Kelex

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Kelex is a fictional robot in the Superman comic book series. He first appeared in Man of Steel #1, in which he was one of Jor-El's robotic servants on the planet Krypton. He was created by John Byrne.

He was presumed destroyed along with Jor-El and the rest of Krypton, but he nonetheless returned to Superman comics as Superman's robotic servant who maintains the Fortress of Solitude.

He has a futuristic, streamlined design; he is a gold robot without legs (he hovers in midair) and two long, slim arms which end in only three fingers.

[edit] History

When Kelex first appeared in 'The Man of Steel', he was only in one page of the first issue- he greeted his master, Jor-El, upon his return. Jor-El then ordered him to bring the baby Kal-El (who would become Superman) in his birthing matrix. It was revealed in conversation with another of Jor-El's servant robots that Kelex had served Jor-El for all of his life, much longer than the other robot had.

The robot didn't appear for the rest of the issue, nor for the rest of the miniseries. The planet Krypton had been destroyed, and the robot appeared to have died with it.

However, when a Kryptonian device known as 'the Eradicator' was obtained by Superman, it tried to recreate Krypton on Earth, beginning with the North Pole. Superman stopped it, but the attempt had created the Fortress of Solitude. Along with the fortress had been created a group of robotic servants, one of which was a recreation of Kelex. Kelex was largely indistinguishable from the other Kryptonian robots who maintained the fortress.

The Fortress of Solitude was dramatically redesigned when Dominus took mental control of Superman, and was finally destroyed by Lex Luthor, serverely damaging Kelex. When Superman returned to the fortress, he repaired the robot enough to enable him to speak. They were both sent to a ghostly replica of the Fortress, complete in every detail. Superman was able to keep a link to the ghostly fortress through Kelex.

The fortress was later restored within a Tesseract (an infinite space within a finite containment), and Kelex was once again its caretaker. Natasha Irons reprogrammed Kelex so that he would speak more in slang. During the "Superman: Godfall" storyline, he uses 'yo mama!' as a comeback.

That incarnation of the fortress of solitude was destroyed during the "For Tomorrow" storyline, and it is unknown whether Kelex survived its destruction. Superman has since relocated his fortress to South America, and Kelex has yet to be seen there, although he may nonetheless continue to be there.