Lara

Lora was a scientist and space pilot during the last days of the planet Krypton. She is the mother of Kal-El, who would later grow up to become the man known on Earth as Superman, and is responsible for her son's escape from Krypton's destruction and arrival on Earth.

Decades after her death, Lora and her husband, Jor-El, are remembered by their son through monuments constructed in the Fortress of Solitude and a semi-intelligent A.I. system that was programmed into the fortress' Sunstone Crystals to act as a means of conference for Kal-El in matters on his heritage.

Background
Lora Lor-Van was born on Krypton as a member of the Labor Guild; the lowest caste guild in Kryptonian society and as such possessed no considerable rank or worth in her society; possessing only a future of servitude and obedience.

One day she met a young member of the Science Guild, Jor-El, and, after falling into various adventures together, the pair fell in love. Despite her guild caste Jor-El married her and brought her into the Science Guild and, now enjoying the freedom of a member of one of the highest ranked guilds on the planet, Lora soon discovered that she had a talent in the study and understanding of space travel. Becoming a member of Krypton's space program, her opportunity to further excel in this area was revoked, however, after fellow scientist, Jax-Ur, accidentally blew up one of Krypton's inhabited moons; resulting in the arrival of Brainiac and the destruction of the city of Kandor, the Science Council permanently grounded the space program.

When Krypton began experiencing a series of earthquakes, Jor-El investigated discovered that Krypton's core was extremely unstable and that it would eventually reach critical mass and explode. Jor-El tried to convince the Science Council of the impending disaster, and urging them to reestablishing the space program so that spacecraft could be built to carry the populace to another world. However, the Council was dismissive of Jor-El's findings and refused to comply with his plan.

Lora, however, believed her husband and helped him continue his work on space travel, hoping to build a spacecraft to save their family, however, they soon found that they would only have enough time to build a spacecraft to save one family member; their son Kal-El. As Krypton went through its final destructive stages, Jor-El and Lora placed their son in the completed rocket and launched him towards Earth, before they themselves died as the planet exploded with the rest of the planet's population.

Involvement

 * Lora appears alongside her husband on the verge of sending their son, Kal-El to space. However, the couple are interrupted by a group of New Heroes/New Villains who, on instruction from Future Batman/Future Lex Luthor, invade the House of El in order to alter the timeline.

Trivia

 * Lora first appeared in the Superman newspaper comic strip in 1939.
 * After being mentioned in the 1942 novel The Adventures of Superman, where Lora's name was spelt "Lara", Lora first appeared in comics in More Fun Comics #101 January-February 1945.
 * Lora used her father's full name as her last name due to Kryptonian culture dictating that females use their father's full name as their last names before marriage; after which they would simply be referred to by their first name.
 * Kal-El, not knowing his parent's real birthdays, chose a particular date in which he spends within the Fortress of Solitude dressed in a ceremonial robe to honor his father's memory. He does the same thing for his mother, six months after.
 * Martha Kent notes that Clark's first word was "Lora".