When Superman was still just young Clark Kent, a rocket containing a boy with powers much like his own, and no memory, crash landed in Smallville. Believing the boy to be a survivor of Krypton like himself, Clark gave him the name Mon-El which means "Mon" because he landed on Earth on a Monday and "El" from Clark's Kryptonian family name. Mon-El adopted a human secret identity Bob Cobb to integrate into Superboy's hometown of Smallville. However, when Mon-El failed to experience pain during an unnoticed inadvertent exposure to kryptonite, Superboy suspected Mon-El was deliberately pretending to be a Kryptonian for some nefarious purpose. Superboy created a fake kryptonite meteorite made of lead, when Mon-El is exposed to lead cause him collapsed in pain and he also regains his memories. Mon-El explained to Clark that he was from the planet Daxam. Clark found out that unlike Kryptonite poisoning, lead poisoning could not be reversed. To save his friend's life, Clark placed Mon-El in the Phantom Zone until a cure for him could be found. Clark never found a cure and Mon-El remained in the Phantom Zone, that was until the 31st Century when he is released by the Legion of Super-Heroes. Saturn Girl created a temporary antidote Serum XY-4, which allows Mon-El to be released from the Zone for brief periods of time. During this period, he was considered an honorary Legionnaire. Later Brainiac V created a permanent antidote, based on Saturn Girl's serum, with the addition of Kryptonite. Mon-El returned masquerading as Marvel Lad, he was admitted to the Legion after inventing anti-gravity Element 152 and defeating a creature called a sun-eater. He revealed his true identity and was accepted as a full-time Legionnaire. Later, Brainiac 5 uses Element 152 to create the Legion flight rings. Mon-El created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp in 1961 and first appeared in Superboy #89. Mon-El was based on a character named Halk Kar who was created in 1953 by Otto Binder and Al Plastino.
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