DC Database
Advertisement

Pete Ross of the Pocket Universe was a friend of Superboy who discovered his secret identity Clark Kent and assisted him on various adventures.

During a visit by the Legion of Super-Heroes, Pete warned them about Superboy turning against them, which they found out as they re-entered the timestream in their Time Bubble. Shortly afterward, Superman of the New Earth universe appeared in Smallville, whom Pete Ross had assumed was affected by Red Kryptonite radiation, causing the Superboy he knew to now become an adult. Eventually, it was revealed that Superboy and Superman were two separate beings not connected to each other, and that Superboy was trying to get Superman to defeat him so he could break the Time Trapper's control over him.

Sometime after Superboy's disappearance from the Pocket Universe, Pete Ross along with Lana Lang attended the funeral of Ma and Pa Kent (Superboy's foster parents) when they encountered Lex Luthor, who was in search of Superboy himself. In Lex's search by using his equipment in Superboy's secret lab, he accidentally stumbled upon the three Phantom Zone criminals -- General Zod, Zaora, and Quex-Ul -- who claimed to be innocent survivors of the destruction of Krypton and let them loose from their prison. Destroying both the lab and the Phantom Zone projector, the Phantom Zone criminals went on a destructive rampage against the whole world, claiming to be its rulers and killing anyone that got in their way. Lex Luthor formed a resistance group which included Pete Ross and an artificial lifeform created by Lex called Supergirl with the memories of Lana Lang and powers similar to Superman. However, it only resulted in the Phantom Zone criminals going so far as to destroy the Earth by burning away its atmosphere, killing everyone except those in Luthor's Smallville citadel. Learning the existence of the main New Earth universe, Luthor sent Supergirl across the dimensional barrier, blanking her memory but planting in her mind a compulsion to go to Metropolis in order to contact Superman. Pete bravely fought the three Phantom Zone criminals right to the end, when a final assault by them destroyed the entire resistance force as well as Lex Luthor's Smallville citadel.

Related

Footnotes


Advertisement