Kryptonite Ultimate 10
Lynne Pruskowski
Kryptonite is a fictional material that appears primarily in Superman stories published by DC Comics. In its best-known form, it is a green, crystalline material originating from Superman's home world of Krypton that emits a unique, poisonous radiation that can weaken and even kill Kryptonians. Kryptonite radiation can be transmitted through any element except lead. Thus, Superman has a special lead suit to protect himself from the radiation. There are other varieties of kryptonite, such as red and gold kryptonite, which have different but still generally negative effects.
An unpublished 1940 story titled "The K-Metal from Krypton", written by Superman creator Jerry Siegel, featured a prototype of kryptonite. It was a mineral from the planet Krypton that drained Superman of his strength while giving superhuman powers to humans. This story was rejected because in it Superman reveals his identity to Lois Lane.[2]
The mineral known as kryptonite, not to be confused with the real element krypton, was first officially introduced in the radio serial The Adventures of Superman, in the story "The Meteor from Krypton", broadcast in June 1943.[3] An apocryphal story claims that kryptonite was introduced to give Superman's voice actor, Bud Collyer, the possibility to take a vacation at a time when the radio serial was performed live. In an episode where Collyer would not be present to perform, Superman would be incapacitated by kryptonite, and a substitute voice actor would make groaning sounds. This tale was recounted by Julius Schwartz in his memoir.[4] However, the historian Michael J. Hayde disputes this: in "The Meteor From Krypton", Superman is never exposed to kryptonite. If kryptonite allowed Collyer to take vacations, that was a fringe benefit discovered later. More likely, kryptonite was introduced as a plot device for Superman to discover his origin.[5] On the other hand, Hayde might have mistaken 1945's "The Meteor of Kryptonite" for 1943's "The Meteor from Krypton", as Superman was exposed in the former but not in the latter.[6]
In the radio serial, Krypton was located in the same solar system as Earth, in the same orbit, but on the opposite side of the Sun. This provided an easy explanation for how kryptonite found its way to Earth. During the comics' Silver Age, which put Krypton in another solar system light-years away, much of the kryptonite that came to Earth (along with several Kryptonian artifacts) was explained as having come through the same "space warp" that baby Kal-El's rocket traversed.
Kryptonite was incorporated into the comic mythos with Superman #61 (November 1949).[7] Editor Dorothy Woolfolk stated in an interview with Florida Today in August 1993 that she felt Superman's invulnerability was "boring".[8]
In Superman & Lois, X-kryptonite is only found in Smallville and has a yellowish hue. It gives humans one Kryptonian power, which varies depending on the person, and makes them more susceptible to having a Kryptonian consciousness implanted in them. It also weakens people from the Bizarro World.
Kryptonite is a fictional substance from the Superman comic book series (and subsequent related media). The material, usually shown as having been created from the irradiated remains of Superman's native planet of Krypton, generally has detrimental effects on Superman and any other Kryptonian exposed to it. The name "kryptonite" covers a variety of forms of the substance, but usually refers to the most common "green" form.
Kryptonite was produced from the material of Krypton, when it was destroyed in an explosion. It is usually found in the form of a glowing green rock or metal, but crystalline forms have also made appearances (most notably jewel kryptonite; see Forms of kryptonite below) along with different-colored variants, such as the red form.
Recently, a mining group in Serbia discovered a new mineral, called Jadarite, the chemical composition of which is sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, the chemical formula for Kryptonite written on a case of the substance in the film Superman Returns minus fluoride. The newly discovered mineral was first analyzed by Dr. Chris Stanley, a minerologist at the London Museum of Natural History. However, the 'real' Kryptonite doesn't appear to have anything in common with the film's version other than the chemical formula. The new mineral is white, or pinkish under UV light, hard in texture but chalky in appearance, and made of tiny crystals less than 5 microns in diameter. It isn't thought to possess any of Kryptonite's supernatural powers.
In the unpublished story "The K-Metal from Planet Krypton" a metal fragment from Krypton landed on Earth and giant fragment was approaching blue planet. While giant fragment of it came into close proximity with planet Earth it was making original Superman (Kal-L) as powerful as human , giving him for the first time ever a concept of pain (or at least what Clark himself thought of it), while tiny fragment straight up made him dizzy, while at the same time human scientist that touched it became super-strong with overall better wellbeing. An explanation for that (as well as possible explanation for original Kryptonians' strength, which were portrayed to be able to jump high, run fast and survive crumbling building even on Krypton, in two version and only origins made by the both of Superman's creators in Action Comics #1 and Superman #1, as well as in Newspapers strips series) given by Superman himself was that planet Krypton itself charged him with incredible strenght and now , after spending so much far away from his home planet the effects from its' fragments became negative on him (but positive on humans).
Because that story was never printed officially original Earth-2 Superman never had Kryptonite. Although there was Metalo's gun that was capable of making him phyisically as strong and fast as he was depicted and described in Action Comics #1 , but for some reason it did not interfer with his X-ray vision abilities which he gained somewhere in between Superman #8, 2 years (at least in real life) since Action Comics debut.
Originally, the DC Universe was home to a variety of minerals collectively called kryptonite. The most commonly depicted variety of kryptonite is greenish in coloring, though it was colored red in its first appearance in Superman (volume 1) #61 (November / December 1949). In Adventure Comics (volume 1) #171 (December 1950) the kryptonite shown trapping Superboy was colored purple but acted just like regular Green. Other varieties of kryptonite began to show up frequently beginning in the late 1950s comics, reaching a peak in appearances in 1960s Superman series.
Superman's first encounter with kryptonite did not take place in his comic. It was actually introduced in 1943 on the Superman radio series, as both a plot device and to allow Superman's actor, Bud Collyer, to occasionally take time off. The episode in which it first briefly appeared now exists only as a script, but the substance played a part in at least one major plotline during the course of the program. It was not until 1949 that the comic book writers incorporated it into their stories, as both a convenient danger and weakness for Superman and to add an interesting element to his stories.
Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel did write a story in 1940 that involved a piece of Krypton, referred to as The K-Metal from Krypton, which robbed Superman of his strength while giving humans superpowers, but the story was never published.
The amount of kryptonite shown to fall on the Earth in Silver Age stories is too large to have been evenly distributed from the explosion of any reasonably sized planet, so the usual explanation for the large amount that made it to Earth was that the kryptonite and other materials from Krypton were dragged to Earth by the experimental warp drive that brought Superman to Earth. A similar explanation has been used in many subsequent continuities, such as the 1990s television series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Superman: The Animated Series, the graphic novel Superman: Birthright and the 2000s television series Smallville(which saw a massive amount of the material arrive with Kal-El's ship, devastating Smallville with a violent meteorite shower).
It was possible to artificially create green kryptonite, which the rogue genius Lex Luthor performed on various occasions. However, he rarely needed to do so, as kryptonite was so abundant that many ordinary criminals kept a supply as a precaution against Superman's interference. In a 1971 storyline, all known kryptonite on Earth was transmuted into iron (and the existence of kryptonite on the moon was classified for decades), but kryptonite could still be synthetically manufactured by a variety of known and unknown means, and additional material left over from the destruction of Krypton would continue to fall from space. Still, this storyline achieved its intended purpose of greatly reducing the use of kryptonite in Superman storylines.
Kryptonite emitted a radiation that had an adverse effect on Kryptonian natives such as Superman, though different varieties of kryptonite had different effects. It was assumed for a long time that kryptonite radiation was harmless to non-Kryptonians, but occasional isolated incidents were reported where it had sporadic effects on humans.
After the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths and writer John Byrne's subsequent revision of the series in 1986, the status of kryptonite was vastly changed. In the post-Crisis universe, only one form of kryptonite was naturally occurring: the green variety. As revealed in the World of Krypton mini-series the abortive detonation of a doomsday device by the Black Zero terrorist group set off a slow chain reaction within Krypton's core causing the native elements of Krypton to fuse together into a new radioactive element.
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