14 Freaky Sci-Fi And Fantasy Prisons

2 The Phantom Zone

From: Superman The Movie/Superman 2 (1978/1980)

Throughout the Silver Age of comics, the Phantom Zone was officially the worst prison in the universe, if the amount of escapees Superman had to tackle is anything to go by. And Jor-El thought it was such a good idea when he came up with it. Before that convicted Kryptonian crims were put into suspended animation and shot into orbit in capsules, but then Superman’s dad decided that the Phantom Zone was a more humane way of dealing with them. Considering this meant being trapped in a featureless state of existence from which they could only observe, but not interact with, the outside universe, rather than just having a long kip, it’s debatable quite how humane the Phantom Zone truly was. The fact it was cheaper probably had more to do with it.

For Superman The Movie director Richard Donner reimagined the Phantom Zone as seemingly a two-dimensional crystal diamond flipping through space that sucks up Ursa, Non and Zod as it flies by and turns them into a Queen LP cover. And a very impressive and memorable effect it is too, even all these years on. DG