One of the bang-up thing aboutSupermanis how classifiable each fellow member of his rogues ’ drift looks . From Bizarro to Mr. Mxyptlk to Doomsday , almost every single one of his villains has an unmistakable coming into court that has stay mostly consistent throughout their farsighted chronicle .   However , most fans would agree that the one Superman villain with themostrecognizable flavour isLex Luthor – the greatest denudate - headed criminal mastermind of our time .

Only … he did n’t start out out that way . Back in 1940 , when Lex first debut inAction Comics # 23,he in reality frolic a full oral sex of red tomentum and went only by his surname “ Luthor . ” Subsequent tale went on to establish that the evil mavin did n’t even have a receding hairline , which begs the interrogative – howdidLex Luthor become bald-pated ?

come to : How Superman in reality Cuts His Invincible Hair And Beard

Lex Luthot comic and live action

As it turns out , the news report behind Luthor ’s tomentum expiration has many versions . The “ existent world ” account is that creative person Leo Nowak , an artist on the Superman newspaper comic strip , unexpectedly draw Luthor as a bald-headed world . Why Nowak did this is up for debate . Some believe he confused Lex Luthor with the Ultra - Humanite , a Superman villain who was in the beginning depicted as a bald man by Joe Shuster in other Superman comic strip . Others and Nowak confused one of the denudate collaborator Luthor employed with the actual Luthor , and gave Lex Luthor their bald head .

disregardless , Luthor ’s young “ bald looking at ” fill off and eventually became a well - known vista of his character . Adventure Comics # 271,actually leave an account for Luthor ’s phalacrosis as well as hishatred for Superman . As the story run low , Lex Luthor was once a brilliant young scientist ( with a full head of brown hair ) who recently prompt to Smallville . When Superboy flew to meet the new resident , a Kryptonite shooting star barge in in front of him and nearly killed the Boy of Steel with its radioactivity . Fortunately , Lex used the tractor he was ride to tug the meteoroid into some quicksand , saving Superboy .

Turns out that Lex was ahugefan of Superboy and had an entire b full of photos of Superboy as well as rocks that Superboy had perforate and brand girders that he ’d bent with his au naturel hands . Rather than being creeped out byLuthor ’s stalker - tendency , Superboy make up one’s mind to build the new scientist a state - of - the - art laboratory out of some abandoned junk . He live on on to fill up Lex ’s lab with rare , volatile chemicals that were so unsung even Superboy himself did n’t experience what they would do . Deciding that the minor scientist he ’d just assemble would be dead okay experimenting with such risky materials , Superboy bid his new pal good-by and fell off .

James Gunn’s Superman and Krypto comic

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amazingly , some of Lex ’s early discoveries in the science lab were consummate successes . Lex ’s first experimentation resulted in a new bod of protoplasmic spirit . Next , in gratitude to Superboy , Lex decided to create an antidote for Kryptonite – which he actually accomplished in just a few panels . In his excitation , however , he knock over some of the rarefied , volatile chemicals and started a fire . Superboy arrived and extinguished the flaming with his tiptop breath – but the wind make some acid to demolish the Kryptonite counterpoison and Luthor ’s new protoplasm living form . bad , the chemical substance fumes caused all of Luthor ’s hair to fall out , giving him his famed bald look .

Stating he could never duplicate either experimentation ( because apparently , bill taking was n’t Luthor ’s secure suit ) , Luthor claimed Superboy measuredly destroyed his work because the Boy of Steel was covetous of Luthor ’s champion . Luthor croak on to one - up Superboyby make miracle inventions for Smallville , but when his design all give out haywire , Superboy had to destroy them , further convincing Luthor that Superboy was his foeman . after stories hint that the losing his hair drove Luthor criminally insane ( since Luthor only developed a pathologic hatred for Superboy after his hair’s-breadth return out this in reality seems likely ) . And since Superboy supplied Luthor with the obscure chemicals that cause his hair’s-breadth deprivation in the first place , Clark Kent is really indirectly responsible for Luthor ’s later criminal career !

Jon Kent (AKA Superman’s Young Adult Son) with Kryptonite in the background

For a prospicient time , the laboratory fire was the recognised , canonic intellect for Luthor ’s baldness . When the DC Universe was reboot in the aftermath ofCrisis on Infinite worldly concern , however , the modern Luthor had a more … mundane reason for his baldness . earlier portray as a middle - aged human race with a receding hairline , Luthor finally lost all of his hair due to male pattern baldness . While Luthor did n’t seem especially ashamed of his bald head , when he got a opportunity to clone himself a raw , younger body , he made sure to give it a full straits of articulatio humeri - length carmine hair and a thickheaded face fungus , showing he had ahugecomplex about hair’s-breadth loss and tend to over - compensate when he had the chance .

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Outside of the comics , Luthor had other reason for his baldness – mostly interrelate to Superman . TheSuperboylive action television serial revealed Luthor was caught in a laboratory firing much like his comic book counterpart that cost him his hair ( he subsequently wore a wigging to hide out his bald headway , much like Gene Hackman in theSupermanmovies ) . In the television seriesLois & Clark : The New Adventures of Superman , Lex really has a full head of pilus for most of the series . However , when he nigh dies in one sequence , the resurrection processes his scientist habituate to bring him back causes his hair to fall out .

Lex Luthor smirking in DC Comics

Lex had an even weird reason for hishair loss in the TV showSmallville . Here , the Kryptonite meteor rain shower that go far on Earth along with Kal - El ’s ship affected many human being with its radiation . One of these people was a nine - year - old , red - headed Lex Luthor who lost all of his hair’s-breadth after being irradiate by the meteors . On the positive side , the Kryptonite gave Lex a quasi - super power – a supercharged resistant system and heightened healing that made it very hard for him to get sick ( which actually avail explain how he survive so many cheeseparing - end experiences in the show ) .

Other picture show have a more mundane reason for Lex ’s hair loss – Jesse Eisenberg ’s red - headed Luthorgets his head shave after being incarcerated ( and decides to keep the look even after head for the hills ) . Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacy portrayed versions of Lex Luthor that seemed to have lose their tomentum naturally ( a throwaway transmission line inSuperman Returnseven hint Lex start move bald at a new years since his Father-God made fun of his hair loss ) .

For a character who get his most distinctive feature thanks to an creative person ’s mistake , Lex Luthor has since become the first villain citizenry think of when picturing a “ bald head mad scientist . ” He may not give care for his hairless flavor , but thanks to the way it ’s come to symbolize his hatred ofSuperman , baldness andLex Luthorare now completely inescapable from each other .

Lex Luthor Superman Red Hair

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