Starkville’s House of El Podcast

This SHoE File is going to end up as more of a scrapbook of Jor-El than a history. Jor-El has been around almost as long as Superman has, and while you would think he has a long rich history, his character has always been more of a ghost for guidance than an actual character on screen or on panel. There have been some instances with regard to Superman’s continuity where Jor-El has been a pivotal character, often through time travel or dream sequences. Lets take a look at the many different incarnations and representations of Jor-El since 1939.

Before we begin I feel that I should remind every one that in the DC Universe there is a concept called the multiverse, and that a multiverse contains a potentially infinite number of parallel universes where things are very much the same but very different too. Here is an example of the  Supermen of the multiverse.

You do not need to know about all of these versions,  just be aware of the concept or this Shoe File could get confusing.

For the first year of Superman’s publication Jor-El was only referred to as “a scientist who sends his son to earth” . It was not until 1939, in a newspaper comic strip that the name Jor-L was published as being the name of Superman’s father. His name did not get the “e” until 1942 when George Lowther wrote a novel called “The Adventures of Superman”. He was called Jor-El in the novel. It was not until some years later that the comics used this spelling as well. Once the concept of the  multiverse was created  we get both versions of the name. It was then decided that the Golden Age Superman (the first incarnation) would have the name Kal-L , Jor-L..etc and they would be from the parallel universe known as Earth-2.The character known as Power Girl is actually Kara Zor-L, the niece of Jor-L and cousin of the Golden Age Superman (Kal-L) The origins of these different Jor-El’s are basically the same as the histories were not split until years later.

Jor-El of Earth-1

Jor-El was a scientist on the planet Krypton who came from a prominent family. The House of El had been involved in Kryptonian society for a very long time. Jor-El was actully Jor-El II, being named after his father, his father was scientist who had developed hyperspace many years ago and discovered a planet in the Sol system called earth. He travelled to this planet on a one man journey of discovery of  which he took extensive notes.  It is believed this is how Jor-El knew where to send his son as Krypton was breaking apart. Baby Kal-El was placed into a rocket and sent to earth.

Jor-El of Earth-Prime

This Jor-El was very similar in origin but instead of sending his son in a rocket, he had invented a transporter that could span numerous galaxies. The intent was to send all of Krypton’s population to Earth, but the device was untested and could only transmit small amounts of material. (like a baby) Kal-El was sent to earth just as a member of the science council barged in and caused the machine to explode and that was the end of the Kryptonian race’s hopes of escape. As a side note, the Prime Universe was one which had no other superhero’s other than Superboy and was ultimately destroyed during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

So now that we have the basic differences, lets discuss the similarities. From here on out I will be referring to the Jor-El of Earth-1, as he is the basis from which the character is derived from. I am going to backtrack a little bit to get us squared back up on this history.

As a young man Jor-El lived with his family Jor-El I, Nimda An-Dor (mother), his twin brother Nim-El, and his younger brother Zor-El.  Once completing his primary education, Jor-El began work as a scientist, which on his first day he met Jax-Ur and Lara Lor-Van (his future wife). They would be married soon after.

Early in his career, Jor-El discovered that Krypton’s days were numbered and notified the Science Council. They agreed to give him what he needed to arrange for Krypton’s population to escape their doomed planet.  Jor-El soon would hire an assistant who unbeknownst to him was actually Superman who had traveled back in time. The two would become very close and when Jor-El’s son was born his named his child after his friend. So Superman was actually named after himself. PARADOX! Working together, they were able to design and build a prototype spaceship that would be capable for extremely long space travel. One day the two noticed a saucer-like spaceship that Kal-El recognized as being Brainiac’s ship. Brainiac was there to steal the city of Kandor. After this horrific event Jor-El’s father died and knowing that he was about to be conceived in the current timeline, Kal-El returned home to earth and to his proper time. Shortly after the birth of his son, Jor-El discovered a pocket dimension known as the Phantom Zone. Wanting to win a seat on the New Kryptonian Science Council  since the current council had been based in Kandor and stolen by Brainiac, he presented his discovery and explained that this could be used as a prison as no one inside would age and could be brought back out by using his Phantom Zone projector.  Shortly after this Jax-Ur who had been building a nuclear arsenal, destroyed one of Krypton’s moons and was responsible for the deaths of 500 colonists on that moon. He was sentenced to the Phantom Zone for eternity. As a result of this the Science Council banned all space travel and spacecraft experimentation.  Jor-El continued in secret developing his spacecraft for evacuating Krypton’s citizens.  Much like the early American space program, Jor-El used animals in his early spoacecraft tests. One such animal was his son’s puppy Krypto, who never returned from his test flight. I think we all know where Krypto ended up. It was soon after this that the planet had began to quake violently and Jor-El realized that his time had run out. With Lara at his side they placed the baby Kal-El in the spaceship and he was sent to a far off planet named Earth.

This was the origin until the  Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries and John Byrne’s Man of Steel miniseries rewrote Superman’s origins. In this re-written origin,  Jor-El was part of a Kryptonian race that was very cold and emotionless. Physical contact between Kryptonian’s was even prohibited. Byrne based this emotionless society from the 1978 Superman movie. Differing from the previous origin, baby Kal-El was not sent from Krypton as a baby, he was placed into a “birthing matrix” as a fetus and sent off world towards Earth. This was explained to be necessary as Kryptonains were genetically bound to their planet by birth and that is why they could not leave Krypton. By altering the genetics of the fetus and having him gestate in the birthing matrix Kal-El was actually born on Earth and making him a natural american citizen as he was born in a cornfield. It was in this re-telling that Jor-El was visited by a time-traveling Starman and that is how he learned of Earth’s existence.

In 2003 a series was published called Superman: Birthright , and this series combined both the Silver Age and Man of Steel origins. The only real change here was that Lara was made more of a prominent figure is the decision and implementation of sending Kal-El to Earth, although he was born on krypton and placed in a ship rather than a matrix. Jor-El had only discovered Earth moments before he sent the rocket.

Both Man of Steel and Birthright are no longer considered official canon in Superman’s origin story.

Following the events of Infinite Crisis comic writers Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek began to lay the ground work for a new Superman origin which naturally means a new Jor-El origin.  The story was written by Johns and Superman I & II director Richard Donner. It began to reflect very heavily on Donner’s vision of Krypton and Kryptonian society taken from the films.  The Kryptonian Council for example was threatening to send Jor-El to the Phantom Zone if he made his discovery public that the planet Krypton was going to explode. This also brought the characters of  Zod, Ursa, and Non back  into mainstream continuity. At this point in time Zod was “friends” with Jor-El, and Zod was furious that Jor-El was told to keep quiet. Non was given a lobotomy because of his plans to take this news public. This is where Zod and Jor-El chose different paths. Zod wanted Jor-El to join him and overthrow the council for keeping Krypton’s destruction quiet. Jor-El refused to go along with Zod’s plans and once these plans failed, it was Jor-El who was instructed by the council to banish the three to the Phantom Zone.  The council made sure Jor-El was clear on these matters as to never speak of what caused the revolt or he will suffer the same fate as Zod. He swears to escape the Zone and overthrow the Kryptonian government and force Jor-El and his son to kneel before him.

Along with the gift of giving his son the Fortress of Solitude, Jor-El was able to construct an interactive artificial intelligence of himself to help Kal-El learn his kryptonian heritage and provide guidance when needed.

In Jor-El’s most famous appearance (Superman movies), he was played by Marlon Brando.

Superman: the animated series gave us a Jor-El that looked like Superman in different clothes.

Smallville has given us a version of Jor-El that has evolved since season 2. Bestowing many different powers to Clark, his family, and even his friends. Even the look of Jor-El has changed in the Smallville Universe, early on in “Relic” we saw Tom Welling playing the role of Jor-El, and as recently as “Kandor” Julian Sands was Jor-El. The fortress voice of Jor-El has been portrayed by Terrence Stamp (General Zod from the Superman movies).

This one was difficult for me as the history for Jor-El has been changed and changed many times. I tried to keep it as linear as possible and include as many looks to the character as I could. I hope you enjoy this one and don’t be afraid to do some research on your own, there are some things that I purposely left out.  What is your favorite story involving Jor-El? Which version do you like the best?  Leave a comment below, I really enjoy seeing everyones different opinions.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Character History. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.