Superman Through the Ages! Forum

So is there anything else thats particularly important about Argo City, besides it being the birthplace of Supergirl?
Its a shame we dont know more about it
Anyone else agree?

I completely agree.   Just think two of krypton's cities survived untill Kal was an adult.  The only reason he was unable to save Argo City, was he didn't know about its survival untill it was too late.  I can imagine Kal berating his uncle Zor about that.  Zor-El: Kal i'm here anytime you need any advice.  Kal-El: Sorry uncle Zor but i don't need the advice of idiots.  Zor: Kal, what are you saying?  Kal: I'm saying that you are an idiot who is at least partly responsible for the deaths of the citizens of Argo City.  You knew about me & had the means to contact me.  If i had known about Argo City's situation, i would have prevented what happened.  Of course Kal would probably never have said anything like that to his uncle Zor.  But i imagine Zor-El in his imagination (& dreams) having that conversation with his nephew.  Many times, over the years.

Yeah, Zor was an accomplished scientist, he might have thought of that, though I wonder what Kal would have done, take a miniaturizer and Kandor to Argo in space or gradually tow it to Earth?

All that I know of it is right here:
http://superman.nu/wiki/index.php/Argo_City

however it only goes to 1964, so if anyone knows any more infomation from the comics since then up until crisis started, please add it to the entry.

Thanks :)

The story that introduced Jer-Em established that Argo City was in a yellow star system for a brief time.  I wonder how many of the citizenry might have left for parts unknown at that point?  The krypton-chunk that the city rests on is anti-kryptonite only deadly to non-powered kryptonians.  How many phantom zone prisoners were from argo city?  Towing argo city to earth would potentially have been one of the stupidest things kal could have done.  Kal knows the vast destruction one super-powered kryptonian could cause.  I doubt he would want to see what happens when several million kryptonians gain their powers all at once.  I doubt they would have agreed to be shrunk in order to live in kandor.  Kal most likely would have helped colonize a krypton-like planet in a red star system.  He could have used his technology to move the city from the anti-kryptonite chunk it resided on to whatever planet they would have decided to colonize.

If you accept the very last issue of DC Comics Presents as Pre-Byrne continuity, a deranged Mr. Mxyztplk sends Argo City right into Metropolis, burying the city with TONS of green kryptonite.  (It's a disturbing sight to see the broken fragments of Argo City falling all over town, including the green bodies of its dead inhabitants.)   :shock:

However, DCCP #97 is SO "out of whack", I simply cannot accept this as canon.

That story was godawful.  For one thing the writer overlooked the fact that Argo City rested on anti-kryptonite not "normal" green kryptonite.  The writers (in the 70s & 80s) seemed to equate kryptonian cities with earth cities.  Given the fact that krypton was centuries (more likely many millenia) in advance of earth, a "small" kryptonian city should be bigger than the largest earth city.  If depicted anywhere near realistic, that anti-kryptonite chunk would have completely buried (& crushed) metropolis.  As well as a major portion of whatever state metropolis exists in.   Hell unless Mxy gently set argo city down on top of metropolis,  the force of the impact (by itself) would have made Earth-1 uninhabitable.  I remember hearing that an object 6 miles in diameter would if it hit earth have the force of 6 million h-bombs.  That chunk under argo city is obviously a lot bigger than that.  And don't forget kryptonite is not affected by friction.

I know I must have read this story, and it's sort of ringing a bell, but by the sound of it I'm glad I can't call it to mind.

I believe it was said in DC Comics Presents #97 that Argo City was about the size of Metropolis' Central Park.  It we use New York City's Central Park as comparison, that's 840 surface acres plus all the planetary crust underneath to hold it all together.  I suspect that's less than 6 miles in diameter total volume, but still a HUGE amount of green kryptonite!   :shock:

And even if all that rock was pulverized to gravel and gently settled over Metropolis, the city would have been destroyed much like Pompei, buried alive under a roof-crushing mantle of green rubble.

Argo City rested on anti-kryptonite not green kryptonite.  If it were on green k Kara & her parents would still be there.  Non-powered kryptonians are immune to green k, it's anti k that kills them.



       The idea that argo city is no bigger than central park makes no sense.  On krypton that should make it less than a small town.

Can anyone tell me what plot devices were made better by retconning the krptonite ground of Argo to "anti-kryptonite"...what was made better by having green kryptonite only deadly to super-powered Kryptonians as opposed to any surviving Kryptonians?

llozymandias, sorry but that's what DC Comics Presents #97 said -- size of Central Park, composed of green kryptonite.   :roll:

Of course, did we really need "anti-kryptonite" to kill the Argo City residents?  The entire population (including a VERY young Kara Zor-El) briefly experienced superpowers under a yellow sun before Argo City was diverted by Jer-Em.  Perhaps that triggered biological changes which rendered the Argo City inhabitants somewhat vulnerable to regular green kryptonite even when deprived of yellow sunlight.  Even a mild acquired sensitivity could become a lethal reaction considering the HUGE continual overexposure of green kryptonite.  

As for instances where Superman was unaffected by green kryptonite after purposely removing his superpowers, perhaps there wasn't enough green kryptonite to overcome this initial resistance.

True the thing about anti-kryptonite was a retcon.  As early as the early 60s (if not earlier) it was shown that green k only kills super-powered kryptonians.  The retcon was probably done to explain why the non-powered citizens of argo city were killed by kryptonite when they should have been immune.  Iirc the lead linning was placed before argo city's sojourn into a yellow star system.

I wonder what stories they were, it seems to me that the changing of kryptonian matter into a radioactive material that's deadly to any Kryptonian would have worked as well, even with the number of Silver Age survivors, there weren't that many of them and what would have been the loss if Green K was deadly on a Red Sun world...well, that's just me... 8)

I also prefer the idea of Green K killing non-super Kryptonians. It's not like being under a red sun completely changes them into humans; they're still aliens.

I have the story which features Mr Mxyzptlk bringing Argo City crashing down on Metropolis which lets loose the green Kryptonite ridden bodies of the dead Argo Citizens.
It also features an origin story for most of the Phantom Zoners