Supergirl: Who is Lena Luthor

Katie McGrath

As mentioned in a previous post Katie McGrath has been cast into Supergirl to play some variaton of Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor's sister. We will be discussing the character's background as per the comics in this post and we will be posting soon about the two other characters added the fold of the series, Mon-El and Miss Martian.

There are several version of Lena Luthor in the comicbooks so we will go through them one by one.

Pre-Crisis Version

In DC's Silver Age and after Lex became the villain he is known to be his family out of shame changed their last name to Thorul and told Lena her older brother died in an accident. As a reult she never knew or had an older brother. Lex himself, in some cases with help from the cousins Superman and Supergirl worked to keep her from knowing the truth.

Lena had psychic abilities that she gained from touching a space brain her older brother was experimenting with before he became a villain. She lost her powers after undergoing brain surgery. She later came to know of Lex's existence and the two reconciled.

Post-Infinite Crisis Version

In this version Lena grows up with her older brother until he leaves Smallville. Lex disavowed his sister in an effort to cover up his Smallville history Lena stayed behind and later in her life her daughter Lori is friends with Superboy. They later find Lex at their doorstep wanting to take control of Superboy and claiming he can cure Lena's condition. He indeed does cure her, before he reverses the cure informing Superboy that so long as Superman lives he would never reveal the cure. Lena ends up under the care of Wayne Enterprise Doctors.

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade

The 13 year old sister of Luthor in this version goes to the same school as our beloved Supergirl. Lena in this version hates superheroes and especially Superman, her brothers biggest foe.

As the comics progresses with this story line we discover Lena is scheming with her brother to exact revenge on Superman. When Supergirl's identity is revealed to Lena she goes over the edge controlling the minds of half the students in the school.

Lena questions her hatred as she watches Supergirl try to save the day. Lena gets injured amidst all this. Lex saves his sister but now her hatred is directed towards him.

Whether it will be one of these versions, a variation of any of them or a mash up of all of them on the CW series is yet to be seen, as well as whether Lena will have superpowers or not.

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