H'el (Prime Earth)

## H'El

Gallery

 *Now you are just embarrassing yourself.*
—****H'El****src

**H'El** is a Kryptonian clone and survivor with the mission to preserve Krypton's legacy in any way possible, no matter how ruthless, making him an enemy of Superman.

## History

### Escaping Krypton

On Krypton, **H'El** believed he was a space explorer working for the great scientists Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, who he loved dearly as if they were his own parents. Unbeknownst to him, he was actually an illegal clone of several Kryptonians that was raised to believe he was naturally born. Despite his true origin, H'el was raised to despise clones, which were outlawed on Krypton.

When Jor-El became aware of Krypton's impending destruction, he constructed a prototype spaceship for H'El to escape in and tasked him to protect Krypton's history and knowledge among the stars.

However, the journey was a dangerous one. H'El survived many dangers and reached Earth twenty-seven years after Kal-El, the real son of Jor-El, had arrived.

### Forming a Plan

With his mission to preserve Krypton's legacy, H'El studied the other Kryptonians that had come to Earth before engaging them for help. He watched watched Kal-El, Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El, and Superman's Kryptonian-human hybrid clone Kon-El.

H'El at one point blew his cover when he attempted to exterminate Kon-El, identifying that he was not a true Kryptonian but a mere clone before the boy escaped.  H'El followed Superboy to New York City where he once again attacked. Though Superboy had the help of the Teen Titans, H'El still bested them and abducted Kon-El, believing he'd prove useful in his ultimate plan for the Earth.

### Restoring Krypton

When his analyses were complete, H'El identified that his greatest potential ally was Kara Zor-El, going by the name Supergirl, believing that Kal-El had been too corrupted by Earth's ways to be an asset but was not irredeemable. H'El introduced himself to Supergirl, who was wary but open to his promise of bringing back Krypton, and granted her the ability to speak English.

H'El formally introduced himself to Superman in Metropolis' Centennial Park and attempted to explain his mission to his "little brother". However, Superman refused to believe H'El's story of restoring Krypton. H'El attempted to prove his loyalty to the House of El by executing his prisoner Superboy, an illegitimate member, but he was stopped by Superman before he could go through with it. H'El, disappointed that Kal truly did not share his vision for their planet, escaped to the Fortress of Solitude and reprogrammed it to use as his own. There, H'El worked with Supergirl, who was still on his side, in building the device that would bring Krypton back.

Though he was tricked into thinking Superman had a change of heart, H'El realized the hero's deception and defeated him and the Justice League, just in time to finish his device, which would consume so much energy that it would extinguish the Earth's sun.  When Kara had realized the resurrection of Krypton meant the death of Earth, she rebelled against H'El, who forced her to make a choice between the two planets she called home.  Supergirl seemingly sided with H'El, lowering his guard long enough to stab him with a piece of Krptonite, finally defeating him.

H'El fell through one of the temporal rifts his machine created, sending him to Krypton several decades in the past, where he was discovered by a young Jor-El.

### Krypton Returns

Waking up after six months in a coma, H'El, still stuck in the past, had discovered the truth of his origin - that he was not a true Kryptonian and was actually a clone of several people. Having grown up with so much disdain for clones, H'El's mind snapped, and he changed his goal to conquering Krypton, the planet that lied to him, rather than preserving it.  H'El proceeded to enslave the entire planet in the past, destroying anyone who opposed him.

Because of H'El's actions radically changing the past, the Oracle separated H'El's Krypton into a different timeline to preserve the present. The Oracle then summoned Superman, Superboy, and Supergirl to go to H'El's dimension at different points in its history to undo the damage that he had caused.

Through the teamwork of all the heroes and Jor-El, they managed to fix H'El's timeline. In their final confrontation, Superman used his frost breath on H'El's chronal strands - his connection to the timeline - trapping him in a perpetual time loop, an eternal limbo.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Unique Physiology**: Due to being an artificial entity that is not cloned from a single Kryptonian, H'El lacks the vulnerability to Kryptonite given to others of his race, as well as being capable of retaining his abilities under the radiation of Krypton's red sun. This may also be attributed to the different types of radiation from countless stars cells absorbed during his space travel, including Black Stars and raging Quasars.
	+ **Teleportation**: H'El can teleport himself and others across vast distances, as he was capable of teleporting himself and Supergirl from the bottom of the ocean to the sun's surface, as well as enormous structures like Superman's Fortress of Solitude in an instant.
	+ **Size Alteration**: H'El could somehow alter the size of Supergirl to made her small enough to enter the shrunken city of Kandor and enlarge her afterwards. However, for some reason he is unable to alter his own size.
	+ **Telekinesis**: H'El can psionically manipulate matter to his will, and even disassemble it at the molecular level, being capable of pulling it apart atom by atom,  as well as hold it in stasis anywhere H'El chooses for later use.
		- **Force Field Projection**: An extension of his Telekinesis, H'El can generate psionic barriers around himself and others to prevent harm.
	+ **Telepathy**: H'El has the ability to enter other sentient beings' minds and alter them to some extent, as shown when he taught Supergirl the human English language in an instant, tricked her to think that she was being attacked by Superman, and when he showed her a flashback of Krypton. It should be noted, however, that he is unable of controlling the minds of beings that are ruled by raw instinct, as he couldn't manipulate any of the tribal clones of ancient Krypton.
		- **Astral Projection**: H'El can create astral bodies of himself capable of traveling and interacting with their surroundings, as well as turn them intangible without fear of being perceived by anyone except those with heightened psionic abilities. He's also capable of making them visible to whomever he chooses and change their appearances as well, but he is unable to use any of his other abilities in this form.
	+ **Chronokinesis**: After he was bathed in the Star Chamber's residual energy, H'El gained the ability to manipulate time. Besides regular time-travel, he can also tap into the remnants of others' actions to see their recent past, as well as travel to more than one timeline at a time, being in different eras simultaneously (but doing so seems to place him under a huge toll).
* **Kryptonian Physiology**: Under the effects of a "yellow" sun, H'El possesses the same potential powers as an average Kryptonian. These include:
	+ **Solar Energy Absorption**: Under optimal conditions, this is the main source of H'El's super powers as they are contingent upon exposure to solar radiation from a yellow sun star system. His biological make up includes a number of organs which lack analogues in humans and whose functions are unknown. It is believed that between one or more of these and his bio-cellular matrix, "yellow" solar energy is stored for later use. This allows for the use of these powers to fade when yellow solar radiation is not available instead of immediate failure.
	+ **Heat Vision**: H'El can, as a conscious act, fire beams of intense heat at a target by looking at it. He can vary the heat and area affected.
	+ **Super-Hearing**: H'El's hearing is sensitive enough to hear any sound at any volume or pitch. With skill and concentration, he can block out ambient sounds to focus on a specific source or frequency.
	+ **Enhanced Vision**: H'El's vision processes the entire electromagnetic spectrum as well as allowing vast control over selective perception and focus.
	This umbrella ability includes the following:
		- **Electromagnetic Spectrum Vision**: H'El can see well into most of the electromagnetic spectrum. He can see and identify radio and television signals as well as all other broadcast or transmitted frequencies. Using this ability, he can avoid detection by radar or satellite monitoring methods. This also allows him to see the aura generated by living thing.
		- **Telescopic Vision**: This is the ability to see something at a great distance, without violating the laws of physics. Though limited, the exact extent of the ability is undetermined. In function, it is similar to the zoom lens on a camera.
		- **X-Ray Vision**: This is the ability to see through any volume of matter except lead. H'Els can see things behind a solid, opaque object as if it were not there. He can focus this ability to "peel back" layers of an object, allowing hidden image or inner workings to be observed. The exact type of energy perceived—such as x-rays, cosmic rays, or some other energy invisible to normal humans—is unclear. This ability perceives an ambient energy source though, it does not involve the eye projecting a concentrated, possibly toxic, beam to be reflected back from objects.
		- **Microscopic Vision**: This is the ability to see extremely small objects and images down to the atomic level.
		- **Infrared Vision**: H'El can see with better acuity in darkness, and to a degree in total darkness.
	+ **Flight**: H'El is able to manipulate graviton particles to defy the forces of gravity and achieve flight. This ranges from hovering to moving in any posture, in any direction.
	+ **Invulnerability**: Due to the interaction of his dense molecular structure and supercharged bio-electric aura, H'El is nigh-invulnerable to extreme energy forces. In addition, his extends this protection against toxins and diseases.
		- **Enhanced Immunity**
	+ **Superhuman Stamina**: H'El is able to maintain continuous strenuous physical action for an indefinite period of time. This based on his body converting yellow solar radiation directly to energy, but is limited by physiological and psychological needs to eat, drink, and sleep.
	+ **Superhuman Strength**: H'El's strength is augmented by yellow solar radiation interacting with the greater than human density, resilience and biological efficiency of his musculature. His strength is more an act of conscious will on energy fields than actual physical strength. It is this act of conscious will that enables him to perform physical feats that are beyond the mere application force, such as moving a mountain top without said rock crumbling under its own mass.
	+ **Superhuman Speed**: H'El is able to move at incredible speed by sheer force of will. This extends to his perceptions and allows for feats such as catching bullets in mid flight as well as covering vast distances in little or no time.
	This also confers:
		- **Superhuman Agility**
		- **Superhuman Reflexes**
	+ **Super-Breath**: H'El is able to create hurricane force winds by exhaling air from his lungs. He can chill the air as it leaves his lungs to freeze targets. He can also reverse the process to pull large volumes of air or vapor into his lungs.
	+ **Longevity**: H'El can live longer than regular humans, remaining at his prime as long as he was under the exposure of the "yellow" sun.

### Other Characteristics

* **Irrational Hatred**: H'El was raised on Krypton, where cloning was illegal, and therefore developed a deep hatred for Kryptonian clones. However, his bigotry would be flipped back on him when he learned that he himself was an illegal Kryptonian clone.

## Notes

* The capitalization of this character's name varies between official sources - sometimes being spelled "H'*E*l", other times spelled "H'*e*l", sometimes in the same paragraph. [1][2] [3]
* In an interview, Scott Lobdell said that H'El was going to be the newest incarnation of Bizarro. However, the executives of DC Comics found Lobdell's version of the character so "bizarre", so they convinced him to make the new incarnation its own character altogether, and thus "H'El" was born.

## Related

* Appearances of H'el (Prime Earth)
* Images featuring H'el (Prime Earth)
* Quotations by or about H'el (Prime Earth)
* Character Gallery: H'el (Prime Earth)

### Footnotes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Superman* (Volume 3) #14
2. ↑ *Superboy* (Volume 6) #0
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 *Superboy* (Volume 6) #14
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 *Supergirl* (Volume 6) #14
5. ↑ *Superboy* (Volume 6) #15
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *Superman* (Volume 3) #16
7. ↑ *Supergirl* (Volume 6) #17
8. ↑ *Superman* (Volume 3) #17
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 *Superman* (Volume 3) #23.3: H'El
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 *Action Comics Annual* (Volume 2) #2
11. ↑ *Superman* (Volume 3) #25
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 *Supergirl* (Volume 6) #15
13. ↑ *Supergirl* (Volume 6) #16
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 *Supergirl* (Volume 6) #25

This character has been primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "*Superman Villains* category."