What I Don't Understand about Kryptonite.

#1 Posted by Icoop (310 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

Isn't it just a peice of Krypton? Why then is it poisonous to kryptonians, I mean, they used to live on a giant sphere of Kryponite right? I can understand that maybe it makes a kryptonian weak, like he's back on his home planet where kryptonians have no powers, but lethal? This never made anysense to me. Explanations?

#2 Posted by GL Bertron (3708 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

Doesn't matter much any more. Supes has taken in so much yellow sunlight now that it doesn't really kill him anymore, just weakens him.

#3 Posted by Methos (40100 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

Krypton wasn't always Kryptonite, just like Superman didn't always have his Super powers...

The explosion that destroyed Krypton changed the atomic structure of the rock, turning it Radioactive.

Kryptonite is most harmfull to Kryptonions, but it is also deadly to humans over long periods of time.

at the moment in the DCU as far as i am aware there are only 4 types of Kryptonite, Green (standard type), Red (rarer but still found here and there), Black (extremely rare) and Blue (only found in Bizarro's dimension.)

this can be explained as these were different types of geology on Krypton (basically they're versions of different earth stone, Basalt, Marble, ignious... you get the picture) and whe the explosion turned these stones radioactive is changed them to have different properties, so marble became green K, obsidian became black K and so forth.

thats how i understand it anyway.

M

#4 Posted by Icoop (310 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

Okay, so it's basically just an irradiated rock, like uranium or radium, except changed that way after the explosion of krypton.

#5 Posted by Methos (40100 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

yeah that's it :)

M

#6 Posted by Prodigal Son (3471 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

I've also heard it speculated that the reason it affects Kryptonians so badly is because of the nature of their cellular makeup. Kryptonian physiology is apparently must like a solar battery, soaking up solar radiation and storing it. Under a yellow sun, the stored radiation grants the super powers we all know and love, whereas red sun radiation does not.

So, the radiation given off by kryptonite is somewhat akin to solar radiation, and a kryptonians cells just start soaking up and storing the radiation. This process replaces the stored yellow sun radiation with kryptonite radiation, which also happens to be harmful to a kryptonian.

Under this model, other types of radiation (from uranium, etc.) are not of a type that is absorbed by kryptonian cells. This might explain why kryptonians are usually immune to "normal" types of radiation.

I don't think any of this is part of the DC canon however, so take it all with a grain of salt.

#7 Posted by Thee Arch Angel Micheal (443 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

There was a terrorist group called BLACK ZERO, way before Kal-EL's parents even. They planted a bomb in Krypton. After it exploded, it slowly poisened Krypton and eventually the planet became unstable and .......BOOOM!
Post Edited:2007-03-30 13:27:07

#8 Posted by super spider (1 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

there are seven types of kryptonite not four

Green Kryptonite takes away the powers of superman and injures him whilst in close proximity of it.

Gold kryptonite would permanently rob Superman of his super-powers were he ever to be exposed to its radiations.

White Kryptonite is deadly to all plants and fungi

Red Kryptonite has unpredictable effects which last 48 hours

Blue Kryptonite is only deadly to bizzaro's

Jewel Kryptonite enhances psychical abilities.

Black Kryptonite can split or reintegrate personalities

All of these where in the comics except for black

#9 Posted by Methos (40100 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

as far as i know there are only 4 types of K in continuity at the moment...

Green, Red, Blue and Black... the rest had been retconed out of existence.

Black has only appeared in smallville at the moment, i can't actually think of a time when it appeared in the comics.

as for the others... i remember something, somewhere about pink Kryptonite... baring in mind this was a long time ago... were talking around the time of 'Streaky the Super Cat'. Pink K made superman drunk... i think the exact wordings were like he had 'drunk too much champagne'... don't hold me to that one because i can't remember the full storyline off by heart.

M

#10 Posted by Fourpower (R.I.P) (2021 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

Super-Spider says:

"Black Kryptonite can split or reintegrate personalitiesAll of these where in the comics except for black"

Smallville doesn't count.

#11 Posted by Cosmic Sentinel (3743 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

A nice touch from the latest film Superman Returns is that the kryptonite is from Addis Ababa (where it's from in the '78 film) and that it is listed in the museum as being a pallasite meteorite. This kind is crystalline in nature and greenish.

http://www.meteorlab.com/METEORLAB2001dev/pallas.htm

#12 Posted by Intervener (453 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

Icoop says:

"Isn't it just a piece of Krypton? Why then is it poisonous to kryptonians, I mean, they used to live on a giant sphere of Kryponite right? I can understand that maybe it makes a kryptonian weak, like he's back on his home planet where kryptonians have no powers, but lethal? This never made any sense to me. Explanations?"

They didn't have powers on their plant because there was a red son instead of yellow. So they couldn't absorb the energy from it.

#13 Posted by Cosmic Sentinel (3743 posts) - 6 years, 1 month ago - Show Bio

They do metabolise red sunlight, it just doesn't give them powers. Although it is implied that heat vision is the unused red/infra-red light in Superman's system. Sort of a waste product.

#14 Posted by Superkitty (1057 posts) - 5 years, 11 months ago - Show Bio

Cosmic Sentinel says:

"They do metabolise red sunlight, it just doesn't give them powers. Although it is implied that heat vision is the unused red/infra-red light in Superman's system. Sort of a waste product."

Good thing he doesn't have any incontinence problems, I don't think they make any Depends for that region :)

Kryptonite

When Superman's native planet was destroyed, pieces of it became irradiated by the explosion, the result is Kryptonite. Contact with, or even proximity to Kryptonite can cause injury or death to Kryptonians.

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