Birth and Journey to Earth "Goodbye my son - our hopes and dreams travel with you. Jor-El knew of a colonial settler ship sent millennia ago, where his son would grow up with astonishing powers becoming a godlike being to the people of Earthwhile looking identical to the planet's population. Lara, however, succeeded in launching the starship, inducing an enraged Zod to stab her husband, lethally injuring and killing him. The childless couple promptly adopted the infant Kal-El inside, giving him the name of "Clark Joseph Kent" combining Martha's maiden surname with Jonathan's and hiding his true origins from others and even Clark himself for most of his childhood.
As such, to discuss one you almost have to discuss the other. It is comprised of an image of Krypton with 10 differently colored rays emanating from it. It is a flag that symbolizes diversity emanating from unity. It also symbolizes the 11 Kryptonian virtues see below.
The layout of the flag is closely related to the layout of the Kryptonian alphabet which was no accident. See the initial page on Kryptonian Writing to see the written alphabet. In the book, Anderson writes about 12 obelisks that Lara Lor-Van was going to use for an art project to "demonstrate the powerful foundations of Krypton's civilization: Hope, Imagination, Peace, Truth, Justice, and others.
Extra special thanks to Tony Carey of Australia who worked closely with me to refine and codify the list to the 11 here and determine flag placement and pairings.
These virtues are collectively known as the "Girod". All of these virtues kal el kryptonian writing a check learned by Kryptonians at a very early age.
School children are expected, more or less, to exemplify these virtues in their work whenever possible. As adults, Kryptonians all hold these virtues in high esteem and seek to reflect them in their lives.
They also gave this virtue primary importance with the understanding that a successful and peaceful government requires that its populace have a sense of belonging and ownership.
This virtue is not only about honesty in dealings with one another, but is also equally about learning and knowledge—finding the truth of how things are and how they work.
Although this virtue was central to the science-based government that began the federation, in the last days of Krypton truth gave way to fear and a kind of societal self-delusion.
Also see the section below on the core virtues. The color of the oceans was chosen to serve as an object lesson; peace leads to beauty and prosperity while "storms" lead to danger and calamity.
Yellow was selected as it was a pre-existing symbol of power; this derived from the ancient discovery of the effect that yellow sunlight had on Kryptonian physiology although it had become a little-known and closely-guarded secret during the time of the planetary federation's formation.
Unfortunately, this virtue, historically one of Krypton's greatest strengths and the one with the greatest potential for saving the planet, was heavily suppressed in Krypton's final years.
It represents not only moral purity, but also, in all areas of life, focus, single-mindedness of purpose, and a resistance to distractions.
As one must remain pure in all areas of life, so white light is made up of all colors. As white material - ice, crystals, paper, etc is free from blemish or stains, so one must keep their life free of anything that could "stain".
Thus, white was chosen to represent purity. They are also often heavy-handed when it comes to sentencing. Kryptonians, however, are a very passionate people, but they long ago learned the lesson that passion without restraint leads to all kinds of problems.
One must check internal forces desire, passion, self interestswhich are represented by yellow, with the external morality, communityrepresented by red. Thus, orange was chosen to represent the virtue of restraint. It is a sometimes stubborn belief that things can and will get better, and that one can be part of the solution.
Hope for the best purity: Thus, red, the color of Rao—the great gift-giver, is the symbol of altruism. The Traditional Core Virtues Green is the color at the approximate center of the visible spectrum. It was chosen to represent the centrality and importance of the three core virtues of the Girod: Truth, Justice, and Industriousness.
Thus, the mid-green representing agriculture and growth symbolizes the prosperity that comes with hard work. Thus was born the famous "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" with which we are all familiar. The Planetary Federation It was the newly-formed planetary federation of Krypton that first associated colors with every virtue, and they acknowledged and underscored the importance of the core virtues by selecting green for all three.
The decision was made, however, that the government would emphasize a new core set of virtues above all. This proved to be one of the keys to what would become Krypton's golden age—an age free from the centuries of bloodshed and conflict Peaceof scientific and spiritual exploration and enlightenment Truthand of great accomplishment through a newfound planetary cooperation and unity Synergy.
Girod Pairings Every virtue is arranged on the flag opposite another virtue with the exception of "Home". These pairs of virtues represent not a balancing effect—not opposites, but rather, in true Kryptonian fashion, a synergistic effect.
These pairings, as much as the individual virtues, reveal much about Kryptonian culture and ideologies. The more justice and civil discipline you have, the more it frees the people for scientific, artistic, and spiritual pursuits of truth.
Restraint, in turn, is enabled by an inner peace—whether talking about a single person or a whole society.Superman was born Kal of House El, so Kal-El. Supergirl was Kara, daughter of Zor-El, hence Kara Zor-El. In the case of Superman's mother, she was born Lara Lor-Van, but after her marriage to Jor-El.
Jor-El holding the newborn Kal-El. Kal-El was born on February 29, , on the faraway planet Krypton to Jor-El, a scientist in the Kryptonian Thinker Guild, and his wife Lara Lor-Van in the wake of a military coup d’état led by his father's lifelong friend and commander in Species: Kryptonian.
Find Your Kryptonian Name! The writing that we see in the comics today was introduced in and was a huge break from the script that came before it (designed by Superman editor, E. Nelson Bridwell) which had endured since the ’50s.
Lara is already Kryptonian, at least Kal-El’s Kryptonian mother was a Lara. Does this mean that I. The Kryptonian Flag & The Kryptonian Virtues.
See the initial page on Kryptonian Writing to see the written alphabet. Kal-El later loosely equated industriousness as "The American Way" reflecting what he saw as one of the core values of U.S. culture and a central tenet of the "American Dream". Thus was born the famous "Truth, Justice.
For example, in English you'd say "Kal threw the ball and Krypto chased it", but in Snyder's Kryptonese, it'd be closer to "the ball was chased by Krypto after being thrown by Kal-El", which you'd never say in English. Kryptonian was represented by a different kind of scribbles (not a script) basically just some geometric shapes and dashes strung together.
In , DC released a substitution font (26 symbols, one for each letter of the Roman alphabet, no punctuation marks, no upper/lower-case distinction) that appears to be heavily influenced by the “writing” seen in the Byrne reboot.