Lex Luthor Trivia
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45 free Lex Luthor trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Lex Luthor has been Superman's archenemy since Action Comics #23 in April 1940, and he has had more reinventions than almost any villain in comics: a red-haired mad scientist in a flying city, the bald genius whose hair loss started as an artist's mistake, the teenage Smallville rival, the 1986 corporate tycoon modelled on Trump and Hughes, the kryptonite-ringed businessman who lost a hand, a president of the United States, a Justice League member and, briefly, a Martian-human god called Apex Lex. This quiz covers all of it, plus his screen life: Lyle Talbot in a 1950 serial, Gene Hackman's comic foil, Michael Rosenbaum's slow-burn Smallville arc, Clancy Brown's animated voice, Kevin Spacey, Jesse Eisenberg, Jon Cryer and Nicholas Hoult. Expect questions on LexCorp, Mercy Graves, Lena, Pete Ross, Neron, the Everyman Project and the Elseworlds where he becomes the Joker or marries Lois. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play in sets of ten or print it for comic-shop night.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which comic did Lex Luthor first appear?
Action Comics #23
Luthor debuted in Action Comics #23, cover-dated April 1940, two years after Superman's own debut in Action Comics #1.
Q 02Which duo created Lex Luthor?
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman's creators, gave him a foe with no powers at all, just brains and ambition.
Q 03What is Lex Luthor's full first name?
Alexander
Lex is short for Alexander; the post-Crisis comics gave his full name as Alexander Joseph Luthor, and early Golden Age stories had called him only 'Luthor'.
Q 04What colour was Luthor's hair in his earliest appearances?
red
In Action Comics #23 Luthor was drawn as a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair; within two years he was bald.
Q 05Luthor's baldness began as a mistake by which Superman studio artist?
Leo Nowak
Leo Nowak, a Shuster studio artist, apparently mistook Luthor for his bald henchman from Superman #4; the bald Luthor stuck from Superman #10 in 1941.
Q 06In which 1960 comic did the Silver Age Luthor get the first name 'Lex' and a Smallville origin?
Adventure Comics #271
Adventure Comics #271 (April 1960), 'How Luthor Met Superboy!', was written by Jerry Siegel so the two could have been teenage rivals in Smallville.
Q 07In his Silver Age origin, which creation of teenage Lex did Superboy accidentally destroy?
artificial life
Lex had created an artificial life form; Superboy's super-breath put out the lab fire but spilled chemicals that dissolved the creature and left Lex bald.
Q 08What first name was retroactively given to the red-haired Earth-Two Luthor?
Alexei
The Earth-Two Luthor was named Alexei in DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (1982); Brainiac killed him in Crisis on Infinite Earths, deciding one Luthor was enough.
Q 09Luthor's Silver Age family changed its surname to what anagram after he turned to crime?
Thorul
His little sister Lena grew up as Lena Thorul, never knowing her brother was a supervillain.
Q 10Which two creators reinvented Luthor as an evil corporate executive in 1986's The Man of Steel?
Marv Wolfman and John Byrne
Marv Wolfman and John Byrne reworked him for The Man of Steel; Wolfman reasoned that a man who could afford giant robots would not need to rob banks.
Q 11In which Metropolis district was the post-Crisis Luthor born?
Suicide Slum
Post-Crisis Lex was born in Suicide Slum, Metropolis's poorest district, and grew up there alongside future Daily Planet editor Perry White.
Q 12How did the post-Crisis teenage Luthor make his first fortune?
insurance money from his parents' deaths
He collected insurance money from his parents' deaths: Lex took out a large policy on them, then sabotaged their car's brakes, as told in Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography (1989).
Q 13What is the name of Luthor's Metropolis company?
LexCorp
Q 21Which telepath wiped Luthor's knowledge of Superman's secret identity?
Manchester Black
Manchester Black erased the secret from Luthor's mind in 2002's Ending Battle; in Action Comics #1050 (2022) Luthor killed Black to make the whole world forget again.
Q 22In 'Public Enemies', President Luthor secretly injected himself with a kryptonite-laced version of what?
Venom
Venom, Bane's super-steroid, laced with liquid kryptonite made him strong, irrational and finally a fugitive in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2004).
Q 23Who briefly became president after Luthor fled the White House?
Pete Ross
Clark's Smallville pal had been Luthor's vice president.
LexCorp was established in the 1986 reboot as the conglomerate behind Luthor's wealth; Smallville called its counterpart LuthorCorp.
Q 14Luthor's kryptonite ring gave him cancer, costing him which body part?
his right hand
The ring's radiation cost Luthor his right hand, amputated and replaced with a prosthetic; Superman later entrusted the ring to Batman as a failsafe against himself.
Q 15Luthor faked his death and returned in a cloned body posing as his own son from which country?
Australia
'Lex Luthor II' arrived from Australia with a full head of red hair and an Australian accent, and wooed the protoplasmic Supergirl, Matrix.
Q 16Which demon restored Luthor's health in exchange for his soul during Underworld Unleashed?
Neron
Neron, the demon behind Underworld Unleashed (1995), restored Luthor's body; Lex agreed because he did not believe souls existed.
Q 17Luthor's daughter Lena was born to which near-immortal wife?
Contessa Erica Del Portenza
Contessa Erica Del Portenza, a near-immortal, married Lex and bore Lena; he later kept her sedated and had her seemingly killed by a missile barrage.
Q 18To which office was Luthor elected in the comics at the turn of the millennium?
President of the United States
Luthor won the 2000 election in Superman: Lex 2000 and took office as President of the United States, having run on a platform of technological progress.
Q 19To whom did Luthor hand control of his company before entering the White House?
Talia al Ghul
Talia al Ghul, as 'Talia Head', ran LexCorp during his presidency and later sold the whole company to the Wayne Foundation, leaving him with nothing.
Q 20Which Kansas city did Imperiex destroy after President Luthor sat on an advance warning?
Topeka
He wanted Earth drawn into a great war so he could prove his leadership.
Q 24Superboy, the clone Lex covets, is a hybrid of Superman's DNA and whose?
Lex's own
Teen Titans (2003) revealed Conner Kent was grown from Superman's DNA and Lex's own; Luthor later used a mental trigger to turn him against the Titans.
Q 25On which pre-Crisis planet was Luthor hailed as a hero?
Lexor
Lexor, introduced in Superman #164 (1963), was a world that revered Luthor; he married Ardora there, and the planet was destroyed in Action Comics #544 (1983).
Q 26In Final Crisis, Luthor helped override which Darkseid broadcast?
the Anti-Life Equation
Luthor and Dr Sivana hacked the Justifier helmets to cut off Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation broadcast; Lex called it a legendary first team-up of 'good' and 'bad'.
Q 27In the New 52, Luthor fed Clark Kent tips under which codename?
Icarus
As 'Icarus', Luthor leaked tips to Clark Kent in Grant Morrison's Action Comics (2011) while secretly dealing with the Collector of Worlds to shrink Metropolis.
Q 28Which super-team did Luthor join after helping defeat the Crime Syndicate in Forever Evil?
the Justice League
Luthor joined the Justice League in 2014 after Forever Evil, having led the villains who beat the Crime Syndicate; the League figured membership would make him easier to watch.
Q 29In Year of the Villain, Luthor was reborn as a Martian-human hybrid called what?
Apex Lex
Perpetua remade him as Apex Lex, a Martian-human hybrid, in Year of the Villain (2019); the gift came with a Martian's vulnerability to fire.
Q 30In the Elseworlds tale Speeding Bullets, a disfigured Luthor adopts which identity?
the Joker
In Speeding Bullets (1993) an explosion disfigures Luthor, who re-emerges as that world's Joker; Kal-El there was raised by Thomas and Martha Wayne.