Fortress of Solitude - Original Version

Original Version

The concept and name "Fortress of Solitude" first appeared in the Doc Savage pulps in the 1930s and 1940s. Doc Savage built his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic and retreated to it alone in order to make new scientific or medical breakthroughs, and to store dangerous technology and other secrets. Superman's original Silver Age Fortress, as it appeared in 1958, was also located in the Arctic and served similar purposes. Built into the side of a steep cliff, the Fortress was accessible through a large gold-colored door with a giant keyhole, which required an enormous key to open it. The arrow-shaped key was so large that only Superman (or another Kryptonian such as Supergirl) could lift it; when not in use, the key sat on a perch outside of the Fortress, where it appeared to be an aircraft path marker. This was until a helicopter pilot followed the direction of the arrow straight to the entrance of the Fortress, forcing Superman to develop a mirage-ray to camouflage the entrance and key (which now hung on brackets on its side beside the door) and to ensure the Fortress's secrecy.

The Fortress contained an alien zoo, a giant steel diary in which Superman wrote his memoirs (using either his invulnerable finger,twine hand touch pads,that record thoughts instantly or heat vision to engrave entries into its pages), a chess-playing robot, specialized exercise equipment, a laboratory where Superman worked on various projects such as developing defenses to Kryptonite, a (room-sized) computer, communications equipment, and rooms dedicated to all of his friends, including one for Clark Kent to fool visitors. As the stories continued, it was revealed that the Fortress was where Superman's robot duplicates were stored. It also contained the Phantom Zone projector, various pieces of alien technology he had acquired on visits to other worlds, and, much like the Batcave, trophies of his past adventures. Indeed, the Batcave and Batman himself made an appearance in the first Fortress story. The Fortress also became the home of the bottle city of Kandor (until it was enlarged), and an apartment in the Fortress was set aside for Supergirl.

A detailed depiction of the Fortress and its contents forms the background to DC Special Series #26 (1981); Superman and his Incredible Fortress of Solitude, in which Superman minutely inspects the Fortress, suspecting an enemy has planted an Earth-destroying bomb within it.Superman vs. Muhammad Ali is an oversize comic book published by DC Comics in 1978,Superman and Muhammad Ali Fortress of Solitude to have the Man of Steels powers temporarily deactivated.Superman rapidly constructs a Tesseract Ring,on the fringe of the Universe,outside time and space. Another noteworthy appearance of this version of the Fortress was in 1985's Superman Annual #11, a story by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons titled For the Man Who Has Everything, in which it served as a battleground for Superman, Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman against the alien would-be overlord Mongul. This story was adapted to animation in Justice League Unlimited.

In addition to Mongul, the Fortress has been independently broken into at various times by villains Lex Luthor and Brainiac (comic appearing in Action Comics #583 and Superman #423) and the Atomic Skull, among others. According to Action Comics #261, Superman first established secret Fortresses in outer space and at the center of the Earth before settling on an Arctic location.

Additionally, Superman established an undersea Fortress of Solitude - hollowed out of the side of an undersea cliff - in September 1958. The undersea Fortress, which is reportedly located at the bottom of the Sargasso Sea at 28 degrees North latitude, 50 degrees West longitude, is stocked with numerous exotic ocean relics and is equipped with sophisticated monitoring apparatus to enable Superman to keep abreast of events occurring throughout the seven seas. Superman later abandoned the undersea Fortress and the structure is now used by the mer-people of Atlantis as a showplace and a tourist attraction.

This version of the Fortress made its last appearance in the 1986 non-canonical (or "imaginary") story "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?",