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Phantom Zone

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The Phantom Zone is a fictional prison dimension featured in the Superman comic books and related media. It was frequently used in the Superman comics before the continuity was rebooted in the 1980s, after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and has appeared occasionally since.

Pre-Crisis

The Phantom Zone was discovered by Jor-El and used on the planet Krypton as a method of imprisoning 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 Phantom Zone 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 Phantom 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 Phantom Zone, like the Zone-o-phone, and refinements to the project. In addition, the City of Kandor used the Phantom Zone regularly, with parole hearings sometimes chaired by Superman. 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.

In the Steve Gerber miniseries The Phantom Zone, it was revealed that the Zone not only had a back exit through which villains could escape, but was also home to terrible beasts.

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 Kryptonian 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 projector was also used by Supernova as a basis of his powers and then later used against Skeets who somehow enveloped the Phantom Zone within himself.

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," the "Still Zone," the "Stasis Zone," the "Ghost Zone," and the "Honeycomb," respectively. In post-Crisis/post-Zero Hour continuity, it was Loophole's "Stasis Zone" technology that exiled Mon-El, known in the new continuity as Valor/M'Onel, into the Phantom Zone for a thousand years.

Superman was able to fashion the Phantom Zone technology into an arrow projectile which upon striking a victim will lock them into a movie-version of the Phantom Zone. Roy Harper, the original Speedy, stole this arrow from Superman when the original Teen Titans were invited for a visit many years ago. Roy, however, never used the arrow and passed it on to his replacement, Mia Dearden, who used the arrow in the recent Infinite Crisis on Superboy-Prime. Unfortunatly, he was too strong for even the Phantom Zone, and managed to break out.

At one point, the White Martians imprisoned Batman in the Phantom Zone and took his identity as Bruce Wayne.

Depiction in other media

Movies

In the movies starring Christopher Reeve, the Phantom 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, in Superman II, a nuclear explosion from a bomb Superman was forced to fling from Earth into space inadvertently shatters the prison and releases the prisoners. Now free, General Zod and his cohorts travel to Earth, wreaking havoc with the powers granted to them by Earth'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 Phantom Zone where it shatters, casting her to the barren ground of what appears to be a desolate world.

Television

DC Animated Universe

Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited have made use of the Phantom Zone at various times. The Phantom Zone is first mentioned in the first episode of Superman: The Animated Series, "The Last Son of Krypton, Part 1," where Jor-El attempted 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 along with the Phantom Zone projector.

In the episode "Blasts from the Past," Superman discovers the Phantom Zone projector, which also has a communication function that 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. Unfortunately, Superman learns that Mala is arrogant and power-hungry badly enough to possibly require returning her to the Phantom Zone. When she learns that Kal-El prefers the company of a certain Terran named Lois Lane, Mala turns against Superman and later releases Jax-Ur (a version of General Zod, although named after another villain from the Superman comics) to take over Earth. Banished once again into the Phantom Zone at the end of the story, Jax-Ur and Mala are later accidentally released on another remote planet, and ultimately sent into a black hole.

In the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Doomsday Sanction," Superman and the Justice League send the nearly unstoppable Doomsday into the Phantom Zone after his capture. This usage of the Phantom Zone, effectively sentencing Doomsday to life imprisonment without trial, presented massive arguments about the Justice League's right to make such judgments. Batman was especially troubled by this move.

Smallville

In the television series Smallville, in the fifth season premiere "Arrival", Clark Kent battles two Kryptonians, and when he refuses to join them in their quest to subjugate Earth, the Kryptonians attempt to banish Clark to the Phantom Zone using a metallic bracelet, inscribed with Kryptonian symbols, that opens up a vortex. However, Clark manages to turn the tables, sending them into the portal instead. Aside from its entrance, the Phantom Zone is represented as a floating black square similar to its depiction in the Superman films.

In the episode "Solitude," the Kryptonian artificial intelligence known as Brainiac, posing as Professor Milton Fine, manipulates Clark into believing that Jor-El is responsible for Martha's mysterious illness; this is all part of a plot to free the imprisoned General Zod. Professor Fine persuades Clark to take him to the Fortress of Solitude, where he gives Clark a black crystal and instructs him to insert it into the Fortress' control console, misleadingly saying that it will destroy Jor-El and therefore save Martha. However, the crystal, once inserted into the console, instead opens up a vortex in which another black square is seen, with a figure resembling General Zod as portrayed in the Superman movies. However, Brainiac's plan is thwarted once Clark removes the crystal.

In the episode "Vessel," General Zod is finally freed from the Phantom Zone. After inhabiting Lex Luthor, Zod traps Clark inside the Phantom Zone, using a Kryptonian bracelet similar to the one used in the episode "Arrival."

In the season premiere of the sixth season, the Phantom Zone itself is shown as a desolate wasteland, and it is revealed that it was found by Jor-El, not created, as a prison for not only Kryptonian convicts, but also criminals from the "28 known galaxies." Most of the prisoners (i.e. General Zod) are stripped of their corporeal forms, and their spirits are then cast into the Zone.

Clark escapes with the help of a Kryptonian woman named Raya, who claims to have known Jor-El. Upon escaping the Phantom Zone, he accidentally releases Raya and various prisoners and phantoms to Earth. Chloe Sullivan later refers to the escaped convicts as "Zoners."

Other DC Animated Works

  • In the direct-to-video animated feature Superman: Brainiac Attacks, Superman must enter the Phantom Zone to retrieve a rare element which will cure Lois Lane of a deadly disease. This version of the Phantom Zone differs from previous animated continuity, as it is shown to actually be populated by "phantoms."
  • In the animated series Legion of Super Heroes, the Phantom Zone is close to its classical portrayal, in that it is a parallel dimension where criminals are sent. As a throwback to the Pre-Crisis version, inhabitants of the Zone become incorporeal - essentially, ghost-like phantoms, thus giving the Zone its name. In this series, Superman discovers his previous self's Phantom Zone projector, which he accidentally uses to free a villain named Drax. The projector is eventually turned on the other Legionnaires, but with Phantom Girl's help, they manage to escape without it and send Drax back at the same time.

Parodies

In the Family Guy episode "Lethal Weapons," Peter enrages the three Kryptonian villains from Superman II which Lois promptly sends into the Phantom Zone through the crystal shard.

In the South Park episode "Krazy Kripples," Christopher Reeve is sent into space in the crystal shard Phantom Zone after stem cells give him superpowers which ironically make him evil in that episode.

In the beginning of the second season of Robot Chicken, Seth Green gets sentenced to cancellation and gets put into the Phantom Zone and the Phantom Zone gets hit by a UFO, releasing him and he gets his second season.

The Galacticast video blog parodies the Phantom Zone in the episode Superman I.V where the three criminals come to grip with cramped quarters and lack of personal hygiene.

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