Krypto #33: Krypto v Titano

From: Superman #147 and Adventure Comics #287 (August 1961)

Getting super-powered animals to fight one another is one of the Superman books' mandate through the Silver Age, and it doesn't take much. Krypto is super-petty in this story after a bone he buried is found pulverized under Titano's footprint. It's not like Titano is at large. He's been thrown through the time barrier into the dinosaur age, we're told. That's not gonna stop Krypto from getting his revenge.
Hey dog, you are literally the third most powerful being on Earth right now. You can get more bones. You don't have to--ah, just forget it. When he reaches prehistory, Titano is fighting T-Rexes, which would really get my respect, but Krypto just sees it as an opportunity to take advantage of the "sore" ape.
For his next trick, he lures Titano in with a mountain of coconuts and trips him into it. Not nice! Time for some karma, dawg!
The only thing thay saves Krypto from death in the far past is Titano's capacity for getting distracted. The great ape looks away and Krypto high-tails it out of there. Thinking he's perhaps in a Marvel comic (dogs are dumb), Krypto decides to kick this team-up into gear and to befriend the monster.
That's when a common foe shows up, alien zookeepers who want to capture both animals. Unable to do so with their normal tactics, the aliens need to get out of their ship and take a more active hand. But ONLY if the air is safe. Get the sensor globe out, if the light is red, it's safe; if green, it's not. Hey you know who has green vision?
Very clever Krypto, you correctly deduced the writer didn't know a damn thing about science or technology, and capitalized on it. After that, the Super-Dog returns to his time with warm feelings about Titano in his heart.

Meanwhile, when Kyrpto was a pup... He was much more heroic without powers! In a story taking us back to Krypton to reveal how a jerky teenage Dev-Em also survived the planet's destruction, he saves toddler Kal-El from Dev-Em's bad driving:
Not all work, he knows how to play as well, but Dev-Em thinks it's lame.
And it's Krypto that wakes Kal-El up and brings him to see what the duplicitous Dev-Em is doing so he can warn his dad.
Looks like powers are what ruined Krypto. Or perhaps being left to his own devices in space for such long stretches, who knows.

Comments

If it's possible to experience love at first sight with a comic book, that Titano story is pretty close for me.