Krypto's Story

strip by Fred Hembeck

A few weeks ago fandom lost it's collective shit when the new Superman movie teaser dropped with an appearance by 

KRYPTO, THE SUPER DOG!!!!!  

Who pray tell is this canine Kryptonian, this power pooch, this dynamo dog?

Well, I'll tell you he is! 

HE'S A GOOD BOY!!!

Krypto made his first appearance in 1955 in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #210 by writer Otto Binder and artist Curt Swan. 

KRYPTO, THE SUPER DOG!!!!!  

Who he is and how he came to be.....

Jor-El's testing prototypes for the rocket that will eventually send Kal-El to Earth  and decides to use baby Kal-El's pet dog as a test subject.  

Jor-El takes the widdle puppy from the arms of a crying Kal-El and really, Jor-El? Your baby son's pet puppy is the only viable option to test your damn rocket on? 

Yeah, Krypton is gonna blow up soon and everyone's gonna die anyway but Christ, man! Kal-El is crying for his doggy!! 

Krypton is put into extended cryogenic sleep and launched into space where it is immediately knocked off-course by meteors.

Jor-El sheepishly looks around to see if Lara saw that and figures close enough and puts Kal-El into his rocket, crosses his fingers and blasts his son into space just ahead of Krypton going BOOM! 

About ten years later, the test rocket lands on Earth and Krypto meets Superboy.   

Krypto is a Krytonian so under Earth's yellow sun, he gets the full complement of super powers: strength, speed, invulnerability, heat vision.

Depending on the needs of the plot or the whim of the writer, Krypto could be fairly anthropomorphic with though balloons and such and other times, he's a just a dog.

A dog with super powers. 

Super powers he used to help Superboy.

Or... not.     

Frequently Krypto would be written out of Supeboy stories with the excuse that the super dog was exploring space.  

It was on these space jaunts that Krypto would discover he is not alone as a super powered dog and would go on to join the Space Canine Patrol Agency, or S.C.P.A. 

This is their sacred oath:  “Big Dog, Big Dog, Bow-Wow-Wow! We’ll Stop Evil, Now, Now Now!” 

The agency included such canine stalwarts as Tusky Husky, Tail Terrier, Hot-Dog, Bull Dog, Chameleon Collie and Mammoth Mutt.

Krypto would also journey to the 30th century to join up with the Legion of Super-Pets.

Krypto disappeared for a few years before returning afflicted with amnesia in a 1974 two-part Green Arrow backup story in Action Comics #440 -#441.

His memory is restored in 1975's Superman #287.

Elliot S! Maggin who wrote the Green Arrow and Superman stories said, "A man needs a dog. A superman needs a superdog."

Krypto had his own feature in The Superman Family #182 - #192 (1977 to 1978), written by Bob Toomey and drawn by Juan Ortiz. It's a street level story where Krypto helps a police detective solve a missing person case.  

In Alan Moore's send-off to pre-Crisis Superman, Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?, Krypto saves Superman by biting the throat out of the Kryptonite Man. Krypto is irradiated in the process and dies with the villain.

It is the saddest scene ever in the history of comics.

Yes, even sadder than little Bruce Wayne crying over his dead parents in a Gotham City alley. 

And Krypto's death marked the end of the story that began in 1955 in Adventure Comics #210.

But hey, it's comic books.

IP never dies.  

Krypto was the star of his own animated TV series and was in a Super Pets movie where he was voiced by Dwayne Johnson (because why not). 

In the post crisis comics, there were some efforts to write a new take on Krypto the Super Dog that quite frankly, I don't remember very well and I'm not going to research it. 

Also Batman got his own Bat-dog in the comics back in the 1950's.

That's a whole other story.  

Tomorrow's Your Friday Video Link brings some more weirdness from the 1960's Superman family of comics!