Kandor

Q: What does the Bottle City of Kandor mean to you? -- @SpaceCrook A: Never before in the history of this column has there been a question that made me feel like I was about to write an essay for a fifth-grade civics lesson. Level with me here, Crook: If I do really well on this week's column, is there a chance I could win a competition and get to meet the Superman Emergency Squad? Even if I don't have the chance to get a selfie with Van-Zee, though, Kandor makes for a pretty interesting topic. It's one of the only elements of superhero comics I can think of that's interesting and distracting, a source of fun adventure and a constant reminder of failure, a plot point that a universe had to get rid of, and that everyone seemed to want to bring back as soon as they could, all in equal measure. In other words, well, it's complicated.

If there's one thing we've learned from our years on the Internet, it's that there's no aspect of comics that can't be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of ten. And since there's no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we're taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Ten Lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. This week, with the help of CA contributor Benito Cereno, we're bringing you the ten best Superman creations of the best Superman writer ever, Otto Binder. From Krypto to Supergirl and even all the way to Lucy Lane, they're all here!

Since its first appearance at the dawn of the Silver Age in 1958, the Bottle City of Kandor has been one of the most memorable elements of the Superman mythos, functioning as both a link to Superman's home planet and a reminder that no matter what he does, he can't bring the world of Krypton back...