The Phantom Zone (comics)

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"The Phantom Zone" is a four-issue 1982 Superman comic book miniseries published by DC Comics.^[1]

Kryptonian criminals trapped in the Phantom Zone are able to mentally manipulate Charlie Kweskill, which is actually a powerless Kryptonian named Quex-Ul, to build a device that will set them free. The same device simultaneously traps Quex-Ul and Superman in the Phantom Zone themselves.

The Kryptonians General Zod, Va-Kox, Jax-Ur, Kru-El, Faora, Jer-Em, Az-Rel, Nadira and Nam-Ek are released from the Phantom Zone. While they wreak havoc on Earth, Superman and Kweskill encounters Mon-El, which sends them to another level of the Phantom Zone.

As Superman and Kweskill continue their journey through the realm of the Phantom Zone, and encounters a Kryptonian wizard named Thul-Kar, Zod and his allies have built a giant Phantom Zone projector which is powered by Green Lantern's power battery, and intends to send the whole Earth into the Phantom Zone.

In Aethyr's realm Kweskill has gotten his Kryptonian powers as Quex-Ul back. There his sacrifices himself by being consumed by Aethyr, so that Superman can escape. Breaking through the barrier of the Phantom Zone, Superman find himself back on Earth, where he allies with Supergirl to destroy the giant projector and fight the Kryptonian villains. Except for Jer-Em, Nadira and Az-Rel, who are killed during they stay on Earth, the other Kryptonians are sent back to their prison with a projector created by Green Lantern.

A sequel was published in "DC Comics Presents" #97, written by Steve Gerber, penciled by Rick Veitch and inked by Bob Smith. Being published in September 1986, after both Crisis on Infinite Earths, which rebooted the DC universe, and the new Superman in The Man of Steel, it was presented as "An untold tale of the Pre-Crisis universe". The sequel reveals that the Phantom Zone is not a separate dimension, but a field of consciousness surrounding the being Aethyr. To break free, it fuses with Mister Mxyzptlk. Although described as the final story set in the Pre-Crisis continuity, and a send-off to Pre-Crisis Superman, it does contradict the continuity because of the destruction of the Phantom Zone despite the already established future where Legion of Super-Heroes release Mon-El from the original and still existing version of the Phantom Zone and makes him a member of the legion.^[2][3]