In this short look at Superman's parents, I'm going to use the more conventional "Jor-El" and "Lara" rather than "Jor-L" and "Lora" as used in their first appearance in the comic strip. Jor-L/El are pronounced the same, and Lara/Lora is actually pronounced close to "Laura", halfway between the two vowels. As usual, I am treating Siegel's stories as the main source for the facts here, for incorporating all the different versions of Jor-El and Lara by different writers would result in a hopelessly confused and contradictory picture. (Even there, with Siegel's stories alone, there are some contradictions, but many of them can be seen by trying to match the continuity of stories by later writers.)

On this world, two young people found and married each other. Both were of distinguished lines, but young Jor-El II, son of Jor-El I of the house of El, was perhaps the most distinguished. (Even though the El family had so many descendents that "El" was a relatively common name on Krypton.) He would become Krypton's "foremost scientist" and his brother, Zor-El, would also become a scientist.

At their marriage, in the Palace of Marriage, they exchanged bracelets whose color-coding was unique to the two of them. Busts of their parents adorned the hall, as was the custom.

Even then he was a famed scientist, doing extremely advanced work at a missile base/aerospace complex.

It's unclear what Lara/Lora's occupation was. E. Nelson Bridwell thought she was an astronaut. Otto Binder thought she was a robot repair woman, and part time agent for the Krypton Bureau of Investigation. Byrne was of the opinion she was a librarian.

Siegel is totally silent on the matter.

We don't know.

They had many friends in the non-scientific community. They were friends with the glamorous and beautiful Lyla Lerrol, an emotion-movie actress, and would sometimes go dancing at anti-gravity dance ballrooms with her and her date. (At one point Lyla dated Kal-El, an assistant of Jor-El's at the missile base, before his tragic date. This Kal-El became the namesake of their son, and Jerry Siegel in "Superman's Return to Krypton" used time-travel to make the two Kal-Els one. In reality, the first Kal-El was merely an assistant of Jor-El's, who happened to have the same last name.)

They also enjoyed art, often visiting the Mind-Art Center, where, by means of a complex apparatus called a "mento-ray," designed to freeze the artist's mental pictures on canvas, Kryptonian artists created art masterpieces by merely envisioning them in their minds.

Jor-El, of course, had friends in the scientific community, as well, such as Ken-Dal, a famed robotocist.

How did Jor-El get so famous? We know from a Siegel-written Legion of Super-Heroes story, "The Eight Impossible Missions", that Jor-El stopped a scientific villain, "The Mighty Gazor", who was dying from old age (thus we know Kryptonians do die of old age, eventually, although their lifespan is at least a thousand years, according to other sources) used an Earthquake machine to try to take Krypton to perish with him. He would have succeeded, except a shock-wave locator-rod Jor-El invented allowed Jor-El to find Gazor's secret laboratory and destroy the earthquake machine.

As a reward for that great deed, Jor-El was given his "greatest award", custody of the brain of Garf-Og, a great genius whose living brain was preserved in a crystal globe when the rest of his body perished. Garf-Og, still conscious, though a disembodied brain in a globe, would give Jor-El advice on scientific matters. (Strikingly similarly to the head of Mimir giving advice to Odin...)

That may explain why he was able to make so many different discoveries, having another great scientist's brain at his beck and call....

It certainly shows that Jor-El, who saved his world from destruction from a villainous scientific genius, passed on some traits to his son...

It is untrue that Jor-El built a "Phantom Zone" ray. That concept, introduced by a Superboy story by Robert Bernstein, although entertaining, was a total fictionalization. Mon-El was preserved in a similar zone, invented by Daxxamites, a sort of "Survival Zone", not a punishment.

Now, we come to an actual discrepancy in Siegel's writings. According to "Superman's Return to Krypton", Jor-El knew about Krypton's coming destruction since at least the early years of his marriage. According to the opening sequence in the newspaper strip, it didn't occur to him until after Kal-El was born. In general, I would defer to the newspaper strip, which was the first account, free of additions by other authors...but not in this case. No other author had hinted, prior to this, that Jor-El knew so early. Of course, that does bring up a puzzling problem---why did Jor-El and Lara have a child, if they thought their world was doomed? Yet any birth control is not perfect, and they may have thought that Jor-El's many efforts to try to preserve their world would be heeded, would succeed. Siegel was corrected on his Kryptonian knowledge by Supergirl, when she landed, who came from a Kryptonian culture. That explains the vast number of Siegel-written Krypton oriented stories of the late fifties and sixties about the Scarlet Jungle, Life on Krypton, and of course, Superman's "Return" to Krypton.

At that early stage he was "practically positive" of the destruction, as he admitted to his lab assistant, Kal-El, who would become his son's namesake. They journeyed to far Meteor Valley to take some readings that would confirm same, flying past such Kryptonian wonders as Gold Volcano and Fire Falls.

It was Lara who first suggested the solution.

"How free and aloof those stars are! How distant from the impending doom! Oh, Jor-El! If only we, too, could be up there, safe to pursue our lives as we please!"

"Lara! Lara, you've struck upon the solution."

"I've what?"

"Up there! Among those stars. There lies our security! I'll build a ship...an ark of space. We'll transport our planet's entire population to another world!...Then, by all the powers, let Krypton blow itself to eternity---for all we care!"

He also disclosed his close telescopic fascination with Earth. With Krypton's advanced observation equipment, the "hypertelescopes" he could even observe ground details of Earth, which he considered the closest world that could support their kind of life...which means Krypton's sun must be further from Alpha Centauri than ours, since Rann, an earthlike world, circles Alpha Centauri. (The hypertelescopes must be more than mere refractive telescopes, because there is no way such detail can be retrieved over a distance of light-years.)

According to "Superman's Return to Krypton" he had even been secretly observing the courtship of Jonathan and Martha Kent. I suspect that last was a matter of hyperbole, to aid in the drama, with the fictional addition of Superman helping expose a swindler and thus bringing his foster-parents together. (However, the drama between the swindler and Jonathan and Martha might have happened---if so, both the swindler and Jonathan had early automobiles such as the Roper Steam Carriage.) It was implied by that story that they were somehow observing Earth "real-time", getting around the lightspeed barrier. It might be possible...

Yet there are too many "ifs" in this to what was basically a fictional addendum to take this really seriously.

With the help of his friend and assistant, Kal-El, and the robotics expert and friend, Ken-Dal, a giant robot was made to assist in building a giant space ark. Jor-El made an announcement of his findings and those who believed in him streamed to the city, to go on the first trip to Earth....

Unfortunately, the city they had built the Ark in was Ken-Dal's home city---the then-capital of Krypton--Kandor. Brainiac, a supercomputer from the planet Colu, had been observing the super-powered Kryptonians. Previously, their attempts at space travel had been limited to their own moon. Yet if the awesomely-powered Kryptonians, with their advanced technology, became an interstellar power, they could be a threat to Brainiac's own ambitions.

Lamentably, Brainiac did not shrink the entire city of Kandor and put it into a bottle---that would take more energy than the Milky Way Galaxy contains and the Kandorians would observe bizarre effects due to the cube-square law at their near-microscopic height that would render living nearly impossible. Instead, he destroyed Kandor, including the Space Ark.

Jor-El and Lara had been rushing to Kandor to join them, and had witnessed the destruction of Kandor. This destruction had a twofold effect: it increased the xenophobia of the remaining Kryptonians, who felt that space was a dangerous place and no place they would like to go--- and also destroyed those Kryptonians who had been most accepting of his plan and had the greatest trust in him and his evidence. The sceptics were the ones who remained.

Kal-El, Jor-El's assistant and Lyla Lerrol's fiance, died in an accident at an emotion-movie set. When Lara got pregnant, she decided to name the new child after their deceased friend. Jor-El, typically, had been busy with his experiments when Lara finally gave birth. When he heard about it, he "races along at a terrific speed that would outdistance the fastest express train," and "a great leap" carries Jor-El "hundreds of yards into the air to a balcony near the top of his home."

"Jor-El! You've come!"

"As quickly as I could! Lara, my beloved, where is he--our newborn son?"

"Jor-El, I'm afraid our newborn son, Kal-El, is rather a roughneck. He gave the doctor a discoloured eye, and I've had difficulty in preventing his leaping from my arms."

"Just like your dad."

"Are you happy,dear?"

"More than I can ever---" Suddenly the room began to quiver.First slowly, then with increasing violence...

"Jor-El! W-what--?"

"A groundquake!"

Clutched in the tremor's merciless fury, Jor-El's home commences to topple under the terrific strain.

"Lara---Kal-El...under that wreckage! I've got to save them!" Jor-El proceeded to fling great masses to one side, until he found...

"Lara! You're all right--both of you?"

"Yes---but there have been so many terrible groundquakes recently--?"

Contrary to what Siegel originally wrote, Lara did not question why there were so many tremors. She knew exactly why, as they leaped to Jor-El's other residence.

"How peacefully our little darling sleeps! He's too lost in slumber to be bothered by the fact that soon our world will be torn asunder, killing us all!"

"Lara, it's not right for him to die! He's young...he's entitled to a rich, full life...and we'd made such wonderful plans for him!"

They'd have to build another space ark.

"But to build this vast space-ship, which you propose to transport our civilization to another world, you will need the assistance of many men---"

"I'll go to Retoz, the Council-Chairman, and ask for the Council's support!"

However, doomsayers are not the most popular of people...

"But I tell you, Retoz! It's the only way we can save everyone from a terrible death!--You've got to believe, and help me!"

"Sorry, Jor-El. The council believes your fears are unfounded---we'd advise you to forget this silly tale of Krypton's coming doom."

Later he came back to Lara.

"You saw the council?"

"They laughed at me---doubted my sanity---because of their stupidity, a world will die."

"No, Jor-El, you mustn't be discouraged.---With or without the council's assistance, you must build this space-vessel."

"Well, at least you and little Kal-El believe in me."

Month follows month as Jor-El pits his mighty brain against the numerous obstacles to interplanetary travel. He bore interruptions---at one point a juvenile delinquent from the family next door, Dev-Em, was discovered going through his papers, and Jor-El let him go with a warning. (Despite what Siegel wrote, Dev-Em and his family did not survive Krypton's destruction, but the first part of the story, about Dev-Em's mischief on Krypton, is more-or-less true.)

Then...

"I've finished it, Lara! The model space-flier...it's ready for the trial journey!"

"That's grand!"

"As you see, it's really nothing but a mere toy. But should its automatically guided flight to Earth prove successful, I'll commence to construct a giant space ship at once."

"The planet Earth?"

"Yes. Telescopic observation has convinced me that Earth is the only nearby planet capable of supporting life---now for the demonstration!"

Jor-El reached for the switch that would launch the model space-ship upon its momentous flight across space to Earth, but as he was about to touch the switch's handle, he is flung off-balance by a sudden lurching of the roof...

"Groundquake!" yelled Lara. "Look---the ground---heaving---parting---flaming---"

"The end has come sooner than I expected! Not a second to lose! The model-flier will hold one of us!"

"If only one of us can escape, then it must be our child!"

Up--up from Jor-El's laboratory streaked the rocket-ship bearing Kal-El from certain destruction. An instant after their glorious, self-sacrificing gesture, Jor-El and Lara perish in the earthquake's awful grip! In still another instant, the tremendous planet of Krypton explodes into a million fragments. Rocket by the explosion, but escaping annihilation, the little rocket-vessel continues on its way to Earth...it's cargo, the sole survivor of a once mighty civilization.

(Well, not quite the sole survivor---Jor-El's brother, Zor-El, and the city he was on survived the explosion in a weatherproof dome and earthquake shock-absorbers, on an asteroid-like fragment. They would all later die, but not until Kal-El's cousin Kara was born in 1944, and, grown to fifteen years old, similarly escaped her doomed city.)

Still, billions of superhumans had perished in the destruction of Krypton....as well as two lovers who left a living legacy speeding towards another planet.

PARTIAL LIST OF SOURCES:

Of course, TARZAN ALIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE by Philip Jose Farmer.

GLADIATOR, Philip Wylie.

Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I messed up, contact me at...
E-Mail:al.schroeder@nashville.com

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Speculations Copyright © Al Schroeder. Superman is owned by DC Comics, Warner Communications, and the Siegels. All other characters copyrighted by their respective owners.