Lara
68 years ago - Lara Lor-Van is born on a Kryptonian colony world to the Lawgiver Caste.
56 years ago - 12-year-old Lara returns to Krypton when all Kryptonians are recalled to their home planet after a tragic hyperspatial accident displaces the Kryptonian colony planets, including Bgztl & Daxam, into the Phantom Zone.
53 years ago - 15-year-old Lara joins the Lawgiver Caste as a Cadet.
51 years ago - 17-year-old Lara first meets Jor-El, a member of the the Elite Science Caste and the heir to the house of El.
50 years ago - 18-year-old Lara is assigned to monitor Jor-El, a possible dissonant with ties to Dru-Zod's Warrior Caste rebellion.
46 years ago - 22-year-old Lara watches as Jor-El is forced to corrupt his life’s work. She comforts him.
44 years ago - 24-year-old Lara violates Kryptonian tradition by stepping down from her place with the Lawgivers to marry Jor-El. She becomes his biggest supporter as he continues to search for a way to stem the destruction of Krypton, constantly at odds with the Council who consider him a dangerous dissident.
35 years ago - 33-year-old Lara-El gives birth to Jor-El's son, Kal-EL. They prepare to flee the planet, but Jor-El is arrested. When the Planet's destruction begins Jor-El escapes, and they launch Kal-El toward Earth moments before the destruction of Krypton. She and Jor-El die in each other's arms.
Technically speaking, Lara is a core part of one of the most important origin stories in the history of DC, to say nothing of comics, or even of fiction in general. In practice, however, Lara tends to be a little overshadowed by everything else going on, or even by her husband and fellow superparent Jor-El. Yes, she's Kal-EL's mom, but that really tends to be all we know about her? There is certainly SOME precedent for who she is, but nevertheless she does present an interesting opportunity for us to flesh out the world of our characters a little bit.
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Lara's Comic HistoryLara actually first appeared in the Superman syndicated comic strips by Siegel & Shuster as they expanded their extremely truncated origin from Action Comics #1. She was originally named Lora, but as the years went on and Superman's origin slowly updated the modern spelling of her name solidified. While Jor-El generally carries more of the narrative of Superman's origin, as the scientist who predicts the planet's destruction and who builds the rocketship to save his son, Lara, if you ask me, is more responsible for the allegory at play. She is literally Jochebed, the mother of Moses, crying as she places her child in a basket and says goodbye to save his life.
Like Jor-El, Lara has undergone small changes in her DESIGN over the years, but her role in the origin of Superman is so small and understated and perfect, that there really hasn't been much of an observable change in her story, but it also hasn't really expanded. Even now, there isn't a solid answer as to just who the woman who gave birth to the biggest and most important hero in the galaxy actually is. |
Our Lara StorySo if it falls to us to create a story for Lara, what do we want from it? Who does Lara need to be? I think the best answer really is that Lara has always been depicted as a loyal and supportive partner to Jor-El, and we'd be doing a disservice to the lore to make her anything but, so how can we emphasize that while still making her story about HER?
We'd been using the idea that all characters born on Krypton are born into specific Castes that dictate the focus of their lives, from their education to their training to their eventual role in society... maybe a small reference to the sterile society of Byrne's Krypton. Zod & Faora are in the Warrior Caste, and Jor-El & Non are in the Science Caste. Lara, we decided, was a Lawgiver.. the caste dedicated to policing its people. This led pretty naturally to a couple pretty revelatory ideas; that Lara was actually assigned to monitor Jor-El as a possible dissident, and that her choice to later marry him actually represents a huge departure from Kryptonian social convention. This simple idea, we think, gives Lara a really interesting arc all of her own, while also allowing her to be the incredibly important figure in comic history we need her to be. |
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