Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I've got some sort of stomach bug, and am a bit feverish, so forgive me if I am making even less sense than usual. It's got me wondering what Superman feels when he is exposed to kryptonite. I mean, it's like radiation poisoning, right? Except he doesn't seem to be vomiting or losing his hair and teeth, and it's not giving him cancer or anything -- it's killing him outright. The reaction is instantaneous. He often holds his stomach, as though he is suffering from instant food poisoning and his guts really hurt, or even as though you or I might do if we had been shot in the abdomen.

How does it work? Is it affecting him on a molecular level? When humans handle radioactive material or asbestos, the adverse reactions aren't instantaneous: it takes years of progressive illness and litigation. What's that darn rock doing to him to cause him so much pain?

I can of have a slight stomach ache an now I know what it is!  There must have been Kryptonite in my Saturday afternoon fried eggs!

Whenever Superman has been shown to die from Kryptonite, he turns green; this happened during "Death of Superman" and also to Krypto during "Whatever Happened to..." This may indicate that after a certain point, the krypton-matter of the body of Kryptonians starts producing Kryptonite themselves, which is why after a certain point Kryptonite poisoning is irreversible.

Superman has never super-upchucked, which means that Kryptonite's effects aren't like a "sickness." Usually he falls to his knees and collapses, which may mean that Kryptonite causes paralysis and muscle lock; it may be for this reason that Superman doesn't "run away" or use his Super-breath at the first sign of the appearance of Kryptonite.

In the "Five Legion Orphans" (ADVENTURE #357, 1967) Mon-El describes mild lead sickness after his lead potion wears off (a weakness very similar to Kryptonite): he describes himself as feeling sick and "dizzy." Perhaps the reason Superman doesn't run away from Kryptonite is because of this nausea.

BIRTHRIGHT described what it was like to be around Kryptonite in first-person detail (paraphrased): "It was like my blood turned to battery acid and all the gravity I ignored came down on me at once..."

JLA #4 (1997) describes some of the symptoms of Kryptonite poisoning in more detail: they include delerium, hallucinations, and confusion.

To my reckoning, Kryptonite seems to act as a very powerful allergen. It seems to turn Superman's own superfast supersystem against itself.

I've tended to think that his skin absorbs radiation and never gets rid of it.  Because the radiation is green, Superman is shown to be green.  I know -- it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I never thought he was actually turning into Kryptonite.


The lack of spew could indicate that the artists are just being nice to us.

Well, it hurts, that's for sure.

As for why he grabs his stomach, I think it's just a time-honored bit of stage direction to show when someone's not well.  Remember Shatner's standard gesture for pain on "Star Trek" was to pull his elbows in toward his belly, hold his hands out and bend forward with a grimace on his hammy puss.  Sure its kind of over the top, but we knew exactly what feeling he was trying to convey, didn't we?

The other common "pain" gesture in comics is to hold your throat like someone's choking your air off.  I guess it could just as easily have gone that way.  Anyway, it's gotta be hard for an artist to draw a script direction like, "Superman feels pain everywhere in his body at once."  You've got to make some kind of choice, haven't you?

If that's the case, why is it Kryptonite radiation affects Superman, but he is immune to other types of radiation?

One of my favorite all time Superman covers is one where he holds a camera, flying and filming a nuclear explosion. This one always made me laugh because it really is something to wonder about: how DO they get those "mushroom cloud" stock footage from nuclear explosions?

The "Superman obtains radiation through his skin" explanation is interesting, though, as he obtains rays and uses them for superpowers. This may be why Kryptonite is dangerous: the specific kind of radiation may be dangerous to him.

If exposure to Kryptonite IS like radiation poisoning that only Superman is vulnerable to, the "effects" of Kryptonite poisoning would be identical to radiation poisoning. True, Superman has never lost his hair or nails as would be common to radioactive exposure, however, this can be explained in light of the fact that neither his hair nor nails grow under a yellow sun. Thus, as they don't grow, the radiation has nothing to interfere with.



Maybe. Although it wasn't even hinted as happening "off-screen," the way Englehart indicated that Mantis was a prostitute without coming out and SAYING it, for instance.

I always thought of Kryptonite radiation to being akin to some other radiation---it's often not the initial radiation that kills you, but the secondary particles it forms upon collision.

    Kryptonite radiation probably passes right through us, like neutrinoes do, without even pausing. But when they meet an "invulnerable" Kryptonian, much harder than the objects around it, it splits into seconary particles that are deadly to the Kryptonian.

    Which would explain why the Silver Age Kryptonians weren't vulnerable to Kryptonite until they were rendered super-powered.

---Al

Ahhh, a very, very interesting idea. One obvious hole that has always existed whenever someone tries to account for why Kryptonite is so deadly, is this: why is it that Kryptonite is only deadly to Superman and others when their powers are in operation? Kryptonite is harmless, for instance, to those inside Kandor, the City in the Bottle.

If Kryptonite is only made dangerous on reaction with superpowered matter, it makes sense that it ought to be dangerous to Kryptonians only and harmless to the rest of us: they pass right through normal matter, but not to the superdense kind. For this reason, it is hard to accept the explanation present in SCIENCE OF SUPERMAN for how Kryptonite works: it is a radioactive element whose specific radiation is such that Kryptonian cells are not opaque to it. If this is true, it would affect Kryptonians whether they were powered or not.

One of the unintentionally funniest Kryptonite moments has to have been in one of the Superman/Batman team ups in WORLD'S FINEST, where Superman casts off Batman for a mysterious "Powerman."

BATMAN: "Kryptonite is DEADLY to Superman, but not to NORMAL people like US!"

...he says, as he pushes his way past his giant Penny and Chess Set to his car shaped like a bat.

If Kryptonite poisoning was like normal radiation poisoning, one would think it wouldn't get better right away once you took away the Kryptonite.

To me, it seems more akin to an allergic reaction, albeit much more severe.

Genius, pure genius....I wonder what makes me think so... :D

I like the idea of kryptonite as some kind of allergen, because as a nut allergy sufferer I can see how that would work. If you so much show me a walnut or a hazelnut I start to get uneasy (well, okay, that's psychosomatic), and if they come into contact with my skin, I get all blotchy. And as for eating any, well, the reaction is instantaneous, and pretty spectacular too. I even change colour, just like Superman does when he is exposed to kryptonite, except I go bright red.

Unfortunately for me, nuts exist in much greater supply than kryptonite. I always hate it when someone offers me a box of delicious-looking Belgian chocolates, because they are completely out of bounds to me.

Okay, I guess reading the whole thread before posting would be a good idea. :P  Let's just say that great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ. :)

:lol:

Well a few facts:
Its called Kryptonite Fever (K-fever), so I guess it causes an awesome rising of a Kryptonians body temperature.  He is burning up alive.
Fever causes sweating and dehydration. Sufficient dehydration can be deadly to him too.
Lead blocks the deadly effects.
Distance decreases the effects of K-fever.
Kryptonite is a transmuted element from whatever element it was before Krypton blew up, possibly a side affect of a nuclear reaction just as the new element trinitite was created at Trinity , New Mexico.
So symptoms: high fever, sweating, dizziness, paralysis, weakness of limbs, partial or total nullifying of his powers.

Perhaps the key is deeper than simple radiation physics. Cosmic string theory, i am thinking.  The vibations of the cosmic strings affect gravity's affect on Superman when near K. so he can't fly away. The vibrations of the cosmic strings in k cancel out the positive affects of the yellow sun radiation which would normally allow him to recharge his powers.

Only lead and distance stop green k.   Lead must be very close to Kryptonite on the vibration scale so as to block the deadly rays.  

Normal a-bomb radiations can be blocked by enough thick cement or steel or earth , as well as lead. But K rays can be blocked by lead.

I think if K is out in the open and stationary and Superman is ready for it he can feel it from a distance before it paralyzes him . As he gets closer to it gets "hotter"(more painful) like a normal human does when putting his hand near a burning stove top.

It's unlikely to be a virus or bacteria that causes k radiation fever but its possible. Perhaps its a symbiote of the mineral. It exists on K, but it thrives on Kryptonian flesh. When Superman comes near the  virus senses his presence and migrates to him on the microscopic level and infects him with a transmutation virus that slowly turning his flesh into green K. The virus now grows enough to replicate. The result of k fever is a green superman. Perhaps like the Andromeda Strain , the virus is a silicon based life form!
this is all just my wild ramblings. No proof

Why don't normal people get hurt by K? because their cells are not living solar batteries like Superman's which make him able to absorb sunlight and so more vulnerable to absorbing the vibrations from Green K.

So this is all just guesswork on my part. Don't take me too serious.
Who believes in the unified field theory and cosmic strings anyway? :wink: