What's Krypton?

What's This? A dead planet.

The facts: Technically, Superman's planet was first seen (exploding) in Action Comics #1, but it wasn't named  (or its people seen) until the newspaper strip in January of 1939, followed by a story in Superman #1 in the summer of that year. By the late 1950s, Krypton played a greater role in Superman stories, either through flashbacks, imaginary stories, time travel, or the introduction (and back stories) of new survivors. In the Silver Age, then, Krypton gained a history, a geography, an ecology, and a culture. While such stories were less prominent in the 70s and 80s, they weren't done away with by any means, with Jor-El and World of Krypton strips appearing in Superman books (especially Superman Family) and eventually, a World of Krypton and Krypton Chronicles mini-series hitting the stands in 1980 and 1981. By then, a starker, crystalline Krypton had been seen in the Superman films, and 1986's Man of Steel reboot of the legend reimagined Krypton in that vein. It also gained a new history with a new World of Krypton mini-series, from which Superman creators would draw for years to come. By the 2000s, Krypton had been reimagined a couple more times, and all versions were sort of smashed together for the New Krypton story arc, which showed the different looks as cohabitating cultures/castes. The Superman animated series , the New52, the Man of Steel film, and more recently, Absolute Superman and the 2020s Superman Family films have given us new versions of Krypton.
How you could have heard of it: If you've heard of Superman, then you've heard of Krypton.
Example story: Superman #238 (June 1971) "A Name Is Born" by Cary Bates and Gray Morrow

I don't think we can imagine an EARLIER Krypton story, although it starts closer to the planet's destruction, in a frame tale that shows Kryptonians are just like us. Here we have a pair of teachers (don't other stories show Kryptonians using teaching helmets that just dumps the information in their brains? Maybe Level-One is more hands on) car-pooling to work on the first day of school. One of them dreads facing her unruly students, but the more veteran schoolmaster has a store that's sure to keep the kids spellbound... the Secret Origin of Krypton!

I told you this was early. So I guess the Kryptonians aren't native to the planet, which I wish we could tie into their cousinage with the Daxamites, but the Daxamite story is that they're descended from Kryptonian settlers. Well, no reason the proto-Kryptonians couldn't have settled both worlds, I suppose. But anyway... the planet may be a barren rock in this story, but it still gets visits from sparefarers. Two such, one recently crash-landed on the planet, the other an explorer who hoped to plant his flag there, have a meet-cute on the surface:

Oh no! The gift turns into a dangerous plant monster! What a diplomatic cock-up! As for a barren rock having perfect conditions for the fast growth of alien vegetables, well, it's not the only weird thing about Krypton, so we'll just have to accept it. The warrior pulls his gun out and starts chasing the cosmo-biologist who he thinks is hostile. Thankfully, the latter's suit has Gray Morrow's powerful zip-a-tone capabilities built-in.

I'll revise my estimation of the planet's ecology at this point because there IS vegetation, but it's not looking healthy. Maybe this whole patch burned in the crash-landing? The two aliens battle for dominance, but the fight is interrupted by some gross sap falling from above and capturing the biologist. It's dripping down from the "cocoon" surrounding the planet. But the warrior wonders if he judo-thrown out of the way on purpose.

So he decides to give the other the benefit of the doubt and fires into the globby mess, hoping the biologist's suit can redirect the energy to escape. It works! A friendship is forged! So the warrior decides he should bring the stranger to his ship, but it's been gummed up in sap, too! They'll be there a while, so he introduces himself - Kryp.

And she's (yes, SHE) Tonn. They never got off the planet and had to found a new race, which called its world Krypton in their honor. As a citizen of the planet Adameve, I can certainly poke holes into this origin myth - two people generating an entire population? - but I like how it proposes a culture that's half warrior (Zod), half scientist (Jor-El). I suppose she made it bloom like a garden. And to reference Daxam again, has a similar origin to that planet's super-powered people (the Kryptonian settlers interbred with the native species). A neat little piece of lore.

Who's Next? Poison rocks.