Lena Luthor

"Loss does strange things to my family and I have lost a lot of people. I think when I feel things again... I'm going to be very, very afraid of the person I might be."

- Lena Luthor

Lena Luthor (born 1993) is the billionaire CEO of L-Corp, having succeeded her half-brother Lex following his incarceration. She is the best friend and ally of Kara Danvers and her alter-ego Supergirl, despite this, she is currently unaware that the two are one and the same.

Early life
Lena was born in 1993 in Metropolis to the billionaire Lionel Luthor and an unnamed woman with whom he was having an affair. After the death of her biological mother, when she was four, Lena was adopted by the Luthor family. However, despite being loved deeply by her half-brother Lex, who made her feel especially welcome in the new family, and her father Lionel, who considered her his favorite, Lena had a difficult upbringing with her adoptive mother Lillian, who never considered her a "real Luthor" and always favored Lex over her. Also, the truth about her parentage was left unknown to her and she was convinced that she was simply adopted.

Lena went to boarding school with Veronica Sinclair, but she never really got along with her. Later she graduated from MIT. In their youth, she and her half-brother Lex used to be very close but, as adults, Lex grew cold, power-mad and delusional; when he started targeting Superman she grew concerned for his well-being and tried to help him, but he ignored her  and proceeded with his plans to destroy Superman, resulting in the deaths of many people.

In 2012, at the age of nineteen, she met Jack Spheer and began working with him to try and find a cure for cancer and other diseases using nanotechnology. After three years, Lena and Jack fell in love with each other and started a romantic relationship; however after her half-brother, Lex, was sentenced to 37 life terms in prison, Lena interrupts any contact with her mother, took over as the CEO of LuthorCorp, moved to National City to helm the company, and immediately set about atoning for her brother's crimes, thus ending her relationship with Jack.

Transforming LuthorCorp into L-Corp
Lena was given the opportunity to travel on the suborbital spacecraft Venture but had to back out at the last minute due to an important business meeting regarding the renaming of her company. After the spacecraft exploded, Clark Kent and Kara Danvers ventured to LuthorCorp to investigate her. However, she urged that she had nothing to do with it, simply wanting to start anew outside of her family, giving the two a flash drive with information on the Venture's destroyed oscillator that a subsidiary of her company had manufactured. Later that day she boarded a helicopter. However, before the helicopter could get very far, two drones appeared, controlled by mercenary John Corben, and targeted Lena. Supergirl and Superman intervened, preventing Lena from being shot. The latter went looking for more drones, while the former took out the two angling Lena's chopper, helping it land safely while informing Lena that someone was trying to kill her. The following day, at a presentation unveiling Lena's intention to rebrand LuthorCorp to L-Corp, a number of explosions occur, causing her to run to safety. She encountered a police officer, but he was revealed to be John Corben, a mercenary hired by Lex Luthor to kill his adopted sister. Alex Danvers helped to hold him off, but she was overpowered. Before he could escape, Lena nearly fatally shot him. The day after, Clark and Kara visited Lena's office and she offered her thanks for a pleasing article about L-Corp published in the Daily Planet.

Befriending Kara
When the US President came to National City to sign a decree on the Alien Amnesty Act, Kara came to Lena as she needed a comment from "the sister of the most famous alien-hater". She tells her that L-Corp developed a new device that can identify aliens and offers Kara to test it. When Lena turned, Kara used her laser vision to sabotage the device and then agrees to test it, so it gives a negative result. Lena believes that people have the right to know who is an alien and who is not, therefore, she plans to put the device in all the country stores. Later Kara came back to Lena, who praised her for her wonderful article, but admits she initially thought that Kara would "mix it with mud" because of their differing views on alien lifestyle. Bringing up her past with Lex, Lena then notes that some people are inherently evil, even if their ill intents are not obvious at first, and that those closest to them are also the ones hurt the most once the former show their true colors; protecting oneself from them is all that can be hoped for.

A few days later, Kara came to Lena to ask her if she knew where Veronica Sinclair would be hosting her next alien fight club. As a Luthor, Lena was invited and she gives the address to Kara, who thanks her and says that she owes her a great debt, to which Lena replied she did not, as she knows that she would help her when the time came.

Later, Lena comes to CatCo and invites Kara to a charity event to raise funds for a children's hospital as she was practically the only bonafide friend Lena had in National City. The next day, Lena — who presumably deduced a close correspondence between her friend and the city's alien protector after noticing the connection between Supergirl's taking down of Sinclair's fight club operations not long after she herself handed the coordinates to Kara — came to Kara's apartment and asked her to arrange a meeting with Supergirl, so, in the evening, Kara arrives at Lena's L-Corp office in the guise of Supergirl. Lena invites her to the same party in the case of gang attacks. The next evening, Kara and Winn arrive at the charity event, where Kara supports two conversations at once with Lena, both as Supergirl and in her civilian identity, by using her superspeed to rapidly change her clothes. After some time, a gang of criminals crashes the party starting a struggle with Supergirl. Winn hides under one of the tables where he meets Lena, who tried to establish a black burst generator, which would cut down their weapons. Together they were able to fix the device, destroying the criminals' weapons so that the gang would be captured. In the evening Kara, in the guise of Supergirl, flew back to Lena thanking her for her help; at this point, Lillian Luthor enters her daughter's office and Kara leaves. Lillian apologizes for having missed her Lena's party, but her absence does not faze her.

Medusa
When Kara comes to ask Lena about her mother, she says they did not have a very good relationship and often disagreed. However, after Kara's departure, Lena calls her mother and says they need to talk. As Lillian comes, Lena tells her that a reporter is investigating about her, and asks if she's hiding something. Lillian says that she has no idea, however, Lena realizes that her mother is lying.

Later Cyborg Superman comes to L-Corp, in an attempt to steal a substance that Cadmus needed to spread the Medusa Virus, but Supergirl arrives and a fight between the two ensued. Lena comes to the site of their fight and, noticing her, the cyborg throws her a piece of a broken bench. Kara manages to cover her and asks her to leave. After a while Kara returns to Lena's office in the guise of Supergirl and Lena thanks her for saving her life, then Supergirl reveals to her that her mother runs Cadmus. Lena refuses to believe it and asks Supergirl to leave. Later, Lena organizes another meeting with her mother at L-Corp and confesses she knows Lillian runs Cadmus. Then she says that if she wanted her help, all she had to do was ask; and she gives Lillian Isotope 454, the substance Cadmus needed to initiate the Medusa Virus.

After that, they left for the National City port, where they intend to release the virus with a rocket launcher. Lillian, as a means to test her daughter's loyalty to Cadmus, gives Lena the key to activate it. Just as she is about to do it, Martian Manhunter and Supergirl arrive to stop her. Supergirl attempts to talk Lena out of releasing the virus but the latter conforms to her tainted family legacy, remarking that she is "a Luthor", and launches the rocket. Supergirl flies after it while Martian Manhunter battles Cyborg Superman. Lillian makes the rocket explode before Supergirl could act, spreading the virus across the sky. However, none of the aliens are affected. Lillian realizes that Lena substituted the isotope for one that would instead render the virus inert. Lena confesses and reveals she also called the police, who were incoming to arrest Lillian.

Kara's trust
When Lena testified against her mother for her actions as the leader of Cadmus, the media was divided between calling her testimony the rant of a scorned child, or the bravery of a hero — though some also called her a bitch. Kara visits Lena to learn that Lillian is desperate to see her daughter, but Lena does not want to go and seeks Kara's counsel. Kara suggests that Lena visits the prison, despite their estranged relationship, as Lillian was still her mother. Lena goes to the prison to see her mother where Lillian reveals that Lena is Lionel Luthor's illegitimate daughter. Her mother was a woman Lionel was having an affair with and then paid off to disappear with the intention to start anew with Lillian. However, four years later, his mistress died and Lionel decided to adopt his four-year-old daughter. Neither Lionel nor Lillian revealed to Lena or Lex that she was an actual Luthor growing up, which Lillian further uses to guilt a distraught Lena into supporting her mother. She tells her to have her back, as the only two Luthors left. The next day, Metallo uses synthetic Kryptonite to break him and Lillian out, and the moment it happens, fingers point to Lena. Kara attempts to warn Lena about these allegations when the NCPD, lead by Detective Maggie Sawyer, arrives to arrest Lena with video footage revealing that she had recovered Kryptonite the day prior to the escape. Lena's arrest makes the headlines, and the stigma of being a Luthor is heightened with people commenting on how she is just like her brother. The only one exempt from this belief is Kara, who confronts her friends about their lack of faith in a woman who has done nothing but help them. James Olsen leaves to find proof that Lena is guilty, discovering that Metallo returned to the prison that evening to break Lena out. Metallo succeeds, having battled and defeated James, in the guise of Guardian. Metallo reunites Lena with Lillian, who tells Lena that no one would believe her now that she, too, escaped police custody. She tries to use this as a means to goad Lena into joining Cadmus, saying the public would never offer redemption to a Luthor and that her efforts to prove otherwise were pointless. Lillian divulges that this is the only way for them to be a family again, as fugitives on the run. Lillian takes Lena to a vault created by Lex which has to be opened with the blood of a Luthor. Lena denotes that this entire plan was never to tie loose ends between the two, but to bring her to Lex's vault so that Lillian could gain access to whatever is inside. Lena refuses but is forced to open the vault, which is filled with anti-alien weapons. Supergirl comes to the rescue, announces that Kara Danvers asked her to help as she believed in her, and informs them that the synthetic Kryptonite in Metallo's chest is volatile and would shortly explode, killing them all. She escapes with Lena, who fills Kara's office with thank-you flowers the following day after she learns that Kara not only sent Supergirl to rescue her, but she also managed to prove that the incriminating footage was falsified. Lena thanks, Kara when she visits later, commenting that she wasn't just her friend, but her hero, too.

One day, Kara bumps into Lena at CatCo having forgotten that the two were schedule for a public outing. Kara expresses her frustration in trying to get a warning out that Cadmus were abducting aliens after the terrorist organization stole the National Alien Registry. Snapper Carr wouldn't publish the article without a second viable source apart from Supergirl. Lena suggests she write a blog to get the news abroad. She also volunteered to check into her company's history as her mother had been on the board when Lex was the CEO and might have left a trail. Lena discovers a LuthorCorp facility that was supposed to be defunct yet her company was billed for its utilities. She asks her assistant for the records, who is a Cadmus mole unbeknownst to Lena. The assistant calla Lillian who tasked two goons to capture Lena but they fail thanks to Supergirl.

Biomax and working with Queen Rhea
Weeks later, Lena receives a personal invite from Spheerical Industries' CEO, Jack Spheer, for her to attend his press conference about a new technology. She visits Kara at her apartment to ask if she could attend the presentation with her as support, revealing that she and Jack were romantically involved for two of their five years together, just before she moved to National City. She reminisces about the good times she spent with Jack as they journeyed to find a cure for cancer in a garage, but found the prospect of having to attend the press conference alone challenging as they ended on a bad note. Kara agrees to go to make it bearable for Lena to face. At the presentation, Jack showcases his newly-designed nanobot technology that is able to cure any medical application, such as injuries or diseases, revealing that he perfected his and Lena's project, Biomax, which Lena is insanely proud of. Jack wishes to catch up with Lena, asking her to dinner after the press conference but the company's CFO, Beth Breen, tears him away before she can answer. He then appears at Lena's office at L-Corp to ask her again, which she declines. Jack thinks she may be mad at him for having cracked Biomax on his own, to which she says she wishes the best for him. He then asks her about her life in National City before delving into the good memories of their relationship and then asks to go to dinner again after confessing that he missed her. Lena agrees on the account that the occasion is non-romantic, just for the sole purpose of catching up with each other. She later tries to call Kara to ask her to talk her out of the dinner but left a message with Mon-El as she was not there (she was following up on a lead regarding Biomax). However, when Kara learns about the dinner upon returning, she brings Mon-El to the restaurant Jack and Lena were eating at. It's clear to Lena that Kara is investigating Jack about Biomax, which leads her to ask how he perfected the project. His story denotes that his breakthrough only came after he realized that he should have gone with Lena to National City. Kara attempts to press on with her investigation but Lena kindly asks Kara and Mon-El to leave them alone so that they may speak. They leave for L-Corp where Jack apologizes for making Lena's decision to move more difficult, that he wishes he had rather said that he could make space for her and his work. Lena understands, confiding in him how she wonders whether her life and legacy may have turned out different had she stayed. They kiss but then Jack seems to zone out and tells her that he needs to go and then leaves her abruptly. The following morning, Kara informs Lena that the Biomax human trials were faked and that Jack was covering it up, that he had used it on himself. Kara wanted her to know but makes her promise she won't confront him. Lena defies that, however, and meets Jack at Spheerical informing him that she knows about the trials and that he's killed two people with Biomax. Jack has no idea what she's talking about until Beth Breen reveals that she has been using Biomax to control Jack, planning to use it on Lena to control her and L-Corp. As Supergirl comes into the mix of things, gradually being attacked by the nanobots, Lena brawls Breen, disarming her of the earpiece that controls Jack and destroying it. With Jack suffering agonizing pain from the nanobots, and Supergirl slowly dying too, Lena attempts to override the Biomax mainframe. However, Breen tells her that the nanobots have merged with Jack's body and that overriding the mainframe destroys the nanobots and kills Jack. Lena reluctantly chooses to override the mainframe, saving Supergirl. Kara visits Lena the next day. Lena explains that she feels cold and calm like her mother after Lex's incarceration, with the only consolation being the thought of Breen dying in her cell — which startles Kara. Lena continues, saying that loss does strange things to her family, thinking that whatever may happen within the span of her mourning could mold her into something she will one day fear. Kara assures her that she will never let anything happen to her, that she is there to protect her forever and always. As she is watching the city from her office that night, she is visited by Rhea who tells her that she has come with a proposal.

Rhea had given Lena the design schematics for a transmatter portal. Lena was excited at the possibilities and benefits that such a device could have on the world though she knew that it was presently just a theory. Rhea told her that it was possible and then revealed that she didn't tell Lena all of her secrets towards the design as she wanted to gauge her interest before trusting her with them. Lena told her that she was very interested and Rhea agreed to share them. They went off to have dinner together where Rhea gave her a thumb drive with the remaining pieces of the schematics for the device. Rhea then said that her mother must be quite proud of her but Lena told her that she and her mother don't speak to one another anymore especially after her attempts to frame her. Rhea told her that she was surprised as she believed that a mother/daughter relationship was a strong one. She told Lena about her son and that she loved him deeply but then he had fallen for a woman that went on to take her from him and after which her husband was killed.

Lena was then visited by Rhea again as she was going over all the new data for the portal. Lena told Rhea she was arranging for security to let her have access to her office but she just needed her thumbprint. She then moved her alien detection device for Rhea to use and saw that she was an alien. When Rhea asked why the device acted the way it did, Lena dismissed it before she told Rhea that she had reviewed her design and realized that it would need an element that didn't exist on Earth. She then revealed that she knew that Rhea was an alien. Lena angrily told her that she wouldn't build anything for her and that she wanted her out of the building. Rhea then left without another word. Later on in the evening, Lena was visited by Rhea who told her that the reason she lied about being an alien was because she had been aware of her mother's reputation and couldn't be sure that she wasn't the same way. Lena spitefully told her that many people automatically assume that she was a certain way because she was a Luthor. Rhea then told her that her proposal was genuine and she did want to work with her and hoped that Lena would reconsider. She then teleported out of her office to leave Lena to her thoughts. She tried to call Kara for her opinion but Kara told her that it wasn't a good time as she was in the middle of a crisis of her own.

Later, Lena was called by Kara and she asked if she was okay. Kara told her that everything had turned out fine and Kara then asked what Lena wanted to talk about earlier. Lena told her that she had actually settled that on her own. Lena then looked over at Rhea, whom she had decided to work with on the portal after all. Lena then asked if they were ready to change the world which Rhea told her that she was.

Queen Rhea, her betrayal, and her arranged marriage
Lena later has lunch with Kara, who asks what has kept her so busy. Lena tells her that she is working with a new partner before leaving to do their first test on the portal. Later, Lena and Rhea are at dinner discussing the failed first test of the portal. Lena is disappointed but Lillian reassures Lena that she believes in her. Once again, their tests fail and Lena suggests they go get Lex because he would be able to fix it. Lena continues to be frustrated at the lack of progress being made and says she wanted to get it working to prove to everyone, and herself that she was just as good as Lex. Rhea reassures Lena that she is smart and assures her that she can do it and gives her advice on how to get it to work.

When Rhea is next seen, Lena runs up to her and on this test run, the portal is activated. Lena suddenly comes to realize that success means that Rhea will be leaving and is disappointed, having seen her as a mentor figure. Rhea tells her that no matter what, she cherished the time they spent together. Moments after, Rhea powers the portal again and Lena realizes that Rhea used her to get the portal working and it is discovered that she was using the portal to bring something to earth. While Supergirl is fighting Rhea, Lena is knocked unconscious and later transported with Rhea and Mon-El to one of the ships.

Lena wakes to up Rhea sitting by her side. Rhea tries to convince her that Supergirl almost killed her but Lena knows that she was trying to stop Rhea and says that she should have stopped her. Lena is hurt that Rhea used her and betrayed her while Rhea tries to convince her that everything she said was true. Rhea calls Lena the best of her race amongst the wasted potential. Rhea calls Lena and Mon-El into the throne room and announces they are to be married and they are to produce an heir since only their genetic material is needed. When they insist that they won't be married Rhea threatens to kill thousands of people in hospitals, including the Luthor Family Hospital.

While the ceremony begins, it is interrupted by Cat Grant warning Rhea that she messed with the wrong people and encouraging the people of National City to defend themselves and not let them win. Lena and Mon-El are ordered back to their holdings. Mon-El orders the guard to stand down as the Prince of Daxam, he struggles to take him out until Lena shoots him with his dropped gun and walks off. When they come across a locked door, Lena orders Mon-El to break the glass and uses the tiara she is wearing to get it to open, where Mon-El tells Lena he realizes why Kara loves her and she responds with likewise. Getting through the door, they run into Supergirl, Lillian and Cyborg Hank Henshaw. Lena is shocked to see her mother having come to get her and they leave and shut off the portal. Upon seeing that her mother has left Supergirl and Mon-El on the ship to die, she realize that her mother hadn't changed.

Personality
Despite being raised by them, Lena is a stark contrast to what the public perceives to be a Luthor. Where as they are delusional, egotistical, amoral, and murderous, Lena is kind, caring, dutiful, selfless, moral and honorable. While proud of her family name, she is determined to return her company to its former good status and use it to help people. However, she is not above withholding crucial information from known allies if it meant the smooth proceeding of any plans she orchestrates but has thus far done in good conscience. In addition, she is shown to be quite clever, as she feigned allegiance to Lillian Luthor in order to destroy the Medusa virus and at age four, beat her older brother in chess upon being brought home by her father. Lena mentioned she is not fond of flying, even though it is statistically the safest way to travel.

She seems to admire those with strong resolve. This was shown when she accused Clark Kent of suspecting her based on her last name, and he did not back off and she responded by showing respect for his steel resolve. She is also perceptive enough to know that Kara was actually trying to milk from her intel concerning Lilian.

Lena is disgusted by the horrible acts committed by her family, as she makes no attempt to defend her half-brother, Lex Luthor for his crimes, and doesn't blame Superman for his imprisonment, as she knows full well that the latter brought it on himself, but did attempt to reach out to Lex and reprimanded him; she was even disgusted by her step-mother, Lillian for her attempt to wipe out all alien life on Earth, as Lena had no qualms about turning her step-mother over to the authorities for her crimes; the reason why she never had a good relationship with Lillian, partly due to her step-mother always favored Lex over her and mainly because Lillian has always been cold to Lena, because she is a living reminder of Lionel's affair.

Despite her estranged relationships with her half-brother and step-mother, Lena had a good relationship with her father, Lionel Luthor (prior to his death), as he was always loving towards her and treated her warmly, Lena held her father in high esteem, so much that she became angry when her step-mother spoke ill of him, although she did not know Lionel was her biological father until she was an adult and years after her father passed away, after finding out that Lionel was her biological father, Lena showed no signs of anger or bitterness that he never told her the truth about their relationship.

Lena has proved to be very different from her family, however other individuals, such as Winn Schott and James Olsen (incorrectly) believe that she is secretly like any other Luthor and Lena herself does worry, especially after learning of her true biological relation to Lex, that she may become like him and Lillian one day.

Abilities

 * Expert engineer: Lena was able to construct a black body field generator that effectively disabled the Cadmus-supplied alien weaponry that Miner's gang used; though she needed assistance from Winn to render the device functional. Still, she was nonetheless praised by the latter for her ingenuity; the D.E.O. had thought up of a similar approach, but was beaten to the punch by Lena.
 * Expert programmer: Lena was able to override the Biomax nanobot swarm, after accessing Spheerical Industries mainframe from Jack's lab, in time to save Kara from being consumed by the said swarm.
 * Genius-level intellect/Great business acumen/Expert tactician/Leader: Lena is highly intelligent, able to often beat her prodigious older half-brother in chess in her toddler years. Later, her intelligence was proven enough to CEO of the L-Corp, overseeing its daily activities and ensuring its success as a multibillion-dollar corporation, as well as rebranding it as a force of good. She is also clever enough to deceive Lillian Luthor feigning an allegiance to her in order to destroy the Medusa virus. By the time of her late teens, Lena was already well-versed in nanotechnology, working with Jack Spheer for the pre-cursor of Biomax
 * Skilled hand-to-hand combatant: Though mostly "unpolished", Lena has shown some aptitude in unarmed fighting when she traded blows with Beth Breen, a self-proclaimed black belt, and was resilient enough to take one of Beth's kicks to the gut before retaliating herself and knocking Beth down twice.
 * Skilled markswoman/Firearms: Lena is quite proficient in the use of firearms, as she proves by gunning down John Corben.

Supergirl
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Season 2
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Trivia

 * This version of Lena Luthor is legally Lex's adoptive sister, instead of his biological sister. However, it was later revealed that Lena does have biological ties to Lex by being his paternal half-sister. This is the second instance the two siblings appear to share only one parent, with the first one being the TV show, Smallville, though on which Lena (Tess Mercer) is never adopted by the Luthors.
 * Lena is 24 years old and thus at least a couple of years younger than Kara on the physical level; but chronologically, the latter is much older taking into account her stymied aging during her stay in the Phantom Zone.

Behind the scenes

 * Lena Luthor first appeared in Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #23 (February 1961) and was created by Jerry Siegel and Kurt Schaffenberger. She usually appears as Lex Luthor's younger, and in some versions estranged or foster, sister. The current version appears to be a former handicapped, who turns into the villain known as Ultrawoman.
 * Not to be confused with the character of the same name, who is Lex's daughter with his eighth or ninth wife and is named after her aunt, the original Lena.
 * Supergirl marks Lena's third live action television appearance; previously appearing in Superboy, and most notably, Smallville (although in Smallville the character was initially introduced under the name Tess Mercer in the show's eighth season, with her true identity not being revealed until the tenth season as Lutessa Lena Luthor).