Krypto

Krypto, also known as Krypto the Superdog, is Superman's pet dog in the various Superman comic books published by DC Comics. Krypto's first appearance was in a Superboy story in Adventure Comics #210 in March 1955.

The Original Krypto

As explained in his first appearance, Krypto was originally the toddler Kal-El's dog while they were on Krypton. Jor-El, testing prototypes for the rocket that would eventually send Kal-El to Earth, decided to use Krypto as a test subject. However, Krypto's rocket was knocked off-course; the rocket drifted through space for years until it eventually landed on Earth, where Krypto was reunited with the now-teenaged superhero, Superboy.

Krypto was drawn as a white dog of generic pedigree (his closest analog to an Earth dog breed might be a white Parson Russell Terrier), and when fighting crime, he usually wore a gold collar, a miniature facsimile of the famed Superman-"S" symbol for a dog tag, and a dog-sized version of Superman's cape.

When not accompanying Superboy/man, Krypto spent much of his time romping through space; while on Earth, however, he stayed with the Kent family, posing as their pet dog, "Skip". In that identity, his guardians applied a brown dye patch on his back for a disguise which Krypto could burn off with his heat vision when he went into costume.

In the final pre-Crisis Superman story, Alan Moore's Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?, Krypto sacrificed his life to save Superman by biting the Kryptonite Man. The villain died, but Krypto was irradiated by him and died as well.

The Modern Krypto

Following the 1985-1986 Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries, Superman's history was extensively rewritten, (initially) eliminating all other survivors of Krypton in the revised version of his origin, including Krypto (see Krypto-revisionism), so as to once again make the premise that Superman was truly the "Last Son of Krypton" a valid one.

Eventually, however, Krypto (in several forms) was reintroduced to the Superman mythos, the first being as essentially an exact copy of the pre-crisis Krypto existing in a pocket universe created by the Time Trapper. In this early Post-Crisis storyline, Superman found himself in this pocket universe in which, similar to the Pre-Crisis Earth-Prime of Superboy Prime, his teenage counterpart was the only superhuman on Earth. Combatting the genocidal forces of the three Phantom Zone criminals, this alternate Superboy had an intelligent Krypto counterpart as well, who heroically sacrificed himself for his master. This was the same pocket reality from which the "Matrix" Supergirl originated.

The second modern Krypto was a small white pet dog named by Bibbo Bibowski and later acquired by the modern Superboy, Kon-El; however, this version of Krypto was an ordinary Earth dog with no superpowers, and the dog and Kon-El didn't get along at all. The dog was eventually dropped from the series, remaining in Hawaii when Superboy returned to Project Cadmus.

The third and more familiar version of Krypto was introduced in the early 2000s Superman comics, as a dog from a false, idealized Krypton (that coincidentally resembled the pre-Crisis Krypton) that was created as a trap by one of Superman's enemies; Superman was able to defeat the trap, and when he returned to Earth, Krypto followed him.

This new version of Krypto has all the physical abilities of his pre-Crisis predecessor, but with a normal canine intellect, which initially caused a great deal of trouble for his new master when, for instance, he would scratch at a door to indicate he wanted to go out and unintentionally gouged big chunks out of the door with his super-strength, or inflicting grevious bodily harm when combating villains (since Krypto bites the way a regular canine would, only without being careful about his super-strength). As a result, Krypto was for some time locked away in the Fortress of Solitude under the care of one of Superman's Superman Robots who was programmed to emit the scent of the dog's real master. Superman has gone to great lengths to train the dog, and he now occasionally accompanies the Man of Steel on missions. Batman never misses an opportunity to poke fun at Krypto when Batman and Superman don't see eye-to-eye.

Some time later, Superman left Krypto in Superboy's care, saying that Smallville's open spaces were a better place for the dog, and that Superboy could use a friend (as shown in a 2003 issue of Teen Titans).

Other Media

Smallville

In episode 4-14 of the 2000s television series Smallville, the show introduced a Golden Retriever with similar powers to Clark Kent's. This dog had originated from an experiment with kryptonite. Clark Kent kept the dog, and considered naming him "Krypto", but instead named him "Shelby"- an improvement on the name Lois Lane had given him, "Clarkie."

Shelby also appeared as Clark Kent's farm dog in the four-part comic Superman For All Seasons. This name was used because Superman For All Seasons's artist Tim Sale has a dog named Shelby.

Animated

Krypto's first appearance outside the world of comics was as a companion of Superboy in the 1966 television cartoon The New Adventures of Superman. Krypto also appeared as a puppy in the first episode of the 1990s Superman: The Animated Series.

In April 2005, Cartoon Network debuted Krypto in his own series, Krypto the Superdog, teaming him with fellow animal superheroes Streaky the Supercat, the Dog Star Patrol, and Ace the Bat-Hound. In this series, Krypto lives with a young boy in a Metropolis suburb, and fights crime against various foes, including a space cyborg feline named Mechanikat and his feline agents, the Joker's pet hyenas Bud and Lou, The Penguin's trained birds (Artie the Puffin, Griff the Vulture, Waddles the Penguin), Catwoman's cat Isis, and Ignatius, a pet iguana of Superman foe Lex Luthor. This version of Krypto shares the origin of the first Krypto, having been launched by Jor-El from Krypton in a similar turn of events, but he did not arrive till after Superman was already grown. Otherwise, the show is an original interpretation created just for this series, and is not based on any of the previous comic book versions. A noticible change from the original is that this Krypto can talk, as can all of his other animal friends and enemies.