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Jor-El
Jor-El is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, Jor-El first appeared in the Superman newspaper comic strip in 1939.
Jor-El is Superman's biological father, the husband of Lara, and a leading scientist on the planet Krypton before its destruction. He foresees his planet's fate but is unable to convince his colleagues in time to rescue most of Krypton's inhabitants. Jor-El is able to save his infant son Kal-El (Superman) by launching him towards Earth in a homemade spaceship just moments before Krypton explodes. When Superman later constructs his headquarters, the Fortress of Solitude, he honors his biological parents with the inclusion of a statue of Jor-El and Lara holding up a globe of Krypton. The fortress also holds a holographic copy of Jor-El's consciousnesses, letting Superman interact with his father for advice and knowledge.
Jor-El was portrayed by Marlon Brando in the films Superman and Superman II. Archival footage cut from the prior films was used with the permission of Brando's estate to insert the deceased Brando into 2006's Superman Returns in a reprise of the role. Terence Stamp played the voice of Jor-El in the television series Smallville and was portrayed by Julian Sands. The character was then portrayed by Russell Crowe in the DC Extended Universe film Man of Steel (2013) and by Bradley Cooper in the DC Universe film Superman (2025). Angus Macfadyen portrayed the character in the first season of the television series Superman & Lois.
Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the creators of both Superman and Jor-L, first introduced a character named Jor-L in 1936, more than a year before the first Superman story was published. The original Jor-L appeared in New Adventure Comics (released in 1936, cover-dated January 1937), a re-titled issue #12 of the previous New Comics, which would be re-titled again, starting with issue #32, as the 45-year-long Adventure Comics series.
Featured in the four-page Shuster and Siegel strip Federal Men, this Jor-L is not an extraterrestrial but, instead, a far-future "ace sleuth" in the service of "Interplanetary Federation Headquarters". The character battles "Nira-Q", the outer-space-faring "bandit queen", in the year 3000 A.D. The 1936 Jor-L exists as part of a story within a story, as Shuster and Siegel's strip presents the tale as a scientist's forecast of future crime-fighting told to the contemporary 1930s-era G-man heroes of Federal Men.
Jor-El was first referred to indirectly in Action Comics #1 in 1938, which only mentioned a scientist who sends his son to Earth. He made his first full-fledged appearance in the Superman newspaper comic strip on January 16, 1939, where his name was spelled as Jor-L. His name first appeared as being spelled Jor-el in the Superman novel The Adventures of Superman (1942), written by George Lowther. Later comic books capitalized the "E" in "El." Jor-El's first appearance in a comic book was in More Fun Comics #101.
In the 1960s, now known as part of the Silver Age of Comic Books, DC Comics introduced to its superhero stories the fictional concept of different versions of characters from real-world publication history existing in separate "universes" that could communicate with each other. As DC developed this concept through further stories, the version of Superman's father during the previous Golden Age of Comic Books was identified as Jor-L, matching the original spelling of the character's name, who lived on the Krypton of the Earth-Two "universe" (derived from the versions of characters and stories that appeared during the earlier Golden Age period of publication history). In contrast, the concept presented Jor-El as no longer another spelling of the same name but a different character entirely: the father of the then-contemporary Silver Age version of Superman, who lived on the Krypton of Earth-One (used to describe the setting for then-current Silver Age stories and characters, some of which had been substantially changed from their Golden Age versions).
A retelling of Superman's origin story in 1948 first delved into detail about Jor-El. However, his formal and more familiar Silver Age aspects were firmly established starting in the late 1950s. Over the course of the next several decades, there was a definitive summarization in the miniseries World of Krypton in 1979 (not to be confused with the similarly-named post-Crisis on Infinite Earths late-1980s comic miniseries).
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Jor-El
Jor-El is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, Jor-El first appeared in the Superman newspaper comic strip in 1939.
Jor-El is Superman's biological father, the husband of Lara, and a leading scientist on the planet Krypton before its destruction. He foresees his planet's fate but is unable to convince his colleagues in time to rescue most of Krypton's inhabitants. Jor-El is able to save his infant son Kal-El (Superman) by launching him towards Earth in a homemade spaceship just moments before Krypton explodes. When Superman later constructs his headquarters, the Fortress of Solitude, he honors his biological parents with the inclusion of a statue of Jor-El and Lara holding up a globe of Krypton. The fortress also holds a holographic copy of Jor-El's consciousnesses, letting Superman interact with his father for advice and knowledge.
Jor-El was portrayed by Marlon Brando in the films Superman and Superman II. Archival footage cut from the prior films was used with the permission of Brando's estate to insert the deceased Brando into 2006's Superman Returns in a reprise of the role. Terence Stamp played the voice of Jor-El in the television series Smallville and was portrayed by Julian Sands. The character was then portrayed by Russell Crowe in the DC Extended Universe film Man of Steel (2013) and by Bradley Cooper in the DC Universe film Superman (2025). Angus Macfadyen portrayed the character in the first season of the television series Superman & Lois.
Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the creators of both Superman and Jor-L, first introduced a character named Jor-L in 1936, more than a year before the first Superman story was published. The original Jor-L appeared in New Adventure Comics (released in 1936, cover-dated January 1937), a re-titled issue #12 of the previous New Comics, which would be re-titled again, starting with issue #32, as the 45-year-long Adventure Comics series.
Featured in the four-page Shuster and Siegel strip Federal Men, this Jor-L is not an extraterrestrial but, instead, a far-future "ace sleuth" in the service of "Interplanetary Federation Headquarters". The character battles "Nira-Q", the outer-space-faring "bandit queen", in the year 3000 A.D. The 1936 Jor-L exists as part of a story within a story, as Shuster and Siegel's strip presents the tale as a scientist's forecast of future crime-fighting told to the contemporary 1930s-era G-man heroes of Federal Men.
Jor-El was first referred to indirectly in Action Comics #1 in 1938, which only mentioned a scientist who sends his son to Earth. He made his first full-fledged appearance in the Superman newspaper comic strip on January 16, 1939, where his name was spelled as Jor-L. His name first appeared as being spelled Jor-el in the Superman novel The Adventures of Superman (1942), written by George Lowther. Later comic books capitalized the "E" in "El." Jor-El's first appearance in a comic book was in More Fun Comics #101.
In the 1960s, now known as part of the Silver Age of Comic Books, DC Comics introduced to its superhero stories the fictional concept of different versions of characters from real-world publication history existing in separate "universes" that could communicate with each other. As DC developed this concept through further stories, the version of Superman's father during the previous Golden Age of Comic Books was identified as Jor-L, matching the original spelling of the character's name, who lived on the Krypton of the Earth-Two "universe" (derived from the versions of characters and stories that appeared during the earlier Golden Age period of publication history). In contrast, the concept presented Jor-El as no longer another spelling of the same name but a different character entirely: the father of the then-contemporary Silver Age version of Superman, who lived on the Krypton of Earth-One (used to describe the setting for then-current Silver Age stories and characters, some of which had been substantially changed from their Golden Age versions).
A retelling of Superman's origin story in 1948 first delved into detail about Jor-El. However, his formal and more familiar Silver Age aspects were firmly established starting in the late 1950s. Over the course of the next several decades, there was a definitive summarization in the miniseries World of Krypton in 1979 (not to be confused with the similarly-named post-Crisis on Infinite Earths late-1980s comic miniseries).