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[Kryptonese / Kryptonian Languages Page]

I've done a few small updates to the

Kryptonese / Kryptonian Languages Page

1 - to reflect that the comic books have recently reverted back to the 1980s form of "Kryptonese" (both the writing and the language) and away from the 2000-2023 crystalline "Kryptonian" transliteration font;
2 - to incorporate DC's recent clarification on the difference between the terms "Kryptonese" (the language) and "Kryptonian" (the cipher) which, in the past, have often been conflated.

Thank you so much, Sam - I really appreciate it!!

There was a time when I thought this website was some sort of Cosmic Superpower, steering the course of reality.  Now it's an obscure, tiny (and dare I say obselete?) fan site.

The rest of the 'net has changed a lot but I don't really plan to change anything here - other than hopefully updating this forum to a newer version!

Thank you, Gangbuster, very informative, and brings me up to date!

I think what you say makes sense; and I'm surprised at some of the stuff that I was completely unaware of.

I've been reading the new History of the DCU. Most of it is extremely familiar, but occasionally something pops up that leaves me scratching my head and I'll wonder: Did I miss that the first time around, or is this a continuity change that was slipped in?

For instance, the summary of the Teen Titans matches my memory of the '70s books 100%, and the summary of the New Teen Titans matches my memory of the Wolfman/Perez run 100%; but then it seems like they threw in this thing where Vic Stone originally had to become a cyborg because of an attack by Darkseid? That just seemed out of left field and totally changes a lot of the character's motivations.  Unless this was revealed in some 1980s one-shot and I missed it?  The whole thing just makes me not trust my memory.

I came across this today.  From a book published in 2005.  Just going to leave it here.

I think the real-world change that happened might have been Paul Levitz becoming DC president. After that the Krypto and Legion TV series are greenlighted, the retroboot Legion returns, etc.

Besides Loeb on Superman/Batman, Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek (who was a member of this forum) took over writing duties, and between the three of them and All-Star Superman there was a "Bronze Age revival" in the 2000s. I remember reading a reference to Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, they brought back the real Zod, and toward the end of Superman vol. 1 Superman was kind of down about things, so he went and had a talk with a coded Elliot Maggin.

In the "rebirth" era I think they have a taken a best-of (or "Superman Through the Ages," if you will) approach to Superman's backstory. The first Mxyzptlk story happened, so did the first Krypto story, Jim Shooter's run on Adventure Comics, Matt Fraction's Jimmy Olsen series showed all of the 60s Jimmy transformations occurring. Basically every Brainiac story has happened, he just has different avatars through the years. The 1990s Death and Wedding. But the new Supergirl series is really the first that is explicitly bringing back Bronze Age events.

There has generally been an "everything is true" approach to DC history in the last few years. On the other hand, Waid is doing a New History of the DC Universe right now, so the pendulum could swing in the other direction.

[Karl Kesel and Mike Parobeck magazine origin]

I had originally intended to include the Karl Kesel and Mike Parobeck magazine origin on the site because in it:

1 - although Krypton had the Byrne look and feel visually; Jor-El and Lara were shown as physically vibrant and alive; and as actually capable of feeling and displaying real emotions like love, sorrow, loss and hope - all qualities that Byrne had removed from them and from Krypton in general.

2 - Kesel and Parobeck soft-pedaled the "not born-on-Krypton", test-tube aspect.  Although it is not outright denied; it is also not explicitly stated - kind of just danced around.  I felt like they were trying to get away with whatever they could, but were forced to do so within clearly defined restrictions.  They were pushing at the boundaries.

I absolutely agree, Jeph Loeb deserves a lot of credit - he did incredibly fantastic work.

I've been a bit out of the loop for the last 15 years or so; but in returning to comics, I keep coming across references to Silver and Bronze age continuities in the books.  I'm wondering if this is a recent development for DC or if it has been going on for a while:

There was a Jimmy Olsen story ("The Gorilla Ex-Wife of Jimmy Olsen") in this summer's DC's Kal-El-fornia Love that states right in a narration box that it is a sequel to "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #98, 1966!"  That was fun to see.

The new Supergirl series has a lot of references to the original Cary Bates early 1970s title, and reads almost like it could be a direct sequel to it. Right in the first issue, Supergirl uses her "yellow ring of Nor-Kann" to retain her powers while in Kandor; she got this ring and first used it in an early 1972 issue of Supergirl by Cary Bates.

The portrayal of the Kryptonian Language in the main Superman books is no longer that now-famous angular, almost crystalline looking character-set that has been used in every DC comic and TV show of the last 25 years;  but has reverted to the E. Nelson Bridwell 1970s squiggles of "Kryptonese" and is now actually called "Kryptonese" again. (I hope to have examples online)

I don't know whether all this is the result of some sort of intentional and official policy of a new, clearly defined DC continuity; or if it's more that the people now running things at DC just don't have any interest in bothering with continuity restrictions anymore, or are possibly even completely unaware that there was once a time when it was a concern for anyone.  So the creators are now free to write and draw whatever it is that they enjoy, completely ignorant that this is a wondrous, new-found and incredible freedom.

Could be both?

Great to see the site is still up and running. Very cool.

Jon Bogdanove recently posted about this, so I am sharing it here -

The Siegel & Shuster Superman Plaza will be unveiled in Cleveland, Ohio this Saturday, August 8, 2025

Announcement Video:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMwO5CnCMNL/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DMyb_ArReZp/
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1387760525663134

About the Plaza and the Siegel & Shuster Society:
https://www.supermanstatuecleveland.org/

The announced (yesterday) contents are as follows:

World’s Finest Comics #198, The Flash #200–204, 206–212, 214–229, and The Brave and the Bold #99.

Since that WF story was a two-parter (involving a race with Superman, no less), it's reasonable to assume issue 199 will also be included.  DC isn't always great about listing the contents of these things correctly.

Flash #200 is the first issue drawn by Irv Novick and thus a logical starting point.

B&B #99 is nutty even by Bob Haney's standards, involving Batman's possession by the ghost of a pirate while visiting the Wayne family beach house, where the cremated remains of Thomas and Martha Wayne are kept in a bottle in a wall safe (despite all those visits made to their graves in other comics).  The story ends with Batman thanking the Flash for helping him finally get over the deaths of his parents so he can move on with his life, which technically should make this 1971 tale the last Batman story ever told.  Good old Haney.

"The Flash: The Fastest Man Dead" next year; the Bates/Novick era was "my" Flash.

The last couple of years I have been doing a readthrough of Superman titles and Fantastic Four. I have thought about doing Flash next, because a) after the sheer volume of Superman family comics and strips, any other character should be pretty easy lifting, and b) because Flash has been central to the DC reboots, I feel like it's the one series you could probably read from the beginning to present.

I have the Trial of the Flash reprint, do you know which issues will be in the DC Finest book?