Wikia

Zor-El


Family	Unnamed wife (deceased), Kara (daughter), Jor-El (brother; deceased), Lara (sister-in-law; deceased), Kal-El (nephew), Conner Kent (partial clone of nephew)
Occupation	Scientist, Kandor mine operator
Powers and Abilities	All Kryptonian powers under a yellow sun (demonstrated: Super speed, super strength, invulnerability, and flight)
Played By	Christopher Heyerdahl
Status	Deceased

"Remember, Kara, a true Kryptonian embraces their destiny, no matter what." – Zor-El, to Kara, Lara

Zor-El (1940-1986) was a Kryptonian scientist who was directly responsible for the destruction of his own home planet Krypton. He was a member of the House of El: the father of Kara, the younger brother of Jor-El, and the uncle of Kal-El.

Physical AppearanceEdit

Zor-El was a tall, thin man with short dark hair and blue eyes. On Krypton, he wore Kryptonian robes and a House of El pendant. When he was resurrected as a clone on Earth, he wore a black leather robe.

PersonalityEdit

Zor-El was a very cold, manipulative, crooked, and controlling scientist who was constantly disagreeing with his brother Jor-El, characterizing him as a "feeble-minded pacifist." He believed in maintaining the House of El dynasty, and was also a strong believer in destiny, devoutly believing in Rao's prophecy to the point of fanaticism, going so far as to ignite Krypton's already unstable core in order to fulfill the prophecy.

Zor-El had obsessive romantic feelings for Jor-El's wife Lara, and spared his nephew Kal-El's life, saying, "If you weren't Lara's son, I'd end your life right now." He also went as far as trying to kill his own daughter Kara.^[1]

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

See: Kryptonian Powers and Abilities

Solar battery: Zor-El gained Kryptonian powers under a yellow sun. (Blue) He didn't have such powers under Krypton's red sun. (Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton)
Super strength: Zor-El was extremely strong; as such, he could overpower and kill humans easily, lift and throw the most heaviest of objects (like cars), and break and crush through reinforced steel and wood. He apparently could also overpower Kara. (Lara, Blue)
Super speed: Zor-El could move at speeds that exceeded the sound barrier. (Lara, Blue)
Flight: Zor-El could defy the laws of gravity, enabling him to hover, levitate, and fly at fast speeds. (Blue)
Invulnerability: Zor-El is nearly impenetrable, being only vulnerable to kryptonite. He showed invulnerability after Clark punched him. (Blue)

Zor-El was the mine operator in Kandor on Krypton and a mineral expert, making him extremely intelligent on such matters, as he knew that blue kryptonite, under a yellow sun, would strip Kryptonians of their abilities.

VulnerabilitiesEdit

See Kryptonian Vulnerabilities

Being Kryptonian, Zor-El was vulnerable to various forms of kryptonite. During the short time he was on Earth as a clone, he was only exposed to green kryptonite, which temporarily but painfully weakened him.

Additionally, Zor-El's clone was destroyed when Clark shattered the blue crystal that resurrected him and Lara as clones.

Early lifeEdit

(All birth dates for those born on Krypton are in Earth years)

Zor-El was born on the planet Krypton in 1940, and raised alongside his older brother Jor-El. As an adult, he became a scientist like his brother, and married and had a daughter named Kara.

Zor-El and Jor-El never really talked. Kara once described the House of El as a "dysfunctional family." Years later, Jor-El told Clark that he never trusted Zor-El, and Martian Manhunter later told Clark that Zor-El tried to kill Jor-El and was a traitor. Sometime after that, Jor-El told his son that Zor-El's experiments were motivated by greed and power.

Before the first meteor shower that befell Smallville, Zor-El traveled to Earth on several occasions. He first went to study the effects of kryptonite on Kryptonians and the effects of the yellow sun on Kryptonians, so when he later went to Earth to fulfill Rao's prophecy, he would have advance knowledge of its effects. He later went to retrieve Kara, who had followed Jor-El's wife Lara there. After chastising his daughter for leaving Kandor and ordering her outside the Kents' house, Zor-El professed his love for Lara and suggested that they stay on Earth and rule the planet together, revealing that he tried to assassinate Jor-El so he could have Lara all to himself. Lara rejected Zor-El and his advances, revealing that she was pregnant with Jor-El's son. Zor-El vowed that one day he would have Lara through his science, revealing that he had stored Lara's DNA in a crystal. When he saw that Kara had witnessed the whole thing, Zor-El used a Crystal of El to erase the events of that day in his daughter's mind.

Sometime just before his attempt on Jor-El's life, Zor-El went into the Phantom Zone and built an escape route out so that he could escape if he was put there for his crime, and also told Kara about it so, if she was ever imprisoned, she would be able to escape. (Bloodline)

After his failed attempt to kill Jor-El, Zor-El was disgraced as a scientist and became the mining operator for Kandor's mine. He also became associated with General Zod.

Zod and his army took over all other mines on Krypton, with Kandor's mine the only one supplying defenses against Zod's forces with the mine working at full capacity. When Krypton started suffering from seismic disturbances, Jor-El suspected they were being caused by Kandor's mine and informed the Science Council about it. The Science Council confronted Zor-El, who denied that it was Kandor's mine and told them it was Zod who was causing the tremors. Zor-El then ordered for Kara's school to be attacked, and sent his disciple Augo to make sure Kara wasn't there to stop her from getting hurt. He also planned for several other key buildings to be attacked, the Council's military headquarters and the government building among them.

Kara unknowingly went to see Zor-El about it and went to his office while he was conversing via hologram with Aethyr and Nam-Ek, revealing both his association with Zod's campaign and that he had advance knowledge of the recent attacks to Kara. Nam-Ek and Aethyr planned to begin their final assault on Kandor once the city's defenses had been weakened. When confronted by Kara, who asked him why he would try and kill his own daughter, Zor-El said he made sure that she never got hurt and told her that Augo is his disciple and that she was never in danger. He then explained that he did it all for Rao's prophecy, that the end is near and that she should fulfill her destiny. After Kara ran away and hid in the mine, Zor-El and Augo chased after her and eventually found her.

Zor-El then went back into Kandor's mine control room and began activating the mine to full capacity in order to ignite Krypton's core. The countdown was nearly complete when Jor-El contacted him and told him that the Council had ordered him to stop the mining as Zod had been captured and sentenced to the Phantom Zone. Zor-El agreed to stop the mining, but then learned that Jor-El knew about his trips to Earth to study the effects of the yellow sun on kryptonite and Kryptonians, and also how he tried to seduce Lara. Jor-El also told him that he knew of his ties with Zod, but did not know the extent; until he did, Zor-El was under arrest and the control room locked down.

Zor-El ordered Brainiac to override the lockdown, which it did, then re-activated the mining before leaving. He then went to see Kara and found her talking to Lara. Zor-El grabbed Kara, who pushed him onto the hologram crystals, injuring him. Zor-El pretended to be sincere before revealing a Crystal of El and wiping her memory once again. He then realized he couldn't make the trip to Earth, so instead pulled out the blue crystal.

Before Krypton exploded, Zor-El sent Kara to Earth in a spaceship along with the blue crystal, which he told Kara would lead her back to all she cherished. After Kara departed Krypton, Zor-El died along with the rest of his people.

Season SevenEdit

Twenty-one years later, Zor-El tricked his nephew Kal-El, now known as Clark Kent, into inserting the blue crystal into the Fortress of Solitude's console, re-creating himself and Lara as clones. After his rebirth, he approached Kara and convinced her to trust him, claiming he had changed his ways.

Zor-El then went to LuthorCorp and threatened Lionel Luthor, Jor-El's Kryptonian vessel, to convince Clark to follow him in dominating Earth. Before Zor-El could kill Lionel, Clark arrived and punched Zor-El, sending him flying out the window of Lionel's office, but Zor-El flew away.

Shortly after Clark had been rendered powerless after putting on Jor-El's victory ring (which contained blue kryptonite), Zor-El confronted his nephew and beseeched him to join him in his quest to conquer Earth. When Clark refused, Zor-El attacked him and then abducted Lara. He took her to the Fortress, which he planned to use to cause an eclipse that would wipe out all of humanity, allowing him to take over Earth. However, Zor-El's plan was thwarted when Clark arrived at the Fortress and subdued his uncle with green kryptonite. Zor-El managed to get the kryptonite away from him and grabbed Kara. He was about to impale her on some crystals when Clark destroyed the blue crystal, eliminating Zor-El, Lara, and the victory ring. Zor-El from that forward on was dead once and for all along with his brother and the rest of Krypton.

In the ComicsEdit

In the Silver Age, Zor-El was a climatographer on Krypton, and one of the only scientists to believe his twin brother Jor-El's predictions about the impending destruction of Krypton. Somehow during Krypton's explosion, the area containing Argo City, Zor-El's hometown, remained intact, and its people were able to survive for many years. Kara was born in the city and grew up there before a meteor shower wrecked the city's crude anti-kryptonite defenses. Zor-El managed to build a rocket and use it to send his daughter to Earth. Fearing that Superman would not recognize her because he had left Krypton as an infant, Kara's parents provided a costume based closely on the Man of Steel's own. Many times through older comics, Zor-El appeared, such as the trips Superman made to Kandor and the time Kal-El researched his family history.

In the modern comics, Zor-El was believed to be an enemy of his brother's who sent Kara to Earth with the intention of killing Kal-El; these events were in fact false and a ruse. Zor-El has been shown in the current continuity as a member of the Artist Guild, whose wife, a scientist named Alura, designed the ship that carried Kara to Earth during Krypton's destruction. Kara was sent to protect Kal-El and to be the only person who remembered life on Krypton. In the comics, Zor-El is very different from his Smallville incarnation; he was even seen getting along well with Jor-El.

Zor-El and Alura are revealed to be alive in the Bottle City of Kandor that Superman discovered; they saved a number of their people before their capture by Brainiac. Zor-El is told his daughter is alive and reunited with her when Kandor is freed, with himself and Alura as the leaders of the new city. He is, unfortunately, murdered by a villain named Reactron during an attack by anti-Kryptonian humans; his death provokes an abrupt change in Alura, who becomes a domineering fascist and instigates the creation of a New Krypton, separating themselves from the humans and plotting against them should they strike against New Krypton.

TriviaEdit

Zor-El first appeared in Action Comics #252 (May 1959).
Zor-El would have traveled to Earth in the same ship as Kara did in 1986 had he not been injured after Kara pushed him onto the hologram crystals. Kara did not know of this as he wiped her memory using a Crystal of El.
Despite being younger than Jor-El, Zor-El had his daughter Kara at least twenty years before Kal-El was born, although it is important to note that Lara had trouble conceiving children. However age is measured on Krypton, it is logical to assume that Kara was born in Zor-El's early-to-mid twenties, while Kal-El was not born until Jor-El was 51 or 52 and Lara was about 44 or 45 years old.
Christopher Heyerdahl previously portrayed Dr. Arthur Walsh in The Chloe Chronicles.

In the 1984 Supergirl movie, Zor-El and Alura appeared played by Simon Ward and Mia Farrow.
Zor-El and Alura appeared in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse during the flashback sequence of Krypton's destruction.
Zor-El along with his wife Alura appear in the comic book tie-in of the 2013's film Man of Steel, which serves as a prequel and Kara Zor-El appears as the protagonist.

ReferencesEdit

↑ 'Blue'

External linksEdit

Zor-El and Alura on Wikipedia
Zor-El and Alura at comicvine
Zor-El and Alura on DC Database

Kryptonians in Smallville

Main	Clark Kent • Kara • Zod • Brainiac • Davis Bloome
House of El	Jor-El (AI, clone) • Lara-El • Zor-El • Conner Kent
Kandorian army	Kandorian army: Basqat • Vala • Faora • Alia • Coats
Houses	House of El (crest) • House of Zod (crest)
Other	Disciples of Zod (Nam-Ek, Aethyr) • Dax-Ur • Raya • Faora • Krypton

[0] 'Blue'

[1]

Wikia

Zor-El

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