Thoughts & speculations about Krypton.

[Super Monkey]

I guess my own preferences run toward the idea that all this intelligent design and early supreme beings is not scientific, so I don't need detailed science on the physics of this kind of universe...it can run at cross purposes to my mind...I still like some science fiction running through my stories, but the fantasy and good stories are more important...

Did dogs come to Krypton as well?

and monkeys and apes... yeah I would like to hear someone explain them! LOL!

[llozymandias]

And whales too.  Don't forget krypton also had whales.   Remember Eterno?  His creators the Xan were earth humanoids who lived circa 1 billion years ago.  They died when some kind of cosmic cloud (or whatever) destroyed almost all life on earth.  Life in the seas/oceans was all that survived.  Funny they had science & technology far advanced over ours, but they couldn't think of two obvious ways to save themselves.  They could have moved into the ocean untill the "cloud" passed.  They had the technology to do it.  Or they could have simply left the planet.

[JulianPerez]

Second, they're demonstrably able to interbreed with us in numerous stories from various eras of Superman. Sharks and dolphins may have developed similar forms due to parallel evolution but they certainly cannot interbreed with each other just the same.

L. Sprague de Camp once said it was easier to breed with a geranium than it is with an E.T.

Here's one possibility related to future stories involving "Imaginary Story" future children and descendants of Superman: is it entirely possible that said life forms were created artificially, under laboratory conditions and then nursed in the womb?

This does not mean that Superman and his female girlfriends would not have real passion or physical intimacy; it means that intimacy will not result in a viable pregnancy. Perhaps what took place is Superman and Lori Lemaris or Lois Lane or Lana or who have you, married, made a decision to have children, and so through genetic tampering their DNA was combined, and after a surgery, was placed in the womb of the female to grow and gestate.

The technology for this is not entirely farfetched even TODAY; there was a recent article where scientists said they may be able to create babies for same-sex couples that are genetically related to both of them.

[MatterEaterLad]

But those people are the same species, same number of chromosomes, part of the same gene pool...

[Uncle Mxy]

The technology for this is not entirely farfetched even TODAY; there was a recent article where scientists said they may be able to create babies for same-sex couples that are genetically related to both of them.

You mean Kon-El Superboy, right, son of Superman and Lex?    I also liked the Byrne "real science" idea that even if different races could mate, the result might turn out to be a sterile hybrid mule sort.  Do I think it works for our superheroes to be various flavors of impotent, though?  Probably not.

[llozymandias]

According to Current thought on human/primate evolution, humans & chimpanzees evolved from a common ancestor circa 5-8 million years ago.  If the were a "human" species 5 million years ago that was scattered throughout the universe.  And these different samples of "humanity" were on separate planets, isolating them from each other.  By now each of those samples should be its own separate species.  For them to still be similar enough to interbreed there needs to be some kind of ongoing manipulation of humanoid evolution on all planets involved.  Or those humanoids could have evolved separately on all those planets, with subtle manipulation to make almost identical over time.  Or what happened could be a combination of the two main possiblities mentioned here.

[Captain Kal]

Excellent analysis, Ilozymandias.

Let me add that another possibility that might have worked in concert with what we've discussed so far are morphogenetic fields.  While these are not as accepted by mainstream science, it does have some anecdotal support.  In the DCU, specifically relating to Animal Man and JLA:WW3, morphogenetic fields are real.  Given that, once a humanoid race of sufficient influence existed anywhere, their template would influence the development of other humanoids elsewhere in the universe.  While active intervention by other races might be a factor, the morphogenetic influence certainly had an effect too towards having a common humanoid form and even genetic code throughout the universe.

Nice thoughts on kryptonite and super-matter.  OTOH, kryptonite can be created from our normal matter so it doesn't seem that extricably tied to super-matter.  The transmutation of Krypton to pure kryptonite is generally accepted (and I prefer this), though rare stories suggest a more logical POV that kryptonite was created in a mixture of radioactives from the explosion.  Also, Superboy has similarly used his super-voice to transmute a planet that was previously transmuted to Sigellian to a harmless element (thus involving two planetwide transmutations to a common element).  While such transmutations would involve nuclear processes unknown to us, they don't seem tied specifically to super-matter.

[llozymandias]

Well the Maltusians(OAns) certainly fit that bill.  Morphogenetic fields were something i didn't even think about.  Interesting idea.  In the DCU anyway those fields can be manipulated by magic & technology.  Of course those fields could always turn out to be artificially created by whoever seeded the DCU.  However they come to exist, they would be a great way to "guide" evolution.


       I'm aware of kryptonite being created from "normal" matter. :wink:   Synthetic kryptonite seems to have a few shortcomings.  It's super-difficult & expensive to create.  It always seemed to be somewhat less "potent" than real kryptonite.  And probably has a far shorter half-life than the real thing.  It always seemed like making synthetic kryptonite was something you did as a last resort.  Only if you couldn't find any real kryptonite.