The story opens on the distant planet Krypton, whose inhabitants are similar to those on Earth, except that Kryptonians possess advanced intelligence and powers, with a greater capacity for good. Jor-El, a leading scientist and senior member of Krypton's Council, is presiding over the trial of General Zod and two other dangerous criminals who had attempted to overthrow Krypton's government. The rest of the Council declare the three guilty; with only Jor-El's vote remaining, Zod, knowing that the vote has to be unanimous, declares that he will personally hold Jor-El responsible for his condemnation, swearing that Jor-El, and later his heirs, will bow before him. Zod and the others are sentenced to endless isolation in the Phantom Zone, an eternal void that Jor-El himself had discovered. Jor-El has been attempting to persuade the Council to evacuate the planet as its red sun's gravity is pulling Krypton closer to it- and to its imminent destruction, which Jor-El is certain will happen within thirty days. But the other members of the Council complacently believe that Jor-El is inciting insurrection with his fatalistic forecast and threatens him with his own imprisonment in the Phantom Zone if he tells anyone else or tries to depart the planet. Certain he is signing his own death warrant, Jor-El reluctantly agrees to keep silent, adding that neither he nor his wife Lara will leave Krypton. With no other choice, but wanting to give his infant son Kal-El a chance, Jor-El returns to his quarters and puts him in a spacecraft he built and programmed to travel to the distant planet Earth; Lara sees the Earth as primitive and that Kal-El will be a stranger among its inhabitants, but Jor-El sees that as an advantage, and assures Lara that Kal-El will never be alone. Soon after the craft successfully departs from Krypton, Jor-El's prediction becomes reality when the red sun explodes and destroys Krypton annihilating its entire population, and hurtling its fragmentary remains across the twenty-eight known galaxies.
On the planet Krypton, using evidence provided by scientist Jor-El, the Ruling Council sentences three attempted insurrectionists, General Zod, Ursa and Non, to "eternal living death" in thePhantom Zone. Despite his eminence, Jor-El is unable to convince the Council of his belief that Krypton will soon explode. To save his infant son Kal-El, Jor-El launches a spacecraft containing the child towards Earth, a distant planet with a suitable atmosphere, and where Kal-El's dense molecular structure will give him superhuman powers. Shortly after the launch, Krypton is destroyed.
