Kelex first appeared in The Man of Steel #1 and was created by John Byrne.

He first appeared in The Man of Steel #1, in which he was one of Jor-El's Kryptonian Service Robots on the planet Krypton. Presumed destroyed along with Jor-El and the rest of Krypton, Kelex has nonetheless returned as Superman's primary robotic servant within the Fortress of Solitude where he works as its property caretaker.^[1]

When Kelex first appeared in The Man of Steel, he was only in one page of the first issue, greeting his master, Jor-El, upon his return. Jor-El then orders him to bring the baby Kal-El (who would become Superman) in his birthing matrix. It is revealed in conversation with another of Jor-El's servant robots that Kelex had served Jor-El for all of his life, much longer than the other robot had, and had never seen him like this. The robot didn't appear for the rest of the issue, nor for the rest of the miniseries. He was presumably destroyed along with the planet Krypton.^[2]

Later, when a Kryptonian device known as 'the Eradicator' was obtained by Superman, it tries to recreate Krypton on Earth, beginning with the South Pole in the Antarctic. Superman stops it, but the attempt had created the Fortress of Solitude. Along with the fortress had been created a group of robotic servants, one of which was a recreation of Kelex. He is largely indistinguishable from the other Kryptonian robots who maintained the fortress.

He attends the false Eradicator version of Superman who had taken up residence in the Fortress.^[3]

Kelex is used as a framing device for a tour of a redesigned Fortress of Solitude.^[4]

The Fortress of Solitude is dramatically redesigned when Dominus took mental control of Superman. It is then destroyed by Lex Luthor, severely damaging Kelex. When Superman returns to the fortress, he repairs the robot enough to enable him to speak. They were both sent to a ghostly replica of the Fortress, complete in every detail. Superman is able to keep a link to the ghostly fortress through Kelex, now reduced to a head. The robot then assists Superman in a crisis; an android double, programmed to protect Lois Lane, had become defective. Kelex is vital in making the double stand down and thus rescuing Lois.^[5] Later, when realizing Brainiac 13 is vulnerable to Kryptonian technology, Superman completely rebuilds Kelex, using him to coordinate an attack on Brainiac 13 by having Kelex convey instructions to Lex Luthor and later reactivate the Red Tornado.

Kelex operates in disguise as the hero 'Steel' for a while.^[6] Kelex is featured in an issue of 'Superboy'; he transcribes his impressions of Krypto, who is helping people endangered by an alien invasion.^[7]

The fortress was later restored within a Tesseract (an infinite space within a finite containment), and Kelex is once again its caretaker. Natasha Irons reprograms Kelex so that he would speak more in slang, such as calling Superman 'Big Blue'.^[8] During the "Superman: Godfall" storyline, he even uses 'yo mama!' as a comeback.

That incarnation of the Fortress is destroyed during the "For Tomorrow" storyline. Superman relocates his new portable fortress to South America, but Kelex's fate in the storyline was left unknown at the time.

The final issue of Justice League of America (vol. 2) briefly relates a story revealing that Kelex returned and attempted to conquer the Earth by taking control of all of the robots on the planet and forcing them to attack the human population. He was destroyed by Supergirl and Jesse Quick, ending the threat.^[9]

Kelex is seen again in "DC Rebirth", once again a loyal assistant in Superman's Fortress of Solitude.^[10]

Kelex has enhanced vision and can fly.

Kelex appears in the limited graphic novel series Superman and Batman versus Aliens and Predator.^[11]

Television edit

• An unnamed character similar to Kelex appears in the Legion of Super Heroes episode "Message in a Bottle", voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. This version is the robot caretaker of the Fortress of Solitude in the 31st century, and resembles Cyborg Superman.
• Kelex appears in Supergirl voiced by an uncredited actor in earlier appearances and by Mark Sussman in season six. A female, dream world version of the character appears in the season one episode "For the Girl Who Has Everything", while Kelex himself is introduced in the first season. In "Solitude", Kelex aids Supergirl and Jimmy Olsen in neutralizing Indigo aka Brainiac 8. In "Myriad", within the Fortress, Kelex refused to give Kara information of program Myriad and instead directed her to a hologram of her mother. In the season two premiere "The Last Children of Krypton", Superman ordered Kelex to scan his hand for residual materials from a fight with John Corben aka Metallo with material revealed as promethium. In "The Darkest Place" and "Medusa", Kelex suspects an intruder within the fortress, only to identify as Kara who is actually Hank Henshaw from Cadmus who uses her blood for access to program called "Medusa". Kelex refuses to give Kara access of Project Medusa and instead identified her as an intruder and attacked Kara whom she destroys him, as a result of Henshaw's programming. The Kelex robots of Argo City, who survived the destruction of Krypton, appear in season three episodes "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Not Kansas". The season four episode "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?" reveals that Kelex and Brainiac 5 met prior to the events of this episode, but they express their dislike to each other. In the episode "Welcome Back, Kara" after having been freed from the Phantom Zone, Zor-El and Kara speak to Kelex about some information regarding the last days of Krypton. Zor-El compared the destroyed Kryptonian oceans with the garbage in Earth's oceans noting that Earth will soon be doomed. This led to Zor-El modifying Kelex to help with the ocean clean-up and named it Oscar after a garbage can-dwelling creature. During the garbage clean-up, something goes wrong and turns the Kelex into a giant junk monster where its core is on the verge of exploding. Zor-El and Brainiac 5 had to work on a virus to shut it down. After Brainiac 5 pulls the Kelex out of the junk body, Supergirl throws the junk body into the sun, while Kelex is returned to the Fortress of Solitude.

Film edit

• In Man of Steel, Kelor (voiced by Carla Gugino) and her counterpart Kelex (voiced by Rondel Reynoldson) serve as aides to Jor-El and Lara, as they attempt to prepare their son's escape from Krypton. They are destroyed during Krypton's destruction. Another version of Kelor later appears in the Kryptonian scout ship discovered by Clark.
• In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Kelor is secretly reactivated by Lex Luthor, who was given free access to the Kryptonian scout ship by the American government. He orders her to teach him all of her knowledge, including Superman's secret identity, and uses such knowledge to create Doomsday that involved placing his own blood and General Zod's corpse in the Genesis Chamber. Kelor advises against Doomsday's creation as creating creatures like him was forbidden by the Kryptonian Council.
• Kelex and Kelor briefly appear in Reign of the Supermen where they serve as Superman's robots in the Fortress of Solitude. They are voiced by Trevor Devall and Erica Luttrell respectively.

Video games edit

• Kelex in his Man of Steel iteration appears in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham as DLC.

• Kelex at DC Comics Wiki
• Kelex at Comic Vine