Something I'm curious about when it comes to New Krypton (**spoiler alert**)

[Kage Kisaragi]

You would think, this is a perfect opprotunity to denounce the idea that only pale skin people existed on krypton, or that Kryptons enviroment developed its humanoid like race with very little to no sunlight thus paler skin people coming to inhabit it.

Discuss.
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I'm still reading the catch up stuff, but feel free to mention whatever you like regardless of spoilers.

[Mat001]

You mean white people pale or albino pale? If it is the former, multiracial people have been shown on New Krypton. Check out the first two issues of the mini-series, for example.

[Kage Kisaragi]

then i guess I'll see it in time, but i pray its just not a case of shading. I don't think the term "White people" would proper to a race that doesn't identify itself based primarily on skin color, but rather nationality. Things like "White People and Black people" I would assume are specific to faulty if not primitive Earthlings. Not sound as if I'm exempt of the species, but I'd like to think that at least in fiction such ideas don't exist as no good has ever come of them. When I referred to pale, I simple meant of a lighter tone, not necessarily albino while refraining from using other derogatives.

[_OM_]

...Pre-COIE, it was actually pretty much established that there were Black folks on Krypton, but they stayed on their own island, Vathlo. Post-any Crisis, who knows?

[Alex L]

You would think, this is a perfect opprotunity to denounce the idea that only pale skin people existed on krypton, or that Kryptons enviroment developed its humanoid like race with very little to no sunlight thus paler skin people coming to inhabit it.

Discuss.
---

I'm still reading the catch up stuff, but feel free to mention whatever you like regardless of spoilers.

I... can actually picture that.

A more Occam's razor explanation, to me at least, is that Kandor is just one city from the entire world that was Krypton.

If Brainiac were to abduct Osaka, for example, 99.99999% of the people there would be Japanese.

[Kage Kisaragi]

Yes but I would imagine that the Kryptonians didn't live separately based on color of skin, but by city/nation. When the Kryptonians of New Krypton speak of themselves, they either refer to their race "The Kryptonians!" which seems to imply all of them regardless of variety, or as "Kandorians!" which implies to acknowledge some form of patriotism. So if there were different varieties of Kryptonians I'd think them moving to Kandor or other places on krypton wouldn't cause others to harbor negative feelings. Also since they are of such a evolved social culture, I would think the idea of separatist behavior would be laughable if not out right primitive in their eyes.

[Mat001]

There's no functionality explaination. It's just like it is in real life. Different people of different skin color and in the case of Asians, differences in facial structure. Unlike Pre-Crisis continuity, there appears to be no Vathlo island situation. Krypton and New Krypton apparently does not have racisim amongest it's own people. It does have different caste systems known as guilds. The Science Guild, the Military Guild, the Labor Guild and the Artists Guild. The Labor Guild is at the bottom and made up of people who do a lot of manual labor. The people in this Guild are made up of different appearences, so there is no favortism there.

[Retro315]

There's no functionality explaination. It's just like it is in real life. Different people of different skin color and in the case of Asians, differences in facial structure. Unlike Pre-Crisis continuity, there appears to be no Vathlo island situation. Krypton and New Krypton apparently does not have racisim amongest it's own people. It does have different caste systems known as guilds. The Science Guild, the Military Guild, the Labor Guild and the Artists Guild. The Labor Guild is at the bottom and made up of people who do a lot of manual labor. The people in this Guild are made up of different appearences, so there is no favortism there.

That's not to say that darker skinned Kryptonians didn't "originally" hail from Vathlo Island, which was located in the Equatorial region of Krypton ... but for the purposes of not having old 1950's and 60's style rhyme and reason (or Kryptonian segregation) that's by today's standards embarrassing, I'm pretty sure they just shuffled them all together in a big Kryptonian melting pot sort of scenario.

One of Superman's new soldiers in his command is a dark skinned Kryptonian ... another is a woman ... etc ... I guess Democratic Party Presidential candidate rules apply (I say with my tongue in cheek).

Of course ... I still have questions about Kryptonian absorption of sunlight and which color skin would be more effective for soaking up sunlight ... white things reflect ... black things absorb ... green things ... ah, well ... ultimately a green-skinned Kryptonian would wipe the floor with any other.

[Mat001]

Apparently skin color doesn't matter regarding absorption. So far, it's just time spent under a yellow sun, over anything else. It took all the Kryptonians three days or so to charge up enough to have all the powers. On the third day they had flight.

[CYOTI]

Yes but I would imagine that the Kryptonians didn't live separately based on color of skin, but by city/nation. I think they separate themselves more on caste than on geography and appearance. Once you go beyond caste it's Kryptonian or alien.


Also since they are of such a evolved social culture, I would think the idea of separatist behavior would be laughable if not out right primitive in their eyes. They are not an evolved social culture. Their rigid caste system, which borders on slavery/serfdom and their xenophobia and arrogance shows they are just as messed up as humanity just with better technology.

[CBikle]

That's not to say that darker skinned Kryptonians didn't "originally" hail from Vathlo Island, which was located in the Equatorial region of Krypton ... but for the purposes of not having old 1950's and 60's style rhyme and reason (or Kryptonian segregation) that's by today's standards embarrassing, I'm pretty sure they just shuffled them all together in a big Kryptonian melting pot sort of scenario.



The Vathlo Island deal was introduced in the early 70's when DC was going through its "relevance" phase and the stories from this period that worked or kinda worked, gained iconic status like Denny O'Neill's GL/GA run and those that didn't work, really didn't work and became embarrassing curiosities.

The tone of the Vathlo Island stories were pretty much anti-segregation.

It should also be noted that Superman owns a machine that can make white people into black people.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k153/urania235/LoisLaneCuriousBLACK.jpg

[Kage Kisaragi]

Then I would like to see more stories on Kryptonian life styles, and culture.. I would like to see just why the 4 part caste system exist, and its rules and regulations.

Can someone go to another caste or is it something you have to be born into?

The soldier caste system didn't seem as if it was of lower stock or anything.

I guess I could understand why some would value the science guild above all, if their sole purpose was to provide a better life for all kryptonians. Perhaps I'm starting to see the flaw in this system after all.

[_OM_]

The Vathlo Island deal was introduced in the early 70's when DC was going through its "relevance" phase and the stories from this period that worked or kinda worked, gained iconic status like Denny O'Neill's GL/GA run and those that didn't work, really didn't work and became embarrassing curiosities.

The tone of the Vathlo Island stories were pretty much anti-segregation.

It should also be noted that Superman owns a machine that can make white people into black people.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k153/urania235/LoisLaneCuriousBLACK.jpg

...This story wasn't as crappy as one might guess from the cover. It actually gave us a story that even four decades later most writers are scared frackless to write: a story about racism where black folks are shown to be just as racist as white folks. Lois gets herself changed temporarily to a black woman after a neighborhood black civil rights leader tells her to bugger off because she, being whitey, can never understand what it means to be black. In the end, after confronting Superman with the question of whether he'd still be going after her if she couldn't change back, she winds up convincing the black activist that his own racism was wrong when he receives a blood transfusion from her and he finds out after she turns back to a white woman again.

Side note: The first time Lois used the machine, she turned herself into an Asian woman. Go figger.

[Mainline]

Kage, whether Rao, Kandor, Zod, or Superman's parents... I think it's pretty clear that Krypton is one of the most fluid aspects of the Superman myth. Although we'd like to see that kind of stuff as scifi fans, Superman geeks, etc. there's really little incentive to go that deeply into culture or build a facade that detailed or convincing... when you don't have the pages and pages to do so like a novel writer, when you- as a writer- don't own the property, and when the fans/editorial/etc. will all change hands in another handful of years. To the extent that Kandor represents Krypton it WILL be rewritten in the not too distant future.

Very few popular scifi conceits can hold up to intense scrutiny and those that do need a Asimov/Crichton-like apologetic to get it done... we just have to accept that most comic scifi is even more transient... this Kandor is a sand castle.

[Mat001]

Then I would like to see more stories on Kryptonian life styles, and culture.. I would like to see just why the 4 part caste system exist, and its rules and regulations.

Can someone go to another caste or is it something you have to be born into?

The soldier caste system didn't seem as if it was of lower stock or anything.

I guess I could understand why some would value the science guild above all, if their sole purpose was to provide a better life for all kryptonians. Perhaps I'm starting to see the flaw in this system after all.

The guilds are based on those who pick their chosen profession, but if you do not choose, it will be chosen for you. Jor-El was from the science guild and Lara was from the labor guild. The labor guild had to serve all the other guilds. Zor-El was from the artists guild, while Alura was from the science guild. Zor-El became a scientist when he married Alura, while Alura had to contend with Zor's artistic background.

Clark finds the process to be wrong based on his upbringing on Earth and has voiced his opinion to Alura. Recently, Clark addressed this again when he was able to negotiate Alura's release when members of the labor guild took her hostage. Clark pointed out that the labor guild needed to have a vote on the council, something they never had and since this is New Krypton, now is the time to consider changing things.