From what I can gather... following this story, Clark and Lois somehow managed to access this Krypton through the Phantom Zone, and meet Jor-El and Lara. Superman assists his father in helping to save the planet, while battling Zod, and just as Clark and Lois return home through the Phantom Zone... they are followed home by Krypto.
Months later, Superman returns to this Krypton, only to discover it has been an illusion engineered by Braniac 13 all along. :x (Thus, right up until 'Birthright', Bryne's Man of Steel origin is still the definite origin).
After reading "Fathers", I think the original idea of introducing this Pre-Crisis Krypton as the origin, without directly contridicting the current continuity, had a lot of potential. Loeb might have been better off doing a sort of mini-series, a la Bryne, instead of putting to into the midst of the on-going titles.
Clearly certain ideas had to be fleshed out better, (for instance, if Jor-El truly created the Bryne Krypton to be an illusion, how does that account for the Erradicator, Kelex, the Fortress etc. In fact, how would Jor-El have been able to create such a
detailed illusion in such a short amount of time, if he thought the Science Council would have listened to him in the first place). But certainly addressing such flat-out contradictions would have lead to interesting stories, and then perhaps the revival of Pre-Crisis concepts. (Like Krypto as seen in the story, and maybe Supergirl).
Thanks again for putting this great issue on the site Rao! :lol: