Warner Bros. has just released the second (and unfortunately final) season of Krpyton on Blu-ray and DVD. In the show’s first season, present-day Earthling Adam Strange traveled back in time to the planet Krypton to warn Seg-El—the future grandfather of Superman—of a pending attack by time-traveling super-villain Brainiac. If this “Devourer of Worlds” managed to destroy the planet, causing Superman to never be born, the Earth would be doomed. However, at the time, Kandor City was already distracted by a religious and political war that was going on—an underground rebellion known as Black Zero had formed against those in charge. As the season came to a close, Brainiac had finally arrived and started his attack on Kandor City. Dru-Zod, the future son of Lyta-Zod and Seg-El, had also traveled back in time to stop Braniac, but he had his own ulterior motives, desiring to rule over Krypton. He had joined Black Zero, rising up the ranks, while awaiting Braniac’s arrival. Meanwhile, Seg-El’s grandfather Val-El, who was presumed dead, turned out to actually be alive, and was rescued from the Phantom Zone by Dru-Zod; Jax-Ur revealed to Nyssa that she was in fact just a clone of the original Nyssa; and Doomsday escaped containment. During the big final showdown, Seg-El managed to trap Brainiac in the Phantom Zone, but he was pulled in as well. Dru-Zod destroyed the Phantom Zone gateway, trapping them both in there, and then seized control of Kandor City as well as most of the other Kryptonian City-States, declaring himself the leader. When Adam returned to Earth, he discovered a ruined city, with a giant statue of Zod.
The second season of Krypton picks up 6 months later, as Zod continues to expand his empire. The others believe Seg-El is dead and don’t want his sacrifice to have been in vain. They have been forming a resistance on the Kryptonian moon of Wegthor, one of the few areas out of Zod’s control. However, Zod is currently building a fleet of ships to attack the moon, and has also sent troops to the Outlands to find Doomsday, which he hopes to weaponize to crush the rebellion. Meanwhile, Adam has also returned, and is looking for a way to rescue Seg from The Phantom Zone. In the Phantom Zone, Seg is confronted by Braniac, who is plotting to use Seg to escape. And elsewhere on this planet arrives the crazy bounty hunter Lobo, who has his own score to settle with Braniac.
The second season starts off a little slow and overly-complicated. On Krypton there is all of this political intrigue as the resistance and Zod try to amass their armies and prepare for the upcoming battle. There is this question of who is loyal to who, and this is in constant flux—people on both sides of the fight are willing to sell out their own side for their own personal reasons, and this causes some confusion. On Colu, there is also some confusion as to what is going on with Braniac—is he really there, or just in Seg’s head, or a little bit of both? The crazy and crass Lobo adds a lot of humor to the series early on in the season—the character was even supposed to get his own spin-off, but that series was canceled along with Krypton.
For much of this second season, it feels like Seg-El is in his own separate story, and this Seg-El/Branianc storyline gets quite repetitive after a while—he’s gone, nope, now he’s back, etc. I enjoyed the season a lot more once Seg-El became a part of the main resistance storyline. This was the most interesting part of the season for me—seeing this group come together (and also experience some divisions thanks to some rogue members) as they try to find a way to beat Zod or take on the seemingly-unstoppable Doomsday. In the show’s first season, it seemed like Seg-El’s best friend Kem just disappeared after a while, so it was also great to see him return this season, taking an active and important role in the resistance.
As for this season’s villains, as I stated earlier, I think Brainiac overstayed his welcome, and I think Lobo will be divisive—people will either find him really annoying or absolutely hilarious. This season we also get an interesting flashback to see how Doomsday was created, which differs from his comic book origin story. But as for the main villain, I continue to find Dru-Zod to be a very interesting character. In his mind, he is truly trying to do the best thing to secure the future of Krypton, even if that means brainwashing and/or killing many of its citizens in the process. And when you have someone like that who wholeheartedly believes that what they are doing is right, there is just no reasoning with them.
Overall, I thought the season got a lot better as it moved along, ultimately building to a stellar, exciting, action-packed final two episodes that felt reminiscent of Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi—if the series had been able to produce episodes like these earlier on in the season, it may not have been canceled. While the season does wrap up most of the storylines, there is one that is left hanging, which was a set up for the now non-existent third season. However, with a show like this, we ultimately know where characters like Jor-El and Kal-El end up, so it’s not a huge cliffhanger.
Warner Bros’ Blu-ray release provides excellent picture and sound. The picture looks crisp and clean, capturing all the details of the action, explosions and effects. This certainly did not feel like a low budget series in those final 2 episodes of the season. The audio track also provides clear dialogue as well as an immersive experience. The 10 episodes are evenly split across two discs, which are housed in of a standard multi-disc HD keepcase with a cardboard slipcover. Inside is also the redemption code for an HD digital copy of the episodes redeemable via Vudu. The second disc also contains two bonus features—a short 3-minute discussion of the series with executive producer David Goyer, and a longer 38-minute featurette on DC TV villains. The latter has already appeared on four other WBTV/DC Blu-ray releases.
What’s Included:
-
Episodes: (7:15:36)
- All 10 episodes of the second/final season:
Disc 1: “Light Years From Home”, “Ghost in the Fire”, “Will to Power”, “Danger Close”, “A Better Yesterday”
Disc 2: “In Zod We Trust”, “Zods and Monsters”, “Mercy”, “Blood Moon”, “The Alpha and the Omega” - 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, French
- Digital HD copy of the episodes redeemable via Vudu.
- Villains: Modes of Persuasion (38:05)
The cast and creators of various DC TV series, including Gotham, Krypton, The Flash, Arrow & Supergirl, discuss the rationale and pathos behind the various shows’ villains, and how these characters are often the heroes of their own stories. Participants include Supergirl executive producer Robert Rovner, Krypton executive producer David Goyer, Gotham executive producer John Stephens, licensed clinical psychologist Andrea Letamendi Ph.D., Gotham staff writer Seth Boston, Arrow consulting producer Marc Guggenheim, Arrow producer Oscar Balderrama, The Flash executive producer Todd Helbing, and Gotham actors Robin Lord Taylor (“Oswald Cobblepot”), Cory Michael Smith (“Edward Nygma”) & Ben McKenzie (“James Gordon”). - The Fate of Superman (2:58)
Executive producer David Goyer talks about Superman’s lineage and who might be the parents of Jor-El. He also discusses Seg-El’s moral quandry, and whether he believes General Zod and should help him stop Braniac and prevent the destruction of Krypton, but at the same time also prevent his own grandson and Earth’s savior from being born.
Digital:
Extras:
Final Thoughts:
The second season of Krypton starts off pretty slow and confusing, but builds to a very strong and exciting conclusion. The series was canceled after two seasons, but this second season does provide some level of closure to the storylines while also setting things up for more. The show looks and sounds fantastic on this Blu-ray release, but the bonus material is minimal—just one short interview with the EP and a DC Villains featurette that has already appeared on four other Blu-ray releases. The release still comes recommended for fans of the show, or of Superman lore in general.
