Transilvane

Transilvane is a fictional small artificial planet with two horn-like protuberances in the DC Comics Universe. It was created by Jack Kirby in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #142 and #143 (October–November 1971).

Transilvane's official name was E.T.A.S. (Extraterrestrial Artificial Simulation). It was created at the behest of NASA to simulate and study extraterrestrial environments, with an eye towards long-term human colonization. When the project ran out of government funding, Dabney Donovan seeded the planet with miniature lifeforms and used orbiting Movie projectors to project horror films on the planet's clouds. As a result, the Transilvanians assumed the shapes and habits of classic horror film monsters.

Donovan was eventually planning to wipe Transilvane clean, using a robotic "Demon Dog" to spray it with a poison gas. To stop him, several Transilvanians, led by the vampire Count Dragorin and the werewolf Lupek, came to Earth in coffin-shaped, size-altering spacecraft. They failed to find Donovan, but Superman, assisted by Jimmy Olsen, destroyed the Demon Dog and saved Transilvane.

The story ended with Superman having decided to reprogram the Transilvanians by replacing the horror movies with projections of Oklahoma!.

Reintroduction

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Transilvane was reintroduced in Legends of the DC Universe #22 and #23 (November–December 1999), written by Jean-Marc Lofficier and drawn by José Ladrönn.

The origins of Transilvane remained basically unchanged, although the technology now involved nanotechnology and a miniaturization field inside which the Planck constant had been reduced.

The new story did not feature Jimmy Olsen; Superman and Donovan were forced to travel to Transilvane because of the threat of the "Mandragore", an android with the power of destroying all of Earth's plastics, sent by Count Dragorin.

Transilvane was shown to be divided into six warring cultures, also based on horror films downloaded by Donovan from late night television shows: the Frankensteins, led by Flesh, the Zombies, led by Zorval, the Ghouls, the Mummies, the Werewolves, led by Lupek, the Grotesques and the Vampires, led by Dragorin.

After escaping from the Frankensteins, Superman and Donovan were attacked by zombies, but rescued by Lupek's daughter, Hood, who took them to Dragorin's Castle, located in one of the planet's two horns. There, Dragorin and his grotesque Igor revealed Donovan's plan to wipe out all life on Transilvane, and their attempt to thwart it through mutual assured destruction. A peace of sorts was then brokered by Superman, ensuring Transilvane's safety.

A Dragorin and a Lupek previously appeared post-Crisis in the Guardians of Metropolis mini-series of late 1994, with Dragorin's first post-Crisis appearance in issue #1 and Lupek's first post-Crisis appearance in issue #2, followed by Superboy #57-58, appearing here as contestants in the "Demolition Run", a metahuman motor race. This story is chronologically set after the reintroduction of Transilvane above. That Dragorin and that Lupek, however, were physically similar to the 1971 Jack Kirby designs and not to the post-Crisis versions redesigned by Ladrönn. Their origins remain unexplained.

External links

• The Lofficiers' page on their Superman work