Krypto #18: He's Solar Boy's Dog

From: Adventure Comics #269 (February 1960)

Solar Boy? Is he the boy version of Solar Man? If you like.

This one begins with Krypto mischievously blowing shells around at a naval firing range.
Does he do this sort of thing a lot? Good thing for the Navy Superboy is a tool of the military industrial complex and chides his pup right away. Krypto flies off to sulk and have more space adventures, like running through a supernova, melting an ice planet which will hasten the evolution of life there, and more germane to the story, meeting up with a super-powered boy on another planet. That boy? Solar Boy. And he's so nice, Krypto lets himself be adopted almost immediately. Screw Superboy!
The giant hot dogs don't hurt either. Or the delicious dessert pills. Or the fact Solar Boy lets him do whatever the heck he wants and has his back when the authorities complain. So it's without any misgivings that Krypto enters Solar Boy's magical science cabinets S.B. must use every 24 hours to keep his powers. Only it works the reverse on Krypto and depowers him for that same amount of time! Oops!

You see, in an untold tale, Solar Boy had come to Earth to steal zoo animals for his private game reserve and was stopped by Superboy and Krypto. Krypto just doesn't remember because he's selectively dumb in this (and every) story. This is Solar Boy's revenge: Make the dog think he's a good master then torture him by denying food and other mean tricks:
As you can see, dumb old Krypto is quick to reverse his opinion on Solar Boy - maybe he's not so bad after all! - and this happens over and over and over during the story. And every time, Solar Boy proves more cruel. After being saved from all the game preserve monsters, Krypto is forced to watch old home movies of his adventures with Superboy. And then he's fobbed off to an unscrupulous scientist who puts him in an orbital satellite where he'll surely die.
Yes, he's saved once again, but is sent back to the planet in a vomit-inducing spinning motion as S.(O.)B. says "Suffer, stupid dog." Well, finally Krypto has had enough and since his super-intelligence (such as it is) wasn't disabled, he uses his tail to sabotage Solar Boy's power cabinets.
So when the next 24h cycle begins, his powers return and Solar Boy loses his. Not realizing, the latter heaps more abuse on the super-dog and gets more than he bargained for. Also, did I mention those cabinets were one-of-a-kind and built by Solar Boy's now dead father?
Well, they were. Now that everyone has learned their lesson, Krypto returns to Earth and vows never to desert Superboy again. Yeah... I bet.

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