Jor-El
71 years ago - Jor-El is born on Krypton to the Science Caste, heir to the house of EL.
56 years ago - 15-year-old Jor-El joins the Elite Science Caste. He has Non-Ek as a teacher. A tragic hyperspatial accident displacing the Kryptonian colony planets, including Bgztl & Daxam, into the Phantom Zone. In response, the Kryptonian Council recalls all Kryptonians to their home planet. Jor-El's theories about the potential destruction of the planet go unheeded. He begins researching the mysterious Phantom Zone, hoping to create a refuge for his people.
53 years ago - 18-year-old Jor-El's theories about the inevitable destruction of the planet are shared by his teacher Non-Ek with the leader of the Warrior Caste, Dru-Zod.
51 years ago - 20-year-old Jor-El first meets Lara Lor-Van, a Cadet of the Lawgivers.
50 years ago - 21-year-old Jor-El's theories lead General Zod to stage a rebellion of the Warrior Caste against the Kryptonian Council. He continues his work under Council supervision. Lara Lor-Van is assigned to monitor him.
48 years ago - 23-year-old Jor-El's teacher Non-Ek subjects himself to an ancient Kryptonian retro-virus to become a hybrid war-golem in a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kryptonian Council.
47 years ago - 24-year-old Jor-El is tasked with wiping the mind of his former teacher Non-Ek after he is captured.
46 years ago - 25-year-old Jor-El is forced by the Kryptonian Council to use his Phantom Zone technology to exile the worst criminals of the Warrior Caste Rebellion Dru-Zod, Faora-Ul & Non-Ek. He discovers to his horror that the Phantom Zone is an infinite void without physical dimension, making it impossible as a refuge. Lara Lor-Van comforts him, understanding that everything he was working toward was lost.
44 years ago - 27-year-old Jor-El marries Lara Lor-Van, who violates Kryptonian tradition by stepping down from her place with the Lawgivers. He re-dedicates himself to finding a way to stem the destruction of Krypton, constantly at odds with the Council who consider him a dangerous dissident.
35 years ago - 36-year-old Jor-El, perceiving the imminent destruction of Krypton, chooses Earth as a suitable destination in a last-ditch effort to save his family. His hyperspatial test rocket, a direct violation of Council law, is discovered. He is brought before the Council & sentenced to imprisonment in the Phantom Zone when the destruction of his planet begins. He escapes and is able to send his newborn son Kal-El in the experimental craft, launching it toward Earth moments before the destruction of Krypton. He and Lara-El die in each other's arms.
The visual of an infant Superman rocketing from his destroyed home planet toward Earth is one of those indelible images that permeates all of popular storytelling. The beats of his origin are built into the bedrock of not just Superman, not just DC, and not just comics as a whole... it's foundational to the entire modern lexicon of fiction. Jor-El is absolutely a character in his own right, but make no mistake, no story can be told with this character that is more relevant or more important than those moments of a scientist & his wife placing their child into a rocket to save him from their dying world.
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Jor-El's Comic HistorySuperman's origin story was actually present in the very first Action Comics issue in 1938, but was heavily trimmed for space, only stating that "As a distant planet was destroyed by old age, a scientist placed his infant son within a hastily devised space-ship, launching it toward Earth!" It was later when Siegel & Shuster wrote their syndicated Superman newspaper strip that they were able to expand the origin story, and we got names for the scientist & his wife, Jor-L & Lora.
Superman's origin evolved over the next decade or so, changing from being raised in an orphanage, to being raised by adoptive parents (and briefly arriving on Earth fully grown in the first episode of the Radio Show), but through it all the original beats of his origin remained the same: Kryptonian scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara (as their names eventually came to be spelled) place their child into a rocket ship to escape the destruction of their planet, sending him to Earth. |
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Over the decades, this foundational element of Superman's lore slowly gained tiny details fleshing it out, but it only underwent a few major re-imaginings. One of the biggest was the Richard Donner movie in 1978. It created a whole new visual language both for Krypton and for Jor-El, featuring Marlon Brando's iconic-even-though-he-fully-phoned-it-in performance, but perhaps even more notable is Donner's deliberate re-imagining of Superman as a Christ allegory. This is mostly a thematic choice but becomes extremely overt with Jor-El waxing poetic about sending Kal-El to guide humanity in a speech that is only barely reworded from John 3:16.
Another major re-imagining of Jor-El and Krypton itself happened during John Byrne's 1987 World of Krypton miniseries, part of his revamp of all of Superman's continuity. He imagines Krypton as a sterile, emotionless, scientifically-advanced species, deliberately trying to make it seem cold and disconnected. Clark was now not actually born on Krypton, as he was gestating in a birthing pod that was placed in his rocket, implying that he is in fact actually born on Earth. This version of Jor-El and Krypton was perhaps one of the most narratively and visually distinct versions of the character in his history, but it was eventually retconned away to make room for a more traditional version. |
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Our Jor-El StoryWe often find ourselves leaning into the John Byrne version of Superman lore. In this case, while we do really enjoy how visually consistent his take on Jor-El and Krypton were, we don't necessarily want to incorporate the idea of an emotionally sterile planet or Kal-El being sent to Earth in a birthing pod. Instead, we wanted to make Jor-El a part of the vast rebellion plot that cripples his planet and his people.
We've invented a single plot device; that there was a hyperspatial disaster on a Kryptonian colony world, leading to the entire population of Krypton being recalled to their home planet. This leads to a massive rebellion led by General Zod, all fueled by Jor-El's theories. He is forced to use his Phantom Zone research to imprison the revolutionaries and has to suffer under the scrutiny of the Kryptonian Council as a suspected dissident. These are all fairly original ideas, but we really like what it does with the story of the final days of Krypton. |
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