#Quex Ul

[dcbinges]

Superman #22 (1988) by John Byrne

[chernobog13]

Superman and some of the inhabitants of the Phantom Zone, by Gray Frank.

I don't know why mermaid (and former Superman love interest) Lori Lemurs is in the Zone. Did I miss a story somewhere?

[cantsayidont]

January 1982. "Creepy" and "surreal" are not words normally associated with Bronze Age Superman stories, but they're apt descriptions of the 1982 miniseries THE PHANTOM ZONE by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. Probably inspired by the 1980 movie SUPERMAN 2, the mini begins with a recap of the history of the Phantom Zone, discovered by Superman's father Jor-El as a means of imprisoning Kryptonian criminals, but this is no E. Nelson Bridwell continuity-charting affair: The Phantom Zone inmates stage a mass escape, wreaking bloody havoc on Earth as Superman and an amnesiac former prisoner named Quex-Ul, forced to take the escapees' place, begin a perilous journey to the heart of the Zone, which is far stranger than Jor-El had ever imagined.

Most of the Phantom Zone villains who appear in this story had been seen before, but Gerber makes them actually frightening, a collection of madmen and human monsters who were scary enough on Krypton, without the incredible powers bestowed by Earth's yellow sun. Gerber also emphasizes the horror of the Zone itself — being imprisoned, possibly forever, as a thought without form — and his revelation of what the Zone actually is is unexpected. None of this would have worked if the series had been drawn by Curt Swan, but the art by Gene Colan (inked by Tony DeZuñiga) lends a sweaty, claustrophobic nightmare vibe to Gerber's script.

DC reprinted the miniseries in the SUPERMAN: PHANTOM ZONE trade paperback in 2013, also including Gerber's followup in DC COMICS PRESENTS #97, drawn by Rick Veitch, which is unsettling in its own right, and much meaner than Alan Moore's contemporaneous "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" (That collection shouldn't be confused with the earlier TALES FROM THE PHANTOM ZONE TPB, which is a compilation of Silver Age Phantom Zone stories.)

[demonsee2]

By John Byrne

[thecomicsnexus]

SUPERMAN #21-22 / THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #444

September/October 1988

By John Byrne, Jerry Ordway John Beatty, Dennis Janke, Petra Scotese, John Costanza, and Albert De Guzman.

Superman meets the new Supergirl and quickly realizes she comes from the Time Trapper's pocket universe. After arriving there, he discovers their version of Lex Luthor freed three kryptonian criminals from the Phantom Zone (not knowing they were criminals) and this pretty much doomed the entire planet.

Faced with the reality that these three criminals could make their way into the new Earth, Superman will be faced with a tough decision that will change his life forever.

SCORE: 10

This is the final story from Byrne's run. Why? Unclear.

Some sources say that Byrne wasn't happy with the lack of control he had over Superman's status. Others say that he didn't like the dark direction the books were taking... but whatever the case was... writers continued working on his plots for years (with almost everything closing between 1990 and 1991, and influencing the "Reign of the Supermen" saga).

This final story is really dark, with Superman being forces to execute the Phantom Zone criminals. You can tell that the saga probably influenced the "Man of Steel" movie in more ways than just the death of Zod at Superman's hands (although technically, Zod ended up being killed by Quex-Ul).

Now, when it comes to format, this feels like a cinematic experience... now. But it was a bit of a pain to read in physical form. It's like this story was created in a way that couldn't be fully enjoyed until digital comics arrived. All three issues use two pages for panel layouts, resulting in panoramic views that make everything way bigger and more beautiful.

There is something about the idea that Byrne wasn't happy with the darkness of the book that makes sense in the context of a story that ultimately reintroduced Supergirl (although that would take a few years to be fulfilled). This Supergirl was created by Luthor, and it is made of Protomatter. This interesting plot device would return with a vengeance a year later.

It's unclear if the Kryptonians were resourceful enough to escape this dimension. Leaving them powerless in a barren Earth could have been a life sentence. Then again, they were going to die anyway without an atmosphere. So yes, taking to New Earth could have been very risky. Of course, Zod and co would much later make their debut into the new DC multiverse, but for a very long time, this was the only version of them that existed.

I am not sure how to feel about Luthor not using the Gold Kryptonite earlier, nor how he kept it away from them. I feel like, with many other things in these three issues, that was a last minute creative decision. This story should have lasted at least one more issue. As it is, many characters were introduced that died off panel or barely did anything.

Still, the story works well enough for me, and the artistic choices makes it a classic.

So... without Byrne... will the Superbooks survive?

Yes, in fact, another classic saga is starting right away that will lead to yet another classic saga known as the "exile in space."

Very interesting times for Superman.

[kiragecko]

Part 3: Other Crest Shapes

There are a variety of other shapes for crests. Near the bottom, I talk about square glyphs used in place of crests, as well.

Straight-Sided Trapezoid

The Young Justice cartoon, and a few Prime-continuity characters have straight-sided trapezoids, rather than the more common shield-like angled trapezoids:

Dru-Zod and Lor-Zod have a 'Z'. Faora Hu-Ul's kinda looks like a dagger.

Jax-Ur's looks like a vase. Non's is blank.

Zod's crest has the same shape in the Prime universe, but the symbol looks more like a 'no entry' sign.

Point-Up Trapezoid

Lord Nor's vaguely sun-ray-shaped crest is point-up in Lois & Clark.

Trapezoid with the Bottom Point Removed

Earth-3 (Crime Society) Ultraman has a 'U' in this shape. Lego Ultraman wore it the best.

Circular

The second most common shape of crest is circular, though its rarely used for family crests. They especially show up in Superboy/Legion of Superheroes stories. General-wear suns and ringed planets are often inside circles, and some empty crests are circular. Those are talked about in part 1.

On Earth One, Van-Zee's Nightwing dragon is in a circle. Dik-Rey (Power Lad) has either a crest that looks identical to a PL, or an English Acronym as a symbol.

On the Legion Of Superheroes cartoon, Drax(-Zod) has a 'Z'.

Triangle

Mostly seen with empty crests, talked about in part 1.

Point-Up Triangle

Bar-El has one in All-Star Superman that's split into 4 smaller triangles.

Square Glyph

On New Earth, square writing is used for Laborer's crests. Here is Dev-Em's, with a cube and slightly jagged line. Ursa has two lines with dots on top. The right line has a chunk removed. The only image of Val-Ty I could find shows the edge of one with a dot beside a 'T' shape.

Lara Lor-Van has a partially visible one in Gods and Monsters. A cube with a half-circle cut out of the left side and a notch in the top.

And this line with three lines extending from both the left and right sides that Quex-Ul is wearing may be a rare Earth One example.

Weird other Things

In Prime continuity, Kon, the clone who started an uprising on Krypton, has a weird diamond with writing in it.

On Earth One, Klax-Ar wears a giant 'K'. Ral-En has a circle with triangles extending from three edges and a square in the middle. Thar-El has a triangle around an empty circle. He's the eldest son, so it's unlikely to be a normal empty crest.

On New Earth, Kru-El has this line with marks on it. Unknown if it's decorative or meaningful. One of Chris' Nightwing costumes seems to be heavily influenced by Dick's mask.

On Super Friends, Rom-Lok had a crown on his chest.

That's it for now. Thanks for joining me!

Kryptonian Crests

I looked into Kryptonian family crests today. I didn't go TOO deeply, just looked at all the Kryptonian's on the DC Wiki, but I have some preliminary conclusions that I find interesting.

General Crests

At least on Earths One and Two, many Kryptonians seemed to wear a sun symbol (and possibly a few other symbols) rather then a family crest at certain points. This seems to be a symbol for Flamebird, but may also stand in for Rao, their sun god and main diety.

We see General Zod wear a small one on his left breast. Garf-Og wears one in the lab. Roz-Em has one while impersonating Jor-El.

Zim-El also thinks this is proper lab wear.

And here it is on Ak-Var as Flamebird.

The other common symbol seems to be a planet with rings, which we see on U-Ban and Jor-L.

Cadet Branch Crests

At least on Earths One and Two, there's some suggestion that younger sons/daughters may have worn empty crests on some occasions.

Kizo and Mala, younger brothers to U-Ban, wear empty triangles, while he has a ringed-planet. Lor-Van also has an empty triangle, and Shyla Kor-Onn has a small one.

Zor-El (Jor-El's younger brother) is often seen with an empty circle, including in New Earth continuity.

Zak-Kul has an empty square.

Tyb-Ol has an empty diamond.

Non, General Zod's mentally disabled minion, has an empty shield crest in the Young Justice cartoon. Name, symbol, and disability combine to make something pretty uncomfortable, in my opinion.

Things worn INSTEAD of Crests

Aspirants (which seem to be roughly equivalent to military cadets) wear only a red stripe in New Earth.

Women seem to wear crests less often, especially after marriage. Lilo wears a sash instead in All-Star Superman.

But usually they just wear pretty clothes, like these two Allura In-Ze's, from Earth One and Prime.

Next: Shield-shaped Family Crests!

[lamujerarana]

As the last representative of law and justice on this world, it falls to me to act as judge, jury...and executioner.

Superman Vol 2 22: "The Price"

[jlaction]

[splooosh]

“As the last representative of law and justice on this world...”

[krinsbez]

Oh, cool.

So it's not just poor, doomed Quex-Ul?

You know, just in case you thought Zod and Faora were doing something out of the kindness of their own hearts for once. Picking fights with people who can fight BACK is already borderline out of character. Action Comics 549

[kryptondaily]

1x01: Pilot and 1x02: House of El promo photos [1/1] - already aired

[dcbinges]

Superman #22 (1988) by John Byrne

[johnbyrnedraws]

Generations 2 #3, page 48 by John Byrne & Trish Mulvihill. 2001.

[davidmann95]

I was asked about this piece, and yeah? Superman killing the Phantom Zoners was dumb and bad, even if you think he should kill people. If you’re so worried about Earth cops not finding Zod under their jurisdiction that you’d rather torture him to death with Kryptonite, maybe just go to the Green Lanterns instead or something Clark? They at least regularly deal with Qward as far as parallel universe business goes, I’m sure the Guardians wouldn’t mind throwing the whole PZ crew in the sciencells.

[chernobog13]

Superman #157 November 1962.

This issue marked the first appearance of the Kryptonians Quex-Ul and Rog-Ar. Quex-Ul was a prisoner who was released from the Phantom Zone because his sentence was up.  Instead of releasing Quex-Ul inside the bottle-city of Kandor, where he would be normal, Superman released him on Earth, and all sorts of super-powered hi-jinks ensued when the two super-men battled.

It later turned out that Quex-Ul wasn’t really a bad guy.  He had been framed and set-up to take the fall for crimes Rog-Ar committed.  Quex-Ul lost his super-powers (and memory of his Kryptonian heritage) when he deliberately exposed himself to gold kryptonite to save Superman from a trap.  Quex-Ul was given the name Charlie Kweeskil and took a job in the Daily Planet’s production department.  He remained there, forgotten, for several years until Steve Gerber’s and Gene Colan’s “The Phantom Zone” mini-series in 1982.  Quex-Ul regained his memory in that story, and ultimately gave his life to save Superman and Earth from a horde of escaped Phantom Zone prisoners.

Rog-Ar, it is learned many years later, had mutated into a sort of “rondor man,” rondors being Kryptonian beasts with horns that had amazing curative powers.  Rog-Ar, in violation of Kryptonian law, had wiped out the beast and stolen the horns in an effort to get rich by charging sick people for treatments they had previously been able to get for free.  As a “rondor man,” complete with the curative horn, Rog-Ar survived Krypton’s destruction and floated helplessly in space until he reached Earth and gained super-powers.  There was the inevitable battle with Superman, until the Man of Steel figured out a way to remove Rog-Ar’s powers but still use the horn to heal sick people.

[thevindicativevordan]

I'm seeing a lot of people talk about a Phantom Zone mini Steve Gerber wrote in the 70s because PKJ is apparently picking up ideas from there in his Superman work. You also listed it in your desert island post. Do you recommend the mini and why do you think Johnson is going back to that particular well?

I read it specifically because I heard PKJ was drawing on it for ideas and wanted to see how and why.

The "how" is that this is where Aethyr debuted, and his relationship to the Phantom Zone forms the crux of Superman's journey through the Phantom Zone. It clearly has influenced PKJ's own take on both for his Action run given how he calls back to this story in the Action 2021 Annual. As for the "why", this story is pretty damn great horror story for Superman. A bunch of evil Kryptonians manage to escape the Phantom Zone while leaving Superman trapped inside at the same time, with Zod as the ringleader of the group. Superman and Quex-Ul, a fellow Kryptonian, must journey through the heart of the Phantom Zone to confront the god Aethyr in order to escape, and prevent Zod from transferring the entire Earth into the Phantom Zone as part of his revenge against Kal.

The journey through the Zone has the normally invincible and self-assured Pre-Crisis Superman feel both fear and pain as he explores realms that house monstrosities and terrors that can harm even him. Krypton's historical usage of the Phantom Zone is shown here too, and Gerber does a great job selling you on what a terrible fate it is for the various unfortunates imprisoned there. Zod receives a strong showing here, Gerber does a better job of selling him as a threat than many later attempts at revamping comics Zod into something worthy of Stamp's popularity. Such is the extent of Superman's rage towards Zod at the end of the story that he explicitly states he'd like to kill Zod, but has to settle for beating him right up to that threshold. There's genuine tension and excitement within this story along with the kind of horrific imagery you would not normally expect from a Superman book. A duo of Kryptonian twins go around murdering people because they can, with one possessing pyrokinetic powers that he uses to burn people alive for annoying him. Supergirl almost dies multiple times as she tries to defeat the Kryptonian criminals without the aid of her cousin. A Kryptonian wizard has his face melted off and is enslaved by Aethyr. If you're a fan of Alan Moore's Superman stories, this is on the same level of darkness, and Gerber's epilogue for this story also features a darker take on Mxy that shows how effective he could be as a legit villain. Reading that made me wish DC had let Gerber be the one to reboot the character for the Post Crisis era, he sure knew how to spin a dark Superman tale in an engaging way. Definitely recommend it if any of what I've described sounds interesting to you.

Load of great worldbuilding for the Zone by Gerber can be found here, and I'm glad that PKJ is trying to bring some parts of that worldbuilding back into canon. As for why he chose to lean on this mini to supplement his own work, aside from the usual answer of "he read it and liked it and wanted to bring it back into canon", I think the answer lies in his roots as a dark fantasy writer. Superman's journey through the Phantom Zone is closer in tone to the journey PKJ's protagonists undergo in The Last God than a "normal" Superman story. A group of protagonists undergo a dangerous journey across a dangerous environment to confront the malicious god responsible for unleashing horrors in order to save their homes is a basic synopsis for both stories, easy to see why it would appeal to him. There's even a wizard in this story!