Cameron Cuffe as Seg-El, Ian McElhinney as Val-El (Photo by Gavin Bond/Syfy)
I might have groaned a bit less at the concept of a “Superman show without Superman” were it not for Fox’s Gotham. After three seasons of Bruno Heller’s garish nightmare parade of DC-adjacent tomfoolery, the idea that somebody else wanted to explore a famous superhero origin story without, y’know, its key superhero character felt like an exercise in futility. A Superman show without Superman? Didn’t TV already do this?
But then it occurred to me — this is Krypton. DC has been slowly pulling back the veil on Superman’s long-since destroyed home world for generations. We know so much about Superman’s doomed homeworld that entire books have been written about it. There’s enough history and lore built around Krypton that, sure, somebody could contrive a show about it! And a pretty damn good one, to boot!
That’s what I’ve been chewing on for the last two weeks. It’s been flying around the internet that Krypton might be “the best Superman show ever made.” Is it? While it’s certainly the most ambitious show about Superman, does Krypton have a sense of wonder, nobility, and excitement — personality traits the Man of Steel personifies? What can Krypton add to the Superman mythos that wasn’t already there?
Superficially, Syfy’s new series has a scale that befits a grand Superman epic. It introduces Brainiac as its horrifying adversary, something that’s never really been committed to live action before. (Though god knows Tim Burton tried.) It’s set 200 years before a certain spit-curled baby was born. It offers a crash course into the various houses, sigils, and guilds that made up the society of ancient Krypton, which details all the tumult that comes with them. It’s a lot to take in, but Krypton has more than a few surprises in store for those willing to play along.
Its story, developed by David S. Goyer and Damian Kindler, begins 14 years before even all that, with Superman’s great-great-grandfather Val-El (Ser Barristan himself, Ian McElhinney) defying Krypton’s laws by traversing the Phantom Zone and accidentally stumbling across hostile extraterrestrial life. Convinced an alien threat is headed Krypton’s way (albeit very slowly), Val goes before the Lawmakers Guild with his findings, only to be accused of treason by Daron-Vex (Elliot Cowan). Val is summarily executed in front of his family, and his house is stripped of its honor.
Flash-forward 14 years, and Val’s grandson Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe) is a Kandor City scrapper, staging fights at the local watering hole to earn money for his disgraced family. Seg is handsome in a generic, premium cable sort of way, and the show frames him (in the pilot episode, anyway) as a smart-assy, Abrams–styled Captain Kirk type. He has a funny bartender friend (Kem, played by Rasmus Hardiker) and a forbidden romance with a member of the Military Guild, Lyta-Zod (Georgina Campbell). This is Superman’s grandfather and the hero of the series. As such, Goyer and Kindler have built quite an arc for him.
This being a DC Comics adaptation that skews more to the grittiness of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel than the optimism of Superman: The Animated Series, Seg requires a tragic backstory to begin his quest toward destiny. In that regard, the show hastily kills off Seg’s parents, who had been quietly enabling Val’s apocalyptic findings at great risk. Seg’s folks are slain by Jayna-Zod (a terrific Ann Ogbomo), which makes his relationship with her daughter Lyta even more problematic. (As a “rankless” member of society, Seg can’t smooch people with a higher station than himself.)
Krypton isn’t shy about how it frames its society’s ills. The planet’s Science Council has acquiesced to the religious dogmas of the Voice of Rao (an enigmatic fellow who hides behind six golden faces and tends to creep up behind people). The city of Kandor is governed by status, which Daron uses to woo Seg to join his house by marrying him off to his daughter, Nyssa (Wallis Day). As the Military Guild steels itself for action in the background, Daron shows a willingness to employ authoritarian rule to hold Kandor in check should the need arise (he even has some foreboding monologues prepared to make his intentions abundantly clear), and wouldn’t you know it — there’s another existential threat named Black Zero looming in the series’ periphery, there to presumably give Daron the justification he needs to initiate martial law on Krypton. The “rankless,” depicted as kind people who look out for each other, live in hovels, while the elite, shown here as shifty-eyed ambitious types, live in spires that scrape Krypton’s bronzed skies.
You’re probably wondering where Superman fits in all this. Clearly, Krypton has plenty of plot to burn through in this 10-episode season, so it should come as little surprise that the show’s most well-known character would also be its most extraneous. And make no mistake, Krypton makes it very clear that Superman is involved in its many intrigues: there’s the addition of spaceman Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos), who has been sent back through time at the behest of the Man of Steel (offscreen) to aid Seg in saving Krypton from obliteration at the hands of Brainiac. Strange convinces Seg of this by bringing him a cape straight from Superman’s shoulders, which is beginning to wither away as time runs out for the future. (Think Marty McFly’s family snapshot from Back to the Future.) It’s not enough for Seg to save Krypton from itself; he must also save the planet from the galactic powers threatening it. Put it this way: for Superman to exist, Krypton has to survive the many wars on its doorstep. Seg is the key to all this. He’s Superman’s salvation.
Big stakes. Fittingly portentous execution. Yet Krypton also has a sense of humor tucked away in these busy two episodes, provided by Strange and, surprisingly, Seg, who has an awkward brush-up with The Voice of Rao in the second episode. (See BEST LINES.)
There’s romance, too, with Seg, Lyta, and Nyssa forming the show’s love triangle. Seg shares chemistry with both — more with Nyssa than with Lyta, though her mom’s hand in his parents’ death seems to have made their romance a bit uncomfortable. That’s all well and good; Lyta’s arc is enough for a series unto itself, and maybe it’d be the more exciting one: in “House of El,” Lyta simultaneously earns her mother’s hard-won respect and stops a Military Guild attack on the rankless by beating her commanding officer to death in a death match. When she sees her mother again, pride glints in her eyes. In a show like Krypton, the Zods do the neck-breaking around here.
BEST LINE(s):
“Ah, your reverence. I didn’t see you there.” – Daron-Vex, to the Voice of Rao. I love how Krypton’s god-like figure slinks around behind people’s backs.
“…” – The Voice of Rao.
“I don’t care what a big deal you might be on the planet Detroit.” – Sig-El, to Adam.
“May Rao’s grace be your shield.” – Jayna-Zod, to Lyta-Zod.
Voice of Rao: “May Rao’s light forever guide your way.” Seg-El: “You, too.”
BEST MOMENT: Seg-El takes his grandson’s cape in his hands, the camera pulls up to reveal the El house sigil, and the score pipes in a few notes from John Williams’ legendary Superman score.
EPISODE MVP: Ann Ogbomo’s Jayna-Zod is the character I’m most excited to watch develop. How she interacts with Georgina Campbell will likely set the show’s emotional trajectory, and reveal how rapidly Kandor goes to seed even before Brainiac shows up.
Shaun Sipos as Adam Strange (Photo by Gavin Bond/Syfy)
BOTTLE CITIES:
– The Military Guild’s uniforms look just like those in Superman: World of New Krypton, created by James Robinson, Greg Rucka, and Pete Woods back in 2009.
– Stick a pin in Black Zero for now; the second episode, “House of El,” doesn’t offer many clues about how the fanatical group will be depicted on the show, but it does address how its actions are weaving xenophobia into the Military Guild. I’m guessing they’ll turn out like Denis Leary’s group in Demolition Man.
– Adam Strange wears a Tigers cap and Seg thinks Earth is called ‘Detroit’. Likely a Michigan shout from Michi-fellas, David S. Goyer and Geoff Johns.
– Looks like Adam Strange smokes Luthorello cigarettes. Now, who came up with that name, I wonder? Put them in jail.
– Kryptonians make babies like they do in Post-Crisis DC continuity — in birthing matrices. Eww.
– Krypton is really into smearing blood all over people’s faces.
– Ann Ogbomo was featured in Wonder Woman and Justice League as the Amazonian warrior, Philippus.
– “‘The blood of House El…’ I know, I’ll rip my hand open and bleed all over this console!”
– House El cured the Green Death years and years ago. There’s been a cure for kryptonite poisoning in the El databanks all along? Man, Superman is gonna be pissed.
– It seems the Phantom Zone was discovered by Grampa Supes, which alters the canon a bit — Jor-El, Val’s great-grandson, is the scientist who originally discovered the Zone in the comics (and in all of the movies).
– What do you think, kids? Does Krypton fly high for you? Is the Vex family name a bit too on the nose for the fussy family? How do you like Braniac’s look? Sound off in the comments below.
7 out of 10
