In the television series Smallville, Lionel Luthor is very different from his comic book counterparts, who were fairly quiet and low-key individuals. Lionel shares many characteristics with the comic book version of Lex Luthor; rather than Lex orchestrating the deaths of his parents for the insurance money (as in post-Crisis comic continuity), it is Lionel who arranges the murders of his parents with the help of criminal Morgan Edge.
Lionel's past is only vaguely alluded to during the show. He was born to Scottish immigrants Lachlan and Eliza Luthor, and raised in Metropolis' Suicide Slum area. Morgan Edge is stated to have been his only childhood friend. Lionel's father allegedly abused him (implying a familial cycle of abuse that continues with Lex), and Edge testifies in Shattered that Lionel's mother was too "gin-soaked" to help him. Lionel still harbors deep resentment toward his long-dead father. His relationship with Edge, as well as their criminal dealings, continued well into their adult years after their lives have taken divergent turns, as seen in the episodes "Phoenix" and "Shattered".
According to Lionel, he was working an odd job at a print shop at the time of his parents' deaths (cf. "Relic"). Lionel used the insurance collected upon the arson that claimed his parents to launch his company Luthor Industries, later known as LuthorCorp. Between the time of the murders and the founding of his company, Lionel attended an Ivy League school, where he embellished his beginnings to cover up the truth of his own poor background. This habit of glorifying his family roots continued for decades, as Lex was under the impression that his father came from Scottish nobility until he dug up evidence to the contrary in the episode "Relic." Lionel went so far as to import an antiquated Scottish mansion brick-by-brick to Smallville, claiming it was the Luthors' ancestral home.
Sometime before the 1980s, Lionel married a woman named Lillian, who came from a wealthy family. Together, they had a child, Alexander "Lex" Luthor (named for Alexander the Great), in 1980, who became a self-described "brat." Lionel's relationship with his son was never ideal, as he was irked by Lex's timid personality (cf "Pilot"). For her part, Lillian was appalled by the way Lionel made Lex feel like nothing. When Lex was 9, Lillian insisted that Lionel spend more time with him, but this only resulted in Lionel taking Lex along to finalize a business deal in Smallville. A meteor shower occurred; in the blast, Lex's hair was completely seared off.
Faced with having a disfigured and cowardly son as an heir, Lionel insisted on having another child with Lillian (despite her age and waning health), whom he named Julian (presumably after Julius Caesar). Lillian foresaw Lionel pitting both boys against one another to earn his affection. This fact (coupled with a psychotic bout of postpartum depression) moved her to smother Julian shortly after his birth (cf. "Memoria"). Lex stumbled upon his mother seconds after she had killed him and took the blame for his brother's death upon himself. Enraged, Lionel attacked Lex, and their relationship has never recovered. Lillian's health deteriorated rapidly following her son's death, and she grew sicker and sicker, dying months later, sometime after Lex's thirteenth birthday (cf. "Wither").
It later came to light that early in the marriage, Lionel began having numerous affairs, including one with a woman named Rachael Dunleavy. Their relationship would produce an illegitimate son, Lucas, who was only five years younger than Lex (cf. "Prodigal"). Lionel watched from afar as Lucas grew up and became a gambler and criminal, living most of his life on the streets. Lionel used his influence to intervene in his son's life, keeping him away from any immediate danger, but he never met Lucas face-to-face. When Lex discovers he has a half-brother, he surmises that Lionel's intent was to conduct an experiment with his two heirs; one grows up with everything while the other grows up with nothing (cf. "Prodigal").
At the beginning of the show, Lionel is mostly preoccupied with running his company, while occasionally bribing city officials to overlook Lex's less-than-exemplary conduct in Metropolis. Lex was kept away at private school for the majority of his younger years. An outcast due to his baldness, Lex eventually snapped and attacked his one-time friend named Duncan Allenmeyer, resulting in Duncan walking into the path of a car. Lionel paid off Duncan's mother and suppressed publicity of the incident, falsely reporting that Duncan had died, when really he was being kept alive through life support. Lionel also paid off officials when Lex was suspected of a murder in nightclub. Despite these repeated interventions, by 2001 Lex was rapidly becoming a liability for him.
After Lex gets kicked out of Metropolis University, an exasperated Lionel exiles him to running a LuthorCorp fertilizer plant in Smallville. Lionel demonstrates a perversely adversarial relationship with his son, and constantly throws tests in Lex's path to determine whether he is "strong" enough to inherit LuthorCorp.
Personality and characteristics
Lionel is a criminal sociopath; lying and deceit are his most powerful weapons. He uses his limitless wealth and knowledge of human nature to lure individuals into making deals with him, which he then holds over their heads indefinitely. If a person dares to back out of their "agreement" with Lionel, they are met with swift retaliation (costing them their job, blacklisting their family members, and in extreme cases, having them killed).
Lionel runs his business according to a socially Darwinian-type philosophy, one placing great worth on being able to adapt and survive. Kindness and sentiment do not fit into Lionel's outlook; as such, he was not impressed with Lex's timid personality when he was young (as seen in the episodes "Pilot" and "Memoria"). Unlike the comic book Lex Luthor, who takes extraordinary measures to be loved by the people of Metropolis, Lionel breeds hate from all around him, believing it is hatred that leaves people at their weakest (cf. "Exodus").
Tragically, Lex is among Lionel's many victims, as Lionel frequently puts his son in harm's way under the motive of "making Lex stronger", though there are other examples of Lionel exhibiting outright cruelty, such as stealing his girlfriend or terminating all of Lex's employees en masse (cf. "Tempest"). Ironically, even paradoxically, however, he still claims to love Lex, and defends him against others at nearly all costs. Also, despite his poor treatment of her, Lillian appears to have been the great love of his life, and he speaks about her fondly, using her as the measure for other women.
In several episodes, Lionel is shown to have a romantic affection for Martha Kent, who reminds Lionel of his late wife. During the second season, a blind Lionel hires Martha as his personal assistant due to her previous experience in the business world. He values her business savvy and attempts to woo her — to her husband, Jonathan's, ire. When Martha comes across files that Lionel has on Clark, their relationship turns frosty. She then quits her job and their communication all but evaporates. However, after the death of her husband, Martha accepts Jonathan's recently won State Senate seat. Consequently, Lionel spends increasingly more time around her (assisting and mentoring her in her dealings in the State Senate) and it is obvious that his feelings for Martha have not changed. Fearful of and disgusted by the connection, Clark forbids Lionel to talk to Martha at all, but with time begins to begrudgingly tolerate the situation. In "Rage," after she and Lionel almost kiss, Martha acknowledges that there is something between them, although she says that she isn't ready to explore it.
Source: wikipedia.org |
