Phantom Zone

Phantom Zone
Information
Location	Multiverse (pocket dimension)
Use(s)	Prison

"Krypton's destruction sent a shock wave that knocked my pod off-course and into the Phantom Zone. A region in space where time doesn't pass. I slept there for 24 years until somehow, I got here."

—Kara Zor-El^[src]

The Phantom Zone is a region of space in which time stands still, and from which almost nothing escapes.

History

Original multiverse

The maximum-security Kryptonian prison, Fort Rozz, was banished to the Phantom Zone at an unspecified date.

In 1979, Kal-El and Kara Zor-El were rocketed away from the dying planet of Krypton to Earth. Meanwhile/After Krypton exploded, Kara's pod veered off-course and she was stuck in the Phantom Zone, only arriving on Earth 24 years later. As Kara left the Phantom Zone, she pulled Fort Rozz with her. Since time doesn't pass in the Phantom Zone, Kara didn't age at all during her stay.

About 37 years later, it was revealed by Indigo that Kara escaped the Phantom Zone when Indigo downloaded herself into Kara's pod and re-activated its engines, allowing it to leave the zone and resume its journey towards Earth.

Years later, in 2019, Mar Novu went to the Phantom Zone and brought Malefic J'onzz to Earth, subsequently admitting that he released Malefic from the Phantom Zone as a test for J'onn J'onzz to ensure that the latter was ready for a looming Crisis. Brainiac 5 and Lena Luthor worked together on the Phantom Zone projector. While Brainy's away, unbeknownst to everyone she tampers with it; messing with the machine so that anyone affected would not be sent to the Phantom Zone; instead they'd be transported to a cell in her bunker. After using it on Malefic, everyone at the DEO believed he was now back inside the Phantom Zone.

Later though, everyone found out Malefic was never sent back to the Phantom Zone. Instead, Lena held him captive to study Q-Waves after tampering with the machine.

New multiverse

"No. This isn't right. The Phantom Zone's been fractured somehow. Of course. Crisis. When all the timelines converged into one, the opposite must have happened here. It's no longer one pocket dimension, but many; an inter-dimensional archipelago."

—Querl Dox^[src]

During/After the Anti-Monitor Crisis, the Phantom Zone became fractured. Some time ago, a race of beings native to the Rao system known as Zulian Maletarians, also known as Phantoms, were banished to the Phantom Zone for conspiring to take over various planets. They became the dominant species and acted as the region's prison-guards within the Zone, leading to the region being named after them. The Imp Nyxlygsptlnz was banished to the Phantom Zone for the crime of staging a coup to overthrow her father, King Brpxz.

As Zor-El saved Argo City from destruction, he placed himself in the Phantom Zone to save himself.

Kara in the Phantom Zone.

In mid-2020, Kara Zor-El was sent to the Phantom Zone when she was blasted by a Phantom Zone projector wielded by Lex Luthor.

The portal to the fractured Phantom Zone.

Kara learned that Zor-El, her father, lived here and the two ultimately decided to attempt an escape to Earth-Prime. Meanwhile, the Superfriends recruited Silas White to build a portal to the dimension, only to learn that Crisis caused the place to be fractured and that finding Kara would not be easy.

After Kara and Zor-El hitched a ride on a phantom through a portal to another section of the Phantom Zone, Kara met Nyxly, who helped her to free her father from those who planned to sacrifice him to a beast.

Kara is rescued by the Superfriends.

Humans in the Phantom Zone developed a fugue state and dreamed their worst phobias; when the Superfriends entered the dimension by transforming the Tower into a spacecraft, the humans of the team, and Nia Nal (who's half-human), had nightmare visions of their fears. However, they recovered and found Kara and Zor-El as the Kryptonians were fighting Phantoms. Unbeknownst to the reunited team, Nyxly hitchhiked a ride to Earth with them.

During their final battle against the Superfriends, Lex and Nyxly attempted to use Phantoms to defeat them. However, the Phantoms would pick up on Lex and Nyxly's fears and pull them into the Phantom Zone, trapping them there for all eternity.

Known locations

• Phantom Lake

Known individuals

Residents

• Midnight
• Phantoms (native)
• Az-Rel
• Various White Martians
• Lex Luthor
• Nyxlygsptlnz

Former residents

Astra (deceased) Unnamed Hellgrammite Vartox (deceased) Non Brainiac 8/Indigo (deceased) Tormock Jindah Kol Rozz (deceased) Other prisoners of Fort Rozz (some deceased) Malefic J'onzz Silas White Scar (staus unknown) Owen (deceased) Kara Danvers/Supergirl Zor-El

Visitors

From Earth-Prime

• J'onn J'onnz/Martian Manhunter
• Alex Danvers/Sentinel
• Nia Nal/Dreamer
• Querl Dox/Brainiac 5
• Kelly Olsen
• Lena Luthor

From Earth-TUD7

• Mar Novu/The Monitor

Appearances

Supergirl

Season 1 "Pilot" (flashbacks) "Stronger Together" (mentioned) "Solitude" (flashbacks) Season 2 "Resist" (mentioned) Season 3 "Triggers" (vision) "Fort Rozz" (mentioned) "Dark Side of the Moon" (mentioned) Season 4 "The Quest for Peace" (portal) Season 5 "Event Horizon" (mentioned) "Stranger Beside Me" (mentioned) "Blurred Lines" (mentioned) "In Plain Sight" (mentioned) "Dangerous Liaisons" (mentioned) "Tremors" (mentioned) "The Wrath of Rama Khan" (mentioned) Season 6 "Rebirth" "A Few Good Women" "Phantom Menaces" "Lost Souls" "Prom Again!" (mentioned) "Fear Knot" "Welcome Back, Kara!" (flashbacks) "Dream Weaver" (flashbacks) "Still I Rise" (mentioned) "Mxy in the Middle" (mentioned) "The Gauntlet" (mentioned) "Nightmare in National City" (mentioned) "I Believe in a thing Called Love" (mentioned) "The Last Gauntlet" (mentioned) "Kara" (portal)

Comics

Adventures of Supergirl

• "This Is My Life"

Novels

• The Flash: The Legends of Forever (mentioned)

Trivia

• The realm's metaphysical laws and intrinsic phenomena somehow robs certain species of their abilities, with some examples even persisting even after they left the Phantom Zone, as was seen in the case of Malefic who had to exploit human technology in order to regain the power deprived from him by the Zone—inception. Phantoms, on the other hand, recover their ability to infect other beings and reproduce seemingly as soon as they exit the domain. Moreover, Imps from the Fifth Dimension cannot use their powers to simply exit the Phantom Zone, much less banish themselves from it by returning to their native dimension after speaking their own name backwards.
• The Phantom Zone really changes between Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis. In the former, it's a realm where all organic life is put in stasis between heartbeats fully aware; in the latter, it's a prison dimension where time is stopped to prevent aging, but anyone trapped here is fully functioning and aware, with the Phantoms menacing them.

Behind the scenes

• In the DC comics, the Phantom Zone is an interdimensional realm outside of space and time. It debuted in Adventure Comics #283 (April, 1961) and was created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp.