When first introduced, Superman’s home planet of Krypton was a fairly notional place. It was originally presented in very little detail, and served as little more than a backdrop for the unfolding drama of the lone scientist Jor-El who, unable to prevent the destruction of his world, launches his only son, Kal-El, in a small rocket ship bound for Earth. Readers were shown very little else of the planet, its culture or its history; it was simply a place to be destroyed so that Superman’s story could begin.

For many years, Krypton fared no better. It was handled in a haphazard manner by a number of different creators, all working at cross-purposes and without a central unifying vision.

Almost twenty years after the planet was first introduced, though, all of that changed. A strong editorial vision, with an eye toward consistency and invention, led to drastic improvements. Over the course of decades a small number of creators codified the history, culture, language and geography of the fictional planet.

Krypton, which in its first appearance was not even named, in time became a full-blown, well-realized constructed world, one to rival the best science fiction and fantasy worlds. In an act of editorial short-sightedness, this world and its history were completely erased by fiat, and the Superman line of comics has never recovered. But there may still be hope. . . .

World-Building

While the concept has not risen to the attention of Encyclopedia Britannica or the Oxford English Dictionary, Wikipedia defines a “constructed world” as “a  …