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 (June 1958).

Traditionally, the Fortress of Solitude is located in the Arctic, though more recent versions of the Superman comics have placed the Fortress in other locations, including the Antarctic, the Andes and the Amazon rainforest. 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 Lois Lane and Batman). 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. However, although Superman has living quarters at the Fortress, his main residence is still in Metropolis.

The name and original location of the Fortress were most likely inspired by Doc Savage's Fortress of Solitude.

Original version

The Silver Age Fortress of Solitude, from Superman #187 (June 1966). Art by Curt Swan and George Klein.

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DC Special Series #26 (1981). Art by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

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.

A detailed description of the Fortress and its contents forms the background to DC Special Series #26 (1981); Superman and his Incredible Fortress of Solitude, in which Superman minutely inspects the Fortress, suspecting an enemy has planted an Earth-destroying bomb within it. Another noteworthy appearance of this version of the Fortress was in 1985's Superman Annual #11, a story by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons titled For the Man Who Has Everything, in which it served as a battleground for Superman, Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman against the alien would-be overlord Mongul. This story was adapted to animation in Justice League Unlimited.

In addition to Mongul, the Fortress has been independently broken into at various times by villains Lex Luthor, Brainiac and the Atomic Skull, among others.

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.

According to Action Comics number 261, Superman first established secret Fortresses in outer space and at the center of the Earth before settling on an Arctic location. This assertion is unsupported by other texts. Additionally, Superman established an undersea Fortress of Solitude - hollowed out of the side of an undersea cliff - in September 1958. The undersea Fortress, which is reportedly located at the bottom of the Sargasso Sea at 28 degrees North latitude, 50 degrees West longitude, is stocked with numerous exotic ocean relics and is equipped with sophisticated monitoring apparatus to enable Superman to keep abreast of events occurring throughout the seven seas. Superman later abandoned the undersea Fortress and the structure is now used by the mer-people of Atlantis as a showplace and a tourist attraction.

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.

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The new Fortress of Solitude, from Superman #217 (July 2005). Art by Ed Benes.

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 Phantom 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.

In the DC One Million series (1998), Superman's Fortress of Solitude in the 853rd Century resides within a tesseract located at the center of Earth's sun. By this time, Superman has lived in self-imposed exile within the Fortress for over 15,000 years. 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. This version of the Fortress is visually similar to the earliest "Secret Citadel" from Superman #17.

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

Main article: 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. It was then revealed from Power Girl's repressed memories from her life on Earth-Two that her cousin Kal-L had his own version of the Fortress of Solitude similar to his Earth-One counterpart's Fortress.

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 awaken an ancient Kryptonian warship. Superman learned 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 in Superman: The Movie. He nevertheless plans to restore the Peruvian Fortress, even if compromised and no longer in a secret location, and plan more Fortresses around the world, reachable to the mass as a public front end.

Action Comics Annual #10 (2007) revealed that, in the continuity of "New Earth", the original Arctic fortress was built before Clark assumed the Superman identity.

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, and has a team of robots working on various projects. The Fortress itself seems to contain the Titanic, the space shuttle Columbia , 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

Movies

In Superman: The Movie and its sequels (except for Superman 3), the Fortress is created by a crystal that Jor-El enclosed in Kal-El's spaceship. It leads teenage Clark Kent to an ice field where, after he throws it down, melts into the ice and grows into a huge crystalline building. This feat is similar to other descriptions in science fiction of a nano-assembler device, with what appears to be transmutation of hydrogen and oxygen in the ice into whatever elements the fortress is made of. This Fortress contains numerous "memory crystals" that can be used to access interactive holographic recordings of Jor-El, Lara, and other Kryptonians, and a chamber that uses red sun radiation to strip Kryptonians of their superpowers. (Used in both versions of Superman II)

In Richard Donner's cut of Superman II, the Fortress is destroyed by Superman as its existence was revealed to Lex Luthor as well as the police who arrested General Zod, Ursa, and Non. However, Superman then turns back time (ala Superman I), so technically the fortress is completely restored.

Concept Art for Superman Returns

In 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 attempts to use memory crystals he stole from the Fortress to create a new continent. An observation is made (following Superman II leaving the world as it is) that this is not the first time he has been there.

Computer and video games

In the computer game The Death and Return of Superman for SNES, the Fortress of Solitude is shown in one of the cut-screens.

In Superman Returns: The Videogame, It was thought that the Fortress would be accessible. However, it is only shown in one cut-scene. The only locations accesssible in the game are Metropolis, and a small part of Warworld.

Television

The Fortress has appeared in Super Friends, including one episode where using the giant key requires the combined efforts of Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Cyborg. Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited present a slightly altered version, with the Fortress located in the ocean underneath the Arctic tundra; access was gained by diving into the Arctic water and emerging in an opening inside the Fortress. This version contained an alien zoo housing alien lifeforms saved off The Preserver's ship and some computer equipment, along with a Brainiac information sphere stolen from his hijacked spacecraft just before it was destroyed used by Superman to access information about Krypton.

The Fortress of Solitude is also a major setting for the Justice League Unlimited episode "For the Man Who Has Everything". A fight with the warlord Mongul took place there, after he delivered a parasite capable of hypnosis to Superman and was detected by Batman and Wonder Woman. In this version, the name "Fortress of Solitude" was given by Professor Neil Hamilton in a sarcastically humorous remark while he visited the fortress in one episode.

On Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the "Fortress" appeared in one episode as the name of young Clark Kent's treehouse.

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The Fortress of Solitude in Smallville.

In Smallville, teenage Clark Kent is often found in his loft in a barn, which Jonathan Kent once called the "Fortress of Solitude" since it is the place where Clark likes to be alone. However, the fifth season premiere, "Arrival", introduces a Fortress of Solitude that is very similar in appearance to the one seen in the original Superman movies, but much larger in size; it is even constructed in a manner very similar to what was seen in Superman: The Movie.

In the same episode, Chloe Sullivan, having been accidentally transported to the Arctic, found the Fortress and upon entering, was hit with an ice blast caused by Jor-El attempting to educate Clark, and subsequently began to freeze to death. Clark took Chloe to a hospital in the Yukon, indicating that the Yukon is the nearest inhabited place to the Fortress. As of Smallville's sixth season premiere, the fortress is apparently "dead" as a result of Clark throwing a dagger from the fortress into Brainiac. An S-shield shaped crystal Clark received in the Phantom Zone and used to purge Zod from Lex has recently been charged with the power of one of the escaped Phantom Zone criminals, and was subsequently used to revive the Fortress. The Fortress is referred to as Jor-El's fortress of knowledge by his assistant Raya.

Doc Savage and his Fortress of Solitude

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Bantam Books cover art by James Bama

1930s and 1940s pulp fiction hero Doc Savage mainained his own Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic.[1]

It was there that he did scientific research and study when he needed to get away from his life of adventuring. Doc's fortress was mentioned in the first Doc Savage pulp novel, Man of Bronze by Lester Dent, was published in March 1933, which predates Superman's hideaway.

Fortress of Solitude was also the title of a Doc Savage novel published in October 1938, which provides extensive background information about the actual structure which was described as a massive, 100-foot-tall blue dome (see video clip below). It formed the background for a deadly confrontation between Doc Savage and his greatest foe, John Sunlight.

Later, in the October 1942 pulp novel The Laugh of Death, the fortress had been modified to resemble an ice-covered rock outcropping.

In the 1975 film Doc Savage: The Man on Bronze, the Fortress of Solitude is shown as a large igloo-like structure.

Cultural references

• Saturday Night Live's Ambiguously Gay Duo has a secret "Fortress of Privacy", a clear parody of the Fortress of Solitude.

• The Fortress of Solitude is a 2003 novel by Jonathan Lethem.

• In the Christmas-themed South Park episode, "Red Sleigh Down", Santa Claus' home in the North Pole is shown as the Fortress from the Superman movies.

• In the animated series Drawn Together, Captain Hero has a "Pillow Fort of Isolation", his equivalent of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

• In an episode of That '70s Show entitled "Red Fired Up", Eric likens his basement to the Fortress of Solitude, as it is the place he and his friends hang out to avoid their elders and peers, and tells Kelso that he cannot keep bringing Laurie 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 television sitcom Seinfeld contained numerous Superman references, as Jerry Seinfeld confessed to be a huge fan 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 Fairly Odd Parents, episode "Power Pals", Timmy wishes for some Super Friends: one of which is Super Sam. In the episode, Super Sam keeps throwing crystals around and they grow into various buildings (such as the Hall of Friendship) and other items.

• In the animated television series Static Shock, Virgil Hawkins names his base of operations "The Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude." In the episode "Future Shock", where Static is accidentally transported to a futuristic Gotham City, Batman makes fun of this base, only to find a hi-tech super-base below ground.

• In the Nickelodeon cartoon 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 an 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."

• In the Dilbert episode "The Off-Site Meeting", Dilbert refers to his home as his "Fortress of Solitude" and his neighbors reply, "I thought only Superman had a Fortress of Solitude," and go on to talk about all the great things that Superman has done for the world and how Dilbert is stealing his reputation.

• Angloman, a character created by Mark Shainblum and Gabriel Morrissette which parodies both superheroes and Quebec politics, frequently retires to his "Fortress of Two Solitudes", mocking a phrase used by various authors to describe the cultural divide between English- and French-speaking citizens of Montreal.

• Clark Oppenheimer, a character from The Tick has a Fortress of Fortitude, grown from crystals. A satire of both Superman and his father (Ka-Ro and Ban-Al, respectively), the crystals project a slide show-esque exposition featuring someone looking suspiciously like Marlon Brando.

External links

• Supermanica: Fortress of Solitude Supermanica entry on the pre-Crisis Fortress of Solitude
• [2] details of the Fortress
• [3] Video clip of Doc Savage's Fortress of Solitude.
• Google Sketchup/Earth Model of the Fortress of Solitude
• Supermanica: Secret Santuary Supermanica entry on the Secret Santuary