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Superman: New Krypton Saga Reading Order

Fifteen years ago, The World of Superman was shaken up by a big crossover story arc involving all the Superman titles in what is called The World of New Krypton – more often reduced to New Krypton. Following the events of Geoff Johns’ Brainiac arc and James Robinson’s Atlas arc on Superman, The Man of Steel must deal with the death of his adoptive father and the fact that 100,000 Kryptonians are now living on Earth, seeing the planet as the New Krypton!

To be more specific, as DC Comics’ official synopsis said ‘The Man of Steel learns that a piece of his home planet Krypton survived – the shrunken, bottled city of Kandor! And when the city is grown to normal size, it looks like Superman finally has the connection to his past he’s been missing all his life as thousands of Kryptonians are suddenly able to walk the Earth. But his happiness soon turns to dread as relations between the Kryptonians and humans dissolve, and the two cultures face a massive clash!’

The New Krypton Saga was an ambitious Superman arc co-written by Geoff Johns (in the first part), James Robinson, Greg Rucka and Sterling Gates. It linked the monthly Superman, Action Comics, and Supergirl titles, explored Superman mythos, created some worldbuilding, and introduced several super-powered characters. While the original intention wasn’t for the books to constantly cross over, but rather to interweave them when the story demanded, it is recommended to read the complete saga because of the many references between the titles.

As with many things at DC Comics, The New Krypton Saga started strong, but things didn’t go as planned. Geoff Johns left the title to work on Green Lantern (and his big Blackest Night/Brightest Day storyline), sales declined and editorial intervention led the event to what some consider a less-than-satisfactory conclusion, to say the least. We let you decide on that subject if you agree or not!

With that said, it remains an ambitious story that attempted to redesign Superman’s world, with villains and heroes on both sides. And today, we put out an issue by issue reading order to help you revisit the story!

This article was suggested by one of our readers! Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or write to us with some other suggestions!

What to read before World of New Krypton?

Though not obligatory reading, the following stories introduce back stories, develop characters or some other ideas that have an impact or are explored during the New Krypton Saga.

  • Superman: Last Son of Krypton
    Collects Action Comics #844-846, #851, 866-870, and Action Comics Annual
    – The Brainiac storyline (Action Comics #866-870) is the most important part as it set up the events for the crossover. It is also collected in Superman: Brainiac

World of New Krypton, Collected Editions

Following are the trade paperbacks collecting the issues from this saga. This part, with a little bit more information, has been explored in our Superman Modern Age Reading Order!

World of New Krypton, an Issue-by-Issue Order

Know that if you try to buy those individual issues, there was shield numbering on the cover of each issue to help the readers follow the story between series, reproducing the same system employed with Death Of Superman. The shields were green, and when the shield numbers restarted from zero (at part 3), they were now red. A few issues without a shield are listed below, which you need to read from a story point of view.

Part 1: New Krypton (16 issues)

  • Superman: New Krypton Special #1
  • Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olson #1 (One-Shot)
  • Superman #681
  • Adventure Comics Special featuring The Guardian #1 (One-Shot)
  • Action Comics #871
  • Supergirl (2005) #35
  • Superman # 682
  • Action Comics #872
  • Supergirl (2005) #36
  • Superman #683
  • Action Comics #873
  • Supergirl (2005) #37
  • Superman #684
  • Action Comics #874
  • Supergirl (2005) #38
  • Superman #685

Part 2: World Without Superman (22 issues)

  • Superman: World of New Krypton #1
  • Action Comics #875
  • Supergirl (2005) #39
  • Superman #686
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #2
  • Action Comics #876
  • Supergirl (2005) #40
  • Superman #687
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #3
  • Action Comics #877
  • Supergirl (2005) #41
  • Superman #688
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #4
  • Action Comics #878
  • Supergirl (2005) #42
  • Superman #689
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #5
  • Action Comics #879
  • Action Comics Annual #12
  • Supergirl (2005) #43
  • Supergirl Annual (2009) #1
  • Superman #690

Part 3: World Against Superman (31 issues)

  • Superman: Secret Files 2009
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #6
  • Action Comics #880
  • Supergirl (2005) #44
  • Superman #691
  • Superman Annual #14
  • Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olson Special #2
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #7
  • Action Comics #881
  • Supergirl (2005) #45
  • Superman #692
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #8
  • Action Comics #882
  • Supergirl (2005) #46
  •  Superman #693
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #9
  • Action Comics #883
  • Supergirl (2005) #47
  • Superman #694
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #10
  • Action Comics #884
  • Supergirl (2005) #48
  • Superman #695
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #11
  • Action Comics #885
  • Supergirl (2005) #49
  • Superman #696
  • Superman: World of New Krypton #12
  • Action Comics #886
  • Supergirl (2005) #50
  • Superman #697

Part 4: Last Stand of New Krypton (20 issues)

  • Adventure Comics (2009) #8
  • Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #1
  • Action Comics #887
  • Supergirl (2005) #51
  • Superman #698
  • Adventure Comics (2009) #9
  • Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #2
  • Action Comics #888
  • Adventure Comics (2009) #10
  • Supergirl (2005) #52
  • Superman #699
  • Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #3
  • Action Comics #889
  • Adventure Comics (2009) #11
  • Superman: War of the Supermen #0
  • Superman: War of the Superman #1
  • Superman: War of the Superman #2
  • Superman: War of the Superman #3
  • Superman: War of the Superman #4
  • Superman #700 (aftermath)

More Superman Stories

If you want to read more Superman stories, we of course recommend diving into our Superman Post-Crisis Reading Order, which the New Krypton Arc is part of. The DC Universe was reset following the conclusion of Flashpoint and a younger and brashier Man of Steel was introduced in New 52 (with a decent origin story arc written by Grant Morrison). This period came to an end in 2016 and DC relaunched once again to return the characters to an earlier status quo in DC Rebirth. Superman became the dad of Jon Kent in this era, and then Brian Michael Bendis was put in charge of the character for quite a divisive run. Superman goes into space to live some adventures in the Infinite Frontier era, followed by Dawn of DC…

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