Luthor

Lex Luthor is a brilliant, unscrupulous scientist who debuted as Superman's most cunning human adversary — opposing the Man of Steel not with powers but with ruthless intellect and an obsessive hatred, establishing himself as the archetypical evil genius of superhero comics.

Few villains in comics history carry the weight of a name like Luthor — a Golden Age schemer who first stepped onto the page in Superman #4 in 1940, brought to life by Bert Lexington at the dawn of the superhero era. Over an astonishing span of more than eight decades, this DC antagonist has remained a fixture across Superman, Action Comics, and Adventures of Superman, sharing pages with the likes of Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Perry White, and even Bruce Wayne. That kind of longevity — from the Golden Age straight through to today — speaks to a character whose place in the DC universe is genuinely foundational. If you're tracing the roots of comics' greatest rivalries, Luthor is where you start.