Super-Pets to the Rescue

What with all the talk of assaults, injuries, and fatalities, my last few posts have been too serious. (I was bummed out as I glanced back over them.) We need a break, right? What better way to dispel that gathering, funereal gloom than a discussion of super-pets!

After comics exhausted human sidekicks (Batman had Robin, Flash had Kid Flash, Aquaman had Aqualad, Green Arrow had Speedy), it was inevitable -- superheroes had to have their super-pets. In 1955, along came Krypto, Superboy's super pooch.


The same month brought us Ace the Bat-Hound (ah, to be alive in June 1955).


Three years later, the Legion of Super-Heroes debuted.


If teen sidekicks struck a note with the youthful readership, why not a bevy of them... a veritable legion? In the DC Universe -- a mighty silly place, especially in the '50s -- why not characters like Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl (who, sadly, became Duo Damsel when "one of her three bodies was killed battling Computo the Conqueror")?

Okay, you say, but what's the connection between the Legion and these super-pets? As Wikipedia explains:

Superboy was the featured series in Adventure Comics in the late 1950s. In Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958), he was met by three teenagers from the 30th century: Lightning Boy, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy, who were members of a "super-hero club" called the Legion of Super-Heroes. Their club had been formed with Superboy as an inspiration, and they had time travelled to recruit Superboy as a member. After a series of tests, Superboy was awarded membership and returned to his own time.

Both the Legion and Krypto had Superboy in common. Krypto, as a super being, naturally needed to be part of a super group. Voila -- the Legion of Super-Pets.


With such indelible members as Comet the Super-Horse, Streaky the Super-Cat, and Beppo the Super- Monkey. Beppo the Super-Monkey?


(In the same way that Vincent Price was The Last Man on Earth until a bunch of other people showed up, Superman was the only survivor of Krypton... until his extended family and a Kryptonian petting zoo conveniently -- if not miraculously -- appeared.)

But all was not well. What could be worse than "The Revolt of the Super-Pets"?


The death of a super-pet.


But, fear not, the super-pets are alive and well (at least in cartoon syndication).



If you've read my "Ode to Ben," you know about my predilection for pets. Pets are irreplaceable companions. They center us, sustain us, save us. We each have our Krypto. Our Streaky. Our Beppo (well, at least Michael Jackson had his Beppo).

When everyone seems to fail us. When we're abject, lonely, in need. Who do we look to? Who do we turn to? Our super pets. Our super pets come to the rescue.