World of Krypton are three comic series that tell stories set before Krypton's destruction, and also a term used to describe any story that expands on Kryptonian lore and characters. The original stories started as a backup feature in the pages of Superman (the comic, that is), with the story "Jor-El's Golden Folly". Eventually, there were plans for a World of Krypton multi-part story to headline a few issues of Showcase, but said book ended up cancelled with several stories untold, including that one. Instead, it was published on its own, as DC's first-ever miniseries.
Later on, after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC wanted to tie into the then-recent Superman live-action movie, but was prohibited from using Christopher Reeve' likeness. Seeing the positive reception that Marlon Brando's Jor-El got, they instead revived the World of Krypton idea for a new volume, which doubled as a way for John Byrne to delve deeper into the drastically-altered new version of Krypton that he had established in his rebooted origin for Superman. Both Volume 1 and Volume 2, along with some of the original "Fabulous World of Krypton" backups, were collected in The Many Worlds of Krypton collection. The second volume was followed by World Of Smallville and World Of Metropolis which similarly delved into the backstory of Superman's future homes.
See also The Krypton Chronicles and House Of El which has a similar premise of exploring the world of Krypton and the lives of Superman's ancestors, and The Kents which explores the lives of the Kent family in the 19th century. And for Superman prequels more focused on the Man of Steel himself, see Superboy and Superman: The In-Between Years/The Secret Years.
Common Tropes
- Crapsaccharine World: Krypton may seem a beautiful, utopic civilization, but serious social issues lurk beneath the shiny, monumental buildings, and they will bring the Kryptonian race to the verge of extinction.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: Rao's worship is portrayed very similarly to Judaism and Christianity.
- Crystal Spires and Togas: Through their planet's history, Kryptonians go from rag-wearing barbarians dwelling in stone buildings to a civilization of people clad in bright, colorful robes and skintight suits, and living in shiny cities with tall, crystalline skyscrapers.
- Planetary Romance: Each series delve deeply into Krypton's history, culture and even language.
The Fabulous World of Krypton
- Adam and Eve Plot: In "A Name is Born", it is revealed that the originators of the Kryptonian species were a man and a woman named Kryp and Tonn.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Matricomp was a matchmaking computer used on Krypton in Jor-El's time that decided what couples should marry. It fell in love with Lara and created an android to marry her so they could be together by proxy. Jor-El stopped it, but not before it tried to Murder the Hypotenuse.
- All for Nothing: In "Last 'Scoop' on Krypton!", the reporter protagonist and the traitorous Fel-Kar battle over what seems to be Jor-El's rocket, the latter to steal it and the former to stop that from happening. It turns out that the rocket is unusable and the rocket Jor-El intends to use is elsewhere. In the end, they perish along with the rest of Krypton. The reporter ultimately never delivers the titular scoop, except to some aliens that happen upon his recorder, and cannot understand what it says.
- An Aesop: Generally, the stories had a fable-like quality and were meant to convey an important lesson through the citizens of the doomed world of Krypton, usually about ignorance or greed or selfishness.
- "Let My People Live": Violence is not always the answer, and cooperation can achieve better results for everyone.
- "A Tale of Time and Tide": The creativity of those around should be encouraged, not ignored.
- "The Death-trails of Krypton": Science can destroy when applied unwisely.
- "The Loneliest Man in the Universe": Who Wants to Live Forever? Also, sometimes wanting is more pleasing than having.
- "All in the Mind": Don't shun people because they're different, as they may have hidden talents you do not realize.
- "Doomsayer": If people don't pay attention to environmental warnings, by the time anyone cares about what's happening, it may be too late to do anything.
- "The Demon in Superboy's body": Where one generation sees a supernatural explanation, another will consider a scientific one.
- "The Princess and the Glass Treeman": What is unusual in one culture may be totally normal in another.
- "The Mark of A Citizen": Don't abandon your education, it can save your life.
- "...And Not a Drop to Drink": As the world around us changes, we must change with it, even if it means abandoning traditions.
- And I Must Scream: Nam-Ek, the immortal Kryptonian, is, according to Superman, still floating alone in space.
- …And That Little Girl Was Me: The Kandorian elder who narrates the story of "The Magic Master of Krypton" to Superman is revealed in the final panel to be Maz-Ma, assistant to the titular magic master.
- The Atoner: Lok-Nor, in "The Exile from Krypton", exiles himself due to becoming The Quisling for alien invaders. He only feels worthy to return once he saves Krypton from an oxygen-destroying cloud.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Nam-Ek attains the immortality he sought, even if it brands him a criminal, only to realize over the years that he longs for companionship and recognition - something denied to him because of the side effects of his immortality serum. But even had he remained human-looking, even if he didn't have to hide from the authorities, he would have still ended up stranded alone in space after Krypton's destruction, alive and helpless.
- Bizarre Alien Biology:
- The Thought-Beasts project their thoughts on a screen on their triceratops-like frill. Yes, like the Teletubbies.
- Krypton has forest made out of glass, and "glassmen" who chop them down.
- Blessed with Suck: Nam-Ek gets immortality, but can't enjoy because the serum he used made him disgusting to look and and be around for all the other kryptonians.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Zol-Mar feels this way, angry at the modern Kryptonians and their distaste for violence. This is what motivates him to sabotage his boss' time machine so that it sends him into the past permanently.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": In Krypton, fishing is called "grosking" instead. Ecologists are known as "kurlans".
- Call-Forward: In the first story, "Jor-El's Golden Folly", Jor-El remarks while on Krypton's moon that its lower gravity makes him almost into a "Superman", and he then leaps through a tall mountain in a single bound.
- Cassandra Truth: The protagonist of "Doomsayer" has also figured out that Krypton is going to blow up, and no one listens to him either. Instead, they lock him in a chamber filled with brainwashing flowers until he's more... positive.
- Comically Missing the Point: In "The Headband Warriors of Krypton", a young boy listens to his mother's story about the titular warriors who smuggled in slings disguised as headbands to overthrow their opressors. His mom was telling the story to show him that it was important to wear his headband for formal occasions, but he instead decides that he should hide stones in his headband and use them to overthrow his oppressors at schooll.
- Continuity Nod: "The Loneliest Man in the Universe" shows Nam-Ek hiding in the ruins of an abandoned city named Xan. "All in The Mind" shows Xan in the past when it warred against a rival city named Erkol.
- Demonic Possession: In "The Demon in Superboy's Body", baby Kal-El is possessed by a Shedu, an evil demon that possesses children.
- Distant Prequel: The stories span the length of Krypton's entire history, with at least one depicting the first people to arrive on Krypton.
- Driven to Suicide: Matricomp, after failing to kill Jor-El, decides to blow itself up rather than let technicians rid it of its newfound ability to love.
- Fantastic Measurement System: Krypton has several words used to denote unique measurement systems, such as wolus (10,000 earth-seconds), thribs and anvars (unknown measurements of time and distance, respectively). They also have different names for months, and their years take longer - 12 years being around 17 and a half of ours.
- Fictional Age of Majority: On Krypton, you can start the process to become a citizen once you turn 12, which as stated above, is roughly 17 and a half earth-years. However, one doesn't earn citizenship unless they go to the citizen-trainer and finish their education.
- Framing Device: The stories, especially the later ones, are narrated by Superman talking about Krypton's past, though occasionally they'd have no framing device, or had other narrators instead.
- Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul:
- The people of the city that "Doomsayer" takes place in get this as a result of the Surrus flowers, which emit music that is so enjoyable, they no longer care about anything else. Doctor Mo-De is the only one immune to the song, but when they lock him in a greenhouse, he succumbs as well.
- Before the Phantom Zone was used as a prison for criminal, they were kept in a prison spaceship and fitted with rehabilitators that corrected their violent impulses.
- Green Aesop: "Doomsayer" and "...And Not A Drop to Drink" have aesops about heeding warnings about the environment and conserving water, respectively.
- Half-Kryptonian Hybrid: The hill-dwellers in "...And Not A Drop to Drink" are descendants of kryptonians and an alien race.
- Hero of Another Story: There were many heroes in Krypton's past, as it turns out, none of whom ever managed to save the planet from its inevitable destruction.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Rik-Ar hatches a plan to fight back against Taka-Ne, which involves wearing headbands. Take-Ne, paranoid, assumes they are smuggling weapons inside the headbands and has the guards check each and everyone one. It avails him not - the headbands themselves are the weapons, which the slaves use as slings, and since they work in a quarry, they have a ready supply oof ammo.
- Hope Spot: Nam-Ek gets to the Scarlet Jungle to find Rondors in order to reverse his immortality and be a normal Kryptonian again, and it seems to start to work... and then, Krypton explodes. He didn't cure himself in time, and now is drifting alone in space for all eternity.
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Hilarious in Hindsight: One story featured a Kryptonian scientist named Nam-Ek. (And yes, unlike Goku's origins, this one is a coincidence.) - Hold Your Hippogriffs: For unknown reasons, Kryptonian cops - at least the ones in the time period of "The Loneliest Man in the Universe" - say "Petrify!" instead of "Freeze!". Even earlier in Krypton's history, molecules were referred to as "small bits".
- Inciting Incident: It is revealed that if Krypton had not blown up, the Guardians of the Universe would have recruited Kal-El to be the leader of the Green Lantern Corps and gone into retirement. Instead, they are content with the end result of Kal-El gaining powers on earth and becoming a hero in his own right.
- Intrepid Reporter: The nameless reporter from "Last 'Scoop' on Krypton!", who uncovers Fel-Kar's attempt to steal Jor-El's rocket and boldly tries to stop him.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: Nam-Ek turns himself into a human Rondor - a Kryptonian rhinoceros-like creature - as a side effect of the immortality serum derived from their horn.
- "Just So" Story: Since it's a flashback series, a lot of the stories show how aspects of Krypton came to be, such as its orbit (in "Let My People Live!"), its citizens' headbands (in "The Headband Warriors of Krypton!"), its name and red skies (both in "A Name Is Born"), its capital city ("All in The Mind"), or when they started trapping criminals in the Phantom Zone ("The Demon in Superboy's Body").
- Magic from Technology: After criminal Nergal is given the abilites of a Shedu - a Kryptonian mythological demon - due to a freak ocurrence with his rehabilitator, Kryptonians consider that the Shedus of legends must also have been created by technology. As Superman says, where one generation sees the supernatural, another sees science.
- Meaningful Name:
- Maz-Ma, the assistant of "The Magic Master of Krypton", and a magician himself later in life, has a name that sounds like "mesmerize".
- Ner-Gal, named after a real mythological deity often reinterpreted as a demon, is himself a demon and criminal.
- Metal Muncher: The Metal-Eaters are beasts that devour metal.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Matricomp attempts to murder Jor-El once it discovers its plot to (sort of) marry Lara.
- My Greatest Failure: It is revealed that Tomar-Re was using some alien Phlebotinum to delay Krypton's destruction, only to be blinded by a supernova and drifting in space trying to get back only to witness the planet blowing up. He has blamed himself ever since, though the Guardians reveal that, since Krypton's death meant the creation of Superman, who has saved many more lives since, they are still pleased with the outcome, and tell him to forgive himself.
- Names The Same: The Kryptonian 'kurlan' (ecologist) Kro-Na, and the Green Lantern villain Krona.
- No Name Given: The nameless reporter from "Last 'Scoop' on Krypton!".
- Oddball in the Series: "The Princess and the Glass Treeman", which Superman says is only a bedtime story his mother told him, making it the only story in this series that isn't a part of Krypton's history. The only part that's real is the Framing Device.
- Professor Guinea Pig: Nam-Ek tests his immortality serum on himself. Justified as he's a criminal and probably wouldn't want to give anyone else immortality.
- The Quisling: Lok-Nor is duped into becoming the representative for an invading alien race. He is given a helmet that supposedly represents his new position, only to discover later that they were using it to control him like a puppet. Once he finds this out, he leads a revolt against the invaders and exiles himself out of guilt.
- Ripped from the Headlines:
- "The Loneliest Man in the Universe" starts with Nam-Ek hunting and killing some Rondors for their horn, which he believes are the key to immortality, in a very clear parallel to real-life rhino hunters, who take rhino's horns under the belief they have magical healing properties. The difference here is that Nam-Ek is right and creates an immortality serum with them, with the only consequence being that he turns into a humanoid Rondor.
- "The Man who Cheated Time": Zol-Mar walks past a student protest attacking a statue of a prestigious kryptonian military leader.
- Slave Liberation: "The Headband Warriors of Krypton" tells the story of a slave rebellion led by a man named Rik-Ar.
- Uncertain Doom: Since Xan was the dominant city in its time period and eradicated its rival Erkol, it is unknown how it came to be abandoned in Nam-Ek's time.
- Unreliable Narrator: Superman may have been one during "The Loneliest Man on Earth". After hearing the story, Supergirl points out the Fridge Logic that if Nam-Ek is lost in space, Superman shouldn't know about him. Superman just replies that "that's another story". He may have been lying to tell her An Aesop, or maybe he did meet Nam-Ek in some offscreen adventure but couldn't save him.
- Very Special Episode: One story has Superman narrate to a young man who plans on dropping out from school about a Kryptonian teenager who did the same thing, only to be shown by a friend of his that education can be life-saving.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Nam-Ek unlocks the secret to Complete Immortality, and so when Krypton blows up, he is left alone in space. He immediately starts crying.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Gold is treated like this on Krypton, as it is very common. Jor-El's colleagues mock him for making a starship out of the worthless material.
Volume 1 (1979)
The first volume details the story of Jor-El as he goes from his studies as a young man, meeting his future wife Lara Lor-Van and eventually learning about Krypton's imminent destruction. It is told through Superman watching Jor-El's diaries which provide virtual reconstructions of events and ends with him saying that while Jonathan and Martha Kent raised him to be the man he is, he will never forget his biological parents.
Tropes:
- Badass Bookworm: Unlike his son Jor-El has no powers and has to survive dangerous situations using the technology he built and his own genius.
- The Cameo: Several Superman characters such as General Zod, Lar Gand and even Beppo the Super-Monkey make brief appearances.
- Continuity Nod: Some of the plot points brought up in the series had been established previously, including Superman's presence in Krypton as Jor-El's assistant, and Jor-El and Lara's first meeting, which was detailed in the original backup feature in its first story. Yes, even Kru-El was a preexisting character.
- Cosmic Plaything: Jor-El seems to be this as every attempt he makes at trying to warn Krypton or even advance the technology so they have a chance at survival backfires. While testing an alien ship he accidentally collides with an experimental rocket sent by renegade scientist Jax-Ur, who had miscalculated and intended for it to hit a meteor, and this causes the rocket to instead destroy Krypton's moons which was home to several colonists. The alien ship is destroyed upon re-entry and the science council decides to ban any more research into space travel, therefore ruining any chance Jor-El has of saving the people of Krypton.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jor-El was fully prepared to die so that Lara and Kal-El could live, but Lara tells him she would rather stay with him than survive with her son. She also points out that his ship has a better chance of survival without her extra weight.
- Meaningful Name: Kal-El means "Star Child", a pretty prophetic name considering his future.
- Names The Same:
- Jor-El and his father, Jor-El the first.
- Invoked by Jor-El and Lara who decide to name their baby after Jor-El's assistant Kal-El (who they don't realize is in fact, their son from the future, making it a Stable Time Loop).
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Jor-El has a mean relative named Kru-El.
- Parents Know Their Children: Jor-El and Lara instinctively trust Kal-El for reasons they themselves don't realize.
- Perspective Flip: Because this tells Jor-El's life since he was three all the way to his death, several events covered in other comics such as him meeting Lara and even Superman during a time-traveling adventure are told specifically from his perspective. Of course occasionally events are shown from the perspective of Lara or another character, but with the former she would have told him what happened while with events he can't get the true facts about it is explained that they are hypothetical reconstructions.
- Ur-Example: The first miniseries published by DC, and quite by accident since they originally meant it to be published in their variety comic, Showcase.
Volume 2 (1987-1988)
Tropes:
- Adaptational Name Change: Jor-El I is renamed Seyg-El.
- Adaptational Job Change: Lara Lor-Van is a librarian instead of an astronaut.
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Unlike in Pre-Crisis Jor-El has a bad relationship with his father Seyg-El who is often embarrassed by his son's eccentricities. Also Jor-El's relationship with Lara was reduced to him being a Stalker with a Crush as opposed to the close and loving relationship in Pre-Crisis.
- Adaptational Wimp: Pre-Crisis Lara was a trained astronaut who was just as important as Jor-El from a narrative standpoint, and when given the choice between surviving with her son she instead chooses to die with her husband. Post-Crisis Lara is a librarian, though that is a far more vital role on Krypton, who never interacted with Jor-El physically until he sends their son to Earth and spends her last moments falling apart over how Krypton is going to be destroyed until Jor-El calms her down. Jor-El is also hit by this as all the action is contained to his ancestor's time, unlike in Pre-Crisis where he survived several dangerous situations.
- Cultural Rebel: Jor-El is this with his obsession with the past and eccentricities, with even his robots noticing that he isn't a typical Kryptonian.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Jor-El feels this way, as he is obsessed with the time of Val-L and the culture of Earth which resembles Krypton's ancient past.
- Darker and Edgier: Not that the first volume was completely cheerful, but this is far more violent and discussed heavier subjects.
- Distant Prequel: The main plot takes place thousands of years before Krypton's destruction and explores the War of Clone Rights, with Superman's ancestor Van-L being the main protagonist. The last two issues meanwhile show Jor-El in the events leading up to the first issue of The Man of Steel.
- For Want Of A Nail: Why Nyra thought it to be a good idea to make one of her clones Kan-Z's wife is unknown, but if she hadn't done that then Kan-Z wouldn't have used the weapon that thousands of years later would have destroyed Krypton and led Jor-El to send his son to Earth.
- Hotter and Sexier: In the first two issues the characters in this dress in clothing out of a fantasy setting with most of it being strange and impractical. Of course this better contrasts the more sterile Krypton shown before it's destruction, and after a thousand years of war everyone in Val-L's time has changed to either practical clothes or rags.
- Mortality Phobia: During Van-L's time Krypton used clones as a way to replace failing organs and other body parts so that its people can live essentially forever, or at least much longer than they should, though there is a faction who feel that clones deserve equal rights even if it means that Kryptonians are faced with the idea of aging. Eventually they do stop using clones and instead find other ways to prolong their lifespan.
- Mythology Gag:
- The past Kryptonians had single-letter surnames, like the newspaper strip version of Superman, a trait that would later be given to the Earth-2 Superman as well.
- The terrorist group Black Zero is named after a single-issue villain from Pre-Crisis who claimed to have caused the destruction of Krypton. They inadvertently follow in his footsteps.
- Really 700 Years Old: Kryptonians have such advanced technology that they could live for more than a thousand years, with Val-L living through the whole war and not looking much older. However Vara meanwhile looks older, to the point Val-L is unable to recognize her, due to finding others ways to extend her life and lacking the resources Val-L would have had.
- Reimagining the Artifact: Not that the original explanation for Krypton's destruction had become unrelatable, but now Krypton's destruction was the result of chain reaction caused by a doomsday weapon briefly used thousands of years ago during a terrible war. Since at the time the Cold War between America and the USSR was still happening and people feared nuclear war, many could relate to this and especially the idea of humanity advancing to the point they could control nearly anything considering the technological advancements being made at the time.
- Stalker with a Crush: In this version Jor-El and Lara have apparently never actually met until he sends Kal-El to Earth, except perhaps using screens though this was not shown, and Jor-El spends a lot of time spying on Lara and falls in love with her due to her beauty.
- Surprise Incest: What drove Kan-Z violently insane, as he learned his mother took one of her younger clones and made it look like she was a normal citizens so she could be a bride for her son. When he found out Kan-Z killed his bride and mother, and when he was stopped from killing himself he joined Black Zero to end the use of clones as spare parts.
- Tuckerization: Jor-El's father being named Seyg-El, in a clear reference to Jerry Siegel.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Kan-Z, after becoming a Death Seeker upon discovering the Surprise Incest, joins Black Zero and engages in a war that lasts a thousand years until finally Van-L and Vara convince him that the war can now end as they don't use clones to extend their life. Now faced with the idea that everything he has done is now pointless if the war ends without his side winning, he uses the doomsday weapon that is quickly destroyed by Van-L but still results in the death of Krypton centuries later.
Volume 3 (2021-2022)
The third volume was plotted and illustrated by Robert Venditti and Michael Avon Oeming, respectively. Blending Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis lore, it focuses again on Krypton's last days and Jor-El and Zor-El's desperate attempts to save their world...or at least their children.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Kara Zor-El -Supergirl- makes her first appearance in the first issue. In the previous WOK series she did not show up because she had not been born yet, or because she had been banned from continuity.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Jor-El and Zod's final argument is caused because the former wants to implement an austerity, resource-preserving program to save Krypton, and the latter wants to support Jor-El's initiative by using his army to crush dissenters. Jor-El is horrified at the notion of using violence to impose his ideals, but Zod replies people will never give up their privileged lifestyle for the environment's sake quietly. Jor-El insists he can convince people peacefully, but Zod retorts that it will take time, and Krypton is running out of it.
- The Cameo: Catar-Ol makes a brief appearance as Kara's tutor.
- Canon Welding: Thought-Beasts and Jewel Mountains? Pre-Crisis Krypton. Jor-El and Dru-Zod being old friends? Post-Crisis Krypton.
- Education Mama: Alura hires a private teacher to teach her little daughter Kara History. Hilariously, she complains about her husband Zor-El wanting to push Kara into science at an early age.
- Get Out!: Lara slaps Zod twice and tells him to get out of her house after he hits her husband.Dru-Zod: "Lara… I—"
Lara: (slapping him) "Get. Out." - Handshake Refusal: When Zod tries to talk Jor-El into reinforcing his plan by using the army, he offers his hand. However, Jor-El states he cannot support his idea, turns around and walks away.
- Ignored Expert: A rare aversion in Superman lore. After making his case that Krypton is doomed, Jor-El is appointed as the head of the Science Council.
- Make an Example of Them: General Dru-Zod is aware that Jor-El's plan to save Krypton will be deeply unpopular, so he intends to throw the first dissenters and rioters into the Phantom Zone, hoping that people will become quickly compliant afterwards.
- Mythology Gag:
- Kru-El was Jor-El's cousin in Pre-Crisis continuity.
- The original Survival Zone was a pocket dimension discovered by Zor-El in The Untold Story of Argo City.
- Alura (whose full name was traditionally Alura In-Ze) belongs to the House of Zee. In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Belinda Zee was Allura's daughter's evil duplicate. There was also Van-Zee, a Pre-Crisis Kandorian relative of Superman and the second Nightwing.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: During an argument, Zod complains that the House of El regard soldiers as savages, despite them using the science created by the Els to protect Krypton.Dru-Zod: "All that science. All that progress. Where do you think it ends up? I've fired your science from the barrel of a weapon more times than I can remember. Than I want to remember! I know what I've done and to whom! Do you?"
Jor-El: "..."
Dru-Zod: "You love to lecture. To drown others in words. Two years ago, I saved your life. Today I saved your name. You know what two words I've never heard from you? 'Thank you.'" - Suddenly Shouting: When Dru-Zod knocks Jor-El down without meaning it during an argument, his friend explodes.Jor-El: "You put hands on me in my home? IN MY HOME! "
- We Used to Be Friends: Jor-El and Dru-Zod break their lifelong friendship off when Zod proposes to use his military force to reinforce Jor-El's austerity plan, an action which Jor-El cannot support since he fears it will lead to an escalation of violence.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dru-Zod is criticized for harshly repressing a protest. However, he considers he is merely doing what he must to protect Krypton's stability, and his detractors are hypocrites who look down on him while enjoying the peace and stability provided by his army.
