Lar Gand
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2007) |
| Mon-El | |
|---|---|
| File:Mon-El.jpg Lar Gand as Mon-El. Art by Barry Kitson. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Superboy #89 (June 1961) |
| Created by | Robert Bernstein George Papp Revamped by: Mark Waid Barry Kitson |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Lar Gand |
| Species | Daxamite |
| Place of origin | Daxam |
| Team affiliations | Legion of Super-Heroes L.E.G.I.O.N. |
| Notable aliases | Bob Cobb, M'Onel, Valor |
| Abilities | Powers and abilities identical to those of Superman. (Superhuman strength, super speed, flight, stamina and freezing breath, super hearing, multiple extrasensory and vision powers, and longevity) Lethal vulnerability to lead instead of Kryptonite. |
Lar Gand, known primarily as Mon-El (and alternatively as Valor and M'Onel), is a fictional character in DC Comics' universe who is affiliated with the Legion of Super-Heroes, Superboy, and Superman.
Fictional character history
Halk Kar
"Superman's Big Brother", in Superman #80 (January–February 1953), introduced a character named Halk Kar — who had a logo-less costume almost identical to Superman's, but with the red and blue colors reversed — as a super-powered alien much less powerful than Superman. Halk Kar was essentially the original prototype for Mon-El.
In the story, Halk Kar crash-lands on Earth in a rocketship and is rescued by Superman, who discovers that Halk Kar suffers from amnesia. Discovering a note from Jor-El (Superman's father) in Halk Kar's possession which mentions Jor-El's son, Superman assumes that Halk Kar must not only be from his own planet Krypton, but he must be a son of Jor-El and thus also his own older brother.
Superman quickly realizes that Halk Kar is less powerful than he is and — instead of subjecting him to embarrassment over the fact that he may be weaker than his younger brother — opts to use his own powers to cover for Halk Kar's deficiencies. Unfortunately, this plan backfires on Superman, as Halk Kar begins to assume a superior attitude to Superman and even begins to make romantic advances on Superman's girlfriend, Lois Lane.
Finally, after Halk Kar is exposed to a powerful electric shock inflicted on him by criminals, he recovers his memory and explains to Superman who he is and how he came into possession of a note from Jor-El. He says that his name is Halk Kar and that he is from the planet Thoron, which is in the same solar system as Krypton was (the planet "Thoron" was named after thoron, an isotope of Radon-220, just as the planet "Krypton" was named after the chemical element krypton.) Years ago, while on a pioneer voyage into space, he landed on Krypton with his damaged rocketship. There he met Jor-El, who explained that Krypton's destruction was imminent and repaired Halk Kar's rocketship, sending him away with the note which had a map from Krypton to Earth on it. Krypton exploded shortly afterward, causing Halk Kar to be put into suspended animation until he drifted to Earth to meet Superman, the grown-up son of Jor-El referred to in the note.
After explaining his story, Halk Kar bids farewell to Superman and returns to the planet Thoron in his repaired rocketship, leaving Superman with the experience of briefly having had a brother.
Mon-El
In Superboy #89 (June 1961), the story recycled much of the plot of "Superman's Big Brother," replacing Halk Kar with Mon-El (who was given the name of Lar Gand in a later story).
Lar Gand is a Daxamite, an alien from the planet Daxam. Exploring the galaxy, he landed on Krypton, but was immediately warned by Jor-El of the planet's imminent destruction and was given a map to Earth. He then went into suspended animation. After a few years, he landed on Earth and met Superboy. Although Gand suffered from amnesia upon landing on Earth, he and Superboy became good friends. Under Earth's yellow sun, he had powers like those of Superman; this led Superboy to believe that Gand might be his heretofore unknown long-lost brother. Superboy named the amnesiac alien "Mon-El": "Mon" because he landed on Earth on a Monday, and "El" for Superboy's own Kryptonian family name. Monel is also a metallic alloy, an appropriate name for the brother of the man (or boy) of steel.
Mon-El moved into the Kent home and created his own human secret identity (Bob Cobb) to integrate into Superboy's hometown of Smallville; when in alien garb, he accompanied Superboy on his heroic feats. However, when Mon-El failed to experience pain during an unnoticed inadvertent exposure to kryptonite (which is radioactively poisonous to all Kryptonians), Superboy suspected Mon-El was deliberately pretending to be a Kryptonian for some nefarious purpose. Understandably infuriated over what he believed to be a deliberate manipulation of his desire for ties to his original Kryptonian family, Superboy created a fake kryptonite meteorite made of lead and, when Mon-El was debilitated in his presence, Superboy believed his reaction to be proof of deception. However, Mon-El turned out to be in genuine pain because, in a remarkable piece of irony, Daxamites are highly sensitive to lead, even more so than Kryptonians are to kryptonite; whereas Kryptonians can recover from kryptonite poisoning if removed from exposure in time, even a small amount of lead exposure causes fatal, irreversible poisoning to Daxamites. Having regained his memories of meeting Jor-El and of his true nature, "Mon-El" was dying, so a guilt-ridden Superboy transported him into the extradimensional Phantom Zone until a cure could be found. Gand spent one thousand years as a poisoned, insubstantial, telepathic phantom, able to watch everything that happened in the outside world, but unable to affect it in the slightest.
In the 30th century, Saturn Girl created a temporary antidote to this poisoning allowing him to be released from the Zone for brief periods of time. During this period, he was considered an honorary Legionnaire. Brainiac 5 later created a permanent antidote, based on Saturn Girl's serum, with the addition of Kryptonite.
After passing his Legion test (including inventing flight ring metal) under the name "Marvel Lad", Lar Gand then joined the Legion of Super-Heroes, using the "Mon-El" moniker Superboy had given him. During this time, he was considered one of the Legion's big 3 (along with Superboy and Ultra Boy). In fact, his Daxamite abilities coupled with his immunity to the effects of Kryptonite and lead (and later, red solar radiation) made him the most powerful of all the Legionnaires. He served two terms as leader. Many years later, he married fellow Legionnaire Shadow Lass, with whom he had a long romantic relationship.
Early in his Legion career, Mon-El apparently died after failing to take a dose of Brainiac 5's anti-lead serum in a timely fashion. Eltro Gand, a distant descendant of Mon-El's older brother, sacrificed his life force to restore Mon-El to life (Action Comics #384, January 1970).
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Gand's history was unchanged, except that his encounter with Superboy took place in a pocket universe created by the Time Trapper, a mysterious being living at the end of the universe, as Superboy had been removed from Superman's continuity.
During the Magic Wars which destroyed much of the technology throughout the United Planets, Mon-El seemingly died of injuries inflicted by the Time Trapper [Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 3) #61, June 1989]. Five years later, the Trapper revives him, hoping to use the Daxamite's body to preserve his own waning existence. However, Brainiac 5 discovered that Eltro Gand had not died years earlier, but had merely imbued his personality over that of Lar Gand. The Trapper's actions had separated the Lar and Eltro personalities, leaving both present within Mon-El's mind, with Lar as the dominant personality. In order to prevent the Trapper from further manipulating events throughout history, Lar kills him [Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) #3-4, January-February 1990]. The Trapper's death wipes Superboy's pocket universe out of existence, and fundamentally alters the timeline. Although it is largely restored, the Trapper's role and powers are usurped by his onetime underling Glorith, and Lar Gand is recast as "Valor".
Valor
In the new "Glorithverse" reality, Lar Gand replaced the non-existent Superboy as the Legion's inspiration. As detailed in "The Legend of Valor" (Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) Annual #2, 1991), Lar Gand would enjoy a heroic career in the 20th century as "Valor," stopping the second Dominator-led invasion of Earth, freeing thousands of humans who had been experimented on by the Dominators and seeding them on a series of worlds between Dominion space and Earth as a "buffer zone" to prevent future invasions. These colonists had gained metahuman powers due to the experiments and would (in 1,000 years time), evolve into many of the worlds that would join the United Planets. After completing this task and an indefinite number of other 20th-century ventures, he would be placed in the Bgztl Buffer Zone by the time sorceress Glorith, to be rescued by the Legion in the 30th century. But none of these great 20th century adventures had occurred yet in the modern DCU.
In his new history, Lar Gand was inspired by his father's sacrifice in the crossover story Invasion! to become a hero. He briefly joined L.E.G.I.O.N., where it was Vril Dox II who cured his lead poisoning.
Gand left L.E.G.I.O.N after a disagreement and travelled to Earth. He played a significant part in the "Eclipso: The Darkness Within" crossover, in which Superman gave him the name "Valor". He was given his own solo series, Valor, which lasted for 23 issues. It began with Lar as an adventurous young man exploring the universe in a spaceship with a sentient A.I. called Babbage, encountering various aliens and civilizations. After #12 however, things became complex.
Valor also made a cameo appearance in Starman Volume 1 Issue 35. He comes across Starman (Will Payton) in space, while attempting to thwart Mr. Nebula. They join forces to defeat him.
Glorith had continued altering the timeline, inadvertently recreating the original Time Trapper in the process. Travelling back to when Lar Gand was a young man in another attempt to win his affection, she accidentally caused his death. Attempting to undo the damage this caused history, she called forth a duplicate Valor from the Legion's time (a second version of Valor created by the Time Trapper) to take his other self's place, "patched" into the 20th century timeline by Waverider. He was tasked with completing Valor's legendary feats such as stopping the Dominators' second invasion of Earth and seeding the U.P. worlds so that 30th century history would play out as it was supposed to. But history was playing out much earlier than it was supposed to which led to some changes in Valor's exploits. This was one of the many destabilizations of the timestream that eventually led to Zero Hour, and the "Legion Reboot".
M'Onel
After the Reboot, Valor reappeared in Superboy vol. 3, #17. He was amnesiac, but had vague memories of his time with L.E.G.I.O.N. and the events of his own series. Tricked into a fight with Superboy (the modern clone version), he discovered Dox's anti-lead serum was wearing off. To save him, Superboy placed him in the "Stasis Zone", an extradimensional space used by the minor supervillain Loophole (it was later confirmed that the Stasis Zone, the Bgtzl Buffer Zone, and the Phantom Zone were all different names for the same dimension, which is also called the White Zone by the inhabitants of the planet Mars and the Ghost Zone by the villain Prometheus; the angel Zauriel referred to this same plane of existence as Limbo). With Loophole's device to enter the Stasis Zone destroyed before a cure could be found, he remained there (once again) for a thousand years, before being released by the Legion and a time-traveling Superboy, and injected with Brainiac 5's improved version of his ancestor's serum. To avoid the religious fervor his return would cause, the Legion kept secret the fact this new Legionnaire was the legendary Valor. He took the name "M'Onel", which, Legion founder R. J. Brande claimed, was Martian for "He Who Wanders".
As a member of the Legion, M'Onel often spent long periods on away missions. After the Legion's disbanding, he led President Leland McCauley's Oversight Watch. McCauley tried to assassinate M'Onel as M'Onel revealed Leland McCauley was Ra's al Ghul. Surviving, M'Onel would rejoin the Legion.
M'Onel would become a key player in the following The Legion comic book series. With the rest of the Legionnaires, M'Onel is lost when Superboy (Kon-El) and the Teen Titans lose The Persuader's axe while trying to return to their own time. M'Onel attempts to hold the Legionnaires in a human chain, but is sucked into a vortex. Shikari is the only one who escapes when she is pulled free by the temporal currents. She arrives in a changed future, leading into the current Legion of Superheroes comics.
However, as the events of Infinite Crisis played out and time and space once again were realigned and altered, this incarnation of Mon-El and his exploits were thought to be erased from the timeline. But in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds#2 this version of Mon-El resurfaced as well as his post-Zero Hour Legion teammates.
2005 Threeboot
Following another reboot of Legion history, in Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #23 (Dec 2006), Saturn Girl senses a telepathic call for help while on Rokyn. When she traces the source of the call, she sees a ghostly form resembling Lar Gand, "haunting" a Phantom Zone projector and begging for release. While all this is going on, the Wanderers have placed several force-fields around the Legion Headquarters, jamming flight ring transmissions and keeping the Legionnaires contained. This gives the Wanderers the opportunity to teleport away Karate Kid, Light Lass, Ultra Boy and Star Boy. Mon-El is later released from the Phantom Zone having suffered from 1,000 years of sensory deprivation and dying from lead poisoning which is fatal to all Daxamites. He is confused as to who put him in the Phantom Zone, but remembers the "S" symbol. Manipulated by Brainiac 5, Mon-El attacks Supergirl. The two are so powerful that their fight frees the Legion.
While Supergirl and Mon-El are busy pummeling each other through Legion HQ, Brainaic 5 makes an anti-toxin for Mon-El's lead poisoning using Kryptonite. Through the combined efforts of the Legion, and a sneak attack by Invisible Kid, Mon-El swallows the antidote and his berzerker rage subsides. However, he is teleported off by the new Wanderers. As it turns out, the Wanderers manipulated the Legion into freeing Mon-El all along.
Post-Infinite Crisis
In February 2007's Action Comics Annual #10, another (presumably post-Infinite Crisis) origin of Mon-El was told in a tale called "Who is Clark Kent's Big Brother?", featuring the official story of how Clark met Mon-El. Sticking close to the earliest Mon-El origin, the story features young Clark—Smallville's secret "flying boy"— encountering an amnesic, English and Kryptonese-speaking alien being. Along with similar powers to Clark, the alien possesses cryptic bits of knowledge about Krypton and Jor-El, which leads to Clark thinking they might be brothers. Thinking him kin, Clark offers to allow the amnesiac to fashion a temporary name for himself using the surname "El", to which the alien adds "Mon" for Monday, the day of the week that he came to Earth. They share a few adventures saving a riverboat, stopping a wreck on the freeway, and taking apart an out-of-control amusement park ride. All the while, Mon-El continues having troubled dreams featuring glimpses of his still-forgotten past. Mon-El suggests to Clark that they use a piece of Kryptonite to test if he is indeed Kryptonian. The lead casing of the Kryptonite causes Mon-El to be fatally poisoned, but lifts the fog over his memories. He remembers that his real name is Lar Gand, born on Daxam, second world orbiting the star named "Valor". Lar Gand's people, the Daxamites, have a toxic allergic reaction to lead, much in the same way Kryptonite is fatal to Kryptonians. He was a scientist who discovered Krypton's fate and tracked down the path of the rocket sent right after the world exploded. A sunspot storm ruptured his fuel cells, causing him to crash and lose his memory. At his request, Clark uses a portal to the Phantom Zone to put Mon-El in stasis. Clark promises he will find a way to cure him, even if it takes a thousand years.
In Superman: Last Son, Clark, now as Superman, later encounters Mon-El when he is trapped in the Phantom Zone by General Zod: Mon-El has been observing the actions of Zod and his allies in the Zone, including their base of operations, a prison immune to the timeless phantom effect. He aids Superman in defeating one of Zod's followers within the prison (at the cost of advancing his lead poisoning) before returning to his phantom state and sending Superman back to Earth.
How this newly re-revised origin interacts with Lar Gand's previous adventures in the 20th century has yet to be seen. However, in Legion, Mon-El refers to having been in the Zone "pretty much" ever since Clark put him there, and also to meeting Supergirl in her future, suggesting he has had 20th/21st century adventures since.
In the Action Comics storyline "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes", Mon-El is mentioned to be have been banished to the Phantom Zone by the Justice League of Earth. He is recovered by his teammates in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds. However, his physiology had been reset during his time in the Zone, meaning that Brainiac 5 had to re-administer the anti-lead serum to Mon-El.
Powers and abilities
Generally, Lar Gand's abilities are identical to those of Superman and other natives of the planet Krypton and Daxam (super-strength, speed, flight, x-ray, heat, microscopic and telescopic vision powers, invulnerability and super hearing), with three major exceptions:
- 1. He is vulnerable to the inert element lead, instead of the radioactive element Kryptonite.
- 2. Lead poisioning is fatal to Daxamites, and Lar is kept alive only through regular ingestion of anti-lead serum, such as the one modified by Brainaic 5.
- 3. In some incarnations, the radiation of a red star will not rob him of his powers, as it would with most Daxamites and Kryptonians.
In most incarnations of the Legion, Lar Gand is considered the most powerful member.
Trivia
Mon-El's alias, Bob Cobb, is briefly referenced in an episode of Seinfeld. "The Maestro" (a short-lived recurring character) prefers that people do not address him by his real name, (Bob Cobb) instead preferring to be called "(the) Maestro"..
