Baby Kal-El's arrival rocket: favorite design?

[Buried Alien]

Pretty much every version of Superman across all media originated with the Kryptonian child Kal-El arriving on Earth via a rocket ship, but pretty much each different version has had a radically different design for the vehicle. Of all the various Kal-El landing vehicles, which one is your favorite?

I've always favored the Pre-COIE Silver/Bronze Age rocket, but I'm *really* liking the current New 52 design. It reminds me of those MICRONAUTS toys I played with when I was a kid during the late 1970s.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Superdoom]

Bryne1 makes Cyborg Superman possible so I like dat one my favrit! EMC2 drew a purty one doh.

[daBronzeBomma]

Well, let's see ...


That looks uncomfortable ... Kal was STANDING inside the rocket?


It's very alien-looking (which I like), but man, not a lot of room inside.


Definitely my favorite design from 1938 - 1995

[daBronzeBomma]

Moving on ...


Don't care too much for the design, but LOVED that adult Kal could re-use his babyship for deep-space travel.


Really like this one from BIRTHRIGHT


Not bad (sorry, too distracted by Lara's new attire)

[superduperman]

I kinda like the one they used in Injustice. It looked like a rocket but had a big ol' "S" symbol on the front. Birthright one was awesome but then, I liked everything about Birthright. Ironically, despite not liking the show very much, I really liked the one used in Lois & Clark.

[Sacred Knight]

The Birthing Matrix and the current rocket are my favorites.

[Flash Gordon]

The Birthing Matrix, the New 52 rocket, and the one used on SMALLVILLE.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Unsurprisingly, I'm pretty big on both of Morrison's, both the retro-Action Comics design for the New 52, and the more alien looking rocket glimpsed in All-Star Superman. Also like the look of the Birthing Matrix ship.

[manofsteel1979]

Loved the design of the birthing matrix (not the concept) as that's the one I grew up with. The one in BR was cool as well. (liked that the capsule was "detached" from the rest of the ship, making it more alien looking. The New 52 Morrison one is cool as well as it evokes the original Pre-Crisis Rocket with an alien/Moses' basket vibe. Hard to pick a favorite really. I guess I will go with the birthing Matrix Post Crisis look for nostalgia sake. Can't think of one I really dislike out of all the designs as they worked for their specific "visions" of the character.

[ironman2978]

Comics: Tie between classic golden/silver age rocket, Birthright and New 52, like the look of Man of Steel Birthing Matrix rocket but hate concept of the Birthing Matrix and that's how Clark is born

TV Show: Smallville, followed by Lois and Clark

Movie: definitely Man of Steel

[Jim Kelly]

For the sake of nostalgia I would probably choose the classic red and blue rocket as shown on the covers of SUPERMAN (original series) Nos. 146 and 300. They are almost the same except for the nose cone. And they have the advantage of a transparent window so the reader can see that it's baby Kal-El rocketing from exploding Krypton--very important in this visual medium.

But in my own fan fiction, if I can imagine writing and drawing my own Superman, I might try to amalgamate five or six rockets into one. I'd show that there are several shells and stages to the rocket, so that they really are all the same rocket.

And really, we have to imagine that the rocket is not in fact what we think--because this is a vessel that will warp through space, transporting the baby from one farflung region of the galaxy to another. We can't begin to imagine what the technology would really look like. The materials necessary for that might be completely different than anything on Earth.

So what we think we see on the comic book page isn't what is really there. This is the same logic I use for John Forte's 30th century and for the bottle-city of Kandor.

[Kandor Rising]

This one

[titansupes]

Donner, MoS, Birthright.