What's your favourite version of Jor-El?

[Norrin Radd]

I like Marlon's. He seems cool, like he knows what's goin' on. But the Animated Series is okay too. He's more like the Silver Age dude.

[PatrickG]

In terms of attitude and life story, Silver Age.

Honestly, I could accept Byrne's "cold, sterile" Krypton if his Jor-El wasn't such a stock sci-fi character.

I like a Jor-El who fights monsters, mounts daring rescues, invents strange science. A macho Jor-El, an intellectual Jor-El, an idealized father figure of the Optimus Prime calibre.

It makes it more poignant if Jor-El is this fantastic figure and Pa Kent is just this modest farmer. It creates contrast.

Sign me up for a Jor-El that has the machismo of Bruce Campbell, the intellect/awareness that Kevin Klein carries with him and the brain of Newton.

I do think the jumpsuit may have been too cheesey by, oh, around 1981. I think he looked way too much like Superman.

But I like the SPIRIT of the Silver Age and animated Jor-Els the best. Brando is too much of a booming voice of authority for me. Byrne's Jor-El feels like an Assimov robot or a Star Trek alien. Give me a Jor-El with a life story every bit as fascinating as his son's. A flesh and blood guy with stubble and doubts and a wife and son and family... and put that man on a flying motorcycle with a laser gun.

And I'd rather just say I like the Silver Age Jor (aside from his wardrobe) than side with his animated update... Just because the Silver Age Jor had a richer life. He invented the Phantom Zone and the anti-grav car. He worked for Zod and later condemned him. He won the heart of an adventurous astronaut. And however silly, it always seemed like there were wrinkles in his life and adventures that he'd had that warranted a closer look.

I don't even know that he needed a radical facelift. I think that if you streamlined his Silver Age look, gave him a feature or two to distinguish him more from Kal, adjusted his sun emblem to look more like an alien glyph, got rid of the red briefs and made his jumpsuit look more... well... ultimate with actual seams and pockets and a functional belt, he'd be AWESOME.

[doomworm]

I really, really, really like the Marlon Brando version of Jor-El.

That said, I actually prefer the somewhat ambiguous Smallville version, where you don't really know what his intentions are/were.

It lends itself to drama much better.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

The cartoon Jor-El is my favorite thus far, but that was essentially a modern revamp of the Silver Age version. Mix that a bit with the gravitas and white hair of Brando and you've got the perfect Jor-El for my money.

Which looks to be exactly where DC is heading with the character...

[Dustin]

Silver Age Jor-El

[nightscream]

Most definitely Brando was an outstanding Jor-El. He demands the screen as he speaks. I love how they used him in Superman Returns.

[chriskenny]

I thought that the Bruce Timm version had all the things that PatrickG mentions as being great ideals of the Silver Age Jor-El, but also putting in a little bit of sophistication that made it that much better.

[Mon-el]

I agree with everything PatrickG said.

I voted Silver Age Jor-El.

I figured Brando would be a runaway vote on here.

I like the look of Birthright's Jor-El, but without him really being in a focal point in anything he's been written so far(few flashbacks, For Tommorrow, Birthright), I really don't know what type of Jor-El he really is.

[Norrin Radd]

Most definitely Brando was an outstanding Jor-El. He demands the screen as he speaks. I love how they used him in Superman Returns.

But it's true...Marlon has a certain god-like gravitas in that and many other roles. You know when he tells you something, you don't dare contradict him.