Gadget Spotlight: Jor-El's Hologram

The trouble with doing a blog like this is that sometimes things are so well known that you think you've covered it already, but you actually haven't! This happened to me last week when talking about Krypton's prison rings; I mentioned an example and went to link to it, only to discover I'd never written about it before. Luckily, I needed a post for this final week of the year, so it works out. And that example - which you already know if you've read the title - is Jor-El's hologram.

See, everyone knows that Jor-El sent a baby Superman to Earth in a rocket to save him from the exploding Krypton. And for a long time, that was the story. Superman eventually learned about Krypton through time travel, Phantom Zone criminals, and various things that fell to Earth, but it was something that happened over time.

That was not the case in Superman: The Movie (1976). This depiction that Clark come to Earth with a crystal that, when dropped into the Arctic Circle for whatever reason, formed the Fortress of Solitude. Inside the Fortress was a hologram of Jor-El that could tell Superman pretty much anything he wanted to know about Krypton or any other location in the 28 known galaxies.

Originally, this did not affect the comics at all. In fact, even when Superman's origin was updated in the 80s, it would've been impossible because Superman's ship was a "birthing matrix" that housed an unborn Kal-El. There was nothing that would hold a crystal or anything else. But when they updated his origin again in Superman: Birthright (2003 - 2004), we see that - perhaps because they reverted to the rocket of the classic origin - Jor-El packed a tablet in the rocket that acts as a Kryptonian encyclopedia. However, despite the tablet passing a very brief message from the adult Superman back to Jor-El and Lara, it does not allow for a Jor-El AI to act as a surrogate father figure, as in the movie and Smallville versions.

That all changed in Action Comics #844 (October 2006), around the same time the Fortress of Solitude came to resemble the one from the movies. Now Jor-El was a fully interactive hologram.

Thankfully it didn't stick. My personal belief is that Superman should have as little interaction with Jor-El as possible; my ideal version of Superman considers the Kents his real parents and has an alive Jonathan (and Martha) to talk to when he needs help. It seems a lot of people disagree with me on this point, however.

Gadget Spotlight: Kryptonian Prison Rings

For some reason, people love Superman: The Movie. I don't get it, personally. Although Christopher Reeve is perfect as Clark Kent and Superman, nearly everything else about it falls flat for me. Especially the aesthetic, particularly the Kryptonian aesthetic. Still, people love it for some reason, so the aesthetic has crept into most modern adaptations, even when it doesn't make any sense. (Seriously, why would the Fortress of Solitude - which is meant to be Superman's home away from home - look like an ice cave instead of actually cozy and livable? It's silly. But I digress.)

With the comics, this happened for the first time - as far as I know - in 2006 when Geoff Johns took over writing Action Comics. Among other changes, suddenly the Fortress was crystal, Jor-El was a hologram, Ben Hubbard appeared, and Zod's crew (now Ursa and Non) dressed all in black. Also, the Kryptonian prison rings debuted.

In the movie (1976), we see Zod, Ursa, and Non imprisoned in spinning rings while they wait to be sent to the Phantom Zone.

In Action Comics #846 (December 2006), we get a hint to this technology when we see Phantom Zone criminals with rings around them.

Action Comics Annual #10 (January 2007) shows Zod, Ursa, and Non in a more standard depiction of the rings.

And Superman: World of New Krypton #5 (July 2009) shows the rings on the cover and throughout the book.

To my knowledge, they have not been seen since, and thank goodness for that.

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.

Character Spotlight: Nuclear Man

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) is not a good movie.

The reasons for that are many and varied, but the end result is a nearly unwatchable film that feels like it was supposed to be straight-to-video and only wound up in theatres due to a freak accident or some kind of vengeful spirit. That being said, I believe the villain of the piece, Nuclear Man, gets more hate than he deserves.

He seems to be treated like Jar Jar Binks, the one thing in the movie that gets held up as a symbol of the entire production's badness. But I would argue that Nuclear Man is the best thing about the film. He's the closest we've gotten to a live action Bizarro, he's got a great look (very of it's time, but still great), and he's a credible threat.

With all that in mind, I was elated to discover that this month's Superman #2 (August 2018) brought him into the comics fold. He's presented here as a Phantom Zone prisoner discovered by Rogol Zaar, the villain of the current story (he claims to have destroyed Krypton).

To be fair, Nuclear Man is killed in this same appearance. But that doesn't mean we've seen the last of him. This iteration is shown to be a member of the House of El, so he may become important later.

Action Comics #1000

Action Comics #1000 came out back in April. Not only was it the 1000th issue of Action Comics, but DC also timed the scheduling of the series so that its publication would coincide with the 80th anniversary of Action Comics #1 (I can't prove that's why Action has been shipping semi-monthly for a while now, but that's a pretty big coincidence if it's not).

Because of this, DC released #1000 as an 80-page giant that featured several different stories that celebrated the scope of Superman's history. One of the stories really took that to heart and told a reality-bending tale with shout-outs to several Superman adaptations over the years.

“Never-Ending Battle” by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

The first to be seen was the black Superman shield that first appeared in the Fleischer cartoons from the 40s. Although we've seen this S recently, this is the first time to my knowledge that it's appeared on a full Superman outfit in a canon comic book.

Next up is a black-and-white adventure that clearly represents Superman and the Mole Men (1951), the pilot to the Adventures of Superman tv series, and technically the first Superman theatrical film.

Eventually, Superman gets caught in a fight of multiple versions of himself, one of which is clearly the Superman that appeared in Super Friends (1978). You can tell by the simpler lines, lack of shading, and the distinctive spit curl.

Finally, there's these depictions of The Phantom Zone, the Fortress of Solitude, and Jax-Ur & Mala.

I've had the flat-square Phantom Zone and the crystalline Fortress of Solitude on this blog before, and in the same post, even. This version of Jax-Ur has likewise been seen before. Mala, however, is brand new. She and Jax-Ur first appeared in the Superman: The Animated series episode "Blasts from the Past, Part 1" (September 1997), and although they're both based on Kryptonian characters from the comics, Mala was originally a male.

(Note: “Actionland!” by Paul Dini and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez also included two canon immigrants, but one of them, the Mechanical Monsters, has already been featured on this site in a more concretely canon capacity, and the other, Miss Gsptlsnz's looks, will be featured in two weeks.)

So yeah, this post is kind of two months late, but it's completely fine because it's just celebrating the 80th anniversary of Action Comics #1's cover date. See? Totally works!

Character Spotlight: Selena

I love when I'm surprised by a canon immigrant. This one is one of the more surprising ones I've seen.

Selena first appeared as the villain of Supergirl (1984). She started out as a would-be witch working with a warlock named Nigel, but she developed real powers when she discovered an object called the Omegahedron. The movie was not well received, so it didn't have much impact on the comics (though it also didn't have NO impact, as seen here).

That is, until now. Thanks - I'm guessing - to the new cachet all things Supergirl has because of the show, Supergirl #10 (June 2017) featured the debut of a new version of Selena. This one seems to have always had powers, and has ties to Limbo Town (where Klarion the Witch Boy is from). She appears as part of a new Fatal Five, which - despite the name - seems more like a Supergirl Revenge Squad. This is a revealing choice in my eyes, because it instantly ranks her as one of Supergirl's greatest threats.