season three. Smallville tie-ins Novels Lionel makes his first appearance outside the television series in the Aspect book Smallville: Strange Visitors. In this title, Lionel is concerned that confidence trickster Donald Jacobi will draw too much attention to the meteor rocks in Smallville and ruin his plans to use the rocks for experiments. Lionel has the life of Jacobi's partner put in jeopardy when he threatens to alert some mobsters who are looking for Lionel. He makes a brief appearance in Smallville: Dragon, in which he tells Lex he used Lex's ex-girlfriend Renata to get close to Lex to test him for unknown reasons. The Smallville version of Lionel makes a brief appearance in the second volume of the internet series Smallville: Chloe Chronicles; he threatens Chloe after she discovers he is involved with the deaths of several people. Comics In the television series' comic book continuation written by the show's writer Bryan Q. Miller, it is revealed that Lionel had tried to recruit Bruce Wayne's father Thomas Wayne into the secret society Veritas with Virgil Swann, months prior to Wayne and his wife's mugging and murder by Joe Chill In comics Before Smallville, Lex's father either made brief appearances in the Superman comics or was mentioned. Lex's father first appears in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #23 (1961), in the story "The Curse of Lena Thorul!", written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. In this story, he is named Jules, has disowned his criminal son Lex, and changed the family name to "Thorul". Jules Thorul and his wife Arlene are later killed in a car accident. In the 2004 miniseries Superman: Birthright, Lex's father is not a billionaire but immediately puts Lex to work making millions for him after he discovers his son's astronomical IQ. Lex's father dies in a fire caused accidentally by Lex in an experiment that causes Lex's permanent hair loss. In Adventure Comics #6 (March 2010), Lex's father (not named) terrorizes Lex and his sister Lena. He dies of a heart attack, leaving Lena in the care of an aunt and causes Lex to leave Smallville. It is later revealed that Lex had caused his father's heart attack to cash in a sizable life insurance policy, which he would use as the basis for his fortune, the same plot Lionel Luthor used on his own parents in the Smallville backstory. In Blackest Night #6, Lionel Luthor