A Brief History of Superdog Krypto: From Comics to Cinema

I’m not a super-fan — just a casual Kryptonologist — but I must confess I never really got Superman‘s dog. A canine with superpowers always struck me as deeply problematic. Does he knock over fire hydrants when he pees? Does the Earth’s rotation reverse whenever he chases his tail? Does he chew up his master’s red boots?

But now, after seeing Kal-El’s pooch in that just-dropped trailer for James Gunn’s upcoming Superman reboot, I’ve got just one question about the Man of Steel’s best friend: Great Caesar’s ghost, what took so long to get him onto the big screen?

The character has been around since 1955, when DC first dropped him into Adventure Comics #210 for what was supposed to be a one-off storyline. The plot arc was so popular, though, it wasn’t long before Krypto returned, again and again, romping regularly though a variety of Superman and Superboy comic book exploits.

The origin story behind Krypto — or “Skip,” as he’s called when living incognito on the Kent farm in Kansas — is a little murky after so many decades of tinkering by multiple generations of comic book writers. But here are the basics: he was a test subject for a prototype of one of those rockets that Superman’s dad used to shuttle his toddler son to safety before Krypton exploded. But as so often happens in Krypton mythology, something went horribly awry with the launch, the spaceship got knocked off course and Krypto hurdled through space for years before finally finding his way to Earth, where he and Superman, now a teenager, were reunited for a heartwarming boy-and-his-dog escapade.

Along with appearing in a slew of comic books — and, later, a bunch of Saturday morning cartoons — Krypto has popped up in recent years on primetime TV. He’s romped through episodes of Smallville, Titans, and Superman & Lois. He did once take a bow on the big screen, in 2022’s DC League of Super-Pets, but that was an animated feature, and weirdly Dwayne Johnson was cast for his voice. Weirdly not because of Johnson, who has a lovely baritone, but because Krypto was given the ability to talk at all. In the comic books, his thoughts were sometimes illustrated with text bubbles, which was strange enough, and in the 2005 Cartoon Network animated series Krypto the Superdog, he was given a translator device a bit like the one that Ed Asner used to chat with hounds in Up. But no, Superdog can’t speak. Like Earth dogs, he barks.

Exactly what powers the animal possesses depends on which DC universe you dip into. But there are certain constants. He is smarter than normal dogs, faster, stronger and can fly — in other words, he can do pretty much whatever his master does, just on four legs. Like Superman, Krypto wears a red cape when fighting crime, although, unlike Superman, he also sports a gold collar and a dog tag with a big red “S” on it. His breed is uncertain — in some portrayals he looks like a Labrador Retriever, other times more like a Pitbull; in Gunn’s trailer he seems to have terrier qualities — but his fur is always as white as snow. Unless, that is, he’s disguising himself as Skip, in which case the Kents add a Dalmatian-style spot of black dye to his back, a bit like Clark Kent slipping into a pair of pointless hornrims.

Of course, Krypto has one additional power that far surpasses his (and even Superman’s) other abilities — he’s cute. One might even say super cute. That’s a more critical attribute than one might think. One of the reasons Gunn’s trailer has been so well received among the fan base — “Good boy, Krypto! Great boy James Gunn!,” superhero movie maven Kevin Smith gushed online — is that bringing Superdog to the big screen signals a much-needed turn in tone from the darkness of Zach Snyder’s depressingly bleak Superman movies. Watching Krypto race through the arctic tundra in Gunn’s trailer, kicking up a cloud of snow as he bounds to his fallen master’s whistle — it’s a moment so sweet and touching, it could warm even Lex Luthor’s heart.

Good boy, indeed.