Copy-Cat Kryptons Cause Confusion for Kryptonian Crusaders

Jor-El and Jor-L as well as their younger brothers Zor-El and Zor-L were brilliant scientists, who’s most inventions not only benefited their respective Kryptons, but also save the lives of the Jors’ sons named Kal and the Zors’ daughters named  Kara. However, Jor-El and Zor-L literally preserved a synthetic copy of their doomed worlds

Krypton II was originally devised as a diversionary tactic by Jor-El to protect Krypton-One from a potential impending invasion of an alien race. Utilizing his atom-scan ray into empty space far from his world, both projecting a virtual reality copy of his planet which was able to gravitationally attract meteors to this massive global image, giving the image of Krypton physical substance. Populated with android replicas of the Kryptonians*, these robots planted numerous death-traps for the invaders.

Another Krypton II was originally developed by Zor-L as a cognitive means of instructing his daughter Kara during her long voyage to her adopted world of Earth-Two. Within this virtual reality, synthetic replicas of the Kryptonians were created to interact with Kara, helping her form familial and social bonds with others throughout the decades.

When adult Kal-El, now known as Superman, first encounters Krypton II as it was on a collison course with Earth-One, he was initially confused as to how his homeworld could still exist. Once he began interacting with its various inhabitants such as his father Jor-El and his former fiancée Lyla Lerrol, he noticed their strange behavior. Once a series of disasters were triggered by his presense, he began to realize all was not what it seemed. In fact, he was triggering the traps the androids laid for their alien invaders, most of whom never arrived on Krypton II. Once this patchwork planet was destroyed when it was consumed by its satellite synthetic red sun, Superman returned to his adopted home now filled with memories of his birth world and those he lost.

When adult Kara Zor-L, now known as Power Girl, was once more assimilated by the Symbioship which housed the virtual Krpton while transporting her to her adopted world, she found its virtual Kryptonians equally acting strangely. Their mission, to keep her on this Krypton II forevermore, was thwarted by Kara's superior willpower, with this image of her home planet now erased from existence.

Zor-El and Jor-L were equally adept intellectuals, not only with their mastery over rocketry that match their brothers' skill, bur in other practical scientific fields. And yet, It was Jor-El and Zor-L who were able to manufacture life-like projections** of Krypton-One and Krypton-Two... either in intergalactic space or within the human mind, along with innumerable artificial replicas which replicated their original Kryptonian models so exactly that they even fooled Kal-El and Kara Zor-L.

And even if Superman and Power Girl had wished to stay on these virtual replicas of Krypton, they each knew they had a responsibility to Earths One and Two, to protect them with their superhuman abilities!

* Jor-El's Krypton II in space would not have had its own Kandor, which had already been shrunken and stolen by another android, named Brainiac. Zor-L's Krypton II within the Symbioship virtual world would've still included Kandor and its inhabitants, as it had remained on Krypton-Two until the planet expired.

** The Symbioship displayed the capability of projecting images of itself, such as when it distracted Power Girl’s cousin Kal-L over the skies of Metropolis while it attempted to assimilate her in Gotham City.

Whatever Happened to... the Lost Moons of Krypton?

Both Kryptons in the universes of Earths One and Two had twin moons encircling those now extinct planets. One of these moons was named Mithen, and was less notable than their famous  celestrial contemporaries. Meet Wegthor and Koron.

Wegthor was the primary moon of Krypton-One, which was colonized as a lunar colony staff with 500 colonists. These Kryptonians and their new home were destroyed by a missle, built and sent by the scientist Jax-Ur, which strayed from its intended trajectory of an astronid. Jax-Ur was banished to the Phantom Zone for this serious infraction.

Koron was its twin, which orbited Krypton-Two. When an experimental life-extending serum created by Zor-L was used on a gigantic Snagriff, which made it invulnerable and changed its metabolism. To save his world from the creature, Jor-L exiled it to Koron, which was later propelled from its parent planet when Krypton-Two exploded. The Snagriff at almost all the moon, until it entered Earth-Two's orbit when it disintegrated. Later, the Snagriff joined it when consuming several volatile atomic bombs while battling its jailer's son, Superman!

Superman's Famous Formative Family

Superman started out as an infant alien orphan jettisoned into space when his home world and all its inhabitants, including most of his family, perished in an explosive cataclysm. Despite this, he found family and friends who became a part of his family, some from his native Krypton and others from his new home on Earth. This is the story of the golden age and modern day Supermen born Kal-El and Kal-L.

Kal-El would later meet his parents Jor-El and Lora on the wedding ceremony, after he had accidentally pierced the barrier in time and space which separated him from them, and was with them just prior to when he would be born. Through mishap, he would survive when cast as an actor in a drama, cast adrift in a space ship. 

Kal-L had himself never had knowledge of his past as had his counterpart, as he hadn't been given a memory teacher like his twin to recall key events on his Krypton. Additionally, he was a new born when leaving his world, while Kal-El had lived on that world for a couple years before it detonated and he was sent hurtling to Earth.

As such, when Kal-L sought to track the origin of a green meteorite that criminal Swami Riva used to weaken him, he discovered his parents Zor-L and Lara, although since he arrived at the time that he was born, he appeared on his Krypton as a phantom, since he couldn't exist two places at the same time. Kal-El had the opportunity to interact with his parents, becoming a lab assistant of his fathers and romancing a famous movie star there!

Immediately upon arrival to his new home on Earth-One, the toddler Kal-El who became known as Clark Kent manifested superhuman powers which his adopted parents had to train him to harness responsibly. Although initially an older couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent regained their youthful appearance, and with this had the stamina along with patience to tutor young Clark into becoming the caped crusader known as Superboy. This lad would become his hometown of Smallville's heroic champion, gaining foes in Kryptonite Kid and Lex Luthor, among others.

Superboy would even be recruited into the 30th century teenage team, the Legion of Super-Heroes, as he was their inspiration.

On one occasion during his late teen years, a mishap with a tornado caused Superboy to travel to Earth-Two, decades prior to his own time period, where he met a near identical Clark Kent. This Clark hadn't manifested quite the range of superpowers as had his counterpart, although he did show phenomenal strength in an orphanage before being adopted by the couple who found him. This couple, John and Mary Kent, remained older and thus weren't as prepared to groom their son into a budding mystery man, as superheroes there were called. After attempting a brief career as Masked Wonder, Clark resolved to become Superman after following the example of Superboy.

One of the earliest friends whom Superboy met was his alter ego's next door neighbor, Lana Lang, who along with her family moved in next door early in his costumed career. Lana would begin to have an on again off again romance with Superboy, while scoffing at her clumsy classmate Clark.

While this Lana had a wealth of experience with both identities of Kal-El, her counterpart on Earth-Two didn't have the same opportunity. While Lana on Earth-One had moved to the town along with her father Professor Lewis Lang and her mother, where Superboy resided, this Lana and her parents moved from Smallville before she would have had opportunity to go to school with her world's Clark. As such, Clark met Lana when they were adults, and after he had already married Lois Lane. Because of this, they did not have a romance as had their dopplegangers, and remained plutonic friends. Later, Superman would meet Professor Lang when both sought to free Lana from the influence of a scarab her fatther discovered and gifted to her.

Back on Earth-One, the relationship between Lois and Lana was always a hot source of contention, with each lady attempting to win the right to be the girlfriend and, ultimately, wife of Superman. They even became superheroines on occasion when they had been granted powers. Both shared the bio-ring that Lana had been gifted, each would become an Insect Queen. While Lois also had the alter ego of Power Girl and later Super Woman, Lana beat her to the punch when she was given a pair of alien belts her father found on archeaologist digs, becoming Sky Girl and Gravity Girl.

The older Earth-Two Professor Lang also found an item of power in the form of the scarab broach which transformed his daughter into Insect Queen, who at first was evil but turned good with the help of Lois and her husband Superman. Lois had herself had experience on a couple of occasions as Super Woman, but would gift the Power Girl alter ego to her adopted daughter years later... Kal-L's cousin Kara Zor-L. Unlike that Kara, the Kara Zor-El of Earth-One settled on a name honoring her cousin when she became Supergirl. And she would have parents and cousins who lived in the bottled city of Kandor-One, while the L's only had virtual versions of their Kryptonian kin in a synthetic Kandor-Two housed within Power Girl's Symbioship that saved her life.

Superwomen of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

While the greatest superhero on any world is Superman, the woman... or rather women... behind him goes by the name of Lois Lane. And, on rare occasions, as Superwoman!

Of course, there are the preeminent superwomen in the Supermen's Kryptonian cousins of Kara Zor-El and Kara Zor-L aka Supergirl and Power Girl who would each take up the mantle in one form or another upon reaching womanhood. Then there was Kristin Wells from the 29th century who claimed the name of Superwoman in the late twentieth century, while her counterpart Maria remained in that far future era with her sinister technological twin taking her place.

Then there was the nasty Amazon of Earth-Three known as Superwoman, Wonder Woman's counterpart, who was the sole female member of the Crime Syndicate and found herself exiled in interdimensional limbo with her cronies for years after facing the Justice League and Society on two occasions.  She perished along with her world during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, while trying to save it.

Of course, the most famous Superwomen briefly adopting that alias were the Lois Lanes of Earths One and Two, although their careers were extremely short. For Lois-One, this was when her boyfriend made a device that transferred his Kryptonian powers for a limited period of time to her. For Lois-Two, this occurred when her husband's Kryptonian abilities transferred to her temporarily due to an exotic extraterrestrial plant he had bought her.

In the 30th century, the apparent descendants of both Supermen and Lanes followed in their ancestors' footsteps. Lois 4XR whom Superman met after being sent to the year 2961 by Lex Luthor using technology provided by the Legion of Super-Villains member Cosmic King. 

The Earth-One Lois 4XR had a counterpart in Lois 4XR of 2949 on Earth-Two. Both of these Lois's seemed to have all the powers of their ancestors at the peak of their prowess, however with none of the good judgement or discipline. As such, a grown Superman had to rescue Lois 4XR several times before he returned to the 20th century. Laurel met the teenage Superboy while he was meeting up with his Legion allies. The Boy of Steel initially fell for her before learning her identity, and then returning to his native time knowing that this girl would resemble the woman he would one day marry. 

Laurel Kent was a student of the Legion of Super-Heroes' Academy, due to her young age and that the sole superhuman power was invulnerability. Her mother seems to have been Lois 4XR, whom Superman met years before his earlier self as Superboy had met Laurel.

Jor-L was Laurel’s Earth-Two doppelgänger, an ace agent of the Space Legion. As one of the Federal Men of the 30th century, he was noted for bringing to justice the Bandit Queen, Nira-Q. In the end, it was Jor-L who triumphed.... as witnessed by a 20th century inspiration for the Federal Men in Steve Carson

Later stories seem to indicate in a future timeline that Laurel was in actuality an android agent of the Manhunters originally built by the Guardians of the Universe, sent to infiltrate superhuman societies in the 30th century.

Flying Females: The Many Loves of Jor-(E)l

Lois Lane left her native Earth-One in a time traveling device to journey to Krypton-One in order to save it, using a futuristic device. Instead, she got embroiled in a love triangle with her man Kal-El's father and mother.. before Jor-El and Lara married that is. Thankfully, even with her extensive knowledge of future technology and nifty anti-gravity boots, it was Lara who won her heart. Although the planet still blew up. On Krypton-Two, Lora never met her future daughter-in-law Lois Lane Kent, however she had similar fashion sense to her counterpart and lept to heights even Lois-One never reached, thanks to her advanced physiology and that of her people. Didn't save them either.