Krypto in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

The inciting force of Woman of Tomorrow is the unthinkable: a dying beloved dog who has to be saved from the poison that is draining his life. Krypto isn’t just Supergirl’s companion here, however, he’s a potent symbol for the simple altruistic drive that Kara has lost in this story. #supergirl #krypto 1/12

Krypto was created by Curt Swan and Otto Binder, first appearing in Adventure Comics #210 in 1955. His presence in the comics has been sporadic and inconsistent, but José Alaniz directly identifies Krypto as the “most famous” superhero pet in history. 2/12

In this same essay on “Animals in Graphic Narrative” from the Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies, Alaniz recounts how animals in early newspaper comic strips initiated the framing of comics animals as “sidekicks or companions” who often “figure as ‘out of control’ elements of chaos.” 3/12

While this is perfectly consistent with James Gunn’s use of Krypto in his Superman movie (a chaotic and comedic companion), King et al.’s iteration is a little more restrained and on-board with the superfamily ethos and mission. 4/12

Drawing in the work of scholar John Berger, Alaniz further places comics animals within an artistic tradition that uses them as an outsider (non-human) perspective by which to comment upon human nature and society in a way that no human ever could (just from bias, essentially). 5/12

This is absolutely pivotal for the Krypto of WoT. Nothing in the world of WoT is truly righteous, but saving a loyal, suffering companion dog absolutely is and, in that, the story is able to find its heroic grounding even as its protagonist has lost her own sense of heroic purpose. 6/12

The world that King et al depict is violent and meaningless, enough so to bury any sense of altruism beneath the weight of a galaxy’s casual cruelty. What else could bring an existentially broken Kara back to the fight but something so simple as a suffering animal? 7/12

Furthermore, Alaniz proposes that “any attempt at visually representing an animal cannot avoid investing its image with some vestige of its human maker.” We project ourselves through our fictional animals, a flaw in our commitment to realism, perhaps, but a potent way to add resonance. 8/12

Simply put, Krypto functions very effectively as a symbol of Kara’s enduring purity and altruism – the internal, animal-brain piece of Kara that still just wants to be good and do good. Like Krypto, this part of Kara has also been poisoned. Her journey with Ruth is thus about saving that aspect of herself. 9/12

The elegant simplicity of Krypto’s animal instincts is described: “That poor dog. Just followed his base instincts like we all do in times of unexpected strife. He was just trying to bite a bad man.” This is exactly the drive Kara has lost and it’s poignant, then, that she too gets injured by the same archer. 10/12

With Krypto’s life on the line, Kara takes on Ruth’s commission (despite the paradox of being unable to kill). Through their journey together, Krypto is saved and the parallel portion of Kara is likewise restored, ably symbolized with the two standing healthy and strong together in the end. 11/12

All this is just to say that Krypto’s brief but pivotal role in the story is as much symbolic as it is relatable. It sets the plot in motion, it humanizes our broken Supergirl, and it symbolizes the character arc that the series frames. He’s a good boi. 12/12