| Identity |Lor-Zod (Superboy)
| Origin & Backstory |
tl;dr said
Lor-Zod is the son of General Dru-Zod and his lieutenant Ursa, born after their exile into the Phantom Zone and raised by both his parents in the wake of Krypton's destruction.
If there could have been a King of Krypton, General Dru-Zod was such a man. A great strategist, he emerged as the preeminent soldier in the Daxamite-Krypton War that shattered all connections between Krypton and the last of it's former colonies, leaving the former celestial empire in stagnation as more xenophobic and anti-exploration policies began to be put in place by the ruling council of Krypton, led by Jax-Ur. General Zod was believed to have had great potential as a scientist, if not for the caste that he was born into and the outbreak of the colonial wars. He made friends with two of Krypton's top scientific minds, the outspoken Non and Jor-El. In the social and economic slump that followed after the negotiated armistice concluded the Daxamite War, with exploration now forbidden to Krypton, it was this trio that undertook a movement to return Krypton to the stars. Except this time, there was a new motivation for exploration.
Krypton was dying. The planet's resources were exhausted. Overpopulation and changes in Krypton's sun spelled out a coming devastation to the planet, but Jax-Ur and the council would hear none of it.
To respond to the crisis, Zod, Non, and Jor-El had designed a new kind of colonial ship -- one capable of travel beyond anywhere that Krypton had traveled before, using a gravitational drive that would open a portal into a dimension that Jor-El had discovered and dubbed The Phantom Zone. By passing through this 'sub-space', the ship could emerge at a location lightyears apart and experience no passage of time. The trio went to the council to present their discovery and their solution, and were charged with treason against the planet Krypton for 'creating an atmosphere in which the population would panic.'
When Non would not be silenced, the great scientific mind of their time was imprisoned and mutilated, rendering him mute. To ensure Zod's loyalty, the council imprisoned with Non the mate of General Zod, the woman Ursa, who was with child. Jor-El accepted the vow of silence pressed on him by the council, taking leave to make his own preparations to save those that he might still save. Zod's loyalty, however, was not as secure as the council might have hoped. A revolt broke out, one which resulted in the assassination of everyone on the council but one -- Jax-Ur.
Freeing Non and Ursa from their prison, Zod watched as Krypton began to break apart as the civil war swelled into the mass hysteria that the council had predicted would occur. He tried to make it to Jor-El, but it was too late. The general boarded the colonial ship and gave the command to make the jump into the Phantom Zone. That ship disappeared as Krypton was destroyed, vanishing into the night unaware of two rockets en route to a distant world orbiting a yellow sun.
Seventeen years passed, as those on Earth count time. The ship emerged out of the Phantom Zone at a location in empty space, unaware of the time that had passed. With few survivors left of the once great Krypton Empire, General Zod set out to try and find a world that could be their new home. Months passed. Ursa gave birth to a boy, who was named Lor for Ursa's father, who had been the general that had instructed Dru-Zod in the arts of war. The birth of Lor-Zod was seen as an omen, the first of a new generation of Kryptonians who would know nothing of Krypton. And yet, their existence would be their survival.
Seven years later, the ship continues to search the stars for a place to call home. Trading where it can, fighting where they must, protecting their own and guarding their children as their future. Lor-Zod is the oldest of a handful of such New Kryptonians, the leader of the children with a young Kryptonian canine at his side.
| Character Notes |• URSA-ON - Academic caste, a laboratory assistant to Non who had been promised to him in an arrangement by her family and his. Broke tradition and defied both families when she instead mated with Dru-Zod, causing significant disruption between the House of Ka and the House of Zod which may have led to the decision to have Dru-Zod transferred to the battle front in the Daxamite Conflict. Like Dru-Zod, she despises the caste system but is more public about her thoughts, having a desire to have been Warrior caste.
• NON-KA - Academic caste. The shell of a once great scientific mind, rendered mute and partially lobotomized by Jax-Ur in order to prevent the scientist from revealing the nature of Krypton's problems to the public at large, and send a message to Zod at the same time of what would happen to others if the council's decision were to be countermanded.
• KRYPTO - A young Kryptonian canine and Lor-Zod's frequent companion.
• CAT GRANT - Former gossip columnist at the Daily Planet. A single parent, divorced, who has taken a job as the editor of the Smallville Morning News in order to raise her son outside of the rat race of Metropolis.
• ADAM GRANT - The son of Cat Grant. A 7 year old, going on 8, who is about to start third grade at Smallville Elementary and Superman's self-professed biggest fan.
| Powers & Abilities |Lor is a full-blooded Kryptonian, possessing all the qualities, attributes, and weaknesses of the species with a developing juvenile physiology. Lor-Zod's genetics differ from that of a natural Kryptonian's because of the exposure to the Phantom Zone while in the womb, making him capable, despite his youth, of manifesting a scaled down version of the same powers as Superman when exposed to yellow sun radiation: Superhuman Strength, Stamina (so-called "Invulnerability"), Vision (telescopic, x-ray, ocular heat blasts), Breath, and Flight.
He is not as strong as a Kryptonian adult, but many times more so than a human. Absent that charge from a yellow sun, Lor-Zod is no different from a human child of similar age, other than he keeps the anatomical differences between Kryptonians and humans obviously. As with other Kryptonians, Lor-Zod is depowered and weakened by exposure to red sun radiation or kryptonite.
| How Is This Character Different? |The major departure is the relationship between Dru-Zod and Lor-Zod. That being, in the DCU there was no relationship. Lor-Zod didn't even recognize Dru-Zod or Ursa, so instead he emulated the example of Kal-El and Lois Lane. In the Ultimate continuity, there's an actual parent-child relationship between Dru-Zod and Lor-Zod. From Lor-Zod's perspective, his parents are like gods. Dru-Zod isn't just his father, he is his role model. Lor-Zod wants to be Dru-Zod. I've also painted Dru-Zod as more of a Walking the Line character than a straight stick villain. I'm also making changing his age from DCU continuity. As demonstrated visually in terms of appearance and in the dialogue he used, DCU Lor-Zod seemed to change between 6 and 12 in the various issues and titles he appeared in. He was stated by Lois to be 12, yet in his initial appearance he is playing with blocks which suggests elementary age vice middle school age. For UDC purposes I'm splitting the middle and assuming him to be around 8 years old.
| What is your goal with this character? |Honestly it wasn't until I joined UDC that I'd ever even heard of this character. My DC fandom starts and ends with Batman generally, but I was doing a wiki crawl and stumbled across a picture of the character sacrificing himself in Action Comics Annual #11, flying out of Superman's reach with the words "up, up, and away" and had about a million and one ideas slam into my head. Ever since Smallville came out, with its references to Clark's childhood (shattering his crib, throwing a bully through a door when he was in the 3rd grade, etc), I've wondered how writers might develop a Kryptonian character as a child. Sadly, in the case of DC canon, the writer's appear to have elected to create him and write him out with equal speed in order to transform him into a teenager, though he's now even older. So this is me trying to flesh out a part of the Superman mythos that's been by large shunned: What does the world do with a Superchild? He'd be capable of feats both heroic and terrible. And that's more or less what I plan to do with him: He's large, in charge, and when he's done with his nap you will kneel before Zod!
| Sample Post |Benedict Arnold Elementary SchoolMetropolis, MA"What do you have today?"
Part of the education experience was an unofficial course which every kid dabbled in throughout their formative years which could best be likened to an Introduction to the Black Market. Unlike traditional courses of education, this one had no instructor and most often took place in the school cafeteria. "Bologna Lunchable," the young Kryptonian reported, despite not having yet opened his Ben 10 lunch box.
That was another part of the daily game. "What do I have?" Adam Grant asked, pushing his own Star Wars lunch box closer to the Superboy.
"Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, and a Capri Sun," Lor-Zod answered with a sigh. Pointing at the plain, brown paper bag of another student the boy added, "Tommy Jenkins has the best. He's got pizza." Having been raised in the ethereal dimension of the Phantom Zone, Lor actually had no idea just what his parents liked to eat... but he had every idea that bologna Lunchables probably weren't an appropriate food for a warrior's son.
"Oh," Adam chirped, with a disappointed gaze at his own lunch. Perking up slightly, the flaxen-haired youth opined, "Hey! Its sloppy joe day. We could buy school lunch! How much money do you have?"
"Uh, two of those large silver things and a penny," Lor answered, fumbling through his pockets. "Wait, its not a penny... just an old gum wrapper."
"Oh," Adam answered, deflated. "All I have is a dollar."
The two boys each sighed as they rested with their heads in their hands and looked out across their lunch boxes at the kid happily munching away on his pizza.
"Wanna trade?"
Lor pushed his lunch box over to Adam, the pair swapping the disappointed meals that had been prepared for them. "Seriously, you saved Texas and all you got for it was a bologna Lunchable? Not even a Happy Meal?" Adam commented, as he began to open and assemble the Lunchable.
Without answering, Lor popped open the Star Wars lunch box and took out the juice box.
"Have you made up your Christmas list yet?"
The question made the Kryptonian pause. It wasn't the first time that he'd heard mention of this term. "What's Christmas?"
"What's Christmas!?" Adam all-but-screamed, a look of horror crossing his young features as though suddenly he viewed Superboy as a heretic of the worst sort. "Seriously, its, like, only the best holiday EVER!"
Lor planted the straw down into the Capri Sun pouch and took a sip as he contemplated how his friend could answer a question without ever actually answering the question. "But what is Christmas?" the alien child demanded quietly.
"Christmas is about how Santa died for our gifts, and rose from the dead, and... moved to the North Pole. And..." Adam answered, his enthusiasm sparking the boy to gesture wildly as he talked, sending bits of cracker and cheese flying across the cafeteria. "And because of that, every year Santa comes down to forgive us our sins and give us eternal presents!"
Lor-Zod took a sip of his juice. Blinked. And simply asked, "Seriously?"
"Yeah," Adam answered with an exaggerated nod and a large grin plastered across his face.
Lor just blinked a second time, set his juice back on the table and, looking his friend in the eye, said, "Humans are really,
really strange."
The other boy got the same look on his face as he usually did before he either punched Lor in the arm or kicked him in the shin, both of which typically hurt Adam a lot more than it did the Superboy. "Well what do Kryptonians celebra--" Adam began to retort hotly.
And that was when something blew up.
Even with his multi-dimensional senses and faster reaction time, it would have been hard for Lor-Zod to have described the exact sequence of events. There was an explosion, the lights went out, the fire extinguishers overhead suddenly dumped water on the cafeteria, and there were voices of a hundred children crying out in terror simultaneously. Or maybe the screaming came before the water began showering down. It was hard to tell.
When you had super-hearing, the screaming part of the whole ordeal was what really,
really sucked.
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