Krypto #94: Museum Exhibit

From: Superman Family #190 (July-August 1978)

Last we saw him, Krypto pulled a disappearing trick, and that's because he had to take part in an unprecedented "Superman Family Novel" that brought all its stars into "The Museum of Eternity!" Since we only really care about Krypto, lets flip through the novel...

Chapter 1: Jimmy Olsen's call with his dad in the town of Hartsdale is mysteriously cut off, so Jim goes out to check it out and finds the town has completely disappeared. Within moments, "Mr. Action" fights an alien, enters a dimensional rift, and finds a gigantic zoo/museum filled with past and present, human and alien civilizations on exhibit. He's soon captured, but he throws zee-ing signal watch through the rift to call on Superman.

Chapter 2: Superman goes to the prime location formerly known as Hartsdale and enters the rift, but it pops him out into one of the exhibits. So he goes from rift to rift until he hits the Kryptonian exhibit and is felled (red sun, after all) by a zookeeper - sorry, "Preserver". And it's Kandor! The city's just been stolen - with Lois Lane inside - and resized for the museum.

Chapter 3: The Preservers call on the impurity called Lois Lane to be eliminated and they send a robot to do it. He takes her away despite the efforts of Superman, Nightwing and Flamebird. She's dropped in a glass box, a neighbor to Jimmy's. They escape and take a flying platform through the exhibits looking for Kandor. They're warned that if they don't come back within 41.5 minutes (we did the time conversion for you), the Preservers will destroy Earth.

Chapter 4: FINALLY WE GET TO KRYPTO! If you've been following the feature from week to week, you will know that the super-dog vanished at the end of the previous strip to parts unknown... until now. Parts known: The Museum of Eternity. Seems like it's no accident that Superman was drawn into the story. They're collecting every Kryptonian for their exhibit, and that meant Krypto too (guess who will have to show up next). He and his cage are sent to Kandor where Nightwing manages to free with a science gun. Why the cage? Because the barrier between exhibits is psychological, and no one accounted for supersmart canine psychology. I'm not kidding:

Flamebird equips him with a flight belt and a new collar that's great for superheroic insta-change (to be a new permanent feature?), so he can go out there, explore and maybe even get them out of this fix.

He meets up with Lois and Jimmy, also flying around in "limbo", but can he lead them to Kandor again?

Chapter 5: Back in Kandor, the aliens free the Phantom Zone Villains from their extradimensional jail just so they can complete their set, and of course, they stage an insurrection. In the end, Flamebird convinces them to help free the city from the aliens, lest they only exchange one cage for another.

Chapter 6: The only Kryptonians we haven't seen are Supergirl and her parents (at this point, the latter are citizens of Kandor, temporarily out to spend some time with Kara). They find the Fortress of Solitude empty and Kandor gone. President Carter calls and sends Supergirl to Hartsdale, from where she enters the Museum and is intercepted by who else? Krypto!

If Supergirl enters the Kandor exhibit, she will be psychologically blocked from exiting, so they send Krypto, who gets Superman to follow him to the rift. There, Supergirl pulls on Superman's arm to bring him to limbo - he's almost ripped apart. They then pull Flamebird, Nightwing, and the Phantom Zoners through and off they go to put a stop to the Preservers' schemes.

That done, everyone is returned to their rightful place, or at least, uninhabited planets where pre-colonial American Natives or the Roman Empire might thrive (Star Trek secret origin), up to and including the Phantom Zone Villains AND our boy Krypto, back at Ed Lacy's side in time for his next adventure.