Lex Luthor is undeniably one of the world's wealthiest and most brilliant men, but rarely tempers his lust for power with a lust for the opposite sex. Not that he hasn't had amorous attachments, but most have been ill-fated because he typically doesn't view anyone else as his equal, but only as something to be used to further his various nefarious ends. Luthor has thanked the women who have come within his orbit by messing with their minds, stealing their power, taking their freedom and even ending their lives. To be fair, some of those people had their own less-than-honest motives for hooking up with Luthor and double-crossed him as soon as they could ... which, of course, led Luthor to exact a brutal revenge.
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On the other hand, in some realities, Luthor's better nature won out and he did know true, unselfish love for others. Luthor also knew fatherhood, although sometimes he thought of his children as prizes rather than as people. Through the years and through various realities and alternate universes, Luthor has been matched with Amazons, with aliens and with women more typically associated with Clark Kent. Here are 15 of Lex Luthor's romantic partners.
15 SUPERGIRL
The circumstance of Supergirl sleeping with Lex Luthor is disturbing, but the one who did was ... well, it's a long story, going back to a time shortly after the Crisis on Infinite Earths. This Supergirl was a protoplasmic shape-shifter from the Pocket Universe and was created by the Lex Luthor of that realm, first to defend it against renegade Phantom Zone villains and then to summon Earth-One's Superman for help.
After that all shook out, this Supergirl, also known as Matrix, came to Earth-One. She eventually fell for Lex Luthor, who at the time was posing as his son, a 20-something Australian, in a cloned body he made after his original form developed cancer from kryptonite poisoning. The innocent Matrix Supergirl was Luthor's lover, but learned that Luthor was developing multiple clones of her. She angrily destroyed his laboratories and dumped him Supergirl (Volume 3) #1-4 (February-May 1994).
14 EVE TESCHMACHER
Lex Luthor's love interest in 1978's Superman was the sexy Eve Teschmacher, played by Valerie Perrine. Her association with Luthor isn't terribly romantic; Luthor is rather formal with her, never calling her by her first name, often shouting "Miss Teschmacher!" Teschmacher serves as a distraction when Luthor and henchman Otis (Ned Beatty) steal nuclear missiles from the Army and the Navy, to be used in his plot to trigger an earthquake at the San Andreas Fault. When Superman moves to stop it, Luthor traps him, hanging a chunk of kryptonite around his neck and dumping him in his lair's swimming pool.
Teschmacher rescues Superman from drowning and makes him promise that he will stop the missile Luthor aimed at New Jersey as a distraction -- her mother lives in New Jersey -- before stopping the one aimed at California. Teschmacher also appears in 1980's Superman II, helping Luthor and Otis escape from prison.
13 LOIS LANE ROBOT
Action Comics #890 (August 2010) begins a stretch in which Lex Luthor headlines the title. Luthor, as ever, is on a quest for power, but this time his goal isn't killing Superman, who at the time was tied up with the fallout from the "War of the Supermen" debacle. Luthor aims to acquire a black power ring.
Luthor is a little more deliberative this go-round, briefly resisting the impulse to murder an employee who assaulted him because he was fired. But oddly, Lois Lane is having dinner with Luthor and she's not outraged that Luthor orders the hit anyway. Instead, she counsels him about wasting "resources" and entices him to go to bed with her. Who is this Lois Lane? She's a construct, made from Kryptonian technology and a bit of Lois's DNA. Luthor made her to be his "voice of reason" -- and, with her arsenal, to protect him.
12 SUPERWOMAN
Although she bears the name Lois Lane, the New 52's Superwoman of Earth-3 is the evil counterpart of Wonder Woman. She is one of the Crime Syndicate, villainous mirror-image duplicates of Earth-1's Justice League who come to the Prime Earth in Justice League (Volume 2) #23 (October 2013). This version of Superwoman possesses Amazonian strength and a Lasso of Submission.
She also has a nasty streak, conducting affairs simultaneously with Ultraman, who pleases her with his physical prowess, and Owlman, who is smarter and more cunning. Superwoman was pregnant when she arrived on Prime Earth, and led each man to believe he was the father. Unknown to either of them, the true father was Mazahs, the Lex Luthor of Earth 3 -- the murderous evil doppelganger of Shazam.
11 LANA LANG
Lana Lang was Clark Kent's first sweetheart in Smallville, but on TV's Smallville, his secrets drove a wedge between them. Lex Luthor also developed feelings for Lang after his family moved there. Over 10 seasons (2001-2011), Lang had relationships with both Kent and Luthor. At times, Luthor supported Kent in his efforts to get close to Lang, but she got fed up with Kent because he would not be forthcoming about his life, and turned to Luthor.
Lang and Luthor's relationship was rocky, however. They got married in the Season 6 episode "Promise," with Lang believing she was pregnant with Luthor's child. She later learns she was never pregnant; Dr. Langston, the physician Luthor hired to care for her, gave her pills that simulated pregnancy effects. To retaliate, Lang faked her death in the episode "Phantom" and tried to frame Luthor as her killer. Lang was played by Kristin Kreuk.
10 LOIS LANE (EARTH-THREE)
Lois Lane of Earth-Three -- which is ruled by supervillains -- learned of superpowered beings who do good deeds thanks to the dimension-hopping Captain Comet, who came to her world in The Secret Society of Super-Villains #14 (April-May 1978). Her next appearance was in DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (1982), helping Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three, who uses his scientific genius to stop an incursion from his Earth-One and Earth-Two counterparts. Lane inspires this Luthor to be a public superhero.
In Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 (April 1985), Lane is now Alexander Luthor's wife. He is frantically working to stop the wave of anti-matter energy consuming his universe. Paralleling Superman's origins, he and Lane send their infant son Alexander Jr. away to safety in a rocket before they both perish.
9 TALA
The sorceress Tala made several appearances on Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006) as a division chief of Project Cadmus. She was aligned with Felix Faust, but captured his soul in a mirror. Faust tricked her into casting a spell that freed him and put her there in his place. Released later by Gorilla Grodd, she became loyal to him as leader of the Legion of Doom.
Tala shifted her loyalties to Lex Luthor after he made his play to take over the Legion of Doom. But the romance, such as it was, soon soured as Luthor pursued efforts to revive Brainiac and froze Tala out. Tala turns back to Grodd and aligns with him to overthrow Luthor, but he fights back, prevails and captures Tala, using her body to channel the energies to revive Brainiac. But Tala turns the tables on him: He winds up reviving Darkseid instead.
8 MERCY GRAVES
The statuesque Mercy Graves first appeared in the DC Universe in Detective Comics #735 (August 1999) during the "No Man's Land" storyline, although she was introduced in 1996 in Superman: The Animated Series and was brought over to comics in Superman Adventures #1 (November 1996). Nominally, Graves was Luthor's bodyguard, personal assistant and sparring partner, but there is far more to her than meets the eye -- like her size and strength and battle skills, which allow her to hold her own with Superman.
That's because Graves, and her sometime partner Hope Taya, are Amazons, and as such, are among the few people Luthor can regard as equals. Not that he does -- this is Luthor, after all. But she is loyal to him, even after he loses his presidency.
7 ALEXANDRA LUTHOR
The Superman: Earth One series of graphic novels, written by J. Michael Straczynski, gave us a version of Superman reimagined for the 21st century. Young Clark Kent is introduced as a 21-year-old just making his start in the world, moving to Metropolis. Here, Lex Luthor is married. The Luthors -- Alexander and Alexandra -- are both genius scientists who call themselves "Lex Squared." At the end of Volume 2, they are hired by the government to develop a way to neutralize the new Superman if need be.
In Volume 3, Zod comes to destroy Kal-El -- in this version, it is his nephew. The Luthors intervene in a battle between Superman and Zod. Lex Luthor uses a red-solar energy cannon to neutralize Zod's powers, and Zod kills him. In turn, Alexandra shoots Zod to death. Afterward, Alexandra demands to be called "Lex Luthor" and has an obsessive fixation with destroying Superman.
6 ALLISON SANDERS
The Season 2 Smallville episode "Heat" introduces Allison Sanders, who developed the metahuman ability to manipulate men through pheromones, thanks to the kryptonite meteor shower that hit the town. She enticed her boyfriend to murder her parents and got a meager inheritance. She moved away, became a teacher and targeted a wealthy man, then got one of her students to murder her new husband. Sanders lived well, but lost the money through bad investments and non-stop partying.
Luthor meets Sanders, now known as "Desirée Atkins," at a business summit, and they got engaged. Sanders became Smallville High School's biology teacher, and the hormones she secreted triggered Clark Kent's heat vision. She married Luthor and tried to seduce Kent into killing him, but her powers didn't work on Kent. So she framed him for arson and swayed his father Jonathan into shooting Luthor. Clark Kent saved him, and Sanders went to prison. Sanders was played by Krista Allen.
5 ALICE WHITE
Lex Luthor's second-greatest antagonist after Superman is Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet. The love of White's life, at least in the post-Crisis era, was his wife, Alice. But Luthor also had his eye on her before she was married, when she was Alice Spencer. The World of Metropolis #1 (August 1988) revealed that Spencer and Luthor had a fling while White was serving in the Army overseas.
A bigger revelation came years later when Alice and Perry's son Jerry got involved with crime and gangs. Jerry and Jimmy Olsen were shot and wounded by minions of Intergang in Adventures of Superman #469 (August 1990). In Superman (Volume 2) #47 (October 1990), Luthor, White and Spencer all come to the hospital and Luthor reveals that he is Jerry's father!
4 ERICA ALEXANDRA DEL PORTENZA
Luthor's tempestuous time with Contessa Erica Alexandra del Portenza began as a marriage of convenience. She first appeared in Superman: Man of Tomorrow #1 (June 1995), a noble who acquired controlling interest in LexCorp after Luthor was discredited and forced out. Luthor and del Portenza secretly wed, with Luthor angling to retake control of his companies. Del Portenza became pregnant and bore a daughter, Lena. Luthor showed his gratitude by keeping del Portenza under sedation at a hospital. She emerged from the induced coma and escaped when the place caught fire.
Del Portenza, you see, is no ordinary mortal; she is possibly is centuries old. In hiding, del Portenza plotted to kidnap baby Lena from Luthor, but Luthor captures her back. Just before taking the presidency of the United States, Luthor launches a missile strike on del Portenza's hideout in Siberia, in President Luthor: Secret Files and Origins #1 (March 2001).
3 KITTY KOWALKSI
Katherine "Kitty" Kowalski, played by Parker Posey, was Lex Luthor's girl in 2006's Superman Returns. The comics prequel Superman Returns: Lex Luthor #3 (August 2006) fills in their background. Kowalski was a nurse at the prison where Luthor was serving his time. She saw him kill another inmate, but stopped him from killing her by declaring, "I won't tell, Mister Luthor. I'm your biggest fan." Their affair begins, and she suggests his next scam: marrying a rich widow, Gertrude Vanderworth, after he gets out.
In the movie, Kowalski furthers the scheme, working as Vanderworth's maid while Luthor seduces her. Vanderworth dies and Luthor inherits a multimillion-dollar fortune. Luthor isn't any more affectionate in this movie to Kowalski, putting her in a speeding car with damaged brake lines to distract Superman while Luthor steals kryptonite from a museum. At the end, Luthor and Kowalski get stranded on a deserted island, with him threatening to eat her dog.
2 LOIS LANE (RED SON)
The 2003 Elseworlds miniseries Superman: Red Son posited an alternate trajectory for the rocket that brought baby Kal-El to Earth. Instead of landing in homespun Midwestern America, he wound up in a collective farm in the Ukraine, under the orbit of the Soviet Union. With Superman under the thrall of communist Russia, the Cold War follows a different course. CIA agent Jimmy Olsen recruits S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Lex Luthor to take Superman down.
Luthor's wife in this reality is Lois Lane, who is still a Daily Planet reporter but does not take his name. Lane is often ignored and belittled by Luthor, but feels an attraction to Superman after he rescues her. Winning a Pulitzer Prize, moving up to Planet editor, and becoming First Lady of the United States after Luthor is elected President doesn't lift the cloud of misery Lane feels in her marriage.
1 ARDORA
Ardora was the one great love of Lex Luthor's life. She is from the desert planet Lexor, first seen in Superman #164 (October 1963). The people of Lexor revere Luthor as a hero, believing he, not Superman, ended the planet's drought. Luthor meets Ardora on his second visit, in Superman #168 (April 1964) and returns several times, being the hero he never is on Earth. In Action Comics #318 (November 1964), Luthor marries Ardora in an elaborate ceremony.
In Action Comics #544 (June 1983), Luthor, weary of constantly battling Superman, retires to Lexor permanently. He has a happy reunion with Ardora, who has had a son. Luthor learns that Lexor had an unstable core like Krypton, and builds a Neutrarod to stabilize it. But Superman comes to apprehend Luthor. During their fight, Luthor fires a blast that hits the Neutrarod and triggers a planetary explosion -- moments before Luthor can save Ardora and Lex Jr.
Did we miss anyone? Who else was seduced by Luthor's Lex Appeal? Let us know in the comments!