I am Jor-El.
How I am here again in the flesh, I am not sure.
My last memories are jumbled. That is to say, I have several last memories.
I remember many decades ago harvesting the last of the charged and programmed crystals and placing them in my son's ship as his mother Lara laid him in the acceleration couch and swaddled him with his red, yellow and blue blankets. We were sending him to Earth, to Humanity. Many, even among us on Krypton, thought that our civilization had grown cold in its embrace of science. Perhaps many among us had turned away from emotion. We lived tremendously long lives. We rarely had children. But Lara and I were different. I had hired her as a research assistant in my laboratories. She had demanded equal credit in all our joint endeavors. Eventually we aroused such passions within each other that we married. And we had a son: Kal-El.
I loved my planet, my civilization. I believed that I did. Until my wife Lara showed me true passion. And I believed that I loved her until my son, Kal-El taught me the true meaning of love. For him I would transcend time and space.
I remember speaking with my son in the Fortress in this very same body some many years ago when all his bodily functions had ceased and he lay at death's door step. I brought him back then using the energies of another. I had grown to love the people of son's adopted world much as I had loved my old Krypton. They can be a great people-- they wish to be; they lack only the light to show the way. This is was why I sent them Kal-El, my only son. This is why I could not allow him to perish from his own bullheaded mistakes and the brash criminal irrationality of a desperate human being who wanted to rid his town of all those he thought of as freaks. According to the medicine of Earth, my son was dead. But we Kryptonians are a hearty people. With six lungs, two hearts, four kidneys and impenetrable skin we can survive in the raw vacuum of outer space for as long as half an hour. According to Kryptonian medicine my son was not dead. Not quite. To complete his great mission on earth, I would borrow the energies of another, one who would gladly give his life in exchange for my son's as I did once before when he was small.
I remember speaking with my son here in this Fortress just a few short years ago. Disembodied, I did briefly bend the timespace barrier and touch my son, to infuse him and restore his powers when he gave them up for Lois Lane. I exhausted all the energies that at work within me in the process. I thought that I would die the final death restoring his powers. I thought that I would never again see another moment of consciousness. But my son must have been successful in his great undertaking, in his pilgrimage across the stars to Krypton, or what remains of it, of our home world.
Here I am. Again, borrowing the aging human body of Lionel Luthor, infusing it with some limited Kryptonian powers. I have a grandson, now. I love him almost as much as I love my own son. My goal is to save my grandson. The threat is a twisted clone of my son. It has all his powers, none of his weaknesses, and very little of his character or consciousness.
The Bizarre Clone cannot be reasoned with.
The Bizarre Clone feels that it must bring my grandson to someone called Luthor. This must be Lionel's son. My son Lex, who was possessed by Zod a few years after I stood over Kal-El in the Fortress, bringing him back from death's doorstep.
I believe that Zod may lie dormant within Lex as I have lain dormant within Lionel these several short years. BrainIAC, Zod, and Lex may have plans for young Jason White. Awful plans. Plans that I must defeat. I have called for assistance from the Green Lantern of this sector. Though how long it will take him to arrive remains to be seen.
As I run across the hamlet of Smallville, I hear my grandson, Jason White using a primitive cellular device to access the planetary telephone grid and contact his mother. I hear him asking for help from Aunt Diana. I see in his mind the image of a great lady warrior. I hear him ask for help from Uncle Bruce and the Space Cop with the magic ring. Lois Lane promises help.
As I approach the vehicle in which my son's adoptive mother has chosen to flee with my grandson, I see the threat. I know that the bones and ligaments of this body are far too frail for me to engage the threat directly. I can get my grandson and his friends to the portal in the Kowachee Caves, but I will require someone else to distract the threat. I hope that the Green Lantern of this Sector, 2814 as the Guardians of the Galaxy called it, arrives soon.
Instead of the hum of a Lantern Power Ring, I hear the rush of a turbofan jet engine. A glance around and all my powers of perception cannot detect anything other than the sound. And then I hear a battle cry and I see a blonde Lady Warrior dressed in a helmet, and armor, wearing a red and blue cape with white stars, carrying a shield and two swords. She streaks down from the sky and slams the threat to the ground. I leap under the vehicle and lift it into the air to carry it to the Kowachee Caves, to the portal, to the Fortress, to safety. I look down upon the brave Lady Warrior who now provides the distraction I needed. I see through the armor. I see a young woman Lionel knew many years ago. I see Chloe Sullivan. I see a woman who loves my son as much as I loved Lara. It is my hope that she survives this. It is my will that she survives this. But my will doesn't seem to carry the weight on this world that it once did.
S