From: Superboy #148 (June 1968), plus World's Finest Comics #181 (December 1968)
By 1968, Krypto's appearances started to get much rarer, and the stories he did get seemed intent on showing his star waning. Case in point "The Canine That Outclassed Krypto!" in which Superboy saves an alien space dog from a dangerous space beast, inadvertently leading the animal to Earth.
Their paths indeed cross again when the Teen of Steel arrives late to save scientist from their lethal botany experiment and finds the "Zkor" (who will get no other name) saving the day.
Zkor is telepathic and able to tell his sob story, that of being a happy family pet and lone survivor of a tragic accident in space. Now he wants to repay Superboy for saving his life by acting as his very own super-pet, and since Krypto is off-world, there's room. Zkor is actually a pretty good super-pet, with all sorts of powers.
Krypto eventually shows up and he's irritated that Superboy would "cheat" on him with a dino-kangaroo-dog from space. A line is drawn in the sand!
Though Krypto is a powerful beast, it seems that Zkor is much more versatile, and that allows him to get the upper paw.
Krypto, as usual, over-reacts. But will Zkor screw up his bid as Superboy's one true pet through inexperience by blowing Clark Kent's secret identity? Nope, though Krypto tries to stop him from approaching his master, that isn't what Zkor was doing. Instead, he was saving the day.
Krypto really done screwed up now. Zkor IS the superior pet. Or is this all a Silver Age fake-out and he'll turn out to be a villain? Let's see... As rain begins to fall, Krypto finds Zkor dying from a rain allergy (this is worse than Mon-El and lead!) and saves him from this deadly danger.
Zkor can't possibly stay on Earth, so Krypto's place is restored as Zkor leaves the planet. But there's more:
That's right. Zkor is so good and heroic, he faked the weakness so Krypto wouldn't be so sad. The same Krypto who was a jerk to him from the day they met. Truly, Krypto has been outCLASSed.
We'd have to wait six months for another Krypto appearance, and Bizarro-Krypto at that, in World's Finest Comics #181:
Not doing great there either. Will our super-pup fare better in 1969?
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