Zor-El

Zor-El
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Action Comics #252 (May 1959)
Created by Otto Binder (writer)
Al Plastino (art)
In-story information
Alter ego Cyborg Superman
Species Kryptonian
Place of origin Krypton
Team affiliations Black Lantern Corps
Abilities Under a yellow sun, the same as his daughter Supergirl.
Family emblem of the House of El

Zor-El is a Kryptonian that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. He is the younger brother of Jor-El, husband of Alura, father of Supergirl, and paternal uncle of Superman.

Publication history

Zor-El first appeared in Action Comics #252 (May 1959) and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis

Earth-One

In pre-Crisis continuity, Zor-El was a climatographer on Krypton, and one of the only scientists to believe his older brother Jor-El's predictions about the impending destruction of Krypton. When the planet exploded, Argo City was somehow blown safely into space with a life-giving bubble of air around it (a later version of the story in Action Comics #316 (September 1964) has the city saved by weather dome that Zor-El had constructed). The explosion had turned the ground beneath Argo City into Kryptonite, but Zor-El and the other survivors covered the surface with sheets of lead. The Kryptonians managed to keep alive for many years, and Kara was born a short time after the destruction of Krypton. The end for Argo City came when a meteor storm punched holes into the lead sheeting, exposing the survivors to the deadly kryptonite radiation. Zor-El managed to build a rocket and use it to send his daughter Kara to Earth. Fearing that Superman would not recognize her because he had left Krypton as an infant, Kara's parents provided a costume based closely on the Man of Steel's own.

It was later revealed to Supergirl through Zor-El induced dreams that her parents had teleported away into the Survival Zone (similar to the Phantom Zone) during Argo's final moments. Supergirl was able to rescue them in Action Comics #310 (March 1964), and Zor-El and Alura went on to live in Kandor. When the bottle city was enlarged, Zor-El and Alura resettled on New Krypton/Rokyn.

Earth-Two

In the alternate universe of Earth-Two, Zor-L and Allura (note different spelling) sent Kara to Earth Two where she became Supergirl. This Zor-L was an expert in psychology, and created a virtual reality chamber for Kara inside her spacecraft. As she aged inside the rocket on her way to Earth-Two (taking a different, longer course than Kal-L did), she experienced the type of life she would have had on Krypton. Zor-L and Allura were killed when Krypton exploded. This version of Zor-L lived in Kandor and not Argo City. Zor-L only made one appearance, in Showcase #98 (March 1978).

Post-Crisis

In "The Supergirl from Krypton" story-arc in Superman/Batman #8-13 (May–October 2004), Zor-El rocketed his daughter away from Krypton before Kal-El left. It was expected that she would reach Earth first and could help raise Kal from his infancy. However, she stayed in stasis and her ship did not reach Earth until years later, so the infant she expected to help raise was a grown man when she arrived still in her teens.

After Lex Luthor uses Black Kryptonite to split Kara into good and evil parts, the evil Kara claims that Zor-El actually sent his daughter to Earth to kill his nephew, since he was resentful of his older brother and hated the idea of Jor-El's lineage continuing past Krypton's destruction. Regardless of the truth or falseness of this, Kara has rejected this aspect of herself.

In the new Supergirl series, new information on Zor-El's history and relations are ongoing.

Zor-El was featured in issue #16 as he appeared as an apparition and explained what truly happened to Kara, and why she was sent to Earth to kill Kal-El, in a dream sequence. Zor-El was against the use of the Phantom Zone as a prison because he felt that it would become abused, since no blood was shed, it became a clean way to deal with criminals. In the Argo City area he lived in he was a very trusted scientist, like his brother Jor-El, and was working at this time on Sun Stones. He fought with Jor-El over the use of the Phantom Zone and tried to stop him from supporting it. Zor-El began to see that each time someone went in, something was also coming out, in the form of Phantoms. These Phantoms possessed people, creating anarchy on Krypton. Zor-El discovered he could stop them using his Sun Stones, although the bodies of the possessed would be destroyed. However, Zor-El was not believed and began to be seen as a dangerous crank.

This tied together and explained fragmented flashbacks that had suggested Zor-El was a villainous character, including his dismissal of schoolchildren taunting Kara as "the dead" (they had already been possessed) and Alura telling Kara to kill her and "make your father proud" (she had also been possessed, and this was not a taunt but a genuine request from what remained of her original personality) as well as the original idea that he wanted Kara to kill Kal-El. As the story ended, it was revealed that the house of El was cursed by the phantoms as they saw them as their jailers. Wherever one of the El blood line went, the Phantoms would follow. To save Earth, he needed to send Kara to remove Kal and stop the El blood line from ever growing.

At the end of this story arc, however, it was revealed that the images of Zor-El and the Phantoms subsequently invading Earth as predicted were all a ruse by the Monitors to see if Supergirl belonged in the New Earth universe. Upon discovering she was truly that universe's Supergirl she was left to her own devices to reconcile with all the people she harmed in the wake of the "test". The Monitor does, however, assert that the memories of Zor-El and the phantoms on Krypton were nevertheless real.

New Krypton

A subsequent flashback in #24 apparently contradicts the Monitor, revealing that "New Earth" Zor-El was not a scientist, although Alura was. In current continuity, Zor-El was a Ranger, and got on well with his brother. With his encouragement, Alura designed the ship that sent Kara to Earth, as both Kal-El's protector and the last living being who remembered Krypton (since Kal-El was an infant). Nothing further has been revealed about the real New Earth Zor-El, as yet.

In Action Comics #869 it is revealed the Zor-El saved Argo City from Krypton's destruction by engineering a protective dome with his wife Alura. However, Brainiac, who was the culprit for Krypton's explosion, returned to finish the job. He merged Argo with the Bottle City of Kandor and killed those he considered to be duplicate information. Superman finds the city in Brainiac's ship. Zor-El and Alura are able to make contact with Kal-El to enquire about their daughter. He was later murdered by Reactron.

In Supergirl #43, Zor-El is described as a noted member of Krypton's Artist Guild, and Kara as sharing his creative impulse.

In Blackest Night crossover, while Kara and Alura are visiting Zor-El's tomb, discussing the situation with Earth, Zor-El is reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps, ready to attack his wife and daughter. The scientists of New Krypton manage to place a forcefield composed of a counter-energy to the black ring's power source around the planet, cutting off Zor-El's right hand and preventing him from continuing his attack.

The New 52

In The New 52 (a reboot of the DC Comics universe), Supergirl discovers an amnesiac Cyborg Superman living on the planet I'noxia. This turns out to be Zor-El, who was rescued from Krypton's destruction by Brainiac and reconfigured as a half-man half-machine to be his scout looking for stronger species in the universe.[1]

In other media

Television

Film

Novels

References

  1. ↑ Supergirl Vol. 6 #22
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