Type: Precursor
I have no intention of adding every member of the El family to the Reign Roll Call, but since the Flash goes goo-goo in "Grounded" and super-quickly dresses Superman as his ancestor Erok-El, he's fair game. But it's more than that. According to the pre-Crisis mini-series The Krypton Chronicles, Erok-El the Star King (or Erok of the Star) was the first Kryptonian to take the name of "El". He tamed the cannibals of early Krypton and founded its first city thanks to a strength-giving potion. His pet peeve was apparently learning the names of all his ancestors so he could identify himself according to custom, so he invented the surname. "El", meaning "star" would be added to his name, and to the name of all his descendants, first among these, Kal-El ("star-child"). Not our Kal-El, but the ancestor Superman was named after. Most remarkably, both Erkol and Kal I are dead ringers for Superman.
The post-Crisis DCU replaces this history with that of Blood of My Ancestors (Reign #240), which claims the bloodline started with a boy simply called "El". The tales are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Erkol might have chosen the name "El" from HIS first ancestor. In any case, Erkol's appearance here works in the framework of Chris Roberson's theory about continuity (i.e. it ALL happened, even if Superman doesn't remember everything all of the time). Or if you're more conservative about things like that, remember there have been Crises since Blood of My Ancestors, so the history could have been restored.One question before I go: Is that figure "8" on his chest an archaic way to write the sign of "El" which we usually perceive as an "S"?
Writer Chris Roberson weighs in with interesting behind the scenes information in the Comments. Check it out!
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