Sanderson on Comics

Animals from Krypton!

When I saw the first trailer for writer/director James Gunn's new “Superman” movie, I was delighted to see Krypto, the super-dog from the comics. So were so many other comics professionals. Gunn must have realized that audiences in general would love Krypto, too: that's why Krypto was prominently featured in the trailer.

Here's a handsome portrait of the Krypto of the comics by the great Alex Ross.

And here's a picture of Krypto as he appears in the movie. James Gunn has said in many interviews that his version of Krypto is based on his own dog Ozu, who is apparently both lovable and badly behaved.

Krypto was created by writer Otto Binder and artists Curt Swan and Sy Barry and debuted in a “Superboy” story “The Superdog from Krypton” in “Adventure Comics” #210, cover-dated March 1955. The “Superboy” series chronicled Superman’s exploits when he was growing up in the town of Smallville. Krypto had been his pet when he was the infant Kal-El on the planet Krypton. Kal-El's parents Jor-El and Lara planned to send Kal-El in a small spacecraft to Earth to escape the coming destruction of Krypton. First Jor-El launched another spacecraft, with Krypto inside, as a test flight. Meteors knocked the spacecraft off course, and it drifted through space for years, apparently without Krypto aging significantly, until it reached Earth. Then Superboy found Krypto, who gained super-powers on Earth.

But in this story Krypto still has the mind of an ordinary dog, and inadvertently causes all sorts of trouble doing typical canine behavior but with his super-powers magnifying the damage. At the end of the story, Krypto leaves for outer space, and Superboy is relieved to see him go.

Whether or not James Gunn knew that in Krypto's original story, he too was badly behaved like Ozu, I do not know. Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe not.

Krypto proved popular with comics readers in 1955, and so he soon returned and became a regular character in “Superboy” stories. By necessity he became much better behaved.

By the time I started reading superhero comics in 1964, Krypto was quite different. He was perfectly well behaved. Moreover, he had human level intelligence. And we could read his thoughts in thought balloons. It was just like Snoopy wIth his thought balloons in the “Peanuts” comic strip!

Furthermore, super-animals had proved to be popular with readers. Keep in mind that editor Mort Weisinger was aiming the Superman line of comics at children in the 1960s. So Weisinger also introduced Streaky the Super-Cat, Comet the Super-Horse, and Beppo the Super-Monkey. (Only Krypto and Beppo were from Krypton; Streaky and Comet derived their super-powers from other sources.) Together Krypto and the three other super-animals comprised the Legion of Super-Pets, an animal counterpart to the Legion of Super-Heroes.

When editor Julius Schwartz took over editing the principal Superman titles at the end of the Silver Age of the 1960s, he initially ignored the super-animals, and indeed all other living Kryptonians apart from Superman and Supergirl. Eventually he allowed Krypto to return, but minus his Snoopyesque thought balloons. Krypto was now more credibly a real dog, albeit one with super-powers.

The Silver Age continuity for Superman came to an end in 1986. DC had decided to reboot and revise the Superman mythos, starting his continuity anew. The DC editors and writers at that time were insistent that Superman was to be the only living Kryptonian. Infamously, the Silver Age Supergirl was killed off in “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

The great English comics writer Alan Moore wrote an apocalyptic grand finale for . the Silver Age Superman continuity, a two-part saga, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.” It was presented as an “imaginary story,” using the term that Weisinger had used for Superman stories that might someday happen but we’re not necessarily canonical. Moore clearly loved the Silver Age Superman stories he had grown up reading, and his grand finale seemed intended to show that Weisinger’s Superman mythos was not silly and juvenile, but potentially powerfully dramatic.

So it was that Moore not only treated Krypto seriously in this saga, but gave him a grandly heroic and event tragic demise, courageously sacrificing his life to save his beloved master from one of his deadliest foes, the Kryptonite Man.

When John Byrne, in “The Man of Steel” comics series, and Marv Wolfman in “The Adventures of Superman” comics series, launched the reboot of the Superman mythos in 1986, Superman was indeed the only living Kryptonian. Even when Supergirl was reintroduced, she was now a shapeshifting being, not from Krypton. Krypto was nowhere to be seen, nor were any of the other super-animals. The conventional wisdom at DC then was that the super-animals were silly, and that the current comics readership had outgrown such supposedly juvenile creations.

But since I have been reading superhero comics for over sixty years, I take a long view. I can see how the conventional wisdom of one period in comics can become passé a decade or two later. A new generation of writers and editors can arise who disagree with the decisions made by a previous generation. There can be new writers and editors who liked characters that previous editors and writers thought they had banished into oblivion forever.

And so the new Superman continuity that was established in 1986 was itself n repeatedly revised and rebooted in subsequent decades, and, astonishingly, many of the changes brought it back in line with elements of the Silver Age continuity. So it was that Supergirl was reintroduced yet again, once more named Kara, once more Superman’s cousin from Krypton.

And Krypto has been welcomed back into comics continuity as well. He doesn’t have the Snoopyesque thought balloons, but he is still recognizably the character who was a favorite of mine when I started reading superhero comics in the mud-1960s.

A more Snoopyesque version of Krypto appeared in the recent, entertaining “DC League of Super-Pets” movie. (Streaky, Beppo and Comet aren't in it, but Batman's dog Bat-Hound is.) This version of Krypto has human intelligence and talks, albeit in dog language.

Not only that, but Krypto now seems to be universally popular with comics pros. Everyone in comics whose reactions I read online seemed absolutely delighted to see Krypto in the trailers for the new “Superman” movie. James Gunn obviously knew that Krypto would be a hit with audiences; that’s why he so prominently featured Krypto in the trailers. And now Krypto is more popular than ever, having won so many fans through the immense popularity of the new “Superman” movie! He will be in the 2026 “Supergirl” movie as well.

As for me, I find Krypto's misbehavior in Gunn's movie more annoying than amusing. But I am still absolutely delighted to see Krypto in the movie! And he behaves heroically when he needs to, as when he rescues Superman at the film's beginning.

When I was watching a trailer for the “Superman” movie, I became excited when I saw a shot of Superman battling a fire-breathing dragon. Could it be? Is this really the Flame Dragon of Krypton, who hasn’t been in the comics since the 1960s? Does James Gunn really know about the Flame Dragon? Does he have that Mark Waid level of encyclopedic knowledge about Superman history?

But when I saw the movie I was somewhat disappointed by the dragon. There is no indication that it is from Krypton. Indeed, there’s no explanation of its origin at all. When it is first seen it is very small, but rapidly grows to colossal size. How could it become so big so fast? And where did it come from in the first place? Later in the movie we learn that Lex Luthor experiments with cloning. Does LuthorCorp have a genetic engineering department where they created the dragon?

A Kryptonian dragon first appeared to combat Superman in “The Beast from Krypton!” written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger and drawn by Wayne Boring, in “Superman” #78, published in 1952. It flies and breathes fire, and it is a Kryptonian called a “snagriff.”

Eight years later, in “Superman” #142, published in 1960, there was a story titled “The Flame Dragon from Krypton!” written by Superman’s co-creator Jerry Siegel and drawn by Wayne Boring. Unsurprisingly, since they were drawn by the same artist, this Flame Dragon resembled the earlier “Beast from Krypton.”

This is an important story for me. You may recall that in an earlier column I wrote that the first superhero comic book that I ever read was “World’s Finest Comics” #142, which was published in 1964. (So yes, I have been reading superhero comics for sixty-one years!) That issue’s main story was about the Composite Superman, but the issue also reprinted “The Flame Dragon from Krypton!” So that was the second superhero comics story that I ever read.

The Flame Dragon had somehow survived the destruction of Krypton and eventually made its way to Earth. Under Earth’s yellow sun it had super-powers just like Superman, and presumably its powers were greater since it was far bigger than he was.

The Flame Dragon caused Superman particular trouble by breathing flame at Clark Kent, incinerating his street clothes and revealing him in his indestructible Superman costume right in front of Lois Lane. Back in the 1950s and 1960s Lois Lane was continually being a pesky nuisance trying to prove that Superman and Clark Kent were one and the same. So was Lana Lang in “Superboy” stories about Superman’s teenage years. This sort of dated misogynistic depiction of women who were to be Superman’s love interests have aged very badly. In this story Jerry Siegel came up with a particularly fantastic variation on the theme.

Superman eventually defeats the Flame Dragon after it temporarily loses its super-powers due to exposure to Red Kryptonian. Superman then freezes it in a block of ice, which he hurls through outer space past Pluto. (The Silver Age Superman’s powers seemed limitless!)

You might think that the Flame Dragon was Superman’s main problem in the story, but from the way it is constructed it seems that the bigger problem was preserving his dual identity. So Superman devises an elaborate scheme whereby Lois finds Clark Kent wrapped in bandages and being attended by a doctor and nurse. Clark persuades Lois that she didn’t see what she thought she had, and that in fact Clark suffered superficial burns from the Flame Dragon’s flames, and had dived into a ditch just as Superman showed up. Lois is gullible enough to believe this unlikely tale. After she leaves, the “doctor” is revealed to be Batman and the “nurse” turns out to be Supergirl, whose existence was unknown to Lois and the general public at that point in the continuity.

I think we can all agree that the current versions of Lois in the comics and in this new “Superman” movie are way better than the snoopy, stupid Lois in this story! Notice that at the start of this movie Lois already knows that Clark is Superman so we don’t have to wonder why she hasn’t figured it out.

I have been referring to the Flame Dragon as “it” but apparently it was really a “she.” In “Superman’s Greatest Secret” in “Superman” #151, cover-dated February 1962, a second Flame Dragon appears, having hatched from an egg laid by the previous Flame Dragon. (So does that mean that the first Flame Dragon has a mate out there somewhere?) Superman defeats this Flame Dragon by transporting it through time to the age of dinosaurs.

Yet this Flame Dragon returned in “Jimmy Olsen’s Monster Movie” in “Jimmy Olsen” # 84, published in 1965. In that story the Flame Dragon is transported back to the then-present day to combat the gigantic ape Titano, in a clear allusion to King Kong battling Godzilla.

Since then, as far as I know, we have not seen the Flame Dragon of Krypton again.

So is the dragon in the new “Superman” movie the Flame Dragon of Krypton or not? Or did James Gunn not know about the Flame Dragon but thought it would be cool to have Superman fight a dragon? Maybe it was Gunn’s nod to “Game of Thrones”? Or to the long tradition of mythic heroes battling dragons. I suspect that is what Jerry Siegel was thinking of when he introduced the Flame Dragon.

Only James Gunn can tell us whether his movie dragon is the Flame Dragon of Krypton or not. But I like to think it is, and that this animal from the first superhero comic book I ever read has returned in my senior years on the big screen. And hey, I first saw Krypto in the first Flame Dragon story, too!

Recently I learned that Boravia, one of the fictional countries in the new “Superman” movie, actually appeared in the comic “Superman” #2 back in 1939! And the other fictional nation in the movie, Jarhanpur, originated in “Justice League of America” #62 in 2002. I don't know who is doing comics research for Gunn, but if they knew about these obscure countries in the comics, they might well have known about the Flame Dragon, too!

Big news! This month the publisher Abrams released a new book, “Spider-Man: Panel by Panel,” which reprints the first three Spider-Man comics stories, from “Amazing Fantasy” # 15 and “The Amazing Spider-Man” #1, both from 1962. Each panel in these stories gets a full page in this book. Moreover, there are essays analyzing these stories and explaining their importance. And I wrote one of these essays! If you like my critical and historical writing about comics here on Substack, you’ll like my essay in this new book! Learn more at https://store.abramsbooks.com/products/spider-man-panel-by-panel