Jax-Ur

Revision as of 15:15, 5 May 2005

"The worst criminal in the Phantom Zone" (Act No. 310, Mar 1964: "Secret of Kryptonite Six!") and one of "the most dangerous evil-doers in the universe!" (Act No. 294, Nov 1962: "The Kryptonite Killer!") A “notorious outlaw” on planet Krypton prior to its destruction (SA No. 5, Sum 1962), Jax-Ur, a renegade scientist as brilliant as he is evil, was exiled into the Phantom Zone for what has been described as “the most monstrous” crime ever committed by a Phantom Zone prisoner: The Destruction, perhaps deliberate, of an inhabited moon of Krypton.Although whether Jax-Ur committed this heinous act with an experimental “nuclear rocket” (Act No. 284, Jan 1962: "The Babe of Steel!") or a diabolical “ray” (Act No. 310, Mar 1964: "Secret of Kryptonite Six!") of his invention cannot be established with absolute certainty. Nor can the length of his sentence be firmly established, for he is described as having been “exiled into the Phantom Zone to serve a thirty-year sentence” in one account and as serving a life sentence in another (Act No. 310, Mar 1964: "Secret of Kryptonite Six!").

Described as “the worst trouble-maker in the [phantom] Zone,” Jax-Ur has attempted to escape from the Zone on numerous occasions. Indeed, although its is the goal of all Phantom Zone prisoners to escape from the Zone and “take over the Earth” (Act No. 310, Mar 1964: "Secret of Kryptonite Six!"), at least one text makes it abundantly clear that Jax-Ur would like nothing better =than to “blow the Earth to smithereens!” (Act No. 284, Jan 1962: "The Babe of Steel!").

Before embarking on a life of crime, Jax-Ur was a young Kryptonian scientist engaged in studying the unique “jewel-minerals” that made up Krypton’s Jewel Mountains. His “secret lab” was located somewhere in these mountains, carved into the face of one of its “glittering peaks.” After one of his experimental devices had obliterated one of Krypton’s moons, Jax-Ur was exiled into the Phantom Zone. But, as was to be the case with all Phantom Zone prisoners, banishment into the Phantom Zone proved to be a blessing is disguise for Jax-Ur, for it enabled him to survive when Krypton exploded. (Act No. 310, Mar 1964: "Secret of Kryptonite Six!")

In January 1962 Jax-Ur and his fellow prisoners seem on the verge of escaping from the Phantom Zone after “the electrical ions of the Aurora Borealis have opened a small hole in the Phantom Zone which is steadily widening,” threatening to release the exiled “super-villains” into the earthly dimension as soon as it becomes “big enough for the Phantom Zone criminals to squeeze through!” Alerted to the threat, however, by their friend Mon-El, Superman, Supergirl, and Krypto the Superdog use the combined power of their X-ray vision to burn up the Aurora Borealis, thereby sealing up the opening through which Jax-Ur and his cohorts had hoped to make their escape. (Act No. 284, Jan 1962: "The Babe of Steel!")

In November 1962, when Superman puts the finishing touches on the new Hall of Enemies in his Fortress of Solitude, Jax-Ur is amoung the villians represented there by colorful wax busts. (Act No. 294, Nov 1962: "The Kryptonite Killer!")

In March 1964, Jax-Ur, feigning repentance for his past crimes, pleads for a chance to redeem himself, and perhaps even win an early parole from the Phantom Zone, by helping Superman find a cure for the “ghastly spotted plague” that is sweeping Atlantis. Released from the Phantom Zone by Superman for a conditional twenty-four hour period, Jax-Ur journeys with Superman through the time space barrier to the planet Krypton “a few months” prior to its destruction, where, in Krypton’s famed Scarlet Jungle, he does indeed lead Superman to the gigantic mushroom-like fungi whose stalls contain “the spore-dust which is the sure for the spotted plague.” Unbeknownst to the Man of Steel, however, Jax-Ur also uses his day of freedom to set in motion a convoluted scheme designed to enable Jax-Ur and his fellow Phantom Zone convicts to blackmail Superman into freeing them all from the Phantom Zone so that they can “take over the Earth!”

The scheme involved duping Superman into believing that exposure to a hitherto unknown type of Kryptonite, so-called “Jewel Kryptonite”, has “turned [him] into a threat against the whole world” by “causing [him] to detonate any explosive material” he approaches, as when he appears to cause a conflagration at a fuel-oil depot, for example, merely by flying overhead. In actuality, there is no such substance as Jewel Kryptonite and the Man of Steel has not really become a menace, but Jax-Ur has succeeded in devising a means whereby he and the other Phantom Zone outlaws can covert their “mental commands” into “energy beams which detonate any material” outside the Phantom Zone they desire, thus enabling them, for a time, to make Superman believe that his very presence on Earth is a threat to Human life, so that he will give in to Jax-Ur’s agreeing to cure him of his supposed “affliction.” Ultimately, however, Superman uncovers the details of Jax-Ur’s “diabolical plot” and takes the necessary steps to prevent the Phantom Zone criminals from ever again being able to use their mental energy to detonate explosive materials on Earth.

“You could have been a free man now! ... A hero to the people of the world!” exclaims Superman to Jax-Ur, referring to the parole the villain would undoubtedly have received in gratitude for his having cured the dreaded Atlantean plague. “But you outwitted yourself!”

“Who wants to be a hero?” sneers Jax-Ur contemptuously. “I’d rather be notorious as the worst criminal in the Phantom Zone!” (Act No. 310, Mar 1964: "Secret of Kryptonite Six!")

(TGSB)

List of stories with Jax-Ur

• (Act No. 284, Jan 1962: "The Babe of Steel!")
• (Adv No. 293, Feb 1962: "The Legion of Super-Traitors!")
• (Act No. 288, May 1962: "The Man Who Made Supergirl Cry!")
• (SPJO No. 62, July 1962: "Superman's Phantom Pal!")
• (Act No. 294, Nov 1962: "The Kryptonite Killer!")
• (S No. 157, Nov 1962: "The Super-Revenge of the Phantom Zone Prisoner!")
• (Act No. 295, Dec 1962: "Superman Goes Wild!")
• (S No. 158, Jan 1963: "Invasion of the Mystery Super-Men!")
• (S No. 158, Jan 1963: "The Dynamic Duo of Kandor!")
• (S No.158, Jan 1963 "The City of Super-People!)
• (Adv No. 305, Feb 1963: "The Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire!")
• (Act No. 297, Feb 1963: "The Forbidden Weapons of Krypton!)
• (Act No. 298, Mar 1963: "The Super-Powers of Lex Luthor!")
• (Act No. 304, Sep 1963: "The Maid of Menace!")
• (S No. 164, Oct 1963: "The Fugitive From the Phantom Zone!")
• (Act No. 309, Feb 1964: "The Untold Story of Argo City!")
• (S No. 167, Feb 1964: "The Downfall of Superman!")
• (Act No. 310, Mar 1964: "Secret of Kryptonite Six!")
• (S No. 179, Aug 1965: "The Menace of Gold Kryptonite!")
• (WF No. 152, Aug 1965: "The Colossal Kids")
• (Act No. 336, Apr 1966: "The Man From the Phantom Zone!")
• (S No. 205, Apr 1968: "The Man Who Destroyed Krypton!")
• (Act No. 368, Oct 1968: "The Unemployed Superman!")
• (S No. 223, Jan 1970: "Half a Hero!")
• (Act No. 389, Jun 1970: "The Superman Legend: Rogues' Gallery!")
• (Adv No. 395, Jul 1970: "The Heroine in the Haunted House!")
• (Adv No. 396, Aug 1970: "I Am a Witch!")
• (S No. 232, Dec 1970/Jan 1971: "Father's Day on Planet Krypton!")
• (S No. 234, Feb 1971: "Prison in the Sky!")
• (SB No. 185, May 1972: "Clark Kent's Super-Father!")
• (NSB No. 9, Sep 1980: "How to Stamp Out a Superboy!")
• (S No. 363, Sep 1981: "The Dying Day of Lois and Lana!")
• (DCCP No. 73, Sep 1984: "Rampage in Scarlet!")
• (DCCP No. 84, Aug 1985: "Give Me Power... Give Me Your World!")
• (DCCP No. 97, Sep 1986: "Phantom Zone: The Final Chapter")

External Links to Online Comics

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen No. 62, Jul 1962: "Superman's Phantom Pal!" [1]

Superman No. 158, Jan 1963: "Superman in Kandor!" [2]