Fortress of Solitude
Encyclopedia : F : FO : FOR : Fortress of Solitude
The Fortress of Solitude is the occasional headquarters of Superman in DC Comics. Its predecessor, Superman's "Secret Citadel", first appeared in Superman #17, where it was said to be built into a mountain on the outskirts of Metropolis. However, the formal introduction of the Fortress took place in the story "The Super-Key To Fort Superman," published in Action Comics #241 in 1958.
Traditionally, the Fortress of Solitude is located in the Arctic; more recent versions of the Fortress have placed it in other locations, including the Antarctic and the Andes mountains.
The general public in Superman's world is at best only vaguely aware of the existence of the Fortress, with its location kept secret from all but Superman's closest friends and allies (such as Batman and Lois Lane).
A trademark of the Fortress is that it contains a memorial statue of Jor-El and Lara, Superman's Kryptonian parents, holding a large globe of Krypton.
The name and original location of the Fortress were most likely inspired by Doc Savage's Fortress of Solitude.
Original version
The original Silver Age Fortress, first appearing in 1958, was located in the Arctic, and built into the side of a steep cliff. The Fortress was accessible through a large gold-colored door with a giant keyhole, which required an enormous key to open it. The arrow-shaped key was so large that only Superman (or another Kryptonian such as Supergirl) could lift it; when not in use, the key sat on a perch outside of the Fortress, where it appeared to be an aircraft path marker.
The Fortress contained an alien zoo, a giant steel diary in which Superman wrote his memoirs (using either his invulnerable finger or heat vision to engrave entries into its pages), a chess-playing robot, specialized exercise equipment, a laboratory where Superman worked on various projects such as developing defenses to kryptonite, a computer, communications equipment, and rooms dedicated to all of his friends, including one for Clark Kent to fool visitors. As the stories continued, it was revealed that the Fortress was where Superman's robot duplicates were stored. It also contained the Phantom Zone projector, various pieces of alien technology he had acquired on visits to other worlds, and, much like the Batcave, trophies of his past adventures. Indeed, the Batcave and Batman himself made an appearance in the first Fortress story.
The Fortress also became the home of the bottle city of Kandor (until it was enlarged), and an apartment in the Fortress was set aside for Supergirl.
One noteworthy appearance of this version of the Fortress was in 1985's Superman Annual #11, an Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons story in which it served as the location for a battle between Superman, Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman against the supervillain Mongul.
This version of the Fortress made its last appearance in the 1986 non-canonical (or "imaginary") story "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?," appearing in Action Comics #583 and Superman #423.
Modern versions
In John Byrne's 1986 Man Of Steel miniseries, which rewrote various aspects of the Superman mythos, the Clark Kent persona was described as a "Fortress of Solitude", in that it allowed him to live as the ordinary person he saw himself as, and leave the world-famous superhero behind. This concept was often invoked in later stories, with one story even featuring Superman hiding his secret identity from a telepath behind a door identical to that of the pre-Crisis Fortress. By that time, however, a more physical Fortress had been introduced.
In Action Comics Annual #2 (1989), Superman, on a self-imposed exile to space, was entrusted with a Kryptonian artifact called the Eradicator, created by his ancestor Kem-L. Dedicated to preserving Krypton, this device built a new Fortress in the Antarctic as a precursor to recreating Krypton on Earth. Superman broke the Eradicator's control, but maintained the Fortress as a useful location for emergencies. It contained many artifacts from the post-Crisis version of Krypton, most notably a number of robot servitors (one of whom, Kelex, became a trusted confidant) and a battlesuit from the Third Age of Krypton.
This Fortress was cast into the Phantom Zone as a result of a battle between Superman, Lex Luthor and Dominus, a villain who played with Superman's mind and who was also trapped in the Zone. It did, however, serve as the template for the next Fortress, built into an extradimensional space accessed through a vast puzzle-globe. The now-mobile Fortress was relocated somewhere in the Andes.
During the "For Tomorrow" story arc in 2004-2005 Superman comics, Wonder Woman breached the Fortress in an attempt to confront Superman, causing The Fortress to self-destruct. Superman has since established a new Fortress in an ancient temple on a remote village in the Cordillera Del Condor mountains, on the border of Ecuador and Peru.
The current Fortress is home to Krypto and his dog-sitter "Ned" (the last remaining Superman robot), and contains the current version of Kandor, a portal to the Phantom Zone, Kryptonian and alien artifacts, and holographic images of Jor-El and Lara. The caretaker of the Fortress is Kelex, a Kryptonian robot that is a descendant of the robot that served Jor-El.
Infinite Crisis
In the 2006 limited series Infinite Crisis, several survivors of the pre-Crisis multiverse---the Earth-Two Superman, Lois Lane of Earth-Two, the Earth-Prime Superboy, and Earth-Three's Alexander Luthor, Jr.---set up a base in the ruins of the Antarctic Fortress following their escape from the "paradise dimension" they had been trapped in since the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
One Year Later
In the 2006 story arc Up, Up, and Away!, Superman recovered a piece of Kryptonian sunstone, which Lex Luthor had used to wake an ancient Kryptonian warship. Superman revealed that the sunstone had been sent with him from Krypton, and used it (in Action Comics #840) to construct a new fortress in the Arctic in the exact same manner as (see below).All Star Superman
In the out-of-continuity series All Star Superman, the Fortress is once again located in the Arctic. Superman has replaced the giant key with a normal-sized key which is made from dwarf star material and is therefore too dense for any mortal to lift. He has a team of robots working on various projects, and the Fortress seem to contain the Titanic, the space shuttle from the post-Byrne Superman origin, as well as larger-than-life memorabilia, making it more akin to the Batcave than to more traditional depictions of the Fortress from the Silver Age.Other media
In and its sequels, the Fortress is created by a crystal that Jor-El enclosed in Clark's rocketship. It leads Clark to an icefield, where he throws it down, and it melts into the ice and grows into a huge crystalline building. This Fortress contains numerous "memory crystals" that can be used to access interactive holographic recordings of Jor-El, Lara and other Kryptonians. It also contains a chamber that uses red sun radiation to remove Kryptonian powers. In a TV version of Superman II (not seen in the movie cut), the Fortress is destroyed by Superman as its existence was revealed to Lex Luthor as well as police who arrested General Zod, Ursa and Non.In the 2006 movie Superman Returns, the Fortress follows the same formula as the earlier movies, but goes into more detail about the crystal origins of the Fortress and Kryptonian architecture. Lex Luthor even attempts to use memory crystals he stole from the Fortress to grow a giant island. In , the Fortress will be accessible.
The Fortress was also used in the mid-1990s television cartoon , where it was located underneath the Arctic ice; access was gained by diving into the Arctic water and emerging in an opening inside the Fortress. This version contained an alien zoo and some computer equipment, along with a Brainiac information sphere used by Superman for accessing information about Krypton.
On the 1990s television series Lois & Clark, the "Fortress" appeared in one episode as the name of young Clark Kent's treehouse.
The fifth season premiere episode of the 2000s television series Smallville introduces a re-creation of the Fortress that was very similar in appearance to the original Superman movies, but much larger in size. Also, throughout the series Clark is often found in his loft in a barn, which his father calls the "Fortress of Solitude" since it is the place where Clark likes to be alone.
In the computer game "The Death and Return of Superman" for SNES the Fortress of Solitude is shown in one of the cut-screens.
Cultural references
1930s and 1940s pulp fiction hero Doc Savage kept a Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic. It was there he did scientific research when he needed to get away. Fortress of Solitude was also the name of a Doc Savage novel.The television program Saturday Night Live's Ambiguously Gay Duo have a secret "Fortress of Privacy", a clear parody of the Fortress of Solitude.
The Fortress of Solitude is a 2003 novel by Jonathan Lethem.
The South Park Christmas episode "Red Sleigh Down" shows Santa Claus' North Pole home as the Fortress from the Superman movies.
Drawn Together's Captain Hero has a Pillow Fort of Isolation, his equivalent of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
In a second season episode of 2000s television sitcom That 70s Show entitled "Red Fired Up", Eric (Topher Grace) likens his basement to the Fortress of Solitude, as it is the place he and his friends hang out to avoid their elders & peers, and tells Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) that he cannot keep bringing Eric's older sister Laurie (Lisa Robin Kelly) down there as it is a violation of the basement's function. "You can't bring my sister down here. This place is like our Fortress of Solitude..."
The 1990s television sitcom Seinfeld contained numerous Superman references, as Jerry Seinfeld confessed a huge love of the comic character. Seinfeld referenced the Fortress of Solitude in one episode. To show his love of Superman, he also appeared in a Web-based, 10-minute long commercial for American Express in which he co-starred with an animated Superman.
In the television series Static Shock, Virgil Hawkins names his base The Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude. Batman of Batman Beyond makes fun of this base, only to find a hi-tech superbase belowground.
The television series Doug. Doug's comic book superhero persona Quailman has a hideaway called the Thicket of Solitude. As its name suggests it is located in a unknown wooded area.
In the Simpsons episode, King of the Hill, Homer is resting beside a port-o-potty. When he attempts to get up, he knocks it over, revealing Comic Book Guy, who is reading a comic. He sighs and says, "It appears I will have to find a new Fortress of Solitude."
External links
- [Supermanica: Fortress of Solitude] Supermanica entry on the pre-Crisis Fortress of Solitude
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.