Krypto #54: Secret Helper

From: Superboy #116 and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #80 (October 1964)

Is Krypto in danger of becoming a simple storytelling device rather than a character? If he is, it's Superboy's fault for sliding him on stage at the eleventh hour as part of some reveal or other. And it happens not in one, but TWO stories in Superboy #116. In the top story, "Superboy, King of the Wolf-Pack", the Teen of Steel falls in with wolves

What the heck, right? By the story's close, Superboy has sent his wolf pack to another planet in a spaceship and remotely views them emerging and turning back into human-looking aliens!

To unpack (pun intended) this as efficiently as I can, as we learn the truth from Superboy bragging to the police chief, these guys came to Earth fleeing an oppressive regime, and to hide them from enemy eyes, he built a Body-transformation ray-tube that could turn them, yes, into animals. By acting crazy and leading his pack into inhabited areas, Superboy hoped to inspire "vigilantes" to try and kill the wolves, so he'd have an excuse to put them on their ship and send them to a new world. And Krypto's role in this little play?

Acting! You let Superboy humiliate you in public and were happy to do it! Good boy!

In the issue's third story, "The Ordeal of Chief Parker", sees Superboy turn against the police chief and call him out on his every mistake, many of which he manufactures. He makes him doubt himself to the point where he writes his resignation.

Krypto's there too! And then a second Superboy shows up, the bad one, and the two Teens of Steel fight while their one dog looks on. So again, what the heck? Well, readers of the era would have noticed the evil Superboy has one tell-tale difference, but that doesn't explain what he's doing there. Wouldn't you know it? It was Red Kryptonite that pushed the "wrong" Superboy into our universe where he was Red K-compelled to ruin his friend Chief Parker. As the effects wear off, he feels bad for what he's done and vanishes back to his dimension. So how did our Superboy know to come and stop Parker from doing something apparently irreversible? Krypto of course.

Well. It was Pa Kent, really, but Krypto's his secret identity of sorts. Hey, maybe Chief Parker ISN'T quite as over the hill as Wrongo-Superboy made him out to be, but he still didn't notice that rather obvious clue!

Oh yeah, Krypto also appeared in Jimmy Olsen #80 that same month, in a story in which Jimmy visits Bizarro World as one of their own. So it's Bizarro Krypto.

Yep. That's the whole of it. Aren't you glad I'm out here doing research for you?