Kryptonians and their powers are one of the toughest aspects of the DC Universe. Through Kal-El/Superman, we know that the Kryptonians are god-like in their abilities when given a strong enough power source (our yellow star). Overall, however, the Kryptonian's history has been varied and subject to change. I suggest DC Comics codifies it (within reason) using the following history.
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Sometime in the far distant past, the Kryptonians were a proud and strong race of bipedal humanoids. They were a scientifically advanced species, curious about the universe in general. There arose within their ranks a leader who was charismatic and persuasive. He first got the youth on his side, and then slowly inculcated the military to his way of thinking. Before anyone realized it, he had made himself into their dictator.This Hitler-esque leader (the obvious choice would be to make him a distant House of El person, or related to Zod, but I wouldn't go either route if I was DC), espousing genetic superiority, then turns his eyes to two goals -- conquering nearby species/planets and making the Kryptonian race genetically superior to all others.
Scientist work feverishly for him. They make huge strides in genetics, getting improvements in speed, durability, and, especially, longevity out of the existing Kryptonian DNA. As the military advances through the galaxy, they encounter and conquer other planets, including Czarnians (which, as an infant race, already has strong regenerative abilities, which the scientists take and splice into Kryptonian DNA), the Daxamites (which are extremely hardy and powerful), etc. (DC Comics would need to determine which specific races the Kryptonians affected and/or conquered-- I don't have a comprehensive list of all the races, as they do.) Pretty soon, the "modern" Kryptonian is starting to be seen; one with vast strength, speed, and durability, various other abilities, but especially long life.
And, because they took abilities from these races and added them to their own genetic makeup, this shows why Kryptonians are superior to Czarnians and Daxamites, among others, on the hierarchy of powers and abilities. Any one race may be superior in one area (like the Czarnian's ability to regenerate, or maybe Daxamites are actually inherently a bit tougher or stronger), but no one race has the whole array of powers at the same levels.
This also allows the DC creators to decide which races the Kryptonians met and could not conquer, putting those races' abilities on par with Kryptonians. For example, I suggest the Martians, due to having similar overall powers, but also mental abilities and shapeshifting. Maybe the Kryptonians ran into the New Gods, and they were repulsed by the combined might and ingenuity of Highfather and Darkseid (explaining even more why Darkseid hates "the Kryptonian" so much).
Other races could owe their existence and abilities to the meddling of the Kryptonian scientists. During this phase of the Kryptonian evolution, the scientists also play god a bit with uninhabited planets, seeding them with the potential for humanoid life. Also, on each planet they conquer, some amount of interbreeding occurs as certain Kryptonians are intrigued by, and fall in love with, the native populations. On others, they simply experiment with the existing population to see what they can get out of them. They are ruthless in the goals and heedless of the wake of fear, envy, and anger they are leaving in their wake.
Over a vast amount of time, the Kryptonians are successful in their goal. They evolve their DNA so that every member of the race has great strength, durability, and many other powers and abilities, with some variation due to genetic combinations. Some can fly, while others can heal more rapidly, and still others can shoot energy from their bodies. Their bodies are vast solar cells and batteries, and the more powerful the solar radiation they can absorb, the more powerful they become. These changes are at a genetic level, so their offspring (fewer and fewer with each generation) inherits these abilities, distilling them and making them even stronger with the combinations. The Kryptonians are feared, hated, and envied by most other races, but especially those who are conquered.
As they reach the goal of genetic superiority, the longevity they create has the side effect of fewer children being born and a longer perspective. The long-dead first leader has been, over time, replaced with leaders who question Krypton's role as universal conqueror and slowly turn the race toward science and law and peace.
Determining that they have become too powerful, but also realizing that they have made a lot of enemies out of the races and planets they have conquered and manipulated, the Kryptonians move to a planet near an older red sun. This allows them to retain about half of their formidable powers, which, along with their scientific might, will dissuade most races from attacking them, but also lowers their power level to a point where other races will actually believe that the Kryptonians are not the conquering race to be feared and envied any more.
During the next millenia, the Kryptonians further look like the race we know from the comics-- cold, sterile, scientific. A race that is, for the most part, apart from the rest of the universe, and okay with that. Because of their longevity, they have very few children and the race is dying out. Very few of the Kryptonians are worried or care about this. It is during this period where Jor-El begins watching the planet Earth and marveling at the newly formed human beings and their zest for life. They serve law and anyone who breaks the law is punished severely. The highest crimes that are punishable by removal to the phantom zone are those relating to insurrection, rebellion, and sedition.
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This history change to the DC Comics universe helps explain much of the universe as they have always written it, once codified and expanded by the appropriate Editors at the company:
- Why the Kryptonians are so powerful, and how they got that way.
- Why there are so few Kryptonians when their planet explodes.
- Why there are so few children.
- Why they keep out of the universe's issues.
- Why so many other races are in awe of, and fearful of, Superman when they learn he is Kryptonian.
- Where the other races fit into the hierarchy of powers and abilities. Basically, Martians, Kryptonians, New Gods, (and others that the DC editors deem necessary).
- Why and how other races and powersets came to be, through manipulation of the early Kryptonians.
- Allows DC Comics to then flow this information into a "powers hierarchy" so that readers have a better understanding of where someone fits into the power level scale, with Superman at the top.
- Allows them to clean up Power Girl and Supergirl's back story. Both can now be a Kryptonian with slightly different powers, as defined by the genetic anomalies that provide variation in the Kryptonians. Or, maybe one is the result of the seeding of the planets that the Kryptonians did, which included Earth and creates Kryptonian-like genetic mutations once every thousand years or so.
- Helps to explain why there is such power diversity on Earth, as opposed to most other planets in the DC Universe.
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