![]() They finally encounter a Kryptonian wizard named Thul-Kar, who tells them that he believed Jor-El's prophecy of Krypton's doom and entered the Phantom Zone through magic. The imprisoned Superman and Quex-Ul use this method and travel through several dimensional "layers" seeking the exit into the physical universe. In the Steve Gerber miniseries The Phantom Zone #1-4 (January–April 1982), it is revealed that the Zone not only has a breach through which other inmates had escaped, but that they were never heard from again. As his subconscious resists the illusion of a peaceful life on Krypton, among the first signs of its degeneration is the sight of his cousin, Kara Zor-El, hospitalized after being attacked by an anti-Phantom Zone militant who left literature protesting that the Phantom Zone is a method of torture. This is illustrated in the acclaimed story " For the Man Who Has Everything" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, where Clark is ensnared in a fantasy illusion created by an alien parasitical plant called a Black Mercy. As for Superman himself, as much as he appreciates how the Zone is necessary to contain its Kryptonian inmates, who otherwise would be extremely dangerous and destructive in a yellow-sun environment, and to shelter Mon-El, he apparently privately harbors concerns about the justness of its penal use. However, since the departure of Kandor, that is, outside of Mon-El, most of the inhabitants were confined to lifers and generally not inclined to making conversation with their jailer. In addition, the city of Kandor uses the Phantom Zone regularly, with parole hearings sometimes chaired by Superman. Superman develops communications equipment for the Phantom Zone, like the Zone-o-Phone, and refinements to the projector. Phantom Girl can enter or leave the Phantom Zone as she pleases, and once did so to interrogate the prisoners about Jor-El. Green Lantern Guy Gardner once experienced an extended and tortuous stay after an explosion of a Green Lantern power battery sent him there, until rescued by Superman and Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who had believed him to be dead all that time. Superboy was forced to cast him into the Phantom Zone to keep him alive, where he remained for nearly a thousand Earth years until the time of the Legion of Super-Heroes when Brainiac 5 created a medication that allowed him to leave safely. The sole inmate of the Phantom Zone who was not placed there as punishment for a crime is Mon-El, a Daxamite who fell victim to lead poisoning. Nevertheless, Superman periodically released Phantom Zone prisoners whose original sentences had been completed, and most of these went to live in the bottle city of Kandor. When they manage to escape, they usually engage in random destruction, particularly easy for them since, on Earth, each acquires the same powers as Superman. Most have a particular grudge against Superman because his father created the method of their damnation, and was often the prosecutor at their trials. As such, they were able to survive the destruction of Krypton and focus their attention on Earth, as most of the surviving Kryptonians now reside there. Inmates do not age or require sustenance in the Phantom Zone furthermore, they are telepathic and mutually insubstantial. The inmates of the Phantom Zone reside in a ghost-like state of existence from which they can observe, but cannot interact with, the regular universe. Gra-Mo was the last to suffer the punishment, for it was then abolished in favor of the Zone. In more recent history, criminals were punished by being sealed into capsules and rocketed into orbit in suspended animation with crystals attached to their foreheads to slowly erase their criminal tendencies Klax-Ar was one criminal who received this punishment but escaped. Kryptonians had abolished the death penalty in the long distant past. ![]() The Phantom Zone was a "pocket universe" discovered by Jor-El that existed outside the space-time continuum it was used on the planet Krypton as a humane method of imprisoning criminals. It was frequently used in the Superman comics before the continuity was rebooted in the 1980s, after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and has appeared occasionally since.įictional history Pre- Crisis It first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 (April 1961), and was created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp. It is mainly associated with stories featuring Superman. The Phantom Zone is a prison-like parallel dimension appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Superman trapped in the Phantom Zone as seen on the cover of Superman (vol. ![]()
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