Are Kryptonians Human?

[Mike]

Hi, This might be a stupid question, but if I can get the answer anywhere I figure its here. I've seen a few places where Superman refers to himself as being human which of course could just mean from a spiritual, moral, or personal identity standpoint as opposed to biological. Then I was looking at the story where the two space travellers Kryp and Tonn (I love when things are super literal) colonized Krypton, and I got to wondering if there was supposed to be some common source from which Humans (from earth) and Kryptonians both spring. This has just been sticking in my mind and really bugging me. I don't know why but I really prefer Superman to have his alieness intact.  Anyway I was just looking to get some insights from some knowlegeable Superman fans. Thanks.

[ShinDangaioh]

There has been a canon Earther/Kandorian marriage with children: Van Zee and his wife.

As to common source of humanity?  I'm not sure.  Earth has been altered by extrterrestial interference.  Immortal Man and Vandal Savage via that meteor.  There's also Atlantis, Oceanius, Paradise Island, Gemworld, and a few others.

In one issue of a Superman comic, Superman took two time travelers back to Earth's past, showing a HIGHLY advanced culture on the site of where Metropolis would once stand.  They used armored suits, instead of Time Bubbles, to travel.  That was millions of years in the past, before the Indians arrived.

It's possible that Kryp or Tonn is from that aincent Earth culture.  We just don't know where Kryp and Tonn came from.

[Gangbuster]

Kryptonians are human...but this is tricky to think about.

The original explanation was that Kryptonians had evolved to suit the harsh environment and greater gravity of Krypton. Technically, when you evolve you become a different species and can't reproduce with the other one anymore.

So one of two things could be true: either Kryptonians biologically adapted to their habitat, but didn't actually evolve into a different species, or Kryptonians are not homo sapiens. If the latter is true, Lois and Clark could have a child, but that child couldn't.

[Kuuga]

I always looked at it as that Krypton was Earth, in that sense that it is meant as a direct metaphor for Earth. Another world with people in most ways just like us. But an older world, that reached the point where they were able to achive many of the things we aspire to. They made it past all the same crap we find ourselves dealing with.

They were a world that had finally made it.

Yet the sad thing is that even after all of that, it was still simple stupid human arrogance that lead to the worlds demise because the Kryptonian council just could not concieve that they were not masters of everything.  That even for all the worlds wonders, beauty and achivment they could still be destroyed by forces of nature. The even sadder part is that Krypton didn't have to die. Even with the planet being destroyed if they had listened to Jor-El they could have found a new home somewhere.

So now all that remain are basically scraps and random elements.

But also, her last son who would grow to become the greatest hero the universe has ever known.

[NotSuper]

It seems to me that Krypton being descended from only two people would have some problems. Maybe it was just a myth?

[Gangbuster]

It was a myth...but maybe it was also true.  

Every species invariably comes from two people...that origin of Krypton was probably modeled after the Adam and Eve story, to a degree...

[Bill 9000]

I would say that, as a general rule, Kryptonians are humanoid, but not strictly human unless you use the word "human" as a blanket term like the words "dinosaur" or "crocodilian". Outwardly, you couldn't tell a human from a Kryptonian (or a Thanagarian, for that matter ... as in the case of the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl). However, they do have significant physiological differences. Humans can't process solar energy (with the exception of red solar radiation) the way Kryptonians can, which accounts for a large portion of their super-powers in a non-Kryptonian environment. Humans can't do that, no matter what s type of sun they're under. Now, I'm not discounting that somewhere in the dim primordial past, Kryptonians, Earthlings, Thanagarians, natives of Rann, etc. may have had a common ancestor (it's safe to assume that the Daxamites are somehow genetically related to Kryptonians). In fact, Thanagarians and Rannians (or is that "Rannites") have more in common with humans from Earth than Kryptonians because they do not possess super-powers when outside their native environments. But somewhere on the evolutionary tree, the Kryptonians, Thanagarians, Daxamites, Earthlings and so on branched off from each other (like alligators, crocodiles, gavials and caimans). Same but different.

[TELLE]

For a Bronze Age canonical treatment of this issue, I always think of Maggin's brief Krypton history in either Miracle Monday or Last Son of Krypton (where there is a lot of talk about alien races).

There is another, less-canonical treatment that I'm aware of, along the lines of the writings of Phillip Jose Farmer and the Sherlock Holmes fans.  I think Peter Coogan was involved in this history of Krypton that tied together the inhabitants of Daxam, Krypton, Earth, etc into one race/shared history.  Is anyone aware of this?  Links?