Finally found it

[xrayvision]

I finally found the comic that I was looking a long time for. It was buried under a bunch of stuff in my room for years (been there way before Smallville started.

The comic is Supergirl & Team Luthor #1 (a one-shot). It's been a long time since I read it, but until I just checked it out again, I could have sworn that Lionel Luthor was in this comic.

http://img488.imageshack.us/img488/340/supergirlandteamluthortsz3.jpg

It turns out that it wasn't Lionel on the cover but Lex Luthor II. His appearance does resemble Lionel's a lot, except Lionel also has a moustache, has brown hair instead, and his eyebrows are not as bushy. I still think he looks an awful lot like Lionel.

[svfanatic06]

Yeah he does.

[Lex Dance]

Definitely! From your thread I take it that there are no other mentions of Lionel Luthor in the comics? So what was Team Luthor all about? More importantly what was Lex Luthor II all about?!

[RedBullet]

Lionel is just like Chloe they were created for the show and are Lionel is based on Lex in the comics and Chloe is based on Lois in the comics.

Yeah he does look like Lionel....The first thing that popped in my head is that Lionel and Kara are going to team up in Season 7.

[Lex Dance]

Originally posted by RedBullet
Lionel is just like Chloe they were created for the show and are Lionel is based on Lex in the comics and Chloe is based on Lois in the comics.
Really? I always assumed there would be at least some mention of him. As much as I love the DC graphic novels, I'm not very well versed in the comics themselves. Was he ever mentioned in Lois and Clark? I vaguely remember someone talking about it on the boards.

[Timester]

Lex Luthor II was how Lex survived to the kryptonite cancer. He created a clone of himself and transplanted his brain and eyes to the clone.

Team Luthor was Lex's force created right after Superman's death.

Lionel was mentioned once (two years ago), as the name Lex gave to the actor that played as his "father". It was also the name of the Superboy Project.

[upsidedown]

Originally posted by Lex Dance
So what was Team Luthor all about?!

Please, xrayvision, tell us. I'm hooked! :p

The cover looks great! What year is it?
Thanks for sharing!!! :)

[xrayvision]

It's from May, 1993. Team Luthor was assembled to take care of things that Superman did when he was alive. It was created after Doomsday killed him. It featured Lex Luthor II and a bunch of soldiers in super suits serving justice IIRC. I haven't read it for a very long time, but I thought it was supposed to take place in the future.

[Timester]

Originally posted by xrayvision
It's from May, 1993. Team Luthor was assembled to take care of things that Superman did when he was alive. It was created after Doomsday killed him. It featured Lex Luthor II and a bunch of soldiers in super suits serving justice IIRC. I haven't read it for a very long time, but I thought it was supposed to take place in the future.

Team Luthor never managed to get support because 1) Lex got hurt on their presentation and 2) the Reign of Supermen came right after it. It became LexCorp private forces until it was destroyed during The Fall of Metropolis (well, all of Metropolis was destroyed).

[xrayvision]

Oh. I always thought that it took place in the future where Superman never returned unlike what actually happened.

I'm guessing Lex transplanted his brain & eyes back to his original body after it was cured of the cancer, right? I'm missing some issues around that time and never found out what happened to him since I stopped collecting not long after the Reign of Supermen ended.

Another thing I noticed that Smallville seemed to copy was that the cover of Superman #50 (from 12/90) said that you will not believe the last page, which had Clark proposing to Lois. They pretty much did the same thing when they said "you will not believe the last 5 minutes" for Static when Lex proposed to Lana.

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/40/superman50to4.jpg

[Kal26]

That's a good observation. I'll bet if we really looked through the old comics, we'd find many more things that smallville has referenced.

[Timester]

Originally posted by xrayvision
I'm guessing Lex transplanted his brain & eyes back to his original body after it was cured of the cancer, right? I'm missing some issues around that time and never found out what happened to him since I stopped collecting not long after the Reign of Supermen ended.

Lex's clone body, like all the other clones, started to fail (which led to the Fall of Metropolis arc). He was basically stuck on his own body until he made a deal with a demon and got his old body back, without the cancer. That's how Lex escaped from prison, by blaming the clone for everything that happened.

[xrayvision]

Yeah, the Fall of Metropolis. I believe that's when Metropolis businesses & its economy started to fail because of Lex's absence. That reminded me a little bit of the Gang War arc in the Amazing Spider-Man issues where Kingpin was gone and the crime bosses started fighting for his spot. It showed the importance of Kingpin's presence in NY. The Fall of Metropolis did the same with Lex.

I would like to see an episode in this show that does the same (show why Lex is important & a necessary evil).

[Lex Dance]

Cheers! Thanks for the gen people. :D
This is why Lex is my favourite villain - like you say xray, he's "a necessary evil" and I think Smallville salutes that part of his characterisation (or at least nods to it in the future). He's my favourite villain (just pipping the Joker) because he's a human prepared to take on the might of superpowers - I guess in the same way that I appreciate the character of Batman.
Some people have suggested that Lex's black glove in Lexmas is a nod to the future cancer storyline - would you comic buffs agree?

[Kal26]

I don't know a whole lot about the older comics, but I felt that the disease he contracted on the island was sort of like a nod to that as well. At least the arc they used in JLU, where he hooked up with brainiac, and was cured of his kryptonite poisoning. Like I said though, I don't know much about the cancer arc. I'm overwhelmed trying to keep up with current events right now, and am trying to collect the old as I go.

I agree about lex in general though. I love how smallville paints him as, not really a villain, but mostly misunderstood. I realize he's getting darker all the time, but I've always thought that in lex's heart he meant well, just was a little over the top in his tactics. I really started to love him more in the Camelot falls arc in the current run of superman. After superman dies, in the future, lex attempts to step up and save humanity. It also shows Rudy, and how he learned to love and respect superman. Lex is by far my favorite villain.