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Lar Gand, known variously as Mon-El, Valor and M'Onel, is a fictional character in DC Comics' universe who is affiliated with the Legion of Super-Heroes, Superboy, and later Superman.
Halk Kar
"Superman's Big Brother," in Superman #80 (January–February 1953), introduced a character named Halk Kar — who had a logo-less costume almost identical to Superman's but with the red and blue colors reversed — as a super-powered alien much less powerful than Superman. Halk Kar was essentially the original prototype for Mon-El.
In the story, Halk Kar crash-lands on Earth in a rocketship and is rescued by Superman, who discovers that Halk Kar suffers from amnesia. Discovering a note from Jor-El (Superman's father) in Halk Kar's possession which mentions Jor-El's son, Superman assumes that Halk Kar must not only be from his own planet Krypton, but he must be a son of Jor-El and thus also his own older brother.
Superman quickly realizes that Halk Kar is less powerful than he is and — instead of subjecting him to embarrassment over the fact that he may be weaker than his younger brother — opts to use his own powers to cover for Halk Kar's deficiencies. Unfortunately this plan backfires on Superman, as Halk Kar begins to assume a superior attitude to Superman and even begins to make romantic advances on Superman's girl friend, Lois Lane.
Finally, after Halk Kar is exposed to a powerful electric shock inflicted on him by criminals, he recovers his memory and explains to Superman who he is and how he came into possession of a note from Jor-El. He says that his name is Halk Kar and that he is from the planet Thoron, which is in the same solar system as Krypton was. (The planet "Thoron" was named after thoron, an isotope of Radon-220, just as the planet "Krypton" was named after the chemical element krypton.) Years ago, while on a pioneer voyage into space, he landed on Krypton with his damaged rocketship. There he met Jor-El, who explained that Krypton's destruction was imminent and repaired Halk Kar's rocketship, sending him away with the note which had a map from Krypton to Earth on it. Krypton exploded shortly afterward, causing Halk Kar to be put into suspended animation until he drifted to Earth to meet Superman, the grown-up son of Jor-El referred to in the note.
After explaining his story, Halk Kar bids farewell to Superman and returns to the planet Thoron in his repaired rocketship, leaving Superman with the experience of briefly having had a brother.
Mon-El
In Superboy #89 (June 1961), the story recycled much of the plot of "Superman's Big Brother," replacing Halk Kar with Mon-El (who was given the name of Lar Gand in a later story).
Lar Gand is a Daxamite, an alien from the planet Daxam. Exploring the galaxy, he landed on Krypton, but was immediately warned by Jor-El of the planet's imminent destruction and was given a map to Earth. He then went into suspended animation. After a few years he landed on Earth and met Superboy. Although Gand suffered from amnesia upon landing on Earth, he and Superboy became good friends. Under Earth's yellow sun he had powers like those of Superman; this led Superboy to believe that Gand might be his heretofore unknown long-lost brother. Superboy named the amnesiac alien "Mon-El": "Mon" because he landed on Earth on a Monday, and "El" for Superboy's own Kryptonian family name.
However, Daxamites are highly sensitive to lead; even a small amount causes fatal, irreversible, poisoning. After heavy lead exposure, "Mon-El" was dying, so Superboy transported him into the extradimensional Phantom Zone until a cure could be found. Gand spent one thousand years as a poisoned, insubstantial, telepathic phantom, able to watch everything that happened in the outside world, but unable to affect it in the slightest.
In the 30th century Saturn Girl created a temporary antidote to this poisoning allowing him to be released from the Zone for brief periods of time. During this period he was considered an honorary Legionnaire. Brainiac 5 later created a permanent antidote, based on Saturn Girl's serum, with the addition of Kryptonite.
After passing his Legion test (including inventing flight ring metal) under the name "Marvel Lad", Mon-El then joined the Legion of Super-Heroes, using the "Mon-El" moniker Superboy had given him. Many years later he married fellow Legionnaire Shadow Lass, with whom he had a long romantic relationship.
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Gand's history was unchanged, except that his encounter with Superboy took place in a pocket universe created by the Time Trapper, a mysterious being living at the end of the universe, as Superboy was no longer part of the DCU Superman's history.
Valor
Following a number of "rewrites" of Legion history by various incarnations of the Time Trapper, Lar Gand replaced the non-existent Superboy as the Legion's inspiration.
In his new history, Lar Gand was inspired by his father's sacrifice in the crossover story Invasion! to become a hero. He briefly joined L.E.G.I.O.N., where it was Vril Dox II who cured his lead poisoning.
Gand left L.E.G.I.O.N after a disagreement and travelled to Earth. He played a significant part in the Eclipso: The Darkness Within crossover, in which Superman gave him the name "Valor". Soon thereafter he began relocating humans which the Dominators from Invasion! had been experimenting on. These humans all had metahuman abilities, and he intended the planets he "seeded" with them to be the first line of defence should the Dominators return. Not very coincidentally, these were the planets the Legionnaires would come from 1000 years later. These events were described in his own comic Valor which lasted for 23 issues. After #12 however, things became complex.
Prior to Valor #12, Gand's history in the Legion was explained thus: the villainess Glorith, who in the new history was acting as the Time Trapper, was attracted to him. When he rebuffed her, he was cast into the "Buffer Zone" that Bgtzlians such as Phantom Girl use to "phase". He was discovered by Phantom Girl after 1000 years in the Zone, and released to great acclaim by the United Planets. He was, after all, practically a religious figure to these people. After this, his history with the Legion was assumed to have continued much as before, including his marriage to Shadow Lass.
Glorith had continued altering the timeline, inadvertently recreating the original Time Trapper in the process. Travelling back to when Lar Gand was a young man in another attempt to win his affection, she accidentally caused his death. Attempting to undo the damage this caused history, she created a duplicate Valor from the Legion's time to take his other self's place, but this was unsuccessful. This was one of the many destabilisations of the timestream that eventually led to Zero Hour, and the "Legion Reboot".
M'Onel
After the Reboot, Valor reappeared in Superboy Vol. 3 #17. He was amnesiac, but had vague memories of his time with L.E.G.I.O.N. and the events of his own series. Tricked into a fight with Superboy (the modern clone version), he discovers Dox's anti-lead serum is wearing off. To save him Superboy places him in the "Stasis Zone", an extradimensional space used by the minor supervillain Loophole. (It was later confirmed that the Stasis Zone, the Buffer Zone, and the Phantom Zone were all different names for the same dimension.) Once again, he remained there for a thousand years, before being released by the Legion, and injected with Brainiac 5's improved version of his ancestor's serum. To avoid the religious fervor his return would cause, the Legion kept secret the fact this new Legionnaire was the legendary Valor. He took the name "M'Onel", which, he claimed, was Martian for "the Wanderer".
Since then Legion has been rebooted yet again. Lar Gand has yet to appear in the current Legion continuity.
"Lar Gand"