History Literature / TheLastDaysOfKrypton

** One Kryptonian is named Nam-Ek, after the planet Namek from ''Manga/DragonBall''.

* AdaptedOut: In the comics, the Phantom Zone hosts scores of colorful prisoners convicted of crimes of varying severity. Here, Zod and his followers are the only inmates at the time of Krypton's destruction.

''The Last Days of Krypton'' is an origin story for ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'', written by Creator/KevinJAnderson in 2007. Drawing from over 70 years of Superman mythos, it gives readers a look at Kryptonian society before its planet explodes.

--> ''[I]t was hard to tell whether he followed fashion or set it.''
* {{Demonization}}: Zod purposely paints The Brain Interactive Construct (given the more sinister name Brainiac by Zod) as a Silver Age CardCarryingVillain in order to use the possible threat of an alien invasion as an excuse to build power.

--> '''Mauro-Ji:''' I say he should draw up his plans, document his ideas. Centuries from now, when and if the sun does become slightly more unstable, our descendants might be glad we had such foresight.
--> '''Pol-Ev:''' That does seem prudent. Let the historical record show that we did indeed plan ahead.

* KangarooCourt: Zoe sees his war crimes tribunal as this. [[VillainHasAPoint He's not entirely wrong]], Zod is denied council and is not permitted to cross-examine his accusers, [[LampshadeHanging something he openly points out during the proceedings]]. When he is finally permitted to speak in his own defense, he remains silent in protest.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Zor-El proposes that the new Kryptoniain Council make its decisions by a majority vote rather than requiring a unanimous consensus. This progressive and democratic idea lets the six selfish, boneheaded reactionaries on the council completely ignore their five more reasonable colleagues (including Jor-El) due to having a majority vote, [[spoiler:leading to Krypton's destruction.]]

* OfficialCouple: Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van.

** Zod has two notable examples. First, when Brainaic's ship arrives, Zod thinks it is Donodon's people come for revenge. [[spoiler: Since Nam-Ek killed Donodon on Zod's orders, he was right to be concerned.]] Later, this is his initial reaction when Jor-El reports to Zod that his space-monitoring system has found something (a comet). Zod had honestly not expected any further legitimate threats from space.

* OnlySaneMan: Poor Jor-El is the only one trying to focus on the big picture, namely, the possible ways Krypton could end, than who's in charge.

** On Aeryth's suggestion, Zod takes advantage of the resentment many of the noble families younger siblings. Under the original regime, each families' firstborn would receive positions of power, while the youngers be reduced to empty luxury. Before Kandor's abduction, one Koll-Em attempted to launch a coup against his older brother Shor-Em in Borga City. Zod wins the support of the younger siblings by offering them status they would not have gained otherwise.

* SiblingRivalry: Inverted: Jor-El and Zor-El are both brilliant scientists and engineers, mostly specializing in different fields. They have a great deal of respect for one another. Jor-El thinks his brother is a bit brash and impulsive (he's not wrong) and Zor-El considers his brother to be a bit naïve and idealistic (he's not wrong, either).

* AdultFear:
** One resident of Kandor [[LateToTheTragedy returns from a business trip to find that all four of his daughters were inside the city when Brainiac abducted it.]]
** Jor-El and Lara delay shooting their son's rocket into space until the last minute due to dreading the idea of their baby being trapped alone in space, with no way for them to find him, on the off chance Jor-El is wrong about the impending cataclysm.

* HufflepuffHouse: The only Kryptonian cities to actually appear in the novel are Argo City, Borga City, Kandor, and Kryptonopolis (which is uninhabited until halfway through the novel). Important characters from the lakeside district of Orvai and the mining city Corril appear, but the cities themselves don't. A city named Ilonia is briefly mentioned three times, but receives no description.The rest of the planet's cities (of which there are at least seventeen), towns and villages are named and only mentioned in passing to describe how the main characters; efforts are influencing people elsewhere.

* TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed: Throughout the course of the story, Jor-El discovers not one, but ''three'' threats that could spell the end of Krypton. First, he was afraid that their sun, Rao, could go supernova. Then it was pressure building up in their planet's core. Then an impending comet collision. [[spoiler: But in the end, it's none of these things. The Ruling Council decide to throw Jor-El's Phantom Zone projector into a giant hole created to deal with threat 2, despite Jor-El's repeated warnings that the projector is actually a self-contained singularity. Said singularity proceeds to ''eat'' the planet's core, causing the loss of mass to destabilize and destroy the world.]]

* NotSoDifferent:
** When recruiting No-Ton, Zod thinks that he is nothing like Jor-El aside from their shared scientific aptitude, believing No-Ton will be a more loyal and unscrupulous accomplice to his plans. He's proven wrong when some CharacterDevelopment leaves No-Ton disillusioned with Zod. No-Ton also agrees with Jor-El's concerns about various environmental factors threatening Krypton, and the two scientists even become good friends by the end of the book.
** Zod and his rival Tyr-Us are more alike than either of them will admit. Both of them feel partially entitled to power due to each being the son of a previous head councilor. Both genuinely believe that their goals and methods are good for Krypton, when they're really endangering the planet. Both can be ruthless and bitter grudge-holders who won't listen to reason from anyone they dislike. And both of them have somewhat decent relationships with one of the OnlySaneMan El brothers, although Zod and Jor-El eventually turn against each other.

* HomeworldEvacuation: Jor-El gives No-Ton and the other councilors who believe his warnings about a cataclysm plans for a space ark. Despite their best efforts, [[RealityEnsues building a fleet of evacuation ships from scratch in just three days is impossible,]] so they focus all of their efforts on finishing just one ship in the last seven hours. [[spoiler:They don't finish it in time.]]

* NotSoDifferent: When recruiting No-Ton, Zod thinks that he is nothing like Jor-El aside from their shared scientific aptitude, believing No-Ton will be a more loyal and unscrupulous accomplice to his plans. He's proven wrong when some CharacterDevelopment leaves No-Ton disillusioned with Zod. No-Ton also agrees with Jor-El's concerns about various environmental factors threatening Krypton, and the two scientists even become good friends by the end of the book.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Lara Lor-Van