Jor-El

Revision as of 15:15, 2 August 2016

Jor-El from Superman v3 #0.

Jor-El is a male comic character that features in DC.

Biography

Pre-Crisis

Jor-El of Krypton in Adventures of Superman v1 #589.

Jor-El was a male scientist from the planet Krypton who was a member of the House of El.

One of his other brothers was Nim-El that shared the same features as Jor-El. (Adventure Comics v1 #304) An old friend of both Jor-El and Lara was Nor-Kann who was visiting Kandor when it was abducted by Brainiac. (Superman v1 #158) At one point, a Daxamite named Lar Grand landed on Krypton and befriended Jor-El before departing the planet. (Superboy v1 #89) At another point, he built a robotic teacher for his son Kal-El. (Adventure Comics v1 #240) He also created a humanoid robot called the Metalman that was launched into space on a test flight but got stranded on another world. (Adventure Comics v1 #276)

The criminal Roz-Em intended to steal from Krypton's armory that was under the charge of Nim-El. To break into it, Roz-Em transformed his appearance to match that of Nim-El and broke into the armory only to arrive when he was present at the site. Jor-El arrived at the same time where the two brothers captured the criminal. Roz-Em was then placed in a capsule that left him suspended animation and launched into the orbit of Krypton. (Adventure Comics v1 #304) Another villain that opposed Jor-El was the criminal scientist Klax-Ar who was exiled from Krypton. (Superboy v1 #67) One of his creations was a multi-purpose transportation device who patented the machine that was similar to one designed by the Kandorian inventor Zell-Ex. Zell-Ex came to believe that his designs were stolen by Jor-El and vowed revenge against him. (Superman v1 #134) For a time, he operated as the world's masked executioner seeking to stop the various criminals on the planet. He learnt of a powerful gang-boss that operated in the shadows and captured one of his agents named Ha-Kor. Jor-El attempted to get him to reveal his boss but the criminal refused and was exiled into orbit on a suspended animation chamber. Around this time, Gra-Mo was competing with Jor-El for membership on the Science Council. He ultimately won over Gra-Mo for his invention of the Phantom Zone Projector. Gra-Mo in his anger reacted and revealed his true identity whereupon he along with his underlings tried to take over Krypton's robot police. They were ultimately defeated but the Phantom Zone Projector was not operational at the time forcing the three criminals to be exiled in suspended animation in orbit. (Superboy v1 #104) He once worked alongside Lon-Es with the pair having a lab assistant named Ral-En who used mass hypnosis to make others believe he had superpowers that he used to set himself as a tyrant. This was until Jor-El revealed the deception and he had him banished into the Phantom Zone for his crimes with the man's father Mag-En vowing revenge. (Superman v1 #154)

On the super-scientific civilization 10,000 day anniversary, Jor-El discovered evidence from a drilling mechanical mole of a possible chain reaction that would destroy Krypton. He took his findings to the Council of Science but they rejected his data and instead devoted their time to the 10th millennium celebrations. After the birth of his son, he began to find a possible home for his newly born son Kal-El who he intended to escape Krypton's face. He learnt of the planet Earth and that world provided Kryptonians with superhuman abilities. Jor-El brought his findings to the Council who refused him again as they did not believe his predictions of their worlds demise though Val Arn and Khai Zor feigned interest. He showed the two his findings but the pair instead intended to use it to become superhuman tyrants on Earth. Jor-El was later able to trick the pair where he depowered them and had them arrested by the authorities. After confirming his suspicions of Krypton's imminent destruction, Jor-El once more attempted to warn the populace on the 10,000 day celebration but was deemed a crackpot by the people. (Action Comics v1 #223)

One solution Jor-El devised to save his people was the creation of a matter transmitter/receiver device. He then made contact with an Earth inhabitant named Professor Amos Dunn where he instructed him to build a similar device on hi world. The intention was to create a teleportation link between Earth and Krypton that could allow mass transit of people. During this time, Dunn tested the machine and emerged in Krypton when Jor-El's son Kal-El was bitten by a fish snake in his aquarium. Professor Dunn was instrumental in saving Kal-El's life whereupon he returned back to his home. Though a means to save his race, the teleportation machine malfunctioned on the eve of Krypton's destructin preventing it from being used to send Jor-El, Lara or Kal-El to Earth. (Action Comics v1 #281)

It was shown that he had conducted six separate computer simulations on possible worlds to send his son. On each of these planets, he grew to become a superhero where he became similar to the Atom, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Batman and the Flash. However, these simulations concluded that he would not be happy on any of these worlds but Earth which was why he was dispatched to that planet. This was a reason why in time he formed a kinship with a number of Earth's native heroes as he would have become similar to them had he landed on another world. (Action Comics v1 #314)

Post-Crisis

His family decided to bond him with Lara Lor-Van as the two were genetically compatible. However, Jor-El would break with tradition by asking to see the woman he was going to marry and have his child. After seeing her, he would fall in love with Lara and she with him with the marrying. The pair would love together and conceive a son from the sell cells that were implanted in the artificial womb of the Matrix Chamber. Around this time, Krypton was suffering from a devastating plague known as the Green Death that was killing millions with the cause of the infection being unknown. Jor-El would work tirelessly to find the cause and uncover the shocking discovery that the Green Death was not a plague but rather deadly radiation caused by the fusing of the native elements into a new dangerous substance called Kryptonite. A result of this fusing process was the creation of intense pressure in the planet's core that was weakened already by a doomsday weapon unleashed centuries ago by the Black Zero organization.

Modern

Jor-El on the left in Superman: Secret Origin v1 #4.

The New 52

Overview

Personality and attributes

Powers and abilities

He also created capsules that could be used to impart super-human powers to a person and originally intended for his son to make use of them if his powers on Earth were ever temporarily taken away. (World's Finest v1 #87)

Notes

• Jor-El was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster where he made his debut in More Fun Comics v1 #101 (January/February 1945).

Alternate Versions

• In Superman v1 #200 (1967), an imaginary story was told that presented an alternate series of events. This version saw Jor-El work on a rocket as Krypton faced destruction when his home city of Kryptonopolis was shrunk into a bottle by the android Brainiac. As a result, Jor-El and his family were saved by the benevolent android but were unable to return to their normal size without the rare Z-N4 gas. Brainiac's android nature meant he could shrink to Kryptonopolis where he became close friends with Jor-El. His wife Lara gave birth to their second son who they named Knor-El after Brainiacs scientist creator. Brainiac later discovered a source of Z-N4 but his ship was damaged and destroyed but not before the shrunken Kryptonopolis was put on Earth. Once there, they used their limited Z-N4 supply to restore Knor-El to normal size where he operated as Superman. Jor-El and his other son Kal-El monitored him until Kal-El restored himself to normal size to operate as Hyperman.
• In Superman Family v1 #189 (1978), a villainous version of Jor-El was introduced known as Jur-Ll who became known as the Crime-Lord. He was trapped in the Phantom Zone for his crimes but was able to escape it to reach the Kandor of Earth-1 on the day it was captured and shrunken by Brainiac. Trapped inside, he became a crime boss and years later battled the costumed crime-fighters Nightwing and Flamebird.
• In Elseworlds Superman: Last Family of Krypton v1 (2010), Jor-El managed to create a rocket that took himself, his wife and newborn son Kal-El to Earth. Once there, he managed to operate as a scientist and superhero in the world where he established a company known as JorCorp. During this time, he was assisted by his artificial intelligence B and also had two further children namely Valora-El along with Bru-El.
• In Justice League v2 #24 (2013), the New 52 version of Earth-3 was created with Jor-Il being this universe's counterpart to Jor-El. He was shown as a villainous figure on Krypton who had a wife named Lara and a son named Kal-Il. On his world, great power was given from the radiation of their planet until a mysterious being led to its destruction. In its final moments, Jor-Il sent Kal-Il in an escape ship as he believed his son was his greatest chance at getting revenge on the one responsible.

In other media

Television

• In Superman: The Animated Series, Jor-El made his first appearance in the DC Animated Universe in the episode "Last Son of Krypton" where he was voiced by actor Christopher McDonald. The episode "Blasts From the Past" revealed that he managed to stop the insurrection caused by High General Jax-Ur by sabotaging the rebel armies equipment thus leading to their apprehension. Jor-El was shown to be a scientist on Krypton married to Lara who was the daughter of Sul-Van and the pair had a son named Kal-El. Jor-El had discovered evidence to indicate that their world would explode but none of his fellow Kryptonians listened to him as the planetary artificial intelligence named Brainiac dismissed his claims. He later uncovered more concrete proof but was once again dismissed by Brainiac. This led to him accessing the Brainiac operations center and he learnt that the Kryptonian artificial intelligence was uploading itself into a satellite to abandon the world to its fate. As a result, there was no time for Krypton's inhabitants to be saved but Jor-El had created an escape craft that sent his newborn son Kal-El to safety on Earth.
• In Legion of Super-Heroes, Jor-El was briefly shown and mentioned in the episode "Messenge in the Bottle" in a non-voiced role. Prior to Krypton's destruction, he constructed the Messenger to save his world with this being at the capital of Kandor. However, Kandor was shrunken into a Bottle City by the Terror known as Brainiac and the loss of the Messenger caused Krypton's destruction. In the 31st century, the Messenger was used to recreate the world whereupon Kandor was placed on its surface with the city's Kryptonians restored to their natural size by a time displaced Superman along with Brainiac 5.

Films

• In Superman, the character appeared in the movie where he was portrayed by actor Marlon Brando.
• In Superman II, Jor-El was again shown in the live-action film as a guide for Superman with him being portrayed again by Marlon Brando in additional uncut scenes.
• In Superman Returns, Jor-El appeared in the live-action film where he was portrayed again by Marlon Brando prior to his death.
• In Man of Steel, the character made an appearance where he was portrayed by actor Russel Crowe. He was shown as one of the premier and most brilliant scientist on Krypton who was also an old friend of General Zod. Jor-El warned the leadership council that years of tapping into their world's natural resources had destabilized its core. As a result, Krypton faced a cataclysmic chain reaction that would have destroyed the planet and thus Jor-El petitioned to send the Codex to other worlds in order to preserve their race. His warnings were not heeded and his pleas were interrupted by Zod who stormed the council as he staged a rebellion to usurp control over the planet. Zod offered a large role in reshaping Kryptonian society to Jor-El but he would refuse where he escaped in order to retrieve the Codex from the Genesis Chamber.
• In Justice League: Gods and Monsters, the character made a minor appearance in the animated movie where he was voiced by actor Yuri Lowenthal. He was noted to had warned General Zod against tapping the planetary core with this chain of events destabilizing their world which faced imminent destruction. At his laboratory, Jor-El built a spacecraft that had an incubator pod with an egg from his wife Lara that awaited his genetic material. Jor-El intended for his and Lara's child to survive the destruction of their world. However, General Zod's forces stormed the laboratory before Jor-El could complete this task. Zod then imprinted his own DNA on the egg making the offspring a child of his and Lara that was sent into space to land on Earth who later became Superman. Jor-El and the rest of the planet Krypton died from the destruction of their world.

Video games

• In DC Universe Online, Jor-El would make a minor supporting appearance where he was voiced by William Price. When Brainiac attacks the Fortress of Solitude, he proceeded with assimilating its technology causing the heroes and villains to attack the base. Among Brainiac's forces was a corrupt version of the artificial intelligence of Jor-El.

Novels

• In The Last Days of Krypton, Jor-El was shown as being the son of Yar-El and Charys with a two year old younger brother in Zor-El. His father was a revolutionary scientist who was slowly dying from the Forgetting Disease and his mother was a renowned psychologist who attempted to reach her husband. His research discovered the Phantom Zone but he became lost within it until he was rescued by Lara who he later married and she became his wife.

Appearances

• Action Comics:
• Superman:

External Links

• Wikipedia Entry

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