Krypton was the home world of Kal-El, better known as Superman. It was a distant planet which orbited a red sun, and was once home to a technologically advanced civilization.

 

Over 200,000 years ago, Krypton had developed scientific advancements far beyond those of present-day Earth. It’s greatest scientists conquered disease and aging by perfecting cloning; vast banks of clones, kept in stasis, held multiple copies of each living Kryptonian so that replacement parts were always available in the event of injury. Kryptonians became effectively immortal, and for millennia they enjoyed an idyllic existence. However, as with all utopias, eventually the rot began to set in. The dangers of scientific progress without ethical concerns had a great impact on Kryptonian society. Wars raged, and weapons of unparalleled destructive capability were unleashed by soldiers who no longer feared death, and had long learned to ignore the consequences of their actions.

 

Hundreds of thousands of years of peace were destroyed in mere months. The pleas of peaceful scientists and great thinkers fell on deaf ears. Oceans boiled, great earthquakes wracked the planet’s surface, and in one mighty catastrophe, Krypton was utterly destroyed. A few refugees – including the infant Kal-El – were jettisoned into the unknown. Far-flung colonies turned on each other in anger; and in the Phantom Zone – an extra-dimensional Kryptonian prison – the greatest criminals in Krypton’s history plotted their escape…

 

 

Kryptonite

 

Krypton was a planet of natural wonder and beauty, not least of which were its towering formations of crystals, which the Kryptonians used in much of their technology. When Krypton exploded, fragments of these crystalline structures survives, and became irradiated, flying off into space in the form of glowing asteroids. Some samples of this ‘Kryptonite’ fell to Earth, where it was discovered to have a detrimental effect on the powers of any Kryptonian living beneath a yellow son. Kryptonite is anathema to Superman, robbing him of his powers temporarily, and allowing him to be wounded or even killed. As a natural element, it is even possible, albeit incredibly difficult, to synthesize Kryptonite – a process successfully completed several times by Superman’s nemesis, Lex Luthor.

 

 

Villainous Kryptonians

 

Despite what many believed, Kal-El was not the only survivor of Krypton. The criminals of the Phantom Zone, and dangerous schemers from far-flung colonies plotted a return to power and liberty. It is to Superman that these villains are often drawn, either in a misguided bid to reunite their people, or from altogether more sinister reasons.

General Zod

 

Once Krypton’s greatest military leader, General Dru-Zod was banished to the Phantom Zone for crimes he committed against the people of Krypton. Trapped for years – long past the destruction of his home planet – Zod emerged from his interdimensional prison seeking revenge against the man he blamed for his captivity by going after his jailer’s surviving son: Kal-El of Krypton, the hero known as Superman.

 

Like all Kryptonians, Zod gains an array of powers after exposure to Earth’s yellow sun – including, but not limited to, super-strength, flight, super-speed, invulnerability, heat vision and x-ray vision. Beyond his physical abilities, Zod also possess a dangerously intelligent mind with a gift for strategy.

 

A leader by nature, Zod tends give orders on the battlefield rather than jumping directly into the midst of it, using his subordinates to take down his enemies. However, he is not above joining the battle himself, using his own highly efficient combat skills to force his enemies to kneel before him.

 

 

Faora

 

Faora was a member of Krypton’s military who despised Krypton’s ideals of peace and desired a return to the old days of a hard, militaristic regime. She allied herself with Dru-Zod, a colonel who shared the same dream. Faora was possessed of a singular bloodlust, and went on a murderous campaign in the name of Zod’s cause. When Zod and his followers were finally apprehended, Faoira was sentenced to 300 years in the Phantom Zone for her many crimes.

 

When Krypton was destroyed, Faora helped Zod unleash the genetically created monster, Doomsday. The creature weakened the boundaries of the Phantom Zone, allowing Zod and his fellows to escape.

 

 

Nam-Ek

 

Created by the increasingly unethical military scientists of Krypton, Nam-Ek is a genetically engineered super-soldier – a hybrid clone created by mixing Kryptonian DNA with that of a monstrous beast known as a Rondor. Nam-Ek has limited intelligence, and lacks the ability to speak, but formed an attachment to General Zod, whom he follows without question, As Nam-Ek was virtually superhuman even before he absorbed the rays of a yellow sun, he was instrumental in Zod’s quest to bring Krypton under military control, and was among the first to be exiled to the Phantom Zone along with his general and the murderess Faora.

Doomsday

 

On one dark day, the planet wept as the World’s Greatest Super Hero fell. No one will ever forget the day that Superman died. Nor will they forget the name of the monster responsible: Doomsday, a creature whose rampage of destruction and violence could only be stopped when the Man of Steel made the ultimate sacrifice.

 

Doomsday was originally created on Krypton as part of a deranged scientist’s quest to create the perfect hunter. The creature was subjected to cruel and terrible experiments – killed and cloned thousands upon thousands of times – a process that allowed his body to adapt natural defenses against whatever previously had bested him. Through this sort of rapid evolution, Doomsday became an unstoppable, nearly indestructible creature of violence and death that knew only hate and sought to kill everything in its path.

 

Doomsday possesses an immeasurable level of strength and invulnerability beyond those of even Superman. His disregard for life and endless rage make him an unpredictable and dangerous force, destruction itself let upon the world.