Krypto #25: Silver Age Fakery

From: Action Comics #270 and Adventure Comics #278 (November 1960)

In Nov 1960, Krypto appeared in three stories, and this being the very heart of the Silver Age, all three are about faking out the characters and/or the readership. And all three feature Supergirl, oddly enough.

In "The Old Man of Metropolis", Superman reads Supergirl's essay about one day becoming Superwoman and dreams of skipping through life and time and finding himself a forgotten, decrepit, powerless old man in the future she imagined. Krypto is there too, in the same state.

Superwoman never comes to rescue the former super-dog from the pound, and the story is then revealed as a dream, so it doesn't matter. NONE OF THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Supergirl has another shot at saving Krypto from a "pound" in the next story, "Supergirl's Busiest Day!", during which she comes across, among other things, a flying saucer grabbing alien animals, including our dear old Krypto.

Except all the threats Supergirl dealt with on this day were FAKES engineered by her cousin and her friends, for her birthday, because she likes solving puzzles. Hm. Or because Superman is intent on not letting her feel like she's "ready" to be a public superhero yet.

That's her agony in the Adventure story, "Supergirl in Smallville" in which she goes back in time to Superman's boyhood to prove she can be as trusted as he was at the same age. I mean, COME ON! She lets the Kents in on her secret, and Clark is led to believe she's one of their distant relations, staying on a perhaps permanent basis. She does a lot of good for the community, saves his bacon, fixes his robots when he's not looking, etc., but when she sees Krypto, whom she's met, angling for Smallville, she can't let him recognize her!

That's right, she uses a FAKE Superboy to trick Krypto. If he's so easily confused, would he have recognized her? NO! Because though they've met, there's no evidence to suggest she actually met Krypto-from-the-past in their one other meeting! Oops!

But helping people and confusing dogs is one thing. Can she pass the ultimate test? Can she hide her identity from nosy Lana Lang trying to trick anyone and everyone into outing themselves as Kryptonians? Not without some help from the Kents and Krypto!

It's not a Silver Age Super-story if Lana or Lois don't get FAKED out. And then Supergirl flies out the wrong window, and if someone had seen her, the jig would have been up, and oh the shame and the failure and the "I'm not ready!!!!" and she goes back to her time with Clark none the wiser. Sigh. His adult self has really done a number of this girl.

And Krypto's complicit!