Phantom Zone
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The Phantom Zone is a fictional dimension in the Superman comic books and related media. It was frequently used in Superman comics before the continuity was rebooted in the 1980s, after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and has appeared occasionally since.
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Pre-Crisis
As originally described, the Phantom Zone was discovered by Jor-El and used on the planet Krypton as a method of imprisonment of criminals. The Phantom Zone criminals first appeared in the Superboy stories and soon began appearing in the Superman stories.
The inmates of this dimension are cast into the dimension and reside in a featureless state of existence from which they observe, but cannot interact with, the regular dimension clearly. Inmates do not age or require sustenance in the Phantom Zone; furthermore, they are telepathic and mutually insubstantial.
As such, they survived the destruction of Krypton and focused their attention on Earth seeing as how most of the surviving Kryptonians now reside there. Most have a particular grudge against Superman seeing as how his father created the method of their own damnation. As such, they usually cause destructive trouble when they manage to escape while Superman struggles to return them to the Zone.
The only exception is Mon-El, a Daxamite youth who met Superboy on Earth and discovered he was acutely vulnerable to exposure to lead. (This is described in the comics as "lead poisoning," though it is not the same as real-life lead poisoning.) To keep him alive, Superboy cast Mon-El, with his permission, into the Phantom Zone where he resided until the 30th century where Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes developed a cure which allowed him to leave safely.
Superman developed communications equipment for the Zone like the Zone-o-phone and refinements to the project. In addition, the City of Kandor used the Zone regularly, with parole hearings sometimes chaired by Kal-El. 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.
Post-Crisis
In the post-Crisis DC Universe, the Phantom Zone first appeared when Superman returned from space with a Kryptonian artifact called the Eradicator. This device, created by his ancestor Kem-L, attempted to recreate Krypton on Earth, building the Fortress of Solitude. The extradimensional space in which the Eradicator found the Kryptonian materials necessary was called the Phantom Zone.
A Phantom Zone Projector is part of Superman's current fortress. It has been used to access the Bottle City of Kandor and to trap villains such as the White Martians.
The Phantom Zone has also been independently discovered by the Bgzltians, the White Martians and the villains Loophole, Prometheus and the first Queen Bee, who call it the Buffer Zone, Still Zone, Stasis Zone, Ghost Zone and Honeycomb, respectively.
Depiction in other media
Movies
In the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve, the Zone is presented as a large, flat shard of crystal. General Zod and his co-conspirators Ursa and Non appear to be transferred to a two-dimensional space on the crystal's surface. The crystal is then flung into space.
Years later, a nuclear explosion from a bomb Superman was forced to fling from Earth into space inadvertently shatters the prison and releases the prisoners. The trio then travel to Earth's moon and Earth itself, wreaking havoc with the powers granted them by our system's yellow sun.
In the Supergirl movie, Kara is banished to the Phantom Zone by means of a summoned crystal shard. The crystal transports her to the Zone where it shatters, casting her to the barren ground of what appears to be a desolate world.
Television
In one episode ("Arrival") of the television series Smallville, two Kryptonian villains are banished to the Phantom Zone, which is represented as a floating black square similar to its depiction in the films. In the episode "Solitude", a Kryptonian artificial intelligence attempts to use a black crystal to free Zod, opens a vortex in which another black square is seen, with a figure resembling Zod as portrayed in the Superman movies. The term "Phantom Zone" is not mentioned in either of these two appearances.
Animated
Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited (two shows which are part of the DC Animated Universe) have made use of the Phantom Zone at various times. First mentioned in the pilot episode of Superman: TAS ("The Last Son of Krypton, Part 1"), Jor-El's attempted without success to convince everyone to enter the Phantom Zone to be saved from Krypton's destruction, and one man would be sent via spaceship to re-establish Krypton's population on a new world. Since this idea was not accepted, Jor-El sent his son in the spaceship to Earth, but with the Zone projector. In the episode "Blasts from the Past," Superman, discovers the projector which also has a communication function which allows him to converse with the inmates. Making contact with the convicted traitor Mala (a loose adaptation of Superman II's Ursa) and upon further research, learning that her sentence is finished, he releases her on to Earth. Unfortunately, Superman learns that she is arrogant and hungers for power badly enough to possibly require returning her to the Zone. When she learns that Kal-El prefers the company of a Terran named Lois, she turns against him. She later releases Jax-Ur (a version of General Zod, although named after another comics villain) to take over the Earth. Recaptured into the Zone at the end of the story, they are later accidentally released on another remote planet, and ultimately sent into a black hole.
The near unstoppable Doomsday appeared in another episode, "The Doomsday Sanction," and Superman sends Doomsday into the Phantom Zone after his capture. This use of the Zone, which effectively sentencing Doomsday to life imprisonment without trial, presented massive arguments about the League's right to make such judgments.
Parodies
In the Family Guy episode Lethal Weapons Peter enrages the three Kryptonian villains from Superman II which Lois Griffin promptly sends into the Phantom Zone through the crystal shard.
External link
- Supermanica: Phantom Zone Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Phantom Zonefr:Zone Fantôme