The Supergirl From Krypton (translation)

[jducoeur]

Okay, I'm a geek. There's no denying it. One evidence of my geekitude is the fact that, despite my absolute incompetence when it comes to any human language other than English, I have a mild knack for ciphers, at least easy ones. In particular, I am incapable of looking at a substitution cipher without solving it: all I need to do is look at it for a few minutes, draw up a quick chart, and within a few minutes I'm able to simply read the language, fairly quickly. (Why I cope so well with alternate alphabets and so badly with alternate vocabularies, I'm not sure.)

Anyway, in the course of catching up on my comics, I just got to Superman/Batman #8. Naturally, less than a week after talking with alexx_kay about the fact that they had managed to leave my favorite character of all time, Supergirl, permanently dead, they appear to have brought her back. She comes back speaking Kryptonese, of course, and of course "Kryptonese" is a substitution cipher. (Almost all comic-book alien languages are.) And as previously stated, I can't look at one of these without solving it.

So in case anyone actually gives a damn, here's a translation of the Kryptonese text in that issue. Those who have the issue can follow along. The extremely rough plot is provided for those others who are curious.

All text is Kara's lines, except as marked otherwise.

(Kara wanders onto the docks late at night, naked as a jaybird, and is confronted with some dockworkers.)
Page 9.1: Where am I? What planet is this?
9.4: Don't --
9.5: -- touch me!

Page 10.1: No! Stay-- -- back!
(She accidentally breaks one of them, and runs off.)
10.2: How, how did I do that?
10.3: I don't understand -- what's happened to me?!

Page 11.2: Where am I? Father -- where have you sent me?!

(A car hits her, and smashes.)
Page 12.6: This is wrong -- all wrong!

(She begins blowing up police cars with heat vision, and is getting increasingly scared.)
Page 13.2: Help me!
13.4: Have to run --
(Liftoff.)
13.5: -- away?

(She gets to the top of a building, and is confronted by Batman.)
Page 14.1: This is a nightmare.
14.2: I must still be asleep on the --
14.3: oh!

Page 15.1: Keep away from me! I don't want to hurt anyone else!
(She accidentally blows up a blimp, and flies away. Superman to the rescue.)

(Huddled up in the greenhouse penthouse of some office building.)
Page 18.2: Father why have you forsaken me?
(Batman shows up, with some Kryptonite to subdue her.)
18.4: I told you once! I don't want to hurt you!

(In the Batcave. She wakes up, really pissed off.)
Page 20.2: You! What did you do to me?!
20.3: I won't be held captive -- by you or anyone else!
20.5: Kal: Stop this. Calm down. We're only here to help you.

Page 21.1: Kara: You... you speak Kryptonese.
Kal: I do. The question is... why do you?
21.2: Kara: I... speak this language because I come from the planet Krypton.
Kal: Really. Krypton was destroyed years ago -- and everyone on it.
21.3: Kara: Not everyone. My uncle was head of the science council. He tried to get them to understand the planet was unstable, but they wouldn't listen.
Kal: Your... uncle?
Kara: Yes. My father's brother...
21.4: Kara: He built a spaceship -- a prototype intending to send his entire family, but I think time ran out. My father was also a scientist. He believed his brother and built a similar, but larger spacecraft, following the same coordinates.
Kal: Your uncle. What was his name?
Kara: Jor-El. He and my aunt Lara had a son, Kal-El.
21.5: Kal: I am Kal-El. Jor-El was my father.
Kara: Then... I made it. I made it! But... you were just a baby, and... oh, I don't care... I have family here. I'm Kara. Kara Zor-El.

Comments

[juuro.livejournal.com]

Alternate alphabet, as in a substitution cipher, is a one-to-one mapping.

Alternate vocabulary, as in a different language, is an ambiguous, context-dependent many-to-many mapping, even if we are dealing with languages closely related so that differences in grammar can be safely ignored. (As an example, I group English, German, French, Swedish all in the same basket.) When grammars have significant differences, the problem is aggravated and compounded.

Comic book alien languages

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

As you've stated, they're *all* substitution ciphers. I've cracked Kryptonese, Interlac (spoken by the Legion), and Mr. Mind's native tongue. At one point, you could send for a free translation card by sending a SASE. I did, with the letter written in the language I was asking for a translation for. (I still needed the 'Q','X' and 'Z'. :D)

Marvel comics also had a 'secret code' which "can only be read by someone with a Marvel Comics decoder or cryptographic skills worthy of the C.I.A." It took ten minutes, the codeword is "Spiderman". :D

It's not unusual for cyber-geeks to be code-breakers. We're trained in encoding information after all. The other oddball skill that's not uncommon is locksmithing. Richard Feinman used to pick locks in his off time. Allegedly there's an annual lockpicking contest at the CIA between the codebreakers and the agents in the field. The codebreakers usually won. :D

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

I've been doing some half-hearted research into SCA period codes, cyphers and espionage with the idea that Someday (tm) I will be able to teach a class on it...

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I have a vague memory that mermaidlady has a museum exhibit art book that contains an Elizabethan cipher in it. And I've got a few resources myself, that I can try and dig up.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Hey! cool! Thanks!