Superman: New Krypton

"New Krypton" is a Superman story arc written by Geoff Johns, James Robinson, and Sterling Gates with art by Gary Frank, Alex Ross, Renato Guedes, Jamal Igle and Pete Woods and published by DC Comics. The arc is an inter-title crossover, published in Action Comics, Superman and Supergirl.

The story features Superman coming to terms with the death of his adoptive father while also dealing with 100,000 Kryptonians now living on Earth as a result of the Brainiac story arc. This story begins a planned "link" on Action Comics, Superman, and Supergirl as part of their collective plans for Superman and his cast of characters through 2008 and beyond. The events of this story lead directly into the 12-part series Superman: World of New Krypton.

Publication history
In the months before Johns started his Brainiac arc, and James Robinson took over writing duties on Superman, both Johns and Robinson had made clear their plans for the Superman-related titles following those arcs for the rest of 2008 onto the end of 2010. The plan is to link the three Super-books (Action Comics, Superman, and Supergirl), allowing them to cross over more fluidly on a regular basis, allowing the narratives to be tied together similar to a bi-weekly series.

According to Johns, the plan is to make readers want to get the Super-titles because they would not feel that "you HAVE to read, but that you WANT to read." Robinson also added that even though neither he nor Johns would be writing Supergirl, they made it clear that they were still the advisors to the book's next ongoing writer, Sterling Gates. Gates, coming onto the Supergirl title with issue #34, has stated his intention of working with Johns and Robinson, stating:

What we hope to achieve is to make these three comics the most kick-ass books that DC puts out. The Superman legacy and the Superman books are so important, and the three of us are interested in pulling people into the Superman universe so hard that people look forward to picking up a Superman or Supergirl book every week.

Summary
Following the events of the "Brainiac" story arc, the entire city of Kandor now resides near the Fortress of Solitude in the North Pole, populated by 100,000 Kryptonians.

Although distracted by the recent death of Jonathan Kent, Superman attempts to aid the Kryptonians in their assimilation with the rest of the Earth, something very few Kryptonians seem interested in, including the city’s leaders, Zor-El and Alura, Supergirl’s parents.

After the first televised meeting between the President of the United States and a delegation from Kandor is interrupted by a rampaging Doomsday, Zor-El and Alura form a task force determined to preemptively end any future threat to Kandor by capturing Superman’s worst villains and trapping them in the Phantom Zone. However, when several human police officers refuse to hand over the Parasite, they are killed by the task force, enraging Superman.

At the same time, Lex Luthor, who has been recruited by General Sam Lane to halt the Kryptonian “invasion,” gains control of Brainiac and unleashes his robot army from within the depths of the alien’s spaceship, currently being held in Kandor. During the fight, Metallo and Reactron, who are working for Luthor and General Lane, are brought into Kandor as Trojan horses containing Kryptonite. Reactron manages to kill Supergirl’s father, Zor-El.

Alura’s anger causes her to denounce humanity. Members of the Justice League and Justice Society arrive in Kandor, led by the Guardian demanding the city turn over those who murdered the police officers, and a large-scale battle erupts, with Superman in the middle. It only ends when Kryptonian scientists manage to use Brainiac’s technology to lift Kandor off the Earth and grow an entirely new planet underneath it, called “New Krypton,” on the other side of the solar system, directly opposite the Earth, and therefore hidden by the sun.

Alura tells Superman that he is not welcome on New Krypton, although Supergirl takes up residence there with her mother. In the end, Alura frees General Zod from the Phantom Zone to help her lead their people.

New characters
New Krypton introduced several new super-powered characters to the Superman Universe. These characters are modern versions of older and, up until recently, mostly unused heroes.

Flamebird and Nightwing

A new Nightwing and Flamebird first appeared in Superman's Fortress of Solitude guarding the Phantom Zone projector in order to prevent anyone loyal to General Zod from freeing the despot. Both Flamebird and Nightwing exhibit powers that are not inherent to normal Kryptonians: Flamebird shoots fireballs from her hand while Nightwing uses tactile telekinesis. Unlike previous portrayals, Flamebird is female and is older than the teenage, male Nightwing. Starting with issue #875, they are the starring characters of Action Comics.

The origin of Flamebird and Nightwing was revealed in Action Comics Annual #12.

Superwoman

The mysterious, masked Superwoman demonstrates apparent Kryptonian abilities. She makes an effort to comfort Supergirl following her father's death. Although her true identity is initially unknown, her costume is similar to the Kristin Wells version of Superwoman. At the end of the New Krypton arc, Superwoman murders Agent Liberty, after catching him spying on General Sam Lane and Lex Luthor, calling out "Intruder Alert" as she does so. She's later revealed to be working for General Lane.

Superwoman is the focus of the "Who is Superwoman?" arc in Supergirl. She is revealed to be Lucy Lane, Lois Lane's younger sister. Her identity is revealed in the final issue of the mini-series "Who is Superwoman?"

Planet New Krypton
The new Planet Krypton is created by Kryptonian scientists reportedly using Brainiac's technology along with Kryptonian crystal-growth technology to grow a planet underneath the city of Kandor, which resides under one of Brainiac's force-fields.

The planet itself greatly resembles the Krypton of Superman the Movie in that it is a planet entirely covered in ice, with one lone city atop its North Pole.

Its position, within our Solar System but opposite Earth, hidden by the sun, comes from the 1940s Superman radio show where the planet Krypton existed before its destruction..

It is also inspired by the pre-Crisis Rokyn, which was likewise settled by the restored Kandorians. Unlike New Krypton, Rokyn orbited a red sun, so its inhabitants did not have superpowers.

Issue numbering
The story, New Krypton, was featured as a crossover between the monthly Superman, Action Comics, and Supergirl titles. Each issue was branded with a green pentagon badge indicating what part of the story it was. The numbering continued after the series conclusion, until reaching number 35 with Superman issue number 690. The numbering was restarted, and the badge was made red, for the Codename: Patriot and Last Stand of New Krypton storylines. 1 – New Krypton #1 (Also included in Superman: Brainiac TPB) 2 – Superman #681 3 – Guardian Special #1 4 – Action Comics #871 5 – Supergirl #35 6 – Superman #682 7 – Action Comics #872 8 – Supergirl #36 9 – Superman #683 10 – Action Comics #873 11 – Supergirl #37 (no shield number on cover) 12 – Superman #684 13 – Action Comics #874 14 – Supergirl #38 15 – Superman #685 (no shield number on cover) 16 – World of New Krypton #1 17 – Action Comics #875 18 – Supergirl #39 19 – Superman #686 20 – World of New Krypton #2 21 – Action Comics #876 22 – Supergirl #40 23 – Superman #687 24 – World of New Krypton #3 25 – Action Comics #877 26 – Supergirl #41 27 – Superman #688 28 – World of New Krypton #4 29 – Action Comics #878 30 – Supergirl #42 31 – Superman #689 32 – World of New Krypton #5 33 – Action Comics #879 34 – Supergirl #43 35 – Superman #690

Rebadged with Red Badges:

0 — Superman Secret Files 2009 1 – World of New Krypton #6 2 – Action Comics #880 3 – Supergirl #44 4 – Superman #691 5 – Jimmy Olsen #2 6 – World of New Krypton #7 7 – Action Comics #881 8 – Supergirl #45 9 – Superman #692 10 – World of New Krypton #8 11 – Action Comics #882 12 – Supergirl #46 13 – Superman #693 14 – World of New Krypton #9 15 – Action Comics #883 16 – Supergirl #47 17 – Superman #694 18 – World of New Krypton #10 19 – Action Comics #884 20 – Supergirl #48 21 – Superman #695 22 – World of New Krypton #11 23 – Action Comics #885 24 – Supergirl #49 25 – Superman #696 26 – World of New Krypton #12 27 – Action Comics #886 28 – Supergirl #50 29 – Superman #697 30 – Adventure Comics #8 31 – Last Stand of Krypton #1 32 – Action Comics #887 33 – Supergirl #51 34 – Superman #698 35 – Adventure Comics #9 36 – Last Stand of New Krypton #2 37 – Action Comics #888 38 – Adventure Comics #10 39 – Supergirl #52 40 – Superman #699 41 – Last Stand of Krypton #3 42 – Action Comics #889 43 – Adventure Comics #11

Collected editions
The storyline will be collected into a number of volumes:


 * Volume 1: Birth (176 pages, hardcover, May 2009, ISBN 1-4012-2329-X)
 * Volume 2 (160 pages, hardcover, September 2009, ISBN 1-4012-2319-2)

Follow-up
A twelve-part maxi-series entitled Superman: World of New Krypton was produced from March 2009-10. The 12 issues run through the storylines of New Krypton and Codename: Patriot. That was in turn followed by The Last Stand of New Krypton from March-April 2010. And finally concluded in the 5 issue (#0 issue and #1-4) epic War of the Supermen in May 2010. All other title books were not distributed during the culmination event.