science

Vartox

Vartox is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Vartox rather than just read about it. In short: Vartox is a superhero published by DC Comics. Publication history He first appeared in Superman #281 (November 1974) and was created by Cary Bates and Curt Swan.

Key takeaways

Vartox belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Vartox to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Vartox from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Vartox is a superhero published by DC Comics.

Publication history He first appeared in Superman #281 (November 1974) and was created by Cary Bates and Curt Swan. When asked if the character was inspired by the 1974 film Zardoz, Bates stated "Absolutely, I remember giving Curt a bunch of Zardoz stills as swipes".

Fictional character biography Vartox is an alien originating from the planet Valeron in the Sombrero Galaxy. Vartox is a friend and equal to Superman and the two have shared many adventures together. He is older and more experienced than Superman, serving as a rival to him and vying for Lana Lang's affection.Vartox's wife is killed after her "psychic twin" on Earth is murdered. Since the two women are "biologically linked", Vartox's wife also dies at the same moment. After discovering that forcibly arresting her killer would lead to the loss of innocent life, Vartox still plans to bring his wife's proxy killer to justice. Vartox journeys to Earth in order to lure the man responsible, Frank "Killer" Sykes, to Valeron. Vartox tricks Sykes into accompanying him voluntarily so that his trial will have the proper legal standing, and although Superman pursues the pair, he figures out Vartox's mission and allows Sykes to be extradited and tried on Valeron, where he is found guilty of murder. Instead of being imprisoned, Sykes is subjected to a treatment that ages him sixty years, the penalty for murder on Valeron. Valeron is later destroyed and Vartox temporarily assumes the secret identity of Vernon O'Valeron, taking a job as a temporary security officer at television and media company Galaxy Communications. While at Galaxy, Vartox meets and falls in love with Lana Lang, once Superman's childhood sweetheart and modern-day rival (with Lois Lane) for his affections. By the time Lana and Vartox meet, however, she has abandoned her pursuit of Superman as hopeless, because she has accepted the reality that any true relationship with a man who literally took the responsibility of the world on his shoulders is all but impossible. Thus, Lana is struck hard by the bitter irony that "Vernon O'Valeron" turns out to be another such man, compounded by the fact that Vartox had committed to protecting another planet called Tynola. During another of Vartox' stays on Earth, Lana is caught up in a complex revenge plot orchestrated by a former lover of Vartox from Valeron. Syreena wants payback for what she sees as Vartox' betrayal of her; in truth, his "betrayal" was arresting her for criminal acts committed with a siphoned portion of Vartox's powers, stolen from him through a device disguised as an amulet Syreena had given him as a "gift of love". Syreena first gives Vartox and Lana false hope by transforming Lana so that she can breathe in Tynola's atmosphere; she then makes it appear that an accidental ricochet of Vartox's energy beams has turned Lana to stone. All the while, she mentally manipulates Vartox from afar, appearing as her own "ghost" to render him irrational and unable to guess the truth.

Syreena still loves Vartox, and finds herself unable to deny him happiness. She restores Lana, at a terrible cost; the effect cannot be dispelled, only transferred, dooming Syreena to "life" as a stone statue. However, Vartox and Lana are forced to part once again—the effect that would have let her live on Tynola was apparently linked to the petrifaction effect, and both are transferred away when Lana is "cured". After saying good-bye to Lana, Vartox departs Earth, taking Syreena with him.

Post-Crisis In 1999, a post-Crisis version of Vartox was introduced by Dan Jurgens and Steve Epting. He makes his debut in Superman vol. 2 #148, alongside two other aliens named Vestion and Paz. This version has significantly reduced powers and a revised costume. After Valeron's champion Ontor dies, Vartox becomes his self-proclaimed successor.

Current status Vartox returns in the Power Girl ongoing series. All the women of Valeron have recently been made sterile by a "contraceptive bomb", prompting Vartox to search for the best female specimen in the universe, so that they may mate and repopulate Valeron. Selecting Power Girl as the prime candidate, Vartox comes to Earth, staging a fight with an Ix Negaspike, an indestructible dragon-like alien, in an attempt to woo her. Power Girl accidentally breaks Vartox's containment device, making it impossible to send the Negaspike back. She attempts to stop the Negaspike by freezing and shattering it, only for the pieces to reform into a swarm of Negaspikes. Realizing that the Negaspike's intelligence is split between its parts, Power Girl and Vartox freeze and shatter all the individual Negaspikes before freezing them again and throwing them into space. After Vartox describes his people's predicament, he has Power Girl enter a "fertility chamber", which combines their life-forces to send out a "pregno-ray" to Valeron, making all the females and males pregnant. His mission complete, Vartox departs.

In other media Vartox appears in the Supergirl episode "Pilot", portrayed by Owain Yeoman. This version is an escapee from the Phantom Zone prison Fort Rozz. After Supergirl defeats him, he commits suicide to avoid capture. Vartox appears in the audio drama Death From A Distant Galaxy, based on Superman #373 - #375.

References

External links Vartox at Supermanica Vartox at the DCU Guide

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vartox

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Vartox claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Vartox before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Vartox ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Vartox

In research: Vartox appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Vartox in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Vartox is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Characters created by Cary Bates, Characters created by Curt Swan, Comics characters introduced in 1974, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vartox outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Vartox in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Vartox means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Vartox out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Vartox in simple terms?

Vartox is a superhero published by DC Comics. Publication history He first appeared in Superman #281 (November 1974) and was created by Cary Bates and Curt Swan.

Why does Vartox matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Vartox?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Vartox.