lex's next appearance occurs in Superman #10 (May 1941), in which Novak depicted him as significantly heavier, with visible jowls.[12] The character's abrupt hair loss has been made reference to several times over the course of his history. When the concept of the DC multiverse began to take hold, Lex's red-haired incarnation was rewritten as Lex, Lex's counterpart from the Earth-Two parallel universe. In 1960, writer Jerry Siegel altered Lex's backstory to incorporate his hair loss into his origin.

In the origin story printed in Adventure Comics #271 (April 1960), young Lex is shown as an aspiring scientist who resides in Smallville, the hometown of Superboy. The teenage Lex saves Superboy from a chance encounter with Kryptonite. In gratitude Superboy builds Lex a laboratory, where weeks later he manages to create an artificial form of life. Grateful in turn to Superboy, Lex creates an antidote for Kryptonite poisoning. However, an accidental fire breaks out in Lex's lab. Superboy uses his super-breath to extinguish the flames, inadvertently spilling chemicals which cause Lex to go bald;[8] in the process, he also destroys Lex's artificial life form. Believing Superboy intentionally destroyed his discoveries, Lex attributes his actions to jealousy and vows revenge. This revenge causes Lex's family to disown him and change their names to Thorul. It also leads to years of Superman, Lex and Supergirl concealing the truth from Lex's sister, Lena Thorul. Lex's revenge first came in the form of grandiose engineering projects in Smallville to prove his superiority over the superhero, only to have each go disastrously out of control and require Superboy's intervention. The mounting embarrassments further deepen Lex's hate for Superboy for supposedly further humiliating him and he unsuccessfully attempted to murder the superhero.[13] This revised origin makes Lex's fight with Superman a personal one, and suggests that if events had unfolded differently, Lex might have been a more noble person. These elements were played up in various stories throughout the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Elliot S. Maggin's novel Last Son of Krypton.[14]

In Crisis on Infinite Earths, Lex is killed by Brainiac,[15] and is subsequently erased from history with the rest of the DC multiverse.