No character on Smallville has had more speculation on who she might really be than Chloe Sullivan. Why? Because she is not a canon character currently in the Superman myth. There had been the “Chloe is Lois” theory, known in shorthand as the “Chlois” theory, but that was put to rest for all but a handful of hopeful die-hards when the real Lois Lane joined the cast. There were also theories that Chloe could be Lucy Lane until Lucy also showed up, or maybe she could be Cat Grant, but Chloe doesn’t pack the gear for that character.

However, there is confirmation that Chloe will be appearing in the comics as early as 2008, so that prompted me to post the Lena Thorul theory before the truth about Chloe Sullivan comes out and makes this, like the other theories, obsolete. Plus I will issue this spoiler warning that a new character is joining the Smallville cast next season, so read no further if you don’t want to be spoiled.

A Bit of Backstory on Lena Thorul

As you can see from this comic panel Lena Thorul is the sister of Lex Luthor. Not only that, but Lena lived in Smallville, as Chloe does now.

And for whatever reason Lena’s parents believed it was better to tell her that Lex was dead rather than evil, perhaps a variation on the ‘better dead than red’ Cold War philosophy.

For years Lex didn’t know what became of his little sister until Superman paid him a visit in prison.

Superman, the ever helpful hero, literally spelled it out for Lex. His family had changed their last name to Thorul, an anagram of Luthor. Lex, thrilled with the news, converted a television set into stalk-a-vision so that he could spy on his kid sister whenever he wanted. A sister who was the friend of Supergirl.

Lena and Supergirl

Kara Zor-El, AKA Supergirl, will be coming to Smallville for its seventh season and while it’s unknown how they will characterize her, chances are she’ll have a lot in common with the current version of Supergirl.

Teenaged, rather bratty and materialistic, and resentful of her cousin Superman’s attempts to rein in her wild side, the latest version of Supergirl would fit right in on Smallville.

It’s unknown if she and Chloe will be friends on Smallville, but Chloe will know that she’s Kryptonian and so of course know about her super powers and therefore one of the few people Kara can be completely herself around.

Lena was also friends with Supergirl’s brunette alter ego Linda (Lee) Danvers for seven years before Lena discovered she was the Maid of Might. This is surprising considering Lena had various psi powers including ESP, telepathy and some form of empathic power.

Apparently young Lex carelessly left a space brain lying around which Lena came into contact with, thus granting her amazing psi powers. However, a later telling of how Lena acquired her powers attributed them to a head injury. Not that it mattered because when the comics decided to retire Lena’s character, she lost her powers and even forgot that Linda was Supergirl.

The Chloe Quotient

Chloe Sullivan, who always had a love of weird phenomena, moved from her home in Metropolis to Smallville with her father Gabe when she was 14 years old.

Her mother Moira committed herself to a mental hospital when Chloe was about 9 years old.

Moira, as so many who were unfortunate enough to be in or passing through Smallville during the meteor shower, picked up a mutant power, the ability to control other mutants. She had herself committed when she realized her power harmed her daughter Chloe, which meant Chloe had a mutant power as well,

Chloe’s latent power turned out to be an empathic form of healing. When she found her cousin Lois mortally wounded, she began to cry. One of her tears touched Lois and restored her life, but it seemed Chloe’s became forfeit, or at the very least put her in a comatose state. Chloe’s fate will not be known until the season 7 premiere.

Is it possible that Chloe is Lionel’s biological daughter and therefore Lex Luthor’s half-sister? Lionel seemed to take an interest in Chloe early on in the series, though thankfully not in a way that would require Chris Hanson to intervene.

Way back in the series second season, Lionel offered Chloe a column at the Daily Planet if she would report to him everything she could find out about Clark Kent. After a bad bout of jealousy over Clark kissing Lana, Chloe agreed.

However, after a few months of enjoying her unearned seat in the fourth estate, she decided she wanted out of their deal, but Lionel was not amenable to ending their contract. Chloe’s father Gabe became the victim of Chloe’s decision to break her deal with Lionel. He lost his job and was blacklisted, so Chloe needed leverage.

Using a passkey, Chloe entered a LuthorCorp plant and got sprayed with a green mist. Sounds like an origin story already, doesn’t it?

This mysterious mist caused everyone to tell Chloe the truth and that included Lionel Luthor.

Using her new found power, she made Lionel confess to hiring Morgan Edge to kill his parents so he could use the insurance money to start his business and Chloe recorded his confession onto her cell phone.

She joined forces with Lex to bring down Lionel. Lex warned her that it would be dangerous, but Chloe, like a child with complete faith in her older brother said, “I know you won’t let anything happen to me.”

Famous last words …

Lionel was charged with the murder of his parents and put behind bars to await trial. It was time for the father to punish his obstreperous children.

As Mozart’s Requiem played and Lionel’s mane was shorn, Lex was poisoned and Chloe and her father were blown up in the FBI safehouse designed to protect them.

Kahn Job

Both Lex and Chloe survived the attempt on their lives, of course, but big changes were in the wind for their ‘family’ dynamic. Lionel, after a spiritual transfer with Clark and becoming Jor-El’s oracle, shifted from being the ultimate bad guy, to a rather ambiguous good one. On the other hand Lex went from being a troubled good guy to a troubling bad guy.

Chloe, having graduated high school, actually had the gall to apply for an internship at the Daily Planet, the newspaper that was forced to run her column with some arm-twisting from Lionel.

Pauline Kahn, the Editor in Chief of the Planet, called Chloe into her office. Not to tell Chloe she had gotten the internship, because she hadn’t, but because she wanted to meet the girl who cheated her way into the newspaper with a billionaire’s help.

After Kahn roasted Chloe over the coals and dismissed her, Chloe turned back and pled for another chance. Kahn told her to bring in a story, which Chloe did, but it was deemed unfit for publication in the Planet because it was about vampires. Not that it mattered, Kahn rehired her anyway.

Of course in the real world it would be as unlikely for the Planet to rehire Chloe as it would be for the New York Times to rehire plagiarist Jayson Blair, but the Planet did provide the perfect place to rekindle an old flame.

“Come Back to the Five and Dime”

Jimmy Olsen joined the cast of Smallville at the start of its sixth season. He and Chloe had shared a summer romance a few years earlier and resumed their romance when he joined the basement staff at the Planet.

While it’s true Jimmy never seemed to actually meet Lena Thorul in the old comics, much less have a romance with her, he did end up in a romance with the modern version of Lena … sort of.

In the modern comics, Lex married Contessa Erica del Portenza, a marriage more about coercion and money than about love. Their union produced a baby girl and Lex named her Lena. And it should be noted that Lex kept Lena’s mother drugged up so that he would not have to share his daughter’s love with her. Likewise Chloe’s mother was in a catatonic state for years.

Through a convoluted series of events that could only happen in a comic book, Lex gave Lena to Brainiac 13 (don’t ask) in exchange for the ability to gain control over the B-13 technology that had taken over Metropolis. Brainiac 13 accelerated Lena to adolescence and she helped Lex during the Our Worlds at War arc. After it was over, Lena was changed back into an infant and returned to Lex.

And if that wasn’t confusing enough, the technology behind the artificial intelligence of B-13 got a crush on Jimmy Olsen and believed itself to be the real Lena.

A human female body was created and like Lex, was quite bald. She began a romance with Jimmy Olsen in the mini-series Superman’s Metropolis.

So, at this point in the theory we have Jimmy and Chloe in a relationship on Smallville and Jimmy and Lena, or a reasonable facsimile, in a relationship in the comics. What could be left? Well, considering it’s Smallville, there’s only one thing missing– a triangle.

As mentioned Supergirl will be joining the cast and rumor has it that she’ll be smitten with Jimmy as was the case in some of the old comics.

He never reciprocated her feelings since he was in a relationship with Lucy Lane and he might be just as faithful to Chloe as he was to Lucy. However, this is Smallville, after all, and so all bets are off.

The Bottom Line

Could Chloe be the result of a union between Moira and Lionel Luthor rather than Moira and Gabe Sullivan? Honestly? Probably not, but considering TV’s former Wonder Woman Lynda Carter played Chloe’s mother, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that she caught Lionel’s eye 20 years ago when Chloe was conceived.

It would also explain how a kid in high school was not only the editor of the school paper her freshman year, which is usually the job of an upperclassman, but it would explain how she had adult sources who were willing to risk their jobs and prison time in some cases by supplying her with confidential information. Let’s face it, it makes a lot more sense if Papa Luthor was behind the scenes being persuasive.

Most interesting, of couse, would be the fact that Chloe would be related to the two most diametrically opposed double L names in the Superman universe, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. Though considering Lois is married to Clark in the comics, you can see why this twisted fairytale would probably die on the drawing board. It’s very unlikely that the powers that be would want Superman, even if only through marriage, to be related to Lex Luthor. Then again the modern Superboy was a product of Lex and Superman’s DNA mixed together and you can’t get much sicker than that.

Special thanks to Georgia Walden for her invaluable help and contribution of histories and scans of Lena Thorul.

Tags: chloe, lena thorul

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 3:10 am and is filed under Smallville. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.