Queen Lara Lor-Van is a refugee from the planet of Krypton, who escaped the planet's demise with her husband Jor-El while pregnant with their son Kal-El. She later reigned as Queen alongside her husband.
History
On the day of Krypton's demise, Jor-El and Lara escaped before the planet exploded. They travelled until their vessel crash landed upon Earth, where Lara went into labour. As Jor-El went to aid her, he also noticed a group of soldiers heading their way. Though attempting to tell them they were not a threat, they went to attack them, only to be killed by Jor-El's heat vision. Lara was able to successfully give birth to their son Kal-El.
Jor-El and Lara made a home in a secluded forest clearing, hoping to hide from the people of their new world. However, Jor-El determined that Mount Kristoff, a nearby volcano, would soon erupt and kill the people living in a nearby city. Not wishing to allow another catastrophe, Jor-El drew up plans to mitigate the eruption and allow the people to survive. He secretly handed them to Alexander Luthor, the royal advisor, who had a reputation as a man of wisdom, asking him to pass it on to the King. However, Luthor was in fact arrogant and superstitious, he refused to believed Jor-El's warnings and instead consulted astrological charts which did not predict disaster. When Jor-El realised what had happened, he went to the court to warn them personally.
The mountain indeed erupted and Jor-El and Lara saved the kingdom using their unearthly powers. Luthor was exiled as his arrogance had almost doomed the kingdom. Jor-El and Lara became King Thomas' closest advisors, but Jor-El and Queen Martha spent a single night together, a mistake that they both instantly regretted and confessed to. This almost broke up both couples, particularly when Martha became pregnant with Jor-El's child. However, when she gave birth to Bruce, Thomas, who could not father children, loved him as if he was his own son. Jor-El encouraged Thomas to pass Bruce off as his son, but honour demanded that Thomas reveal Bruce was a bastard, although he kept the fact that Jor-El was Bruce's father a secret from everyone, including Bruce. Only the parents and the castle's master-at-arms Alfred knew the turth. The two families became closer than ever, and raised Bruce alongside Kal-El and the El's daughter Zala.
After he had been exiled, Luthor had found a magic ring on the mountain, which had granted him great power but also left him disfigured and insane. While the Els and Waynes were travelling to Amazonia, where Zala was to be fostered in the court of Queen Hippolyta, Luthor attacked the Wayne's carriage; Thomas was killed instantly and Martha was fatally wounded, but Bruce survived thanks to his star-born blood. Jor-El chased after Luthor in a rage, but he was able to escape. As she was dying, Martha asked Jor-El and Lara to rule the kingdom until Bruce was ready to take the throne and the people were ready to accept him as king. With her final breath she asked them to look after Bruce.[1]
When both princes were of age, Jor-El tasked Bruce to hunt down and apprehend people possessing "Magic" which could harm the Els. Lara, Kal-El and Zala all felt that this policy of imprisoning people who had committed no crime was immoral but deferred to Jor-El.[2] Kal-El was forbidden to join the hunts but he secretly followed Bruce on one and aided in the capture of a banshee. When they returned to the castle the young men were ordered to the throne room, as the Els believed Bruce had taken Kal-El with him against orders. Bruce attempted to take responsibility but Kal-El admitted he had followed Bruce without his knowledge. When Bruce went to kneel, Lara told him that the palace was just as much his home as theirs and that his parents were good friends to them, as well as monarchs.[3]
Following this meeting with Kal and Bruce, Lara remained in the throne room, while Bruce and Jor-El spoke on the battlements of the castle. Suddenly a red light filled the sky and they heard Bruce scream. Lara and Kal-El raced to the battlement where Bruce and Jor-El were, only to find her husband dead, with an arrow in his eye. Bruce chased down and captured the assassin who fired the arrow. While still grieving the loss of her husband Lara convened a council where her general Waller insisted that the Els' main rival King Jefferson of the neighbouring Kingdom of Storms must be behind the assassination and demanded that they retaliate. However, Lara refused to allow a war which would kill thousands of innocents due to the actions of a few guilty individuals.[4]
When a star fell to Earth, Bruce and Alfred departed the castle to investigate.[5] While he was away Zala returned home and her lover Diana, the princess of the Amazons, defected to their side.[6] Bruce and Alfred returned from their excursion, but Bruce and the star disappeared and so Alfred and the Robins dispersed to look for him. As such, Timothy Drake, Bruce's spy in King Jefferson's court, had to report to Lara personally when he was discovered and banished from the Kingdom of the Storms. Timothy told the court that the Kingdom of the Storms was marching to war against them as King Jefferson had been murdered, and every witness claimed Zala had killed him, despite Zala denying it. Diana warned that if the Kingdom of the Storms went to war the Amazons would join them. Lara asked them all to leave while she considered her options, however, General Waller hung back and suggested that they assassinate Hippolyta, as then Diana would become Queen of the Amazons and would switch their allegiance to the Els. Kal-El slipped away to Amazonia without permission to try and convince the Amazons to stay out of the war, and did not return.[7]
The Kingdom of Storms and Amazons joined forces and invaded the Lands of El. Lara dispatched Waller and her advisor Harley Quinn to meet them at the edge of Hobb Forest and try to negotiate a peaceful solution. They reported back that the invaders would only be satisfied if Lara and Zala surrendered unconditionally and turned themselves over, which the people of the kingdom would not allow. Waller wanted to deploy the army for battle but Lara ordered her to stand down, saying she would face both the attacking armies by herself. In a rare moment of agreement, both Harley and Waller told her she could not do so, and asked her to let her people fight for her. Lara reluctantly gave the order to mobilise.
When the armies reached the castle, Zala and Diana went out in a last-ditch to convince them to leave without a fight, but they refused. A duplicate of Lara flew down and, to everyone's shock and horror, blasted Hippolyta in half with her heat vision.[8]
Grief-stricken, Diana ordered the Amazons to attack, and the three armies charged into battle. However, as the fight was raging, Lara tackled the doppleganger to Earth and demanded to know who she was, shocking both sides into stopping the fight. Alfred called for someone to use fire against the other Lara and Oliver, Jor-El's assassin who had escaped from the dungeon in the confusion, shot her with a flaming crossbow bolt. The other Lara burst into flames, revealing her true nature as a White Martian. The Martian escaped, despite the El's attempts to stop it.[9]
The leaders of the armies gathered at the edge of the battlefield, where Alfred revealed that he was also an alien. Diana bound him in a magic rope which the Amazons used to compel prisoners to tell the truth and he assured them that he meant none of them any harm, and was loyal to the El's. Lara invited Diana and Queen Anissa to a conference to discuss the newly discovered threat, allowing them to bring their soldiers into the city to receive succour.
The three queens, joined by the Lady of the Forest; questioned Alfred, who was still bound in the rope. He revealed that his true name was J'onn J'onzz from the planet Mars, and the monster they had seen was a White Martian, the enemy of his people, the Greens. He told them that the White Martians wanted to take Earth after a war between their peoples had devastated Mars, and the queens realised that everything had been a plot by the Whites to get the potential threats of the Amazons, Kryptonians and Pierces to destroy each other and leave the way open to conquer Earth. Lara proposed that they decided to join forces to oppose the invaders.[10]
The queens did not initially trust J'onn, and kept him imprisoned and bound in the rope. After he was attacked and almost killed in his cell by one of the Whites, they decided to release him and take his advice, setting up multiple fire-based defences to hold the invaders at bay. Lara allowed Bruce to free J'onn and release the people he had imprisoned for possessing magic, as he now realised that had been wrong. Waller protested Bruce's actions and allowing the other armies to camp within their walls, as she still saw them as the enemy, but Lara held resolute, insisting they would unite against the Martians.
Lara took Kal-El and Zala to where their ship was buried and retrieved a Sunstone crystal from the console. It contained plans for a Phantom Zone Projector and together the three of them forged the Projector, which they could use to banish the Martians to the Phantom Zone.[2]
The next day Lara's advisor Harley, the Amazon spymaster Lois and the Pierce's advisor Constantine; came up with a plan to defeat the White Martians once and for all by luring them to the dormant volcano Mount Kristoff and triggering an eruption; where Bruce, Kal-El, Diana and Zala would battle them when they had been severely weakened by the flaming lava. That night, the Martians somehow brought down the bonfires surrounding the castle, but the Amazon defenders were ready for them and kept them pinned down. A messenger rode to the castle to tell them the Martians were attacking and so Zala and the others headed out to face them.
The four dove into the middle of the battle and challenged Protex to face them. They flew to Mount Kristoff, with Zala carrying Diana. The full force of Martians chased after them, and when they had surrounded the mountain Queen Anissa and her sister Princess Jennifer used their powers to trigger the volcano to erupt. The Martians were doused in lava and severely injured or killed, but the El's and Diana were unharmed, protected by their powers. They battled and easily defeated the Martians; andLara banished the Martians to the Phantom Zone using the Projector. However, when it seemed like total victory had been achieved, Bruce heard Alfred call for help in his mind. Feeling his friend's anguish and pain, Bruce flew for the first time, flying as fast as he could back to the castle. He arrived to find that Alfred had been assassinated by a traitor working with the Martians.
A week later, the three kingdoms decided to unite into a League. Lara asked Bruce to sign the treaty on behalf of the Kingdom of El and said that he should rule as both a Wayne and an El now that he knew the truth. However, Bruce refused and told her and Kal-El that he planned to leave and explore the world to discover who he really was, as Alfred had spent his last years hiding his true self.[11]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Kryptonian Physiology: Under the effects of a "yellow" sun, Lara possesses the same potential powers as an average Kryptonian. These include:
- Solar Energy Absorption: Under optimal conditions, this is the main source of Lara's super powers as they are contingent upon exposure to solar radiation from a yellow sun star system. Her 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 her 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: Lara can, as a conscious act, fire beams of intense heat at a target by looking at it. She can vary the heat and area affected.
- Super-Hearing: Lara's hearing is sensitive enough to hear any sound at any volume or pitch. With skill and concentration, she can block out ambient sounds to focus on a specific source or frequency.
- Enhanced Vision: Lara'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: Lara can see well into most of the electromagnetic spectrum. She can see and identify radio and television signals as well as all other broadcast or transmitted frequencies. Using this ability, she can avoid detection by radar or satellite monitoring methods. This also allows her 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. Laras can see things behind a solid, opaque object as if it were not there. She 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: Lara can see with better acuity in darkness, and to a degree in total darkness.
- Flight: Lara 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 her dense molecular structure and supercharged bio-electric aura, Lara is nigh-invulnerable to extreme energy forces. In addition, her extends this protection against toxins and diseases.
- Superhuman Stamina: Lara is able to maintain continuous strenuous physical action for an indefinite period of time. This based on her body converting yellow solar radiation directly to energy but is limited by physiological and psychological needs to eat, drink, and sleep.
- Superhuman Strength: Lara's strength is augmented by yellow solar radiation interacting with the greater than human density, resilience and biological efficiency of her musculature. Her strength is more an act of conscious will on energy fields than actual physical strength. It is this act of conscious will that enables her 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: Lara is able to move at incredible speed by sheer force of will. This extends to her 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: - Super-Breath: Lara is able to create hurricane force winds by exhaling air from her lungs. She can chill the air as it leaves her lungs to freeze targets. She can also reverse the process to pull large volumes of air or vapor into her lungs.
- Longevity: Lara can live longer than regular humans, remaining at her prime as long as she was under the exposure of the "yellow" sun.
Abilities
- Science: Lara was able to build a Phantom Zone Projector using the tools and materials available on medieval Earth.[2]
- Statecraft
Weaknesses
- Kryptonian Physiology: Under the effects of a "yellow" sun, Lara possesses the same potential weaknesses as an average Kryptonian. These include:
Notes
- Lara was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, first appearing in Superman #53. However, the Dark Knights of Steel version of Lara first appeared in Dark Knights of Steel #1 by Tom Taylor and Yasmine Putri.
Related
- 13 Appearances of Lara Lor-Van (Dark Knights of Steel)
- 7 Images featuring Lara Lor-Van (Dark Knights of Steel)
- Quotations by or about Lara Lor-Van (Dark Knights of Steel)
- Character Gallery: Lara Lor-Van (Dark Knights of Steel)
Footnotes
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #4
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dark Knights of Steel #1
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #1
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #2
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #3
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #5
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #6
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #8
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #9
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #10
- ↑ Dark Knights of Steel #12
  This character has been a member of the Justice League of America, or the Justice League in any of its various incarnations, sworn by a duty to act as guardians of America and the world by using their skills and/or superpowers to protect Earth from the clutches of both interstellar and domestic threats. |
 Superman Family member |