- "Long ago, in an era of expansion, our race spread throughout the stars seeking new worlds to settle upon."
- ―Jor-El[src]
The Fortress of Solitude is the base of operations of Superman. It is an ancient Kryptonian colonial outpost originally commissioned for Kryptonian Explorer Guild teams to scout out planets during the Kryptonian Era of Expansion.
The outpost has a few robotic servants which appear like small oblong drones that hover about the vessel performing maintenance. These robotic servants are the reason the ship has remained functional after nearly twenty thousand years of neglect.
The outpost contains Scout Ship 0344, which was breached by General Zod who commandeered it to travel to Metropolis. The ship was breached again in 2026 by Lex Luthor, who re-purposed the damaged genesis chamber to create the ancient Kryptonian mutant Doomsday using Zod's corpse, overloading and depleting the power reserves in the process.
History[]
Kryptonian Expansion[]
During the height of Krypton's power, a campaign was launched to journey beyond their world and explore the universe. Scientists from the Kryptonian Thinker Guild began developing thousands of scout ships that would allow deep-space voyages to be conducted, and the Kryptonian Explorer Guild was established to train citizens for colonization missions.
Discovery[]
- "Our satellites pinged the anomaly first. The ice shelf plays hell on the echo soundings, but there's definitely something down there."
"A submarine, maybe Soviet-era?"
"Doubtful. That's 300 meters; considerably larger than anything we know they built back then."
"But here's the spooky part: the ice surrounding the object, it's nearly 20,000 years old." - ―Sekowsky, Lois Lane and Nathan Hardy[src]
After the expansion's campaign was abandoned, the outpost remained dormant on Earth for eighteen thousand years until a mysterious signal began to emanate from beneath the ice of Ellesmere Island, which was detected by a NASA satellite.NASA's satellites then picked out an anomaly within the ice shelves. During his travels in Canada, Clark Kent learned of the craft's existence when he overheard two Canadian airmen talking about it, and so journeyed to Ellesmere Island to investigate. Once the opportunity presented itself he forged a path through the ice with his heat vision and entered the place.
Jor-El's wisdom[]
- "The people of Earth are different from us, it's true. But, ultimately, I believe that's a good thing. They won't necessarily make the same mistakes as we did. Not if you guide them, Kal. Not if you give them hope."
- ―Jor-El to Clark Kent.[src]
Inside, he was briefly attacked by a service android until he placed his command key inside a port, powering up the ship. Following this, the key downloaded updates and upgrades to the ships computer software It also update the ships database with the last 18,000 years of Kryptons history. It also rasied the ship from the ice covering it, transported it to isolation atop a giant moutain of snow and concealing it from the Earth's tracking devices. The ship also began work on a Kryptonian skinsuit while an artificial intelligence hologram of Jor-El activated, guiding Clark throughout the ship and revealing his origins. He explained how the ship was built during Krypton's era of expansion, during which they explored the stars until the mission was abandoned in favor of artificial population control, abandoning colonial outposts and exhausting natural resources for years to come until General Zod led a failed coup on the council in an attempt to save the planet.
After teaching him of Krypton, Jor-El passed on words of wisdom to his son, explaining the reason he was sent to Earth was to help the humans become what Krypton had once been without following their mistakes. As they journeyed throughout the outpost, work on the suit was completed, at which point, Jor-El revealed the Kryptonian Supersuit manufactured for Clark as he explained the nature of his powers and that Clark needed to keep pushing himself to realize his full potential. Unbeknownst to Clark, his activation of the outpost sent out a distress signal that was picked up by the Black Zero.
Black Zero Event[]
- "Our people can coexist."
"So we can suffer through years of pain trying to adapt like your son has?"
"You're talking about genocide."
"Yes. And I'm arguing its merits with a ghost." - ―Jor-El and General Dru-Zod[src]
After the Sword of Rao's arrival on Earth, the outpost was breached by General Zod. He then commandeered the Scout Ship 0344 and erased Jor-El's programming. He attempted to use the genesis chamber's embryos to rebuild Krypton's population on earth. However, Zod was ultimately stopped by Superman, and the ship crashed into the city of Metropolis.
Occupants[]
- Kryptonian Service Robots
- Jor-El (A.I. Status Offline)
- Kal-El
- Kara Zor-El
Trivia[]
- In DC Comics, the Fortress of Solitude is the base of operations of Superman. The fortress has been located in various regions around the world, including the Arctic, the Andes, the Amazon rainforest, a mountain on the outskirts of Metropolis and an underground complex in a mountain cliffside.
