Lex Luthor Question

[TVComicsFan]

I know that the TV series Smallville has taken some liberties with the Superman mythos. On the show, Lex Luthor kills his father Lionel; and a
reference is made to Lionel's murder of his parents. I was wondering: did
either of these events ever happen in the "real" Superman continuity in the
comic books?

[prince hal]

It probably depends on which continuity you accept as yours. I can tell you what I remember as a Silver Ager (in more ways than one) whose Lex Luthor swore revenge on Superboy because all his hair fell out when Superboy extinguished a fire in his lab, even thought they had been bff before that.

I seem to remember that he was an orphan, because his sister Lena, who changed her last name to Thorul, lived in an orphange. How their parents fled this mortla coil...can't recall if it was ever even mentioned.

Remember, that version of Luthor was different from the pre-Superboy version, who I think was more of a generic, full-blown mad scientist.

[Cei-U!]

I can't remember if John Byrne hinted at it in the Man of Steel reboot but in the Gibbons/Rude World's Finest mini, The Joker implies that Luthor arranged the accident that killed his parents.

Cei-U!
I summon the will and the way!

[Greg Hatcher]

In the post-Byrne continuity, I'm pretty sure that it was first suggested that Lex killed his parents in this book:

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/thumb/e/e5/LexLuthor_-_Unauthorized_Biography.jpg/300px-LexLuthor_-_Unauthorized_Biography.jpg

I have it here somewhere. I thought it was pretty good. It stood as the definitive statement on Lex for the better part of twenty years, until Mark Waid and Leinil Yu did Birthright. And even then I don't think anything in Birthright actually contradicted the idea of Lex killing his folks, I don't recall that part even getting brought up. It just brought some of the early-years stuff in line with Smallville and restored a version of the original Silver-age lab accident origin.