Evil Week: How Do You Adjust Your Watch For Phantom Time Zone?

Usually when people consider arch-villains for Superman, their first thought turns directly towards Lex Luthor.  And that's a justifiable response!  Lex was one of the first frequent foes of the Man of Steel.  Lex was there when he had hair, when he didn't have hair, when he had balding hair, when his clone had LUXURIOUS hair... etc.  Just like it's hard to imagine a Superman universe without Lois Lane, the Kents, or Metropolis, Lex Luthor is an integral part to the dangers that Superman has to face.  But one source of villainy that is NOT often mentioned, but bears just as much validity to Superman's life.  You could even say this source is more threatening, because it's a deadly little slice of home...

 

Krypton was initially introduced as an idyllic future-city.  Hey, in the early days of the Superman stories, the ENTIRE PLANET was super-powered!  But in storytelling time, there had to be a few wrinkles added to the perfect sheet of Krypton's history.  And the civilization started to expand its history to include criminal elements.  However, the way most comic fans think Kryptonians disposed of their criminals was NOT the initial justice system.  Before it became too costly to the society, criminals were launched into space in solitary capsules in a planetary exile.  But Jor-El... future doomsayer of Krypton... used his scientific brilliance to discover a limbo dimension.  Initially it was intended as a placeholder sanctuary for the Kryptonians to use when their planet blew up REAL good.  However, Jor-El discovered that said dimension was more terrifying than he originally intended, and any occupant of that space was essentially transformed into a ghostly being that could observe all that happened in actual reality, but had NO influence on the outside world.  Deciding that such an existence to an already doomed race would only "blow chunks" that much further, the Phantom Zone was created as a prison for Krypton's worst criminals, where they would serve their sentences in moon-cycle intervals.  Jor-El even created a Phantom Zone projector to make imprisonment for criminals all THAT much easier to perform!

I won't go over every single notorious resident of the Phantom Zone, but I wanted to bring up some of the infamous... and one relatively benevolent... residents.  So, prisoners... LINE UP!

• Jax-Ur: Weapon designer, that inadvertently destroyed the Kryptonian moon Wegthor, testing a nuclear weapon he INTENTED to use as a threat to Krypton for ultimate rule.  Oops...
• General Dru-Zod: No... He wasn't originally the bane of the House of El's existence.  He actually started off as a rogue military element that used the technology to create Bizarro clones to create his own clone army for conquest of Krypton.  But of course, later movie and comic interpretations made SURE Zod had a mad-on for the El family.  And a fixation on making others kneel...
• Faora Hu-Ul: You could call her the mating of Bruce Lee, and a standard "black widow".  No, she DIDN'T use Lois Lane's Klurkor, but she WAS a master of a Kryptonian martial art.  But her habit was using that fighting skill to commit serial murder on several Kryptonian males.
• Ursa and Non: I lump the lover of General Zod and lobotomized Kryptonian scientist in the same listing, because up until "Superman the Movie", they were non-entities in the comics universe.  Hell, they both didn't really exist in the comics until AFTER "Infinite Crisis", when Geoff Johns and Richard Donner collaborated for a story arc.  And since then, they've been elements of the Phantom Zone mythology.   I will mention that Sarah Douglass as Ursa in those two "Superman" films... H.O.T.
• Mon-El:  You might be thinking, "How could Jor be such a JERK and lock up a relative into the Phantom Zone"?  And I would reply, "One, he ACTUALLY did with a cousin named... not subtly at all... Kru-El.  Two, Mon-El was actually a Daxamite alien that Superboy placed in the Phantom Zone to protect him from lead, which is a Daxamite's version of Kryptonite".  So he's actually the one true heroic soul that had to be exiled to the Phantom Zone for his own safety.  But 30th. century science got its facts straight, and by then, Mon-El was freed, and thanks to lead-medication, was granted admission to the Legion of Superheroes!

The main threat of the Phantom Zoners comes in the fact that they ARE the same as Superman.  So should they ever find escape on Earth, they will have the exact same abilities Kal-El possesses under a yellow Sun.  And methods of escape come up a LOT more than you would expect through comics history.  For my reading experiences in the Bronze Age, the Zoners tended to specialize in combining their evil thoughts to influence people to activate the Zone Projector to set them free.  Or, if it's like "Superman 2" or even "Man of Steel", a massive explosion could break the boundaries of the Phantom Zone to set them free into our universe.

And while rogue Kryptonian elements were a semi-frequent part of Silver and Bronze Age storytelling, I think the Phantom Zone achieved its SUPREME recognition in Richard Donner/Richard Lester's "Superman" duology, where Terrance Stamp, Sarah Douglass, and Jack O'Halloran brought to life the menace of Kryptonian criminals set loose on the planet Houston.  ... Er, make that Earth.  I'd dare say that about 20 years of comics continuity were reduced to a distant memory when these two films were released, and the template established by this duology became "the word and law".  (But if you still wish for a take on established Phantom Zone stories, I'd HIGHLY recommend you all check out the "Phantom Zone" mini-series by Steve Gerber and Gene Colon.  It does a grand job of making what could be goofy Silver Age concepts into legitimately menacing Bronze Age threats.)

That's not to say the Phantom Zone didn't have any influence before OR after "Superman 1 and 2".  Some random Zone criminals managed to sneak into a "Super Friends" episode, and even in due time General Zod showed up in an episode!  And while their appearance in this cartoon was decided of the Bronze Age of comics, Zod, Ursa, and Faora made a guest shot in an episode of the Ruby Spears "Superman" series.  (Where they kinda created the Absorbing Man for Superman to fight.)  But after the first "Crisis on Infinite Earths", the Phantom Zone was given one solid shot by John Byrne for a storyline, but that was a pocket dimension in the new DC Universe, and the one avowed time in that continuity that Superman knowing killed others.

As mentioned earlier, it was Johns and Donner that REALLY resurrected the Phantom Zone into our current DC Universe.  (Heck, the concept remains relatively unchanged even in the "New 52" universe!)  But that's not to say the 90's didn't feature at least two false starts with two individuals claiming to be General Zod.  (And yes, they DID utter lines about kneeling before them.)  But c'mon... Like us comic fans would be dummies enough to fall for the lines of these armored buffoons, claiming the title of the House of El's vengeance bearer!

Not only has Zod and... I'm ASSUMING it's either Ursa or Faora... entered the current comic lexicon, they also achieved another shot of screen stardom in Zach Snyder's "Man of Steel".  Another note of interest: Lex Luthor was NOWHERE present for "Man Of Steel".  So if these motley crew of Kryptonian ne'er do wells could earn a starring role in a major motion picture of their own, then I'd say that puts them in equal standing with "THE GREATEST CRIMINAL MIND OF OUR TIME!". 

I'll wrap this up by speaking of my interest in the Phantom Zone criminals.  As much as I enjoy the battle of brains against Superman's physical abilities, I also really enjoy when Kal-El is placed against a threat that can provide him with equal physical standing.  Someone that can dish it out and take it.  And these rogue elements of Superman's race fill that gap SO nicely!  So I'll leave it to you what your definitive interpretation of the Phantom Zone criminals is, but like Superman himself, the nature of his villains should be just as elastic with the times, and what's time to a being that exists in a zone that HAS no solid time?