Zor-El

Cyborg Superman

## Biography

### Life on Krypton

Zor-El was born into the prominent House of El on the planet Krypton. When Zor was only four, his brother Jor was born. Jor outshined Zor in nearly every aspect. Jor was smarter, more attractive, and more outgoing. Zor was not an unpopular person, but was more of a wallflower, whereas Jor was a social butterfly.

During their young adulthood, the two brothers had a falling out that resulted in their relationship being very strained, although Zor cannot now recall what it was. Zor sought out upper education and became an acclaimed engineer, where he met his wife, Alura In-Ze. The two were married and had a daughter, Kara, whom he loved very much.

The birth of his daughter brought the family back together. Zor, Kara, and Alura spent many nights at Jor and his wife Lara’s home. Jor told Zor about his artificial intelligence, Vril Dox. He requested Zor’s help with some refinement of his programming.

Zor was working on the programming when Vril spoke, telling the two brothers that Krypton’s destruction was imminent. While Zor was hesitant to accept this reality, Jor was instantly on it, proclaiming the impending doom of the planet to all. He caused mass panic, forcing the Kryptonian High Council to place him under house arrest while they decided on a punishment.

Zor kept watch over his brother’s home, when he found that General Dru-Zod was leading his Black Zero Squadron onto the grounds. He sent word to the Kryptonian High Council, who sent reinforcements. Zor-El testified at the Squadron’s trial, helping to sentence them to the Phantom Zone.

Jor continued to insist that Krypton’s destruction was imminent. He and Zor-El began leading teams to the mines towards Krypton’s core to find what would bring about the planet’s demise. Eventually, his brother’s paranoia wore off on him, and Zor grew to be a workaholic, trying to save his family, eventually constructing a rocket ship for his daughter - planning to launch her off-world should the planet’s destruction come.

On the day of Krypton’s destruction, Zor-El had been dispatched to the Moon of Kandor to handle an engineering failure, and was shocked when he found that Jor-El’s A.I had now taken its own physical form. He shrunk down the moon that Zor was trapped upon, and was then “bottled” within the being’s ship.

### Ripped Apart and Put Together

Zor-El became one of Vril Dox’s guinea pigs. The intelligence enjoyed finding the genetic material within the bottled cities he took as trophies and ripping them apart and putting them back together.

Zor-El had it particularly rough. Brainiac, as he became known, removed his lower jaw when he discovered that Zor had quite the mouth on him, and did so without any anesthetic. He took his right arm from the man, replacing it with a harsh prosthetic. Most of his gut was reduced to pure machinery, leaving the essential organs intact, and one of his eyes was taken from him.

Brainiac also enjoyed a certain brand of mental torture, engineering harsh nightmares to broadcast into his mind whenever he let Zor have a rare moment of rest. When Brainiac was too busy to break the man, his drones would do so, meaning this non-stop torture lasted decades. It is still unknown why his treatment was so harsh. The mental torture was so bad, it reduced most of his memories and emotion to nothing.

Through his tests, Brainiac found a way to mind-control the man, sending him on preliminary missions to eradicate worlds before Brainiac’s undertaking them. One such world did not take too kindly to this, Czarnia, of which their species was already near extinct, save for the sole survivor, Lobo, who had killed the rest of them. He battled the man, tearing him limb from limb, and then selling him to the warlord Mongul.

### The Grandmaster

On Mongul’s planet War World, Zor-El was reprogrammed to become the sort of emcee for the gladiatorial pit, where he took on the identity of the Grandmaster, and would often partake in the fights himself for the entertainment of the onlookers.

While on War World, he discovered tales of Kryptonians operating on Earth. In disbelief, Zor-El decided he was done on War World and began heading for Earth. But, on his way back, he was caught by Brainiac again. Brainaic probed his mind, discovering what he had learned. Brainiac himself knew that Zor-El’s daughter was on Earth. As punishment for leaving, Zor-El was sent to Earth with the mission of killing Supergirl.

### Cyborg Superman

He arrived on Earth in a time where Superman wasn’t present, himself off world to find Brainiac, unaware he had sent another party to Earth. He landed in Metropolis, where he wreaked havoc in an attempt to draw his daughter out. At first, Steel responded to the scene, and Zor was angered seeing someone else where the symbol of his house, and so he tore his armor off his chest, and probably would have killed him, were it not for the arrival of his daughter.

Seeing his daughter again did something to Zor-El’s system. It didn’t quite break Brainiac’s programming, but for a brief moment, he felt his old self returning to the surface, gaining some of his composure - that is before Kara gave him a punch to the jaw that brought Brainiac back.

The two battled in the streets. To minimize damage, Kara took the battle into the sky, where they crashed into a plane that carried DEO Deputy Director Hank Henshaw on board. Kara abandoned the fight to save the plane, and inspired by his daughter’s actions, Zor helped her safely land the plane. He and Kara shared a glance, causing Kara to collapse into sobs, now knowing her father was alive.

With no clue how to comfort her and unsure of his mission, Zor took off, leaving his daughter there, crying, while the media questioned the intentions of the Cyborg Superman.

### The Sinestro Corps

He returned to space, unsure of his goal in life, but fueled by his hatred of Brainiac. In his pursuit across space, he tried to become a hero, but was often seen as a monstrosity, striking fear into those he attempted to help - which attracted the attention of a Yellow Lantern Power Ring, which found its way onto his finger and jettisoned him to Qward to meet with Emperor Sinestro.

Sinestro, in his brief time on Earth, had heard tell of the Cyborg Superman, and was happy to welcome such a powerful being into his ego-fueled Sinestro Corps, planning to use the man in his conquest against the Guardians of Oa. He has become an invaluable powerhouse to the Corps and makes their competitors fearful to see him in their wake. He has yet to return to Earth since his encounter with Kara, but the two allegedly crossed paths when Kara wound up with a Red Lantern Ring for a brief time.