Krypton is a fictional planet appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, most commonly appearing or mentioned in stories starring the superhero Superman as the world from which he came. The planet was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and was named after the chemical element krypton. It was first mentioned in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) and made its first appearance in Superman #1 (June 1939). Krypton is destroyed immediately after Superman, as the baby Kal-El, is sent from the planet in a spacecraft by his parents, although the exact details of its destruction have varied over publication history.
The planet is portrayed as having been far more technologically advanced than Earth, and having orbited a red sun. Kryptonians were the dominant species on Krypton, and its inhabitants included Kara Zor-El, Krypto, Beppo, Kara Zor-L (in her case, an alternate-universe version designated "Krypton-Two"), and the supervillain General Zod.
Krypton appears in several television series such as Adventures of Superman, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Superman: The Animated Series, Smallville, Supergirl, Krypton and My Adventures with Superman. It also appears in the films Superman (1978), Man of Steel (2013) and Supergirl (2026).
Overview Krypton is usually portrayed in comics as the home of a fantastically advanced civilization, which is destroyed when the planet explodes. As originally depicted, all the civilizations and races of Krypton were killed in the explosion, with one exception: the baby Kal-El who was placed in an escape rocket by his father, Jor-El, and sent to the planet Earth, where he grew up to become Superman.
In some versions of the story, additional survivors were later discovered, such as Supergirl, her parents (kept alive in the "Survival Zone", a similar parallel "dimension" to the Phantom Zone), the criminal inhabitants of the Phantom Zone, Dev-Em, the residents of the bottled city of Kandor, the real parents of both Superman and Supergirl, and their pets Krypto the Superdog, and Beppo the Super-Monkey. Kandor, the first capital of Krypton, is miniaturized by Brainiac, but is recovered by Superman and housed in the Fortress of Solitude for safekeeping. Soon afterward, Kryptonopolis becomes the second capital of Krypton.
From the late 1980s through the early 2000s, the number of survivors was reduced to Superman himself in the comic book stories (the Eradicator was added in 1989 as a non-sentient device, and shown to be self-aware in 1991),Superman: The Man of Steel #1 but more recent accounts have restored Supergirl, Krypto, and Kandor and introduced another newly discovered survivor, Karsta Wor-Ul.
Kryptonian civilization's reported level of technological advancement has also varied. Some works, such as Kevin J. Anderson's novel The Last Days of Krypton, describe it as a few centuries ahead of Earth, while others, such as the Superman film series and Man of Steel, describe it as thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years more advanced.
Versions of Krypton Krypton in the Golden Age of Comic Books History
In its first appearance, Krypton was only depicted at the moment of its destruction. Beginning in the Superman comic strip, Krypton was shown to have been a planet similar to Earth, only older by eons and possessed of all the progress that implied. It is suggested that Krypton exploded due mainly to old age and the massive use of electricity Kryptonians used for their technology.
The debut of the Superman newspaper comic strip in 1939 delved into further details about Krypton, introducing the idea that all Kryptonians possessed a level of heightened physical abilities, including superhuman strength and speed. In the early comics' version of Krypton, Superman's parents were named Jor-L and Lora, though their names were changed to the more familiar Jor-El and Lara by the end of the 1940s.
After the introduction of DC's multiverse in the 1960s, this version of Krypton was declared to be the Krypton of the Earth-Two universe; the native dimension of DC's Golden Age characters and its Superman. Power Girl (Kara Zor-El) was introduced as the Earth-Two version of Supergirl in 1976.
Krypton in transition Over the course of the 1940s and 1950s, various alterations and additions to the makeup of Krypton were made in the comics. Among them was an explanation of why the natives of Krypton were killed if they had possessed superpowers on their native world. Thus, it was explained by the early 1950s that Kryptonians were powerless on their own planet and would gain superpowers only within a lower gravity environment. This matched contemporary theories that humans would be able to lift greater masses and leap greater distances on the Moon than on Earth due to its lesser gravity. In the early 1960s, it was explained that Kryptonians derived their powers from the light of a yellow sun. Under a red sun such as that of Krypton, Kryptonians have no powers.
Krypton in the Silver Age of Comic Books By the late 1950s, Krypton played an increasing role in various Superman stories, with greater detail provided about Krypton's makeup. Superman's Kryptonian heritage was a frequent factor in Silver Age Superman comic storylines, as he was fully aware of his origins from an early age. Superman would use this knowledge for such tasks as constructing advanced Kryptonian technology or observing some of Krypton's traditions.
History
Kryptonians made use of their advanced science to create a world where scientific inventions and research influenced much of daily life. Robots and computers were used for many tasks on Krypton, even for determining what career paths young Kryptonians would take as they grew up. Scientific and technological research were highly valued on Krypton, with the ruling body of Krypton named the Science Council.
Several stories featured characters traveling back in time to visit Krypton before its destruction; one example is the 1960 story "Superman's Return to Krypton", in which Superman is swept back in time to Krypton years before its destruction. Powerless, he spends some time on the planet, where he meets his future parents-to-be and falls in love with Kryptonian actress Lyla Lerrol. A Superman "imaginary story" entitled "What If Krypton Had Not Exploded?" gave more insight into Krypton's society. This era also established that the Guardians of the Universe, the administrators of the Green Lantern Corps, were aware of Krypton's pending destruction and assigned Green Lantern Tomar-Re to avert it, but he was unsuccessful due to being blinded by a solar flare.
In 1980, a three-issue miniseries titled World of Krypton was published, providing a great amount of detail into Krypton's history just before its destruction, along with the life story of Jor-El himself. A three-issue miniseries entitled The Krypton Chronicles, published in 1981, tells of Superman researching his roots when, as Clark Kent, he was assigned to write an article about Superman's family.Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p. 195: "The Man of Steel took a look at his family tree in this three-issue miniseries by writer E. Nelson Bridwell and longtime Superman mainstay artist Curt Swan". To do so, he and Supergirl travel to Kandor, where they learn the history of the El family. In 1985, writer Alan Moore gave a darker glimpse into the world of Krypton in his story "For the Man Who Has Everything" (in Superman Annual #11), which takes place in a dream world where Krypton was not destroyed.
Flora and fauna Krypton has a vast number of flora and fauna, both wild and domesticated. Some of them look very similar to Earth's animals, due to parallel evolution, e.g., birds, felids, canids, simians, etc., as seen in Krypto and Beppo; while others look very different, due to divergent evolution, e.g., fish/snake/eel-like hybrid creatures called "fish-snakes", goat-like creatures called "Zuurt", bovine-like creatures called "Rondor", rhinoceros/ceratopsian-like creatures called Thought-Beasts, dragon-like creatures called H'Raka, pterodactyl-like creatures called "War-Kites", gigantic, one-horned snake-like creatures called "Drang", and jellyfish-like invertebrate creatures called Shoggoth.
Moons One of Krypton's moons, Wegthor, was accidentally destroyed by Jax-Ur, a scientist who was experimenting with a nuclear missile that was diverted from its intended destination. The disaster killed 500 inhabitants of the moon, resulting in Jax-Ur being the first criminal banished to the Phantom Zone. This disaster also prompted the Science Council of Krypton to ban space flight completely.
Survivors A Silver Age Superman was not alone in the survival of Krypton's destruction, being joined by his cousin Supergirl, the Phantom Zone criminals, Krypto the Superdog, Beppo the Super-Monkey, juvenile delinquent Dev-Em, the entire population of the city of Kandor, and Supergirl's biological parents. When the planet exploded, one entire city of Krypton, Argo City, survived the cataclysm.
Argo City drifted through space on an asteroid-sized fragment of Krypton, which had been transformed into kryptonite by the explosion. The super-advanced technology of its Kryptonian inhabitants allowed them to construct a life-sustaining dome and a lead shield that protected their city from the kryptonite radiation of the asteroid. The protective shield was destroyed in a meteor storm, exposing the inhabitants to kryptonite radiation.
The sole survivor of Argo City, Kara Zor-El, was sent to Earth by her scientist father to live with her cousin Kal-El, who had become known as Superman. Kara adjusted to her new life on Earth and became known as Supergirl. It was later discovered that Supergirl's parents had survived in the Survival Zone, a parallel dimension similar to the Phantom Zone, from which she released them. When Kandor was finally enlarged on a new planet that was similar to Krypton, Supergirl's parents joined its inhabitants to live there.
Daxamites The people now known as the Daxamites were originally Kryptonians who left their homeworld to explore the universe. In post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, the Eradicator, an artificial lifeform programmed to preserve all Kryptonian culture, altered the birthing matrices ("artificial wombs") that the explorers took with them so that all newborns would be fatally vulnerable to lead and other materials such as greenhouse gases and certain rocks. Thus, if they persisted in their anti-Kryptonian wanderlust, they would all die from it. One Daxamite, Mon-El, was poisoned by lead and preserved in the Phantom Zone until Brainiac 5 found a cure in the 30th century, whereafter Mon-El became a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Vathlo Island
Vathlo Island is a fictional location on Krypton, notable as an early attempt to explain in-universe the seeming non-presence of black people throughout the universe. Other scholars have called Vathlo Island out more broadly as a stand-in for different non-white diaspora communities, such as Hispanic and Latino Americans.
In issue #234 of Superman (February 1971), the first apparently dark-skinned Kryptonian was featured, and described as being employed at "Vathlo Station", but the origin of this previously unseen Kryptonian ethnicity otherwise went uncommented on.
Half a year later, in Superman #239 (June 1971), a panel drawn by artist Sal Amendola described a "Vathlo Island" in the "Old World" hemisphere of Krypton as being populated by a "highly developed black race".