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lonelywretchjervistetch · 1 year

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My DC Cinematic Universe: Superman (Part IV)

Chapter Four: Nature and Nurture

Look, we all know the origin of Superman. It's Moses, but in space. James Gunn's got the right idea for his movie; the origin's been done. No reason to beat a dead Krypton, y'know? But even then, that doesn't mean Krypton should be ignored in this theoretical Superman film. And if we're going to talk Krypton and its residents, as well as the El family as a whole, then...well, we have some work to do.

Here's the summary on Krypton, far as I'm concerned: Krypton is a planet orbiting a red sun, Rao, and is the home of the Kryptonians, a scientifically-advanced species in various states of conflict throughout the centuries, usually with the military complex warring against the scientocracy that rules the planet. It is destroyed either by Kryptonians themselves, or by their negligence, depending on who you ask.

Everybody has a different idea of what Krypton looked like, usually fueled by changing ideas of future technology. In the '40s and '50s, it was basically just the Jetsons. After the '80s reboot, it turned into a cold alien society really reminiscent of something like Vulcan, mostly devoid of emotional (and sometimes physical) contact, and with a dark history full of clones, genocides, wars, conquest, and a LOT of other shit. You can thank John Byrne for the complex Kryptonian mythology that came out after Crisis. It is pretty neat.

That form of mythology definitely affected future depictions of Krypton, with Superman: The Animated Series being inspired by the aesthetics, and Smallville and Man of Steel being inspired by the attitudes and history established by Byrne. Even then, of course, these interpretations of Krypton still had their eccentricities and differences, with a lot of other influences brought in. No idea why, for example, Snyder seems to have turned his Krypton into a canyon-filled fantasyscape with rideable four-winged steeds and shit, but...eh, it kinda worked. A little.

There was also a TV prequel series, called Krypton, that came out in 2017. It was pretty decent, honestly, taking place 200 years before Kal-El is born, and centered around the ancestors of the El family, and of the Zods. More on them later. As I said, though, it was a pretty good show, for what it was, and did flesh out an interesting version of Krypton. But before we move on to what my version of Krypton is, it's important talk about its people: the Kryptonians.

In almost every incarnation of Krypton, the people of Krypton are split up into major families, or houses, with Clark being the last living member of the House of El. Each house tends to fall within specific lanes or roles throughout Kryptonian history, with the Els usually serving a major function. Each house also has a specific symbol, with the "S"-like symbol that Superman wears being the symbol for the House of El.

This House, full of scientists and leaders throughout Kryptonian history, tends to find itself in conflict with the House of Zod, which is a military house, best known for its last living member, General Dru-Zod. He'll be a huge focus of a future post, but not right now. And as much as I want to continue talking about Krypton and Kryptonians (especially Tyroc; if you know, you know), I really should move on to the main event. For now, let's put in what I think are the core aspects of Krypton.

Krypton is a scientocracy. As a scientifically advanced society, far beyond Earth's technology, Krypton has put a large focus upon the sciences as a part of their society. Because of this, scientists represent some of Krypton's most preeminent citizens, with most iterations of Krypton outright having a ruling science council. This is also why Kryptonian technology is all over the place, and keeps appearing throughout the Superman mythos. These include the Phantom Zone and Phantom Zone projector, the Eradicator, Kal-El's ship, and the crystal-based tech introduced by the 1978 film, and maintained in the lore since that point.

Kryptonians have a long and complex sociopolitical history. From creating Doomsday to destroying a moon, a lot of crazy-ass shit has happened in Krypton's history, all the way up to its destruction. Obviously having a history is something to expect of every planetary civilization, but...well, actually, that's a point. Krypton essentially has one-world government, which has cuased a myriad of political, military, and...well, even racial issues. Yeah, uh, they shoved all the black people onto an island once. We don't ask questions here. Or, y'know, we do and heavily criticize, but maybe later on that front. But speaking of that...

Krypton wasn't great, not gonna lie. In more recent years, it's become more and more apparent that Krypton had a fuckton of problems. I mean, there was an island with only black people, so that already hints at racial segregation. But outside of that, you have wars, conquests, indignance and corruption, cults, and somehow a complete lack of emotional connection amidst all of these things. Like, one of their scientists literally blew up a fucking MOON. And then there's the whole cloning thing, the predetermination of roles in some adaptations...look, Krypton may have looked like a paradise to some, but it's really not a great place when you look at it.

Krypton blew up, and its destruction may have been preventable. A common refrain when it comes to Krypton is the idea that only one man knew Krypton was going to be destroyed, and nobody listened to him except his wife and brother. More on that guy later. Still, the reasons for Krypton's destruction are myriad. It's been sucked into the sun Rao, blown up by an ancient nuclear weapon at the planet's core, overharvested to the point of geological instability, destroyed indirectly and directly by Brainiac, conspired against by the space Illuminati (yes, actually), and just collapsed due to a natural instability. There's never been a real concrete reason, and to be honest, it doesn't really matter too much. Krypton dies. And for most, 'nuff said.

So, with that put into place, let's talk about the two most important people in the story: Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van.

Lara Lor-Van: The Forgotten Parent

I feel like Lara has gotten the short end of the stick, especially as compared to her husband, Jor-El. So, to give her some much-needed attention, here's a short history of Lara Lor-Van-El. An astronaut/librarian/laborer/martial artist/military officer/scientist, depending on whom you ask, Lara's been a character that's worn a lot of different hats. And by "worn a lot of different hats", I mean that she's such a non-character that writers keep reinventing her, which only makes that problem worse. After all, Jor-El is basically always a scientist, and people remember him. So show some goddamn consistency, writers!

Anyway, Lara loved her son deeply, and didn't want to give him up to a primitive world, but agreed to do so for his sake. And...that's it. That's basically everything about her. So, uh...she's a caring mother. Yikes. That's basically nothing, but to be fair, she is gonna DIE pretty fast, so that makes some sense. However, she should get the same amount of focus as Jor-El, since they're BOTH the parents.

She's gotten it only a little better in adaptations, but not much. My personal favorite version of the character is in Superman: The Animated Series, where she's voiced by Finola Hughes, but...well, she's in it for maybe about 7 minutes altogether. So, y'know, not much there. In live-action, though, she's been a bit luckier.

In fact, in Superman II and IV, she actually replaces Jor-El as the mentor to Clark, which is great! I mean, it's only because Marlon Brando fucked off because...well, to be frank, he's Marlon Brando and kinda weird in general, but it's still a victory in my book. Played by Susannah York, she still seems like the secondary parent compared to Jor-El, but again, there's never been enough to the character to change that.

Smallville did something neat and cast Helen Slater, who played Supergirl in the eponymous and forgotten 1984 film, to play Lara. Here, we meet her in flashbacks, and also see her as a...holographic copy of herself or something? It's been a really long time since I've seen Smallville, forgive me. But this version of Lara is...Superman's mom. Yeah. Moving on.

Superman and Lois actually gives Lara a LOT more depth and detail as a character. Not only is she a scientist who created the Eradicator (more on that...eventually), and not only do we get to see her meet Clark via holographic copy of herself (played by Mariana Klaveno), but we also find out that she had a family prior to Clark, having been arranged to do so by the restrictive governmental systems that ruled Krypton, and having a son (Tal-Rho) from an engineered birth, while choosing to have Clark with Jor-El via natural birth. Nice! We actually turned her into a character here! And what exactly prompted this...

...shift? Oh...oh, shit, is this something Snyder actually did right? I mean, kind of, yeah. Ayelet Zurer plays Lara in Man of Steel, and while she's absurdly shafted in place of Jor-El (only made the holographic intelligence for yourself, huh, buddy? Didn't even think to ask Lara, did you, you dick?), she's still given a semblance of character. Like the later Superman and Lois version, she chose to illegally conceive Clark via natural means with Jor-El, rather than using engineered external birthing systems. And while this version is far more restrained than any other version of the character...she honestly works pretty goddamn well. In fact, she's the one who launches Kal-El into space, while Jor-El is busy getting stabbed by Zod. So, yeah, I guess Snyder of all people tried to give her a bit more detail. Credit where credit's due.

I'll get into what I think Lara should be later. I'll be handling her alongside her husband, since we'll get to know equal amounts of the two in this theoretical film of mine. Speaking of her husband...

Jor-El: Krypton's Cassandra

So, fun fact. I wrote this section on the Text Editor, and literally ALL of it got spontaneously deleted. And instead of going back, I wrote the next section, which made this post...SO fucking long, goddamn. So, A SUMMARY OF JOR-EL!

Jor-El is one of Krypton's top scientific minds and inventors. He invented the Phantom Zone projector, amongst other things, and comes from a family of Science Council members and prominent citizens. Because of this skill and prowess, he's also the first person, usually, to realize that Krypton is fucked. He's the doomed oracle, the scientific Cassandra, the perennial pariah of Krypton. He keeps fucking TRYING to tell the Science Council, Zod, anybody that'll listen that Krypton is gonna blow up. And nobody ever listens. So, he takes matters into his own hands, builds a ship for his kid, shove some crystals in there and sends him off, bingo bongo bango.

Now, Jor-El mostly sticks to that description throughout his incarnation. Although, recently, it was revealed that he actually survived, thanks to Doctor Manhattan (don't ask), and was responsible for one of DC's WORST FUCKING MOVES when it comes to Superman, which involved taking Jonathan Kent away from Clark and aging him up, largely removing Clark's role as a father. Pisses me the fuck off, DO NOT GET ME STARTED

The most famous incarnation of Jor-El is, of course, Marlon Brando in Superman: The Movie. He takes the role of holographic mentor from beyond for a young Clark, and his essence remains as a guardian of the Fortress of Solitude. Basically, he's the prototypical Jor-El for most incarnations. Terence Stamp basically did this in Smallville, but took a MUCH mor antagonistic role through much of the series, trying to push Clark to his perceived "destiny". However, his actions also technically killed Jonathan Kent, caused Martha Kent to miscarry (please don't ask), took away or otherwise fucked with Clark's powers on multiple occasions, and did various other shitty things "for the good of his son." I guess it correctly predicted how much of a dick Jor-El would eventually become in the comics, though.

And then, of course, there's Russell Crowe in Man of Steel. Not too much different here, save for the fact that he and Zod were once good friends, that he has an actual action sequence in this movie, and that...well, yeah, that's about it. He also does the whole "recorded consciousness" thing for Clark, and AGAIN doesn't consider letting Lara do the same, like an asshole. Oh, actually, there is one difference: he dies way before Krypton explodes, stabbed by Zod as his son is sent to Earth. But other than that...yeah, he's basically Jor-El once again.

Yeah, honestly, there isn't a whole lot to say about Jor-El, either. And in truth, maybe there doesn't need to be. After all, both he and Lara are super dead by the time the true story begins, and that'll be the case for the movie too. We really don't need to talk about Krypton, and what happens to Krypton, or who Jor-El and Lara are, or the sociopolitical conflicts that lead to my version of Krypton's destruction, or-

My Krypton

By the time the movie begins, Clark really shouldn't know anything about Krypton. He knows he's an alien, he knows that his true parents haven't come for him (and so assumes that they couldn't), but he doesn't know much else. This question should somewhat haunt Clark, but shouldn't take over his everyday life by any means. So, when his parents come to visit him in Metropolis, they bring with them a crystal that they had found with the crashed ship. As Clark is injured from the attack of the villains of the piece, the crystal will measure his physiological signs, and send a distress beacon to his ship. That will cause the Zeta drives in the ship to activate, bringing the ship to Clark almost instantaneously. Because of its Caretaker programs, the ship will actually surround Clark in order to create a healing environment, bathing him in ultraviolet radiation to help him heal his wounds.

As this is happening, we go back to the crystal. Now surrounded by the ship, the damaged crystal transmits a somewhat broken message into the unconscious Clark's mind. It's alien technology, we can play around a bit here. With this broken message, we see glimpses of Krypton exploding, as well as a look at Jor-El and Lara, who give a message of love and hope to their cast-off child. Nothing big, nothing too long, but something heartfelt. And more importantly, it supplies Clark with a few answers about his past and parents, including their names and the fate of Krypton.

Which brings up the question...what happened? The short answer is a lot, and the even shorter answer is that it doesn't matter, because that mystery won't be solved in this film. But the long answer is...complicated.

Well, the whole thing starts with Brainiac, AKA Vril Dox. An alien conqueror and synthetic being from the far-off planet Colu, Brainiac is a collector of worlds and information, using shrinking technology to miniaturize and transport cities in a misguided attempt to store their culture. About 450 years prior to the events of the film, Krypton was fairly close to a utopian society, with war and conquest largely in the civilization's history. However, the planet's life would likely die off within the next several millennia, due to the instability of the sun Rao. And so, Brainiac made a decision: take the city of Kandor.

Brainiac takes Kandor and its people, with the goal of protecting its knowledge. In reality, all he does is doom Krypton. Without its jewel city, Krypton is forced to restructure itself, both economically and politically. Doing so causes a lot of strife amongst its citizens, and challenges the long-ruling scientocracy of the planet with alternate systems. A cult of Rao develops, prophesying the end-times when the Collector of Worlds returns. Meanwhile, some houses, especially the House of Zod, attempt to reroute the planet's future into a military powerhouse. This is opposed by the House of El, leaders of the Science Council in Kryptonopolis, the new capital of the planet. And over the centuries, this strife and conflict builds to a boiling point.

War. The House of Zod gathers more allies, chief amongst them being the houses of Hu-Ul, Ek, Ur, Ul-Ar, and Kor-Onn. This group of houses, calling themselves the Sword of Rao, conspire together over the years to overthrow and oppose the scientocracy. Establishing a capital in the city of Xan, the Hand outstretched to encompass nearly half of the planet. However, a tentative peace was reached between the two factions of Krypton, but only after the safety of a planet as a whole was threatened by the building arms race.

See, at this point, the Science Council had developed a revolutionary technology: transdimensional teleportation. Two of their head scientists, astrophysicist Jor-El and engineer Lara Lor-Van, accidentally discovered an alternate dimension when experimenting with a mysterious form of electromagnetic radiation that they believed could be used to communicate over seemingly impossible distances. However, too much of this energy opened up a window into a desolate and empty realm directly overlapping our own. They called this place the Phantom Zone.

Simultaneously, the Sword's scientist Jax-Ur developed a powerful weapon called the Destroyer. During an accident of his own, he discharged the weapon into the moon Wegthor, destroying it and endangering the planet. This event prompted a deal between the Sword and the Council, where Jax-Ur was turned over to the Council and imprisoned in the Phantom Zone (against Jor-El's will) in exchange for peace. But peace doesn't last forever.

A decade passed. Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van fell in love and married, and formed an alliance of their own with the leader of the Sword, General Dru-Zod. Zod and his wife, Ursa, became famed leaders of their people, and of the military. But while they played the game of peace with the Science Council, they secretly plotted to take over the planet as a whole, as well as the nearby colonies of the planet Daxam. This was with the help of Jax-Ur, whose clone had been turned over to the Science Council all those years ago. Jax-Ur began to work on his own form of the Phantom Zone technology, turning it into a dangerous weapon that could displace atoms of any object or person to unknown distances. The energies utilized by this technology will one day be harnessed as a method of teleportation known as the Zeta beam.

But once Jax-Ur is discovered, war is back on. The Science Council has Zor-El, Jor-El's brother, weaponize their own Phantom Zone technology to continue the Cold War between the two halves. This is because Jor-El refuses, as the Phantom technology is unpredictable and untested. Jor and Lara resign from the Science Council, and leave to study the true effects of the technology. When Jor-El realizes that too much of this energy could actively destroy the planet, he pleads with the Science Council to stop its development. When this fails, he pleads the same to Zod. Realizing that Jor-El has sided against him, Zod disowns his former friends and turns them away. Doesn't declare vengeance on them or anything like that, just calls them Science Council flunkies and weaklings and turns them away.

Dejected, Jor-El and Lara continue their work, building a small exploration vessel so that they could take measurements from above the planet's atmosphere. But as they were readying to begin their observations, disaster struck. Unbeknownst to them, their visit prompted Zod to order Jax-Ur to speed up development, without proper testing, which is something Jax-Ur was more than happy to do. But again: this is unstable technology. And on a related note: Jax-Ur is a mite unstable himself.

Things come to a head on the battlefront. The Science Council resorts to destroying the island of Vathlo as a warning shot, using Zor-El's weaponization of the dimensional engines to disintegrate it. This prompts a similar destruction of cities by the Sword in retaliation, using Jax-Ur's weapon as a powerful beam of energy for destruction. But both sides make a fatal error, which Jor-El has realized.

See, considering that this is a science-based civilization, it comes to reason that they'd use certain forms of energy. Specifically, in this case, geothermal energy is used to fuel much of Krypton. So, when the teleportation technology is used as a weapon, a large amount of power is drawn out of Krypton itself. What Jor-El discovers is that there's a massive feedback effect that occurs as a result of using so much power. Radiation from the technology is fed back into the ground of Krypton itself, irradiating it and making it brittle. And as the war has waged on, this has only gotten worse.

As a final gambit, the Sword and the Council unleash their full might on each other. Jax-Ur's weapon destroys Kryptonopolis, and weakens the ground beneath it as a result. This creates the final catalyst of Krypton's destruction. Realizing the end, a desperate Jor-El and Lara see no option for escape, except for their exploratory craft. But as it was never meant for anyone to fit inside, the two realize it's too small for everyone EXCEPT their infant son. And so, as Krypton is nearing its destruction, the two mournfully plan send Kal-El out. However, they don't know where to send him, and have no way to know if he'd make it out. So, Lara retrofits a Zeta-drive to the ship to allow it to move through dimensional transportation somewhere, while Jor-El does his best to direct the ship's coordinates to a safe location. Again, they have no idea where it's going at this point. They just hope Kal-El will land somewhere safe, where another people can raise him and care for him.

In a last ditch effort, Zor-El does something similar for himself and his family. In three separate ships, he attempts to plot a course through the Phantom Zone to get to an inhabited planet somewhere. Unfortunately, only his daughter Kara Zora-El manages to escape, flung into the Phantom Zone while in stasis, while her parents are both killed as Kryptonopolis falls.

This is only the beginning of the end, however. Zod and company finally sees the end, as the ground beneath them and all of Krypton begins to shake. See, here's the fun thing about planets: they can't just spontaneously explode. Scientifically, that makes no sense. So instead, this is a disaster caused by the war between factions. And also realizing no escape, Zod and the highest ranking members of the Sword of Rao (Ursa, Faora Hu-Ul, Non Kor-Onn, and Jax-Ur) also escape into the Phantom Zone, where they'll be imprisoned until they find a way out. And at that point, with everybody off world...well, you know what happens next.

Now, will ALL OF THAT make it into the movie? FUCK no. This is just backstory. But that's the Krypton that we're working with, setting the stage for conflicts and characters to come, and for Clark to discover over the course of several movies. Because we're plotting for a series here, and this is a story that can be unfurled over time, especially if and when Zod or Supergirl show up.

But there's one more unsolved question here: how did Clark get so injured in this theoretical film? He's fucking Superman. Well...what do you think happened? It's a McGuffin, but an important one. So, just for a second...let's talk about Kryptonite in this universe.

Remember how I said the weaponized Zeta-beam technology irradiated the ground of Krypton itself. Well, that radiation actually makes Krypton pretty toxic, ESPECIALLY when the planet collapses in on itself due to the same energies. So, Kryptonite is the irradiated remains of the planet Krypton. But it doesn't actually go anywhere. I mean, let's be honest, it makes NO SENSE for Kryptonite to travel that fair to get to Earth, so where did it come from?

Well, theoretically, maybe an alien civilization or individual discovered Kryptonite, and decided to use it as a radioactive power source, or even as a crystalline nuclear weapon. So, if Superman, who reads as Kryptonian, shows up in a city on Earth and disrupts your plans for the city/planet, you'd want a way to get rid of him. And maybe you have a way to travel to Krypton and discover it's destruction, as well as the crystals themselves. And maybe you have some human patsies that will use technology that utilizes Kryptonite to take out Superman. So you grab the radioactive crystal, give it to these guys, and they work to take out Superman. And who are these guys? Let's not jump the gun. For now, we have some more people to talk about first, before we talk villains.