SUPERBOY 111 (1964)
by Jerry Siegel & George Papp
This short 8 page story was reprinted in Superman Family 165 and it’s absolutely bonkers.
I mean it BEGINS with Bizarro World and Red Kryptonite, so you know it’s going to be good!!!
Bizarro started out as a Superboy villain, but he’s actually from Superman’s time. So, in order to connect it to Krypto… who was mostly around in Superboy’s time… Bizarro flies back in time!
Which is completely unnecessary in any case, since the FIRST thing Krypto does when he sees him is to fly back further into the past!!!
This time, Red Kryptonite turns him into a giant bird!
And so Krypto murders a pirate ship!!! Yeah, Superman’s dog has a shockingly high body count under his collar.
And that’s the secret origin of the mythological Roc.
Do I even need to tell you that this makes no sense whatsoever for a nearly infinite number of reasons!?
But that’s not all! Because instead of returning to the present Krypton goes to the 1870s where he’s transformed again.
INTO A COW.
A COW.
And this is not even the first time Krypto has been turned into a female animal!!!
And that is not all, because Krypto also caused the Great Chicago Fire.
Told you he has a high body count!!!
Krypto “““reasons””” that the Red Kryptonite is transforming into whatever animal is nearby. Shouldn’t he transform into a human then!?!?
But once he transforms into a llama (?????) he figures out that… you know what, better read it yourself.
Sometimes I wonder about the creative process of writing these things.
Super-Llama even manages to save Superboy from SUDDEN KRYPTONITE!!!
At this point, the forced connection with the whole LL obsession is the thing that makes the most sense in this story.
Historical significance: 10/what the…?
We already knew from the story that broke the scaling system that Krypto is the first-ever superhero to get a sex change. We just didn’t know he did it TWICE.
Silver Age-ness: 5∞/10
This is a tough one. Krypto achieved the first-ever ∞/10 by turning into a female dog and giving birth… so changing into three different animals (one of which gets milked and one kills pirates) should be worth three times as much. BUT with the added revelation that he killed a huge amount of people, AND with the entire thing starting with a completely unnecessary time-traveling Bizarro bringing Red Kryptonite… it’s enough to push this one to a tie with the current record holder.
Does it stand the test of time?
¯\_(⊙︿⊙)_/¯