Krypto #86: A Job for Superdog

From: Action Comics #462 (August 1976)

So what does a Bronze Age Krypto look like? Well, for one thing, he gets his own logo and his own strip, but otherwise, he's still at the Doghouse of Solitude (which sounds like the LEAST dog thing ever) and getting into Silver Age plots. I mean, he IS a super-DOG, and that concept can never stray too far from its Silver Age origins, can it? Case in point, this one begins, as most might, with Krypto getting a super-whistle from Superman, but in a Bronze Age twist, we'll get a "scientific" explanation as to how this is even possible (note the quotation marks).

But first, Krypto has to mistake a hitman dressed and masked as Superman so he can fortuitously stop a murder:

It's the Bronze Age: The plot is a little silly and filled with coincidences, but the action is a touch more realistic. And to make sure the hitman gets arrested, Krypto pulls a Lassie. Well sort of.

He hears the whistle again, and tracks it back to... a radio station? Yep, seems like it's not Superman whistling AT ALL. It's a recording. But here's the SCIENCE! behind whistles that cross the vacuum of space:

That's right, Superman has a power you didn't know he had: Speaking in radio waves. Or DIDN'T we know he had this? It may be a function of his super-ventriloquism, which possibly turned his voice into radio waves, then back into sound, pretty much magically. Regardless, there's no way the radio microphone would pick up a radio wave to be recorded. That's not how that works. In reality, the radio producer could just have recorded any whistle and broadcast it as a radio wave, knowing Krypto could "hear" on that bandwidth. But what's even MORE ludicrous is that everyone seems to think Superman would never shill for a product. I guess that's a Bronze Age retcon! And even there, Bronze Age readers, has Superman never tried to sell you Hostess cakes, chocolate milk and primitive home computers? I guess it was all for charity. Cue the doggo commercial:

And the laugh track goes wild.