HOMEWORLD: Krypton

SECTOR: 2813

FIRST APPEARANCE:
As Superman:
ACTION COMICS # 1
(June 1938)
As Kal-El, Green Lantern of Krypton
JLA 3rd series # 8
(August 1997)
"Imaginary Stories"

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 225 lbs.
Hair: black
Eyes: blue

KNOWN RELATIVES:
Jor-El (father)
Lara (mother)

GROUP AFFILIATION: Green Lantern Corps

HISTORY:
Though the planet Krypton threatened to tear itself apart from internal geologic pressure due to radioactive instability in the planet's core, notable scientist Jor-El of Krypton designed subterranean valve stations to release this pressure and spare his homeworld from destruction.
[JLA3 # 8]

Jor-El married Lara and had a son, Kal-El. The GUARDIANS OF THE UNIVERSE had prophesied their child would be genetically perfect and an ideal future leader of an independent GREEN LANTERN CORPS.
[SUPERMAN # 247]

Years later, an adult Kal-El found the wreckage of an alien starcraft. The sole passenger, TOMAR-RE of Xudar was mortally wounded. Tomar-Re, the Green Lantern of Sector 2813, completed his final duties by passing on the power ring to a worthy successor, Kal-El. Sector 2813's Green Lantern was proficient in his duties and operated from his homeworld of Krypton.

Despite its advanced technology, Krypton was plagued by spontaneously generating anomalies. A self-assembling crystalline brain was using the mineral structure of a Kryptonian city to accelerate its growth. Before dawn, the brain had begun transmitting a harmonic signal but no one on Krypton could understand the increasingly sentient brain was trying to communicate.

Concerned the brain would leech more energy from the subterranean valve stations as thus destabilize Krypton's molten core, Green Lantern was reluctantly forced to dismantle it.

A pair of robots and a Kryptonian citizen, Hantha, daughter of Zon-Ur, watched in appreciation but Kal-El was troubled by having to destroy the brain. Hantha offered her intelligence enhancing perfume to the puzzled Green Lantern which gave him an idea.

Allowing the brain to regrow to a manageable size, Kal-El used the power ring to translate its rudimentary code-message. He discovered the brain was merely a remote device which was amplifying a traceable signal. A datasphere in the memory annex transmitted an image of the planet from which the signal originated. A planet in neighboring Space Sector 2814, Earth.
[JLA3 # 8]

Kal-El arrived on Earth during a fight between the Joker and Gotham City's original Batman. The Green Lantern disarmed the Joker's nuclear weapon and placed the madman in the Phantom Zone.

Batman realized none of what they were experiencing was real, it was an elaborate illusion. Kal-El was not Green Lantern but rather, Superman, and Krypton had been destroyed years before. They were soon joined by Aquaman and Wonder Woman who had discovered the same thing. Finding a doorway out of their dream world, the foursome were challenged by WEAPONEER 500, Sector-Dictator for the Qwardians of the Galaxy. This was actually Green Lantern KYLE RAYNER who soon recovered his identity.

In the waking world, the longtime JLA villain known as the Key had designed a programmable psycho-virus which had taken over the central nervous systems of the JLA and produced structured hallucinations. He had paralyzed the JLA with a wide beam neural shock and was using the energy from their minds to boost his own. The Key planned on the JLA realizing they were dreaming and wake up. Once that happened, the accompanying psycho-electric surge would give the Key the means to open a doorway to "negative space" and the means to absolute power. Unfortunately for the Key, Connor Hawke was able to stop him from walking through the doorway and achieving his goals.

The JLA recovered and the Green Lantern of Krypton, as well as the dream versions of the remainder of the JLA has not been seen since.
[JLA3 # 9]

CREATIVE TEAM:
Superman created by:
Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel

Kal-El, Green Lantern of Krypton:
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Oscar Jimenez
Inker: Chip Wallace
Colorist: Pat Garrahy
Computer Seps: Heroic Age
Letter: Ken Lopez
Editor: Ruben Diaz

KNOWN APPEARANCES:
JLA 3rd series # 8-9.

'mouse note -

I've always loved the idea of "the Green Lantern of Krypton" and I hope this profile gets other fans to look through their collections for other stories involving this concept. I've heard there may have been a 1960s or 1970s Superman story in which Krypton never died and Kal-El became GL, but as of this writing I don't have any proof of this. Aside from this JLA story, Superman # 247 was as close to a "Super-GL" story as I can find.

GREEN LANTERN © 2000 DC COMICS, INC. Profile copyright  © 2000 Michael Bond