This is Entry 257: Helpful Kryptonese Phrases & Terms!

In 1981, DC Comics put out a 3 issue mini-series called The Krypton Chronicles. The series covered Superman's genealogy & the history of Planet Krypton. In a previous post, I shared the Map of the Planet Krypton for this series.

This post will about the what at the end of each issue. On that final page was "A Krypton Glossary", a listing of various Kryptonese terms & phrases. Kryptonese is the language of Krypton (or was circa 1981). Instead of posting images of those pages from the comics I'll share the entries that I thought was interesting. You'd just be reading it anyways. :)

The Glossary gives this as a prologue: "We have done our best to translate the Kryptonese words and names into the English alphabet, but this is not always easy, as the Kryptonese alphabet consists of 118 characters each with a precise sound. A double letter indicates a strong emphasis on the sound. Kryptonese plurals are created by adding an O to the word, as we add an S in English."

Krypton also has it's own numbering system "There are 11 characters for the numerical system. Their zero is used only for the purpose of indicating a zero, while 10 has a special character of it's own. Using the Roman X to stand for it, we could say that X=10, 1X=20, 2X=30, and so on. 100 is 9X, 101=X1, 110=XX, and 111 is the first three digit number."

Scattered through out the 3 pages of the Glossary are how the People of Krypton tell time:
- 1 Thrib is a Kryptonian "second". Thribo are the pural form of Thrib.
- 1 Dendar is a Kryptonian "minute" consisting of 100 Thribo. Dendaro are the plural form of Dendar.
- 1 Wolu is a Kryptonian "hour" consisting of 100 Dendaro. Woluo are the plural form of Wolu.
- 1 Zetyar is a Kryptonian "day" made up of 10 Woluo.  Zetyaro are the plural form of Zetyar.
- 1 Fanff is a Kryptonion "week" made up of 6 Zetyaro. Fanffo are the plural form of Fanff.
- 1 Lorax is a Kryptonian "month". There are 6 Loraxo in a Kryptonian Amzet. Loraxo are the plural form of Lorax.
- 1 Amzet is a Kryptonain "year". There are 438 Zetyaro, 73 Fanffo & 6 Loraxo in a Amzet. Amzeto are the plural form of Amzet.

18 Amzeto is equal 25 Earth years. Since Kryptonains' age at the same rate on Krypton as they do on Earth, a Kryptonian was a fully grown at the age of 15 (according to the Glossary).

Here are a few selected terms from the Glossary that I found interesting:
- Drygur: The Kryptonian word for "leader"; roughly equivalent to our "President".
- Moliom: Any Member of the Science Council.
- Drygur Moliom: The Leader of the Science Council.
- The Science Council: The ruling body of Krypton and in Kandor. Members are elected for life by a vote of the people, based on their contributions to science.
- Bethgar: The Kryptonain word for "ruler"; roughly equivalent to our "King" or "Emperor". Bythgar is the feminine form of Bethgar; equivalent to "Queen" or "Empress".
- Tanth: a title of respect for a man; equivalent to "Sir" or "Mister" in English. The feminine form is Tynth; roughly "Lady" or "Madame". Tantho & Tyntho is the plural form of Tanth & Tynth.
- Tanthuo Flez: From the same root as Tanth; Tanthu (The singular) cannot be exactly translated into English, as we have no equivalent word. It indicates a non-human creature accorded great respect. Combined with Flez, meaning "able to fly", the term is used for the amazing creatures which saved the people from the flood. The best we can do in translating Tanthuo Flez into English is to call it the "Winged One".
- El: An ancient Kryptonese words meaning Star.
- Kal: An ancient Kryptonese word meaning Child.
- Kal-El: Superman's Kryptonian Name, which means Star Child. Superman is not the only member of his family to ever have the name Kal-El.
- Hiaz: a liquid measure used in ancient Krypton. It was somewhere between one pint and one-half liter.
- Grahu: An artificial material. Somewhat like plastic but much stronger, used for building on Krypton. A Grahu-Hut is a portable shelter made from Grahu.
- Hatuar: The Kryptonian word for Asbestos.
- Oliphent: A type of large animal domesticated and used as a beast of burden in ancient Urrika. Despited the similarity to our word "elephant", there is little resemblance to this Earth creature except that both are large animals. The Oliphent was not even a mammal, but a warm-blooded egg-laying creature. If, as some scientist now believe, dinosaurs were warm-blooded, they may have been something like the Olipehent.
- Kandor: The former capital of Krypton until it was stolen, shrunken, and placed in a bottle buy the space-villain Brainiac. After defeating Brainiac, Superman kept the bottle-city in his fortress until he gowned a way to enlarge it on another world.
- Kryptonopolis: The city of Superman's birth. Actually, this is a rendering of the name in English, using the greek "polis" (city). The original Kryptonian name is very difficult to pronounce.
- Lurvan: The "new world" continent which Kandor and Kryptonopolis were located.
- Urrika: The "old world" continent on which Kryptonian civilization began.
- Dandahu: Krypton's largest ocean; east of Urrika and west of Lurvan.
- Juru: a valley on the continent of Lurvan. The only part of the planet which was never explored.
- Mithen: One of Krypton's two moons. It was hurled into a new solar orbit when Krypton exploded.
- Wegthor: The other of Krypton's two moons. It was colonized, but was then destroyed by an experiment of the criminal scientist Jax-Ur, killing the people who had colonized Wegthor. The remains of this moon joined space debris to form rings around Krypton like those around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.
- The Phantom Zone: a twilight dimension into which convicted criminals were projected during the last year of Krypton's existence.
- Rokyn: Name of Kandor's new world. It comes from RO, the possessive form of Rao, and KYN, meaning "gift". Thus Rokyn is "Rao's Gift" or "The Gift of God".
- Rao: In the mythology of ancient Krypton, the sun-god, who was deemed the chef of all gods. So great was the respect for the red sun of Krypton that any soldier of Erok's time automatically became an officers if he had red hair. When Jaf-El preached the worship of one god, he gave Him the name of Rao, though no longer identifying Him specifically with the sun. Note that in the wedding ceremony, the phrase used was "Rao, who kindled the sun." showing HIm to be the sun's creator, but not the sun itself.
- Yuda: one of the chief goddesses of ancient Krypton. She was the patron of love and Krypton's two moons, which, when they seemed to come together in the night sky, were believed to represent marriage. Through her worship ended with the flood, she was remembered in in folklore, and at one time mechanical statue of her was at certain festivals in Kryptonopolis.

Now I'm not sure if DC Comics even uses any of this information anymore (I know they still use some of the name but maybe not the definitions they had 1981). I did think that it was cool that at one time they thought enough to come up with these terms. Feel free to use them with your friends & show how nerdy you are.

Until next time Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 256: Why would I do that?

I was talking with someone today about The Avengers movie & we hit upon the topic of the character introduced at the very end of the movie. They said they didn’t know who that was. I made a comment about reading a book they were in & the reply I got was “Why would I do that?”

I decided to let the conversation move on from there & not answer that question because I didn’t it was the time or place to fully answer that question. I sort of feel that is response you’d get from many people regarding the reading of the comics. The movies make millions of dollars but do the comics themselves see any kickback from that? Not so much.

You can get someone to pay a few dollars to watch a movie? But to get them to actually read the books the movie is based that is a bit harder. I understand this. For example: The Avengers have been around since 1963 & over the years the team has had many, many different members & many different series bare the name of Avengers. It can be hard for a perspective new reader to know where to start. Both in the terms of where to start in that almost 50 years worth of comics but also where to start in the real world: They might not know where their local comic book store is or if there is even one locally.

Also, the comics are not the movies. Many people find this problem. But it’s shouldn’t be a problem. The Movies & Books should not be the same. They have similarities but they should be their own separate things (The movies adapted from the comics). Partly because there are somethings that comics do better then movies & there are somethings that movies do better then comics. Sometimes can’t be done in the movie or just lost in translation from page to screen. I know it can be a bit confusing (Hey! Why is Nick Fury a white guy in these comics?) but if you keep that in mind you it will serve you well.

So, If the movies are going to be a different yet still similar thing why would someone want to read the comics? You could possibly have a more well rounded viewing experience? You can get some of the in-jokes yourself & not have your friends/the internet pointing them out to you? You can help out the industry that inspired the movies you like so much? There are many answers to that question.

People don’t have to go into this blind. There are many people & websites that can help on your way. Some of these people people even work at where they books are sold or if these people are your friends might even loan some books!

To end this post I’ll answer the question “Why would I do that?” with another question “Why wouldn’t you do that?” :)

- Brian

This is Entry 255: King of the Seven Seas!

*sigh*  Oh… Aquaman: why is it “cool” to hate you?

Your like the Nickelback of Super Heroes: The go to joke for a lot of people. Which make those people come off sounding a bit stupid. Like they couldn’t come up with a better punchline so they went with you & no one will say anything about how stupid the joke is. They’ll just laugh along, continuing the stereotype that you “suck” or are “lame”.

I think that many of your haters know almost nothing about you, Aquaman, other then you “talk to fish”. I doubt any them have ever read a Aquaman comic book (for many of them I suspect that they have never read a comic book ever but that’s a rant for a different posting). Your a character that has been around for over 50 years (Aquaman was created in 1941) but what has really been done with you over that time? Not a whole lot. Maybe that’s the reason why people don’t really like you?

But then your “lameness” is not your fault, it’s partly how your written & how the public perceives you. There could be the most awesome Aquaman story ever written by the best writers & best artists but people will not read just by the fact that it is about you: Aquaman, that loser who talks to fish. I’ve even heard that people don’t like the Justice League because Aquaman is a member of that group. Sounds a bit racist… superheroist, if that is even a word.

I don’t really know people hate on the King of the Seven Seas so much? Mostly because I never hear anyone ever give any good reasons why they dislike him so? “Because he talks to fish” is not a good reason.

*sigh*

Until next time: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 254: Riding the Second Wave!

Last week DC Comics put out the first issues of their "Second Wave" books in the New 52. There was a number of books from the first wave of books that that had cancelled due to low sales or something (Not exactly sure what the reasons were & I'm too lazy to find out what they were). Among those second wave titles are there three titles: Earth 2, Worlds' Finest & Dial H.  This posting will be about Earth 2 & Worlds' Finest since those 2 books are intertwined together. I may make a posting about Dial H, I might not.

When the New 52 was announced I was saddened that there was no Power Girl monthly book. Her series, pre-New 52, was a series that I had been enjoying. It was frequently a highlight of my monthly comic book reading.  Another thing that made me sad was that The Justice Society of America (JSA) apparently didn't exist anymore, a team that I think held an important place in the history of the DC Comics Universe (DCU). The JSA were the 1st team, both in the DCU & in comic books in general. How the team was set up lead the way for every other team in comic books.

The only Pre-New 52 member of the JSA that seemed to "survive" the change was Michael Holt, Mister Terrific. In his self titled series, he was dating a woman named Karen Starr. Ms. Starr before the change over was the "secret identity" of Power Girl. Ms. Starr also bared a striking resemblance to Power Girl. So, among a number of New 52 titles I read (and enjoyed) the Mister Terrific title. All the while staying up to date on the news coming out regarding the New 52. I had started to formulate theories about how Power Girl could return. Which wouldn't have been all that hard. We did have Karen Starr after all! I had created an elaborate theory involving me reading in-between the lines of interviews, press releases, the comics themselves & my knowledge of Power Girl's own history. I wanted her to return!

I had pretty much thought that DC had written of the JSA & hadn't really thought about how to return them because I didn't see any of the members around. It was easily to give powers to someone who was there then to create a whole group of people out of thin air! But…. that's what happened… sort of. 

The JSA were returning! They were returning to where they had been for portion of their publication history: Earth 2 (or Earth-2 as I had seen it listed in the past)! Some might have seen this as a risky move to reintroduce the DC Multiverse so soon after they went through a major change up to simplify everything. But I think it's a good thing. This is something they have been leading up to for awhile. Every since they reintroduced the multiverse in 2007 they had never really done much with it. There were a number of one off books that visited other worlds & promises of series that took on these other world but they never came to be. With Earth 2 we are finally getting what we've been promised.

Along with the return of the JSA was announced, it was announced that Power Girl would be coming back! And the she is Karen Starr who was appearing in the Mister Terrific comic book. She would be appearing in a series with Huntress, who had been appearing in a miniseries (which I have not read but plan on doing so). Both women are revealed to have come from Earth 2 (this fact seemed to piss off a few Huntress fans). Among the books that would be cancelled to make way for the second wave was Mister Terrific. In the last issue it did set up a a few events for both Earth 2 & Worlds' Finest (The book that Power Girl & Huntress would be appearing in).

Now that all the back story is out of the way, what did I think of the first issues of both series: One was good & would look forward to seeing where it went. One I wasn't all that impressed with & sort of wished it had a different focus.

First off, Earth 2. I wasn't sure if I'd like the series. Some of the costume designs I had seen I wasn't too hot on (That had become a trend I noticed with many of the New 52 costume redesigns) & for what I had read in a few interviews I wasn't sure I'd like this take on Earth 2 but was willing to give it a try. After reading the first issue, I kept comparing it to issue 1 of Justice League (the only issue I've read so far, another book I plan on reading more of). Both start five years ago & involve a parademons. Where as Justice League #1 was just Batman & Green Lantern bickering at each other while chasing one Parademon. Earth 2 #1 has an all out invasion of Parademons. We are thrown right into battle & over the course of the new few pages find out more about the world they inhabit then I did in the whole issue of Justice League #1. 

SIDE NOTE: When I originally talked about Issue 1 of the Justice League last September I didn't talk about it all that kindly. I'm hoping that it got better as the issues went on.

Through out the issue we see that Earth 2 might be similar to the world was had been introduced when the New 52 came into effect (Earth 1 if you will) but it is very different. Metropolis is in ruins. Many, many, many people are dead. I even though this is five years in the past, Superman, Batman Wonder Woman seem to have been super heroes for an unknown period of time (Until on Earth 1 where those 3 have only started their super hero careers five years ago). Along with this trio, we are introduced to Supergirl & a female Robin. Robin is also Batman's daughter. Of the costume designs presents so far: I quite like the designs for woman more then the men. Robin being the best design & Batman being the worst. 1 last thought about costumes: I like the design for Earth 2's Superman's costume better the costume design for the Superman of Earth 1.

About half way through you the issue you get the the first really major change. As the Internet is fond of saying: s**t just got real! Before I say what it is, let me invoke the words of River Song: SPOILERS!  Our main characters, the ones we have been following the issue so far all die. Now the death of the Dark Knight does help "win the war". During that event, a portal of some kind opens up. Both Supergirl, Robin go into it & disappear.

Is Earth 2 now left with no heroes? No. This issue much like like the first couple of paragraphs of this posting was all just set up. In this issue were are introduced to Alan Scott, Jay Garrick & Sargent Al Pratt. They are civilian identities of JSA members Green Lantern, The Flash & the Atom but have not yet become super heroes yet. From what I saw in the issue, Alan Scott seemed to be channeling a bit of Tony Stark & Jay Garrick seemed to be a bit like two other DC Characters. When we first see him he is a bit like Wally West (one of the men who have he has shared the Flash mantle with but does not currently exist in the New 52) & when Jay receives his powers he is a bit like Hal Jordan (one of the Green Lanterns' of Earth 1). We don't see much of Sargent Al Pratt other then he is the head of a small army group protecting an atomic weapon of some kind. We last see him & his group being attacked  by Parademons.

So… What did I think about the book? I thought it was a good first issue & I'm interested in seeing where it goes.

Now on to World' Finest. Or Huntress Worlds' Finest Power Girl, the cover has the names of the women on either side of the Worlds' Finest name but I think the title is just "Worlds' Finest" & I will call it that. This book follows the adventures of Robin (now Huntress) & Supergirl (now Power Girl) on Earth 1. It is told in the present & via a flashback to 5 years ago when they arrived on Earth 1.They have spent the last five years trying to find away back to their world. They have built up identities on Earth 1but that is only a way to means of acquiring a way to get back home. There are 2 art styles in the book: present day is drawn by George Perez where as the flashback as drawn by Kevin Maguire. Which I think it is an interesting idea. It is also an easy way to tell what is a flashback & what is not.

Since I talked about the costume designs with Earth 2, lets talk about the costume designs here in Worlds' Finest: I still think the Robin costume is the strongest costume in the comic. Not sure we'll see it all that much. The Huntress is basically the costume the character had Pre-New 52. The Supergirl costume is ok, kind of reminds me of something Supergirl might of worn in the 1970's. BUT… the Power Girl costume SUCKS!  It just don't think it works as a costume. I think the think that really puts me off is the "symbol": I think they were going for a stylized P but it doesn't work. The upper chest portion of the costume just doesn't work (That is a part of her body that people are going to look at). It looks odd. They could have just given this Power Girl the costume she had Pre-New 52 (much like did with Huntress) & people would have been fine. But no: she & most everyone else needed a a costume change. I don't think Power Girl needs a "symbol" on her costume. She's never had on. In all the time that the character has been around she's never had a symbol on her costume. Why start now?

As a issue it's just set up & not interesting set up like in Earth 2: It just talking. I'm not sure I'd pick up issue #2, I might look at the collected 1st storyline when it comes out to see what's going on with these two. What I would have done with a book called "Worlds' Finest" is have a book that travels to different worlds in the Multiverse. Have it be like "Exiles", the Marvel Comics series or like old TV show "Sliders". If your going to hint at there being Worlds' (plural) then show us worlds. I think what they are hinting at the with the purl worlds thing is they are from Earth 2 & they are on Earth 1 so there are 2 worlds involved.

Well… that's my thoughts on the first issue of Earth 2 & Worlds' Finest. Until next time, Stay Jazzy everybody!

- Brian