Set in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Federal Court, aka "The Mother Court," the legal drama follows brand new lawyers working for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high profile and high stakes cases in the country - all as their personal lives intersect.
Somewhere along the line, today’s comic book-obsessed pop culture landscape became so jam-packed with origin stories that studios decided we needed origin stories for our origin stories. The superhero tale before the actual superhero shows up. Basically, you’ve seen Peter Parker get bitten by a radioactive spider, but have you met the radioactive spider’s cousin? The most notable example is Fox’s Gotham, a Batman prequel series that mostly succeeds by taking this concept and injecting it with several doses of cocaine, to the point where the surly Dark Knight showing up would only ruin the insane fun of it all.
Syfy’s Superman-without-Superman series Krypton—created by Damian Kindler and Man of Steel writer David S. Goyer—is a much more high-concept, self-serious affair than Gotham. There are certainly moments when the pilot episode soars. But like Superman without the sun, it’s a bit of a bumpy ride getting off the ground.
Anyone even vaguely aware of Superman’s origin story knows Krypton eventually explodes into tiny pieces of celestial stardust, leaving baby Kal-El to make his way alone to Earth, where he grows into Henry Cavill’s jawline and becomes the greatest hero history has ever known. (His older cousin Kara Zor-El also travels through the Phantom Zone into a pocket dimension called The CW, but that’s a whole different story.) Krypton lands us decades before that tragedy, focusing instead on the Man of Steel’s grandfather, Seg-El, played by British newcomer Cameron Cuffe.
Cuffe is charmingly roguish in the pilot, displaying a Chris Pratt-esque ability to make a bar fight seem like a joke with a grin and a wink. The problem is in the character itself, which the writers seem to have assembled patchwork from stories we’ve seen before. Seg is a society-spurned street rat with a heart of gold (Aladdin) who is burdened not only with a star-crossed love for Lyta Zod than can never be (Romeo & Juliet) but also a capital-letter Great Destiny only he can fulfill, despite the fact his father worriedly says he is not ready (every Y.A. story in the past decade). He even shops at the same outer-space jacket emporium as Han Solo and Star Lord.
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The underlying story, at least as laid out in the first episode, is similarly thin. Seg’s scientist grandfather, Val-El (Ian McElhinney, always a pleasure), was handed an extremely harsh death sentence by the planet’s powers that be for A) Positing that life exists out in the cosmos, and B) Some of that life, a planet-collector known as Brainiac, is coming to harvest the shit out of Krypton. Fourteen years later, Adam Strange—played by Shaun Sipos, and disappointedly not wearing nearly as bonkers an outfit as his comic book counterpart—travels through time to tell Seg his grandfather was correct, and he brought the quickly-dissolving cape of Superman to prove it. Like most storylines involving time-travel, the explanation stops right at the point where it only kind of makes sense if you don’t think about it too hard. “It’s like an hour-glass,” Strange says about Superman’s cape, which is fading like a Marty McFly polaroid. “Once this cape is gone our times up and Superman will have been wiped from existence.”
Since Strange is effectively acting as the Obi-Wan to Seg’s pre-Jedi Luke Skywalker, I’m sure the why’s and how’s of all this will be explored as the season progresses. But for a pilot episode, Goyer and co-writer Ian Goldberg do a surprisingly poor job of making us care about the fate of an entire planet and DC’s most famous hero, choosing instead to cram a majority of the impending Brainiac story into a last-minute exposition dump.
It’s a shame, because the personal stakes raised by the script are more fleshed out, but somehow feel more cliche for it. As Seg’s impoverished parents Charys-El and Ter-El—the entire family stripped of title and rank because of Val-El’s crimes—Paula Malcomson and Rupert Graves add a much-needed touch of humanity to the over-stuffed proceedings. But years of absorbing comic book stories being told the same way have taught us to know exactly how long Charys-El has to live as soon as she says the line, “We have to finish his work…together.” By the time both parents are gunned down in front of Seg for crimes they did not commit, you can almost see the emotions you’re supposed to feel—Cuffe, for his part, is game for portraying trauma—but it feels more like a check mark ticked off in the Tragic Figure textbook. As if the impending destruction of an entire planet is not enough to give a story weight, we must be reminded that a leading comic book character cannot truly exist unless said character watches his or her relatives die horribly.
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Funny enough, Krypton truly excels when it moves away from its source material trappings and works more as a Game of Thrones-ian drama of warring factions and families. Again, the hardest part of this show’s entire existence is making us care about a place we all know is set to explode. The script—along with some truly gorgeous visuals framed from the dusty dystopian ground up by director Colm McCarthy—does a great job turning Krypton into a living, breathing space occupied by actual human beings, complete with separate cities, corrupt leadership, and an underbelly of rebellion. Wonder Woman’s Ann Ogbomo almost lifts the entire episode on to her own shoulders—she certainly looks strong enough to do it—as Alura Zod, leader of Kandor’s elite Sagitari. It’s a fierce performance, as steel-edged as the knife Alura drives through her own daughter’s hand.
But the success of the world-building and background characters is exactly what makes Krypton an interesting show but a disappointing pilot. Everything truly intriguing—the terrorist organization Black Zero, the enigmatic many-faced voice of Rao, the immensely chill Nyssa-Vex—is glimpsed or mentioned only in passing, making space for the time-hopping cliche that is the main plot.
Nowhere is this more glaring than the introduction of Brainiac himself, played by a CGI-covered Blake Ritson. The visuals on the villain—and his terrifying trademark Skull Ship—are incredible, genuinely surpassing some of the work we’ve seen in the actual DCEU. But it comes in the episode’s already rushed closing minutes, delivered so dispassionately by Sipos that it sounds less like the entrance of a Big Bad and more like someone on a deadline reading Brainiac’s Wikipedia page.
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Stray Observations
Welcome to Krypton coverage, where week-to-week I will try my hardest to avoid wondering why everyone on this alien planet has a British accent.
A few things here are borrowed directly from Superman’s long, long comic book history. Brainiac’s look, for instance, is a ringer for Gary Frank’s art in writer Geoff Johns’ Superman: Brainiac. The term Rao, as well, has been around for awhile, a name given to both the planet’s primary divine figure and the red sun that orbits Krypton.
Speaking of, there’s something very, very funny to me about how ridiculously unwieldy that many-faced helmet looks on the Voice of Rao.
What a disturbing concept the Genesis Chamber is. “Strange to think our ancestors used to carry children in their wombs. Just seems so inefficient.”
WARNING: This list contains SPOILERS for the premiere of Krypton
Krypton has arrived, and brought plenty of Superman Easter Eggs and DC Comics connections with it. From the earliest looks at the Syfy series, it was clear that the Krypton TV show was made in Man of Steel‘s image, offering a similar treatment to the ancient homeworld of Superman. Now that the premiere episode has aired, even more of the inspirations, homages, and DC Comics mythology can be spotted. Krypton may be more than a Superman prequel, but its creators are rooting their story in the history of DC’s greatest superhero… with some changes of their own to keep things fresh. Which means fans won’t want to miss any of the inside jokes, references, or teased connections to the Superman mythos.
To make sure that every viewer spots the Easter Eggs and more subtle bits of major DC lore – like the new version of Brainiac looming over the future of the House of El – we’re breaking them all down as more are spotted. So with one last SPOILER warning before we begin, let’s look at the best Easter Eggs and comic connections in the premiere of Krypton.
RELATED: What Krypton’s Time Travel Story Means For The Superman Prequel
12. The Remains of Wegthor, Moon of Krypton
The establishing shots of the planet Krypton may not seem all that important, beyond creating a memorable backdrop for the show’s title card. But from the very first frames, the makers of this Superman prequel story show their dedication to the original DC Comics history of Superman’s birth world. Well, more accurately, the massive rocks that form a ring around the planet’s circumference.
The debris orbiting Krypton isn’t just random space rocks, but the remains of Wegthor, one of the planet’s moons. The reason for its destruction has been tweaked from an accidental collision with an experimental Kryptonian rocket to a terrorist attack over the years. But whatever the cause of the disaster in the TV show’s version of Krypton’s history, the bases are covered. Just as they were in the opening scenes of the Man of Steel movie, with a destroyed Wegthor just as prominent in the planet’s orbit.
11. The ‘Bottle City’ of Kandor
The approach of honoring the past while creating something with its own identity and style continues into the urban setting of the show, as well. A title card introduces audiences to the main setting of Kandor City: a densely-populated city surrounded by… well, not much else. That’s no accident either, since the large protective dome over Kandor appears to keep the city in habitable, where the planet outside of the “bubble” is as harsh as an alien world can get. But the Easter Egg is in the city itself.
In the comics, this metropolis is most likely to be referred to as “The Bottle City of Kandor,” one of the only population centers to survive the destruction of Krypton. That may sound impossible, but it’s thanks to Brainiac for shrinking Kandor, and placing it inside a glass bottle to add to his collection. The domed city is just one of several visible on Krypton’s surface, but the reference is still appreciated (especially with the brief glimpse inside Brainiac’s ship revealing several miniature skylines).
10. The Symbol of The House of El
Most Superman fans will tell you that back on Krypton, Kal-El’s family was one of the most respected, revered, and well-regarded. But Krypton wastes little time in showing the “true” origins of the House of El– actually, the potential end of the House, if the Voice of Rao and Kryptonian Council have their way. Thanks to Val-El, the House is stricken of its name, rank, and cost of arms: the famous ‘S’ glyph that once stood simply for “Superman” in the hero’s first comic appearance.
This time around, the writers of Krypton have returned to the idea that the ‘S’ isn’t just a Kryptonian glyph, or symbol, but their ancestral sigil. It’s the same idea adopted for Man of Steel, but one that Mark Wait, the writer of Superman: Birthright – a modern origin that influenced Snyder’s film – tried to replace. In Birthright, the symbol for ‘Hope’ wasn’t used by a single family but any who embodied that same idea. The movie folded those ideas into one, but it remains to be seen if Krypton’s symbol has any greater meaning.
9. The Voice of Rao’s Robes
For all its reverence for the roots of Superman and Krypton’s history, the TV show is also adding a LOT of new story elements. And none is more pronounced than the apparent religious authority known as the ‘Voice of Rao.’ The figure dressed in golden and white robes, and wearing a multiple-faced, golden mask seems to be the head of Krypton’s relatively new theocracy. The role of the Voice of Rao will surely be explored in future episodes, but their robes are already one of the best Easter Egg finds for comic book fans.
The robes are virtually covered in script, but it’s all a match for the actual Kryptonese language as established in DC Comics. The Man of Steel invented an original written language, but Krypton seems to be adopting the same symbol-for-letter substitution. The robes are hard to read in action, but everything from title cards to background signage can be translated one letter at a time.
8. A Familiar Ancient DC Warrior
When the fearsome leader of Kandor’s military forces was revealed ahead of the show’s release, it was her name that stood out most to comic book fans: Alura Zod (yes, as in that Zod, born a generation from where the show begins). The character shared a name with Supergirl’s own mother, Alura In-Ze, but by the time Krypton premiered any potential confusion had been sorted with a re-naming.
Now, Kandor City’s Military Guild is led by Jayna-Zod. But that’s probably not why the actress will seem familiar. Ann Ogbomo has already portrayed a DC Comics character in both Wonder Woman and Justice League. Making the leap from Philippus of the Amazons to Jayna of the Sagitari isn’t all that difficult – just drop some of the famous Amazonian mercy. As likely grandmother to the infamous General Zod, it’s clear his strength runs in the family.
7. The Black Zero
The namedrop “Black Zero” is both a pleasant surprise and all but expected, as one of the few factions or storylines of Krypton to truly break out and into the mainstream DC conversation. Originally, ‘Black Zero’ was a supervillain who believed himself responsible for destroying Krypton, claiming he had been hired to do it, revealing the planet wouldn’t have exploded without his intervention.
That turned out not to be the case, but the idea of a ‘Black Zero’ tied to Krypton’s destruction stuck. The name was re-used by John Byrne and Mike Mignola as a terrorist group opposing the genetic manipulation of Krypton’s elite, a more aggressive version of the liberation movement introduced in Krypton. Black Zero was also re-purposed as the name of the ship first used to imprison General Zod and his loyal soldiers, and later wielded by them in their attack on Earth in Man of Steel.
6. Dev-Em of Krypton
In the training scene that introduced the Sagitari and Jayna-Zod, fans also get their first look at her daughter – and likely mother of General Zod – Lyta-Zod. The scene demonstrates the brutal strength and discipline of everyone involved, but there’s also a famous Kryptonian name thrown into the mix. The name of Lyta’s “intended,” a Kryptonian young man by the name of Dev-Em.
It may lack the instant recognition, infamy, or star power of ‘ZOD,’ but to fans of the Man of Steel movie and its prequel comic, Dev-Em is a major player. Named for an earlier juvenile delinquent on Krypton, the Dev-Em as created by writer (and Krypton producer) David S. Goyer was the attempted murderer of Kara Zor-El – otherwise known as Supergirl. No need to worry about conflict with The CW’s Supergirl series though: this version of Kara and Dev-Em existed thousands of years before Kal-El was even born.
5. The Blend of Both Superman Movies
As we mentioned at the start, the shared DNA between Zack Snyder’s updated vision of a grand, ancient, but deeply troubled civilization and the world of Krypton is hard to miss. Whether to minimize confusion over Krypton being an actual prequel story to the film, or step away from an already-divisive film franchise, the version of Krypton to hit the airwaves has been tweaked.
The command key which unlocks Val-El’s lost fortress of Solitude shared the shape and function of the Man of Steel version, only now created in transparent, crystal-like stone. The city of Kandor reads closer to the layers stone and organic lines of Man of Steel‘s Krypton, but outside is the frozen climate highlighted in the original Superman: The Movie (1978). The end result is a combination of both origin films for the Man of Steel, combined into one new version of Krypton (an elegant move on the creators’ part).
4. The House of Vex
What may be the most curious connection between the prequel story of Krypton and the Man of Steel film – and a hint the two stories were once more directly, if unofficially linked – comes with Seg-El’s assigned mate. After being informed by Daron-Vex that Seg has earned a new rank, and an invitation into his family by binding with Daron’s daughter, Nyssa, the soon-to-be married couple head off to witness the child that will be born from their combined DNA.
They won’t have the child themselves, since Krypton is using the same genetic birthing technology introduced in the comics of the 1990s (the “Genesis Chamber” name is all Man of Steel). But the predictions of their son, Cor-Vex, may not be as accurate as one might think. After all, a Car-Vex appeared as one of Zod’s loyal soldiers on Man of Steel, played by actress Samantha Jo. Coincidence? Or a more explicit link between TV show and film that was blurred by changing the gender and vowel…? The good news is that Seg-El will have another famous child, no matter what.
3. The Classic Superman Theme
It’s almost impossible these days to make a Superman TV show, movie, cartoon, or any other piece of media without paying tribute to one of Hollywood’s greatest composers, John Williams. As the man who created the iconic Superman Theme for the 1978 film, Williams has seen the handful of notes he assembled to announce the Man of Steel twisted, reimagined, and homaged more times than can be counted.
In the first episode of Krypton, viewers have two different opportunities to catch the famous theme heightening the action taking place onscreen. First, it can be heard playing when Seg-El is shown Val-El’s Fortress of Solitude by his mother (performed with a serious Blade Runner vibe). And finally, as the camera rises for the episode’s final shot to reveal Seg clutching the cape of his superhero grandson whilst standing on the symbol he will make one of the most recognized images on Earth.
2. The Fortress of Solitude’s Famous Statues
The Fortress itself is hard to dissect for further Easter Eggs just yet (other than a strange plant in a glass case that has been cited as a Black Mercy… despite not looking anything like one). What does stand out, however, is the massive statue depicting a man and a woman with arms outstretched, raising either the planet Krypton or its famous sun, Rao, above them (more likely it’s the planet).
At this point, such an inclusion is as pivotal as finding a Bat-Computer inside of Bruce Wayne’s superhero cave. Traditionally, Superman (or Supergirl) has included a statue of his Kryptonian mother and father, raising a scale model of the planet Krypton between them – fashioned from ice or crystal by Superman himself as a tribute to the parents who saved him from their planet’s destruction. In Krypton, it’s a nod to the founders of the House of El, but… something tells us Seg-El’s son and grandson will keep the tradition alive in their own way.
1. Luthorello Cigarettes
Finally, not every Easter Egg needs to mean big things for the coming story or the larger Superman mythology. A though perfectly summed up in the arrival of Adam Strange, a time traveler from modern America. For starters, he must point out to Seg-El that the ‘D’ on his hat signifies the Detroit Tigers, and not a mysterious Kryptonian Guild (which may also be a nod to DC boss Geoff Johns, who has seen a similar tribute to his hometown of Detroit from comic artists).
The real joke goes to Adam’s pack of cigarettes – itself a rare sight in superhero TV shows. It isn’t the tobacco fans should catch, but the brand: Luthorellos. That’s as obvious and throwaway a reference to Lex Luthor as you’re likely to find, which means it may be the best one in the entire episode. Apparently, Lex diversifies his business into every industry in the future Earth of Krypton‘s universe.
So there you have it, our breakdown of each and every Easter Egg, comic book nod, and hidden detail in Krypton‘s first episode. If you’ve spotted anything we’ve missed, or have questions unanswered, let us know in the comments!
MORE: Krypton Video Explores Beginnings of The Superman Legacy
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This Krypton review contains spoilers.
Krypton Episode 1
We live in an age of reboots, reimaginings, and revivals where, all too often, familiarity gets in the way of ambition. Fortunately, Krypton, the new Superman prequel from Syfy, has its priorities mostly right. While there are elements that feel familiar or old-fashioned, and a time travel connection to Superman that feels wholly unnecessary, Krypton is a show that is thoroughly interested in doing its own thing.
Because of its world-building ambitions, Krypton has a lot to accomplish in its opening hour. We are introduced to Krypton 200 years before the birth of Kal-El (aka Superman). Like our own planet, it is a world that is starkly divided between the haves and have-nots, a world that seems to sense, on some level, that it is living on borrowed time. Unfortunately for the House of El, grandfather Val-El is not interested in burying his head in the sand. When he tries to prove that Krypton is in danger from a world-destroying villain coming their way, threatening the power the mysterious Voice of Rao has accumulated, he is put to death right in front of his grandson, series protagonist Seg-El.
Fast forward 14 years later and a now 23-year-old Seg's entire life has been understandably shaped by the execution of his grandfather. The El family has been stripped of their name, their status, and banished to the poorer, lower districts of Kandor City. Seg has a chip on his shoulder the size of a small planet. He is your classic struggling, street urchin Chosen One. Think Aladdin or Great Expectations' Pip, but with comic book connotations. It's a familiar archetype, but one brought charismatically to life by British relative newcomer Cameron Cuffe. In lesser hands, Seg's character might not work—and with its would go the success of Krypton as a whole, so central is this character to the story—but Cuffe imbues Seg with a youthful vulnerability, self-deprecating sarcasm, and unfortunate but heroic impetuousness that makes you want to root for him.
It probably helps that Seg is set up as the ultimate underdog in this opening hour (even though, as the member of a former guild family, he has a leg up on most of the residents of Kandor City). In the space of an episode, he loses his grandfather, loses his father, loses his mother, loses his girlfriend, and more or less loses his home. In the grieving eyes of Seg, it's all Adam Strange's fault. Strange is a man who hails from our world, where the existence of Superman is threatened. Remember that galaxy-swallowing maniac Seg's grandfather was killed for mentioning? Yeah, it's comic villain Brainiac and he's got some serious plans to, you know, conquer everything. In one of the best visuals of the entire episode, the Collector of Worlds is making his way across the galaxy as we speak, and he is so, so creepy.
I'm not crazy about the time travel elements of this plot, which feel like a tacked on, stakes-raising element for a story that already had pretty high stakes and plenty of plot to get through. Adam Strange comes off as a kind of obnoxious fanboy everyman, apologizing about the deaths of Seg's parents, but not taking much responsibility for his part in it. His big schtick is that he has Superman's cape, which acts like Marty McFly's picture in Back to the Future. Once the cape is gone, there will be no chance of rescuing Kal-El from the fate of non-existence. But, even as a viewer, it's hard to care that much about Superman, who is two centuries and lightyears away from this present and world. I can only imagine how Seg feels.
I'd much rather spend time on Seg's navigation of Kandor's complex social politics. When Seg thwarts a revolutionary hoping to blow up the Voice of Rao and the oppressive oligarchy he represents, he is "gifted" a placement in the House of Vex, which comes with a spot in a guild and a betrothal to the icy Nyssa-Vex. It is an obvious power play from Daron-Vex, who is the chief magistrate of Kandor and the man who handles the day-to-day oppressions of the oligarchy. He also happens to be the person who ordered Val-El to his death.
Seg openly hates Daron, but also knows an opportunity when he sees it. It's kind of unclear why he would want to leave the supportive community of the lower districts in exchange for a stuffy guild job and a betrothal to a woman he doesn't know, but, especially after Seg's parents die and he learns of his family's mission to protect Krypton, it makes more sense. The decision is complicated by Lyta Zod, the woman Seg loves and who loves him. Lyta is the daughter of Jayna-Zod, the ruthless leader of the military guild. She is the kind of woman who stabs her own daughter in the hand to make a point and who shoots Seg's parents in front of him in what might be a mercy killing. Somehow, she still seems like one of the better people within Kandor leadership circles, though, to be fair, that isn't a very stiff competition. Following the deaths of his parents, Seg breaks up with Lyta, breaking both of their hearts.
The best parts of the Krypton pilot come in its worldbuilding, which already tells you a lot about how much thought and well-articulated execution went into this series. But the continued narrative success of this show will lie in how these characters are developed, in how they inhabit this rich world. Right now, they are stereotypical in the way you might expect from a pilot, but show serious promise. I wish the show hadn't killed off so many "olds" in the opening episode. It would have been nice to see what part Seg's parents could have played in the revolution. One of the more refreshing aspects of the episode came when Seg's mother, Charys, showed up in a stolen skimmer to rescue Seg and reveal to him the Fortress of Solitude. Rogue revolutionary is not a role the mom usually gets to play in these things, and it would have been nice to see it develop.
Perhaps we'll get more exploration of the already-established rebellious organizations with Black Zero, a group Daron calls "a terrorist organization" and seems to be genuinely afraid of. Before her death, Charys claims she is part of the group, though later backtracks on that, implying that it was a lie to get her in front of the Kandor leadership. Either way, the group is obviously alive and well, as we see Daron ordering some of its members to their execution earlier in the episode. Which leads to the question: Which of the characters we've already met are a part of it? My money is on Jayna, but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. Another possible option is Seg's lower district, bartender buddy Kem. If Kem isn't a secret revolutionary, that will mean he's seemingly just in the narrative for comic relief, which would be a major bummer. Right now, he's the only lower district character in the narrative, and that feels like a vital perspective to include in this story. Because, while Seg did send his formative years in the shadows of the gleaming buildings of Kandor City, he has never been your typical working class citizen, either.
While most of the plot mechanics in the Krypton pilot work, in an effort to get through so much plot development in the pilot, there were some contrivances that took away from the realism of this first episode. For example, though it was cool that Charys stole the aforementioned skimmer, it doesn't make much sense that she would risk everything just to show Seg the Fortress of Solitude one time. There wasn't a less dangerous way to do this? Or maybe she could have just told him about his family's mission without the visual aid, for now? Also, it's unclear why Seg is able to visit the Fortress at the end of the episode without any negative repercussions.
Still, there is a lot to like here. Thus far, Krypton is incredibly ambitious in its worldbuilding, while at the same time cathartically archetypal in its age old, yet still endlessly topical tale of class struggle and societal oppression. It is at its best when it doesn't try to shoehorn itself into the Superman narrative. For this viewer, it is enough (albeit tragic) that we know Krypton's eventual fate. As much as I like Superman, he is not relevant to this story. If this story leans away from the time travel shenanigans and towards a nuanced exploration of systems of power in an oligarchy in decline, Krypton could be something truly special.
