Krypton is also the homeworld of Supergirl, Krypto the Superdog, Beppo the Super-Monkey, Power Girl (in her case, an alternate-universe version designated "Krypton-Two"), and the supervillain General Zod.

As originally depicted, all the civilizations and races of Krypton perished in the explosion, with one exception: the baby Kal-El who was placed in an escape rocket by his father, Jor-El, and sent to the planet Earth, where he grew up to become Superman.

The debut of the Superman newspaper comic strip in 1939 delved into further details about Krypton, introducing the idea that all Kryptonians possessed a level of heightened physical abilities, including super-strength and super-speed.

He later encountered other survivors prior to Kara's arrival in the form of three criminals, U-Ban, Kizo, and Mala, who were exiled by Superman's father before Krypton's destruction.

Powerless, he spends some time on the planet, where he meets his future parents-to-be and falls in love with a Kryptonian actress named Lyla Lerrol.

One of Krypton's moons, Wegthor, was accidentally destroyed by the Kryptonian scientist Jax-Ur, who was experimenting with a nuclear missile that was diverted from its intended destination.

[7] A Silver Age Superman was not alone in the survival of Krypton's destruction, being joined by his cousin Supergirl, the Phantom Zone criminals, Krypto the Superdog, Beppo the Super-Monkey, a juvenile delinquent named Dev-Em, the entire population of the city of Kandor, Supergirl's biological parents, and even Superman's biological parents (in hibernation on a space ship - Superboy #158 (July 1969)), although it was discovered that they actually died from lethal radiation.

The super-advanced technology of its Kryptonian inhabitants allowed them to construct a life-sustaining dome and a lead shield that protected their city from the kryptonite radiation of the asteroid.

Vathlo Island is a fictional location on Krypton, notable as an early attempt to explain in-universe the seeming non-presence of black people throughout the universe.

[9] Half a year later, in Superman #239 (June 1971), a panel drawn by artist Sal Amendola described a "Vathlo Island" in the "Old World" hemisphere of Krypton as being populated by a "highly developed black race".

[11] It is unknown who exactly was responsible for introducing these first nonwhite races to Krypton's demographic makeup, but Mark Waid has speculated that it was E. Nelson Bridwell, editorial assistant on the Superman books at the time.

[19] It is believed, based on the appearances of black Kryptonians in recent Superman issues, that the Vathlonians eventually were integrated into Krypton proper, although there has been no canonical statement about this from DC Comics.

Characters in Eric Jerome Dickey's novel The Son of Mr. Suleman discuss Vathlo Island and react with derision to the idea that there was segregation on Krypton.

Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, which rebooted the history of the DC Universe and retroactively eliminated the existence of the Golden and Silver Age versions of Krypton, writer/artist John Byrne was given the task of recreating the entire Superman mythos.

The new Krypton was approximately one-and-a-half times larger than the Earth and orbited a red sun called Rao fifty light-years from the Solar System.

All Kryptonians were now effectively immortal, "with all the strength and vigor of youth maintained",[24] and for millennia they enjoyed an idyllic, sensual existence in an Arcadian paradise.

Although the Eradicator's effects (altering the DNA of all Kryptonian lifeforms so that they would instantly die upon leaving the planet) were felt immediately, the Destroyer's effects were possibly more significant: by the time the Kryptonian government admitted defeat and abolished the clone banks, a pro-clone rights terrorist faction known as Black Zero had started the Destroyer (activated by Kan-Z himself), a device which functioned as a giant atomic energy gun, projecting massive streams of nuclear energy into the core of Krypton, intended to trigger an explosive chain reaction within Krypton's core almost immediately.

The population lived isolated from one another in widely separated technological citadels, shunning all physical and personal contact, to the point that even family members would only interact with each other via communication devices.

Procreation became a matter of selecting compatible genetic material to be placed within an artificial womb called a "birthing matrix"; the parents almost never met in person and never touched one another.

By his adult years, a mysterious "Green Plague" was killing Kryptonians by the thousands, and upon researching the matter, Jor-El discovered that its cause was growing radiation produced by Krypton's increasingly unstable core.

[27] In Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #3, "Unforgiven" - an Elseworlds tale - Jor-El convinces the Science Council to relocate selected Kryptonians to Earth.

[28] In a 1999 Starman storyline, Jack Knight became lost in time and space, and landed on Krypton several years before its destruction, meeting Jor-El as a young man.

Last Son, a storyline co-written by Geoff Johns and Superman film director Richard Donner, further delves into this version of Krypton which reintroduces General Zod and the Phantom Zone criminals into mainstream continuity as well as the crystalline technology known as "Sunstones".

With art by Adam Kubert, the design of Kryptonian society is distinct yet again from Birthright, incorporating elements of both Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity and Donner's work on the first two Christopher Reeve films, in particular the notion of Krypton's Council threatening Jor-El with harsh punishment if he were to make public his predictions of their planet's imminent doom.

[35] In Action Comics #14 (January 2013 cover date, published November 7, 2012) astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson appears as a character in the story.

Whereas in the comics Krypton was colorful and bright, the film depicted the planet with stark bluish-white terrain of jagged frozen plateaus under heavy, dark skies.

After their colonies collapse, Kryptonians abandon these projects in favor of isolationism and artificial population control, engineering newborns for pre-determined roles in society.

As Jor-El attempts to warn the Science Council of their folly, General Zod stages a coup, which in turn sets off a massive civil war across the planet.

Maggin contains descriptions of Krypton, mainly referencing the Silver Age version; it describes the planet as a "failed star" with massive surface gravity and hostile conditions, which forced extreme adaptation and rapid evolution in the descendants of humanoid space travelers.

Maggin describes the rise of a civilization which uses geothermal heat as its primary power source, developing science and technology, but finding it difficult to escape the massive world's gravity.