Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Krypton's Atmosphere

Originally in many of the early Superman stories, it was stated that there was something about Krypton's "unique atmosphere" that made sure that Kryptonians had no superpowers on Krypton. As the writers got a better and better sense of who Superman was, they stopped talking about this. A vestige of this remained however: up until Kandor was regrown, it had to have its own air supply pumped in by tanks.

The unique elements that composed Krypton's atmosphere which negate powers might be the explanation to account for why non-magic, non-red sun, and non-kryptonite means to eliminate Superman's powers: they may incorporate these elements in them. Incorporation of these elements may the secret of Mongul's Containment Cubes and the serum Lex Luthor used to steal Superman's powers in the first Luthor/Brainiac team-up.


Is there a permanent X-Kryptonite?

There have been various cases of mortals that obtain Kryptonian superpowers permanently. These include Comet the Superhorse, who was given powers by Circe, who was a Kryptonian that used Kryptonian science to duplicate "magic." Also, the scientist Van-Zee created a serum that gave his beloved Sylvia Kryptonian-style superpowers.

Supergirl once invented X-Kryptonite, an isotope of Green K which temporarily gives superpowers to non-powered beings. Is it possible then, that Circe and Van-Zee, both scientists, knew about and created a "permanent" version of X-K?


Element-152

Is it possible that Supergirl created a synthetic version of Hawkman's anti-gravity element, and the Legion rings are powered by Nth Metal?

Some metals, such as Marvelium, Sivanium, and Suspendium (only found on Earth-S) only exist in the "Earth" they originated from. However, the anti-gravity metal that gave both Earth-1 and Earth-2 Hawkmen their flight harnesses were found on both earths, implying that there was something "non-location" centered about it, unlike say, Kryptonite, which can only come from the destroyed planet Krypton and could never exist unless Krypton exploded. Thus, it would stand to reason that there's no big "trick" about creating some more.