S.T.A.R. Labs: the Metropolis laboratory that backs up Superman

S.T.A.R. Labs makes its debut in Superman #246, in 1971

S.T.A.R. Labs first appears in Superman #246, cover-dated December 1971. The issue's lead story, “Danger—Monster at Work!”, is written by Len Wein and drawn by Curt Swan, with inks by Murphy Anderson, under the supervision of editor Julius Schwartz. The laboratory is therefore a creation of Len Wein and Curt Swan. The same issue contains a second original story, by Cary Bates and Rich Buckler, set on Krypton.

Wein and Swan's story takes Superman down to the Mariana Trench and pits him against a protoplasmic mass born of one of the laboratory's experiments; it also introduces one of its researchers, Dr. Wilson Farr. The full name varies from one reference book to another: the most widespread form is Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories, in other words laboratories devoted to “advanced scientific and technological research,” but you'll also come across Science and Technology or Scientific and Technical.

Garrison Slate and a network headquartered in Metropolis

In the comics, the founder doesn't show up until long after the laboratory. Created by Len Wein, Joey Cavalieri and Paris Cullins, Garrison Slate debuts in Blue Beetle #12, cover-dated May 1987. According to the laboratory's entry in the 1990 Who's Who in the DC Universe, this scientist wanted a national network of laboratories independent of both the government and private interests. The network eventually grew to between twenty and thirty sites, in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan.

Its headquarters is in Metropolis. The main facility, on the island of New Troy, handles a bit of everything and often serves as a temporary holding site for captured supervillains; the Queensland Park facility, near the harbor, is devoted to marine biology. On television, the series The Flash, launched in 2014, sets up its own S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City, where a particle accelerator explosion gives Barry Allen his powers.

Albert Michaels and Jenet Klyburn, the Metropolis branch in the 1970s

In the comics of the 1970s, the Metropolis branch gets faces of its own. Its administrator, Dr. Albert Michaels, appears in Superman #303, cover-dated September 1976, written by Gerry Conway and penciled by Curt Swan. The following month, Superman #304 introduces Dr. Jenet Klyburn in a story where the Parasite of the day hands out superpowers to Metropolis residents to turn them against Superman. Klyburn will eventually run the branch herself.

Michaels is hiding a secret. Suffering from a severe nervous disorder, he has become an agent of the criminal organization SKULL, in exchange for a radium implant meant to control his attacks. In Superman #310, cover-dated April 1977, Martin Pasko and Curt Swan show SKULL at work: the organization creates a new Metallo, Roger Corben, the brother of the first one, in turn transformed into a cyborg with a kryptonite heart. S.T.A.R. Labs is one of the settings of this story, in which Michaels is already playing both sides.

In Superman #323, cover-dated May 1978, again by Martin Pasko and Curt Swan, Michaels transforms into the Atomic Skull. The laboratory that helps Superman was thus once headed by one of the hero's enemies.

After 1986: Emil Hamilton, Rampage and the Parasite

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, which resets the DC universe, the laboratory keeps its place in the Superman comics. Emil Hamilton, introduced in The Adventures of Superman #424, cover-dated January 1987, by Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway, is one of its former researchers. Lex Luthor bought up his work and took the credit for it. Once he has recovered, Hamilton sets up his own laboratory in Metropolis and becomes Superman's scientific advisor, outside S.T.A.R. Labs.

Kitty Faulkner takes the opposite path. In Superman (vol. 2) #7, cover-dated July 1987, written and drawn by John Byrne, this scientist is working on a clean energy source when the explosion of her machine turns her into Rampage, a giantess who grows as she fights Superman. The accident does not happen at S.T.A.R.: she only joins it in Superman (vol. 2) #24, cover-dated December 1988, and will later run the Metropolis branch.

The modern Parasite, for his part, is born outside the Superman titles. Rudy Jones, a S.T.A.R. Labs janitor, becomes the Parasite in The Fury of Firestorm #58, cover-dated April 1987, by John Ostrander and Joe Brozowski, before joining the ranks of Superman's enemies.

Healing, guarding, studying: S.T.A.R. Labs in Superman's service

Where the comics are concerned, The DC Comics Encyclopedia (2021 edition) sums up the laboratory's place in the DC universe before Flashpoint: a prison for dangerous metahumans and a medical resource for wounded heroes. The Metropolis branch also finds itself at the heart of several crises.

In Action Comics #670, cover-dated October 1991, an issue tied to the Armageddon 2001 crossover, by Roger Stern and Bob McLeod, the building collapses after an attack by the villain Monarch, and Superman searches the rubble to pull out the survivors. A young man, Joseph Martin, was there being examined: his powers kick in on the spot, and he becomes the second Atomic Skull.

Twenty years later, the laboratory serves as a base against Doomsday, the monster of The Death of Superman. In Action Comics #903, cover-dated September 2011 but on sale as early as July 27, 2011, writer Paul Cornell shows Superman and his allies at S.T.A.R. Labs, bent over the body of the original Doomsday to figure out how to stop his clones.

Superman: The Animated Series, Professor Hamilton's laboratory

On screen, S.T.A.R. Labs lands a recurring role in Superman: The Animated Series, the animated series that premiered on September 6, 1996, in the United States, which also gave birth to Livewire. Professor Emil Hamilton, voiced by Victor Brandt, is the scientist Superman turns to there. He builds him suits that resist kryptonite and a Phantom Zone projector.

The laboratory also serves there as an infirmary and a cradle for threats. In “Feeding Time” (1x06, aired September 21, 1996, in the United States), Rudy Jones, a S.T.A.R. Labs janitor, is doused with stolen chemicals and becomes the Parasite. In “Apokolips... Now!” (2x25 and 2x26, aired February 7 and 14, 1998, in the United States), it is there that Orion is treated after coming to warn Superman of the invasion being prepared by Darkseid.

The end of the series muddies the alliance. In “Legacy” (4x02 and 4x03), the final episode, aired in two parts on February 5 and 12, 2000, in the United States, Superman, manipulated by Darkseid, attacks Earth, and Hamilton comes out of it distrustful of him. Justice League Unlimited then shows him working for Project Cadmus, for which he designs Galatea, a clone of Supergirl; in that series, Robert Foxworth provides his voice.

Lois & Clark, Smallville: S.T.A.R. Labs in the live-action series

The series Lois & Clark mentions S.T.A.R. Labs as a source of scientific information from its first season. From season 3 on, the laboratory is personified by Dr. Bernard Klein, played by Kenneth Kimmins, who appears in “Don't Tug on Superman's Cape” (3x06, aired November 5, 1995, on ABC) and keeps returning through season 4.

The Smallville universe invents a different origin for it. On television, the laboratory is little more than a name there, and Dr. Emil Hamilton, played by Alessandro Juliani from season 8 on, is a physician close to Oliver Queen and Chloe. The comic-book continuation, Smallville Season 11, published from 2012 onward, turns it into Swann Technology And Research, created according to Virgil Swann's wishes to help Clark understand his powers. Hamilton runs it. In the TV series, Virgil Swann had been played by Christopher Reeve.

The laboratory also takes in Hank Henshaw there. In issues 2 to 4 of Smallville Season 11, the astronaut, badly burned during the launch of a LexCorp shuttle, is sent to S.T.A.R. Labs, where Lex Luthor transfers his consciousness into one of the laboratory's robots. Henshaw bears the name of the comics' Cyborg Superman.

In the movies, from Man of Steel to Superman: Man of Tomorrow

In the films launched by Man of Steel in 2013, the laboratory first appears in the background: Superman and Zod pass in front of its building during their final battle in Metropolis. The film's Dr. Emil Hamilton, played by Richard Schiff, doesn't work there: he is a DARPA scientist assisting the U.S. military.

In the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman, Jena Malone plays Jenet Klyburn, a S.T.A.R. Labs ballistics expert who helps Lois Lane with her investigation. In Justice League (2017), the laboratory is run by Silas Stone, Cyborg's father; its teams study the Kryptonian ship, and Steppenwolf abducts several of its employees, whom the League comes to rescue.

On the animation side, Superman: Man of Tomorrow, released digitally on August 23, 2020, in the United States, makes Rudy Jones a S.T.A.R. Labs janitor who becomes the Parasite after a fight between Clark and Lobo in the laboratory. James Gunn's Superman, released in 2025, does not place S.T.A.R. Labs in its plot. The laboratory does, however, appear in Superman: A Friendship Unleashed, a short promotional comic tied to the film, in which Superman saves two scientists trapped in the building while Krypto brings panicked dogs back to the park.

My Adventures with Superman: a more ambiguous S.T.A.R. Labs

The animated series My Adventures with Superman, airing on Adult Swim since July 2023 in the United States, gives the laboratory a murkier role. In “More Things in Heaven and Earth” (2x01, aired May 26, 2024, in the United States), Lois, Clark and Jimmy Olsen go there to question Hank Henshaw, a former college classmate of Lois's who works at S.T.A.R. Labs, about a meteoroid his team is monitoring.

The laboratory then hosts a symposium on “the Superman problem.” In “Two Lanes Diverged” (2x04, aired June 9, 2024), Jimmy defends the hero there against Lex Luthor, who argues for an Earth reserved for Earthlings. At the end of the episode, some S.T.A.R. Labs executives side with Luthor and Amanda Waller against Superman. In “Olsen's Eleven” (2x07, aired June 30, 2024), Lois and Jimmy break into S.T.A.R. Labs with the help of Livewire to steal an experimental ship there and set off in search of Superman.

Henshaw, for his part, distrusts Superman. Shot down during Brainiac's invasion, he is rebuilt by Lex Luthor and becomes the Cyborg Superman of season 3: the man Lois had come to consult at S.T.A.R. Labs ends up facing the hero.

Conclusion

S.T.A.R. Labs is born in 1971 in Superman #246 and becomes the laboratory Superman turns to in Metropolis, even if it means rubbing shoulders with his enemies: the future Atomic Skull ran it, and the Parasite was born there.

Every era has redrawn it: Emil Hamilton's domain in the 1996 animated series, Virgil Swann's legacy in Smallville Season 11, a mere building in Man of Steel, the platform for a debate on “the Superman problem” in My Adventures with Superman. From one version to the next, it remains the scientific side of Metropolis.