Jor-El I
Jor-El I
The famous scientist father of the more famous Kryptonian scientist Jor-El II, and therefore the grandfather of his son Kal-El--the legendary hero better known as Superman. Jor-El I is also the father of Nim-El and Zor-El and the grandfather of Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) and Don-El (WK No. 1, Jul 1979: "The Jor-El Story"; and others).
When Jor-El II and his twin brother Nim-El were still infants, Jor-El I succeeded in journeying to Earth and back in an experimental spacecraft of his own design (S No. 103/1, Feb 1956: "The Superman of Yesterday"), and although knowledge of the craft's construction had apparently been lost to Kryptonians by the time Jor-El II reached maturity (Act No. 158, Jul 1951: "The Kid from Krypton!"; and others), there can be little doubt that his father's achievement served to inspire his own explorations into the then-infant sciences of rocketry and space travel. (TGSB)
Shortly after the marriage of Jor-El II to Lara Lor-Van, the elder Jor-El summons his son to the ruins of Antarctic City. Jor-El I has recently made two important discoveries. Before he can tell his son what he has discovered, the rocket-sled in which the two scientists are traveling is overturned by an ice bird. Jor-El I is rendered comatose. During his coma, the younger Jor-El uncovers one of his father's discoveries from Jor-El I's notes. Krypton is going to explode!
Sometime later, Jor-El I awakens from his coma just long enough to tell his son of his other discovery. Jor-El I has found an ancient spaceship built by the alien Krull race. He hopes that Jor-El II will be able to reverse-engineer the technology found in this ship to build a fleet of craft capable of evacuating the people of Krypton. Jor-El I then expires from the injuries sustained in the ice bird attack.
Jor-El II swiftly begins working on ships to save his people in the capital city of Kandor. However, Kandor is soon shrunken and bottled by the Coluan android menace called Brainiac. In the end, Jor-El II is only able to build a small rocket large enough to send his infant son Kal-El to Earth before the destruction of Krypton (WK No. 2, Aug 1979, "This Planet Is Doomed!"; WK No. 3, Sep 1979: "The Last Days of Krypton"; and others).
