10 Comics Fates Worse Than Death
3. Imprisonment In The Phantom Zone
The Phantom Zone has been depicted in numerous ways over the years with the Superman films showing a two-dimensional space that trapped its inhabitants to other media suggesting it was a world of its own.
The comics have skipped around on its nature over the years, but a relatively recent depiction is the most frightening of all.
In Action Comics Vol. 2 #13, the first person to be imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, Xa-Du, was shown being placed inside. When he was, he became a non-corporeal being who screamed out, "What's happening? Why can't I see?! I can't hear! Why can't I feel anything?"
He was trapped in a void, where he would remain ageless and incapable of seeing, hearing, or feeling anything. Such a fate is far worse than death, as he was aware of his own being, yet incapable of interacting with anything or anyone.
Like most prisons, the Phantom Zone was established with a parole review board, but Xa-Du wasn't able to make his first appointment. He remained trapped in the Phantom Zone for twenty years and was supposed to be up for parole, but that date coincided with another important event in Kryptonian history, as it was the day Krypton exploded.