Lar Gand
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Lar Gand, known variously as Mon-El, Valor and M'Onel, is a fictional character in DC Comics' universe who is affiliated with the Legion of Super-Heroes, Superboy, and later Superman.
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[edit] Character history
[edit] 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 girl friend, 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.
[edit] 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 steel alloy, an appropriate name for the brother of the man of steel.
However, Daxamites are highly sensitive to lead; even a small amount causes fatal, irreversible poisoning. After heavy lead exposure, "Mon-El" was dying, so 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", Mon-El 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) and served two terms as leader. Many years later he married fellow Legionnaire Shadow Lass, with whom he had a long romantic relationship.
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 was no longer part of the DCU Superman's history.
[edit] Valor
Following a number of "rewrites" of Legion history by various incarnations of the Time Trapper, Lar Gand replaced the non-existent Superboy as the Legion's inspiration. As detailed in "The Legend of Valor" (Legion of Super-Heroes 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 Bgtzl Buffer Zone by the time-sorceress Glorith where he would 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.
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 UP 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 destabilisations of the timestream that eventually led to Zero Hour, and the "Legion Reboot".
[edit] 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 Buffer Zone, and the Phantom Zone were all different names for the same dimension.) 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 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, he claimed, was Martian for "the Wanderer".
[edit] 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 Legionairres 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.
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 a Smallville version of Superboy. Sticking close to the earliest Mon-El origin, the story features young Clark Kent—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 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 Kyptonite 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. Lar Gand 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 the Phantom Zone-projector to put Mon-El in stasis. Clark promises he will find a way to cure him, even if it takes a thousand years.
How this newly rerevised origin interacts with Lar Gand's previous adventures in the 20th century has yet to be seen. However, in Legion Mon-El refers 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.
