Flashback Friday: The Phantom Zone's Appearance

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: The Phantom Zone's appearance!

The Phantom Zone first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 (February 1961), where Superboy discovered it accidentally. In a crate of Kryptonian artifacts that landed on Earth, he came across the  Phantom Zone Projector, which incorporealized him. The Phantom Zone would later become a major part of the mythology, housing multiple Kryptonian criminals and being the method through which Mon-El winds up in the 30th century alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes.

In Superboy #185 (March 1972), the last appearance I can find prior to the movie, the Phantom Zone is still accessed via Phantom Zone Projector.

In Superman: The Movie (1978), the Phantom Zone is depicted very differently. In this, the Zone resembles a mirror pane that flies through space...seemingly controlled by Krypton, though it's unclear whether they created it or simply harnessed it. Criminals can see the world through the pane, and if it breaks, the criminals can escape.

The Phantom Zone mostly disappeared after Crisis on Infinite Earths, as its main role was housing Kryptonian criminals, and if Superman's the only surviving Kryptonian, there's no one to house. But it slowly creeped back into continuity, the way things usually do, to the point that Green Arrow's partner, Speedy, had a Phantom Zone Arrow in Teen Titans #32 (January 2006). When she used it on Superboy-Prime, the glass depiction of the Phantom Zone appeared in comics for the first time. This was a part of a larger trend of making the Superman books more like the movie at the time.

Although this never became the standard way to show the Phantom Zone, it did continue to appear from time to time. It even survived the New 52 and Rebirth, as seen in Superman #2 (June 2018).

This version of the Phantom Zone mainly appears in parodies and homages, but it does occasionally sneak into adaptations. Smallville, which likewise takes many visual and plot-related cues from the movie series, is one example.

You gotta admit: it's a good visual.