In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, we look at a question by reader Ben M., who wanted to know when Superman first met another survivor of Krypton!

Famously, Supergirl joined Superman on Earth in 1959's "Action Comics" #252 (by Otto Binder and Al Plastino)...

Notice how he said that he was the lone survivor from Krypton.

That's what Superman was throughout the late 1930s and all of the 1940s, but Supergirl was NOT the first survivor of Krypton that Superman met. Heck, she wasn't even the second or third survivor that Superman met! In fact, he had actually met thousands before her!

The first time Superman met a survivor of Krypton was in 1950's "Superman" #65 (by William Woolfolk and Al Plastino), which was just a few months after Superman learned about Krypton period in "Superman" #61 (in a story written by Bill Finger and drawn by Al Plastino).

There, Superman met three criminals who had been put into suspended animation as punishment by Superman's dad, Jor-El, and then sent into outer space to drift for the rest of their lives.

Their names were Kizo, Mala and U-Ban. Superman successfully turned them on each other and they knocked themselves out and Superman put them back into suspended animation and send them back into outer space.

1955 brought us Krypto in "Adventure Comics #210"...

And 1958 brought us the Bottled City of Kandor in "Action Comics" #242...

But hey, at least Supergirl beat Beppo by a few months!

Thanks for the question, Ben! If anyone else has a suggestion for when something debuted in comic book history, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!