Why does kryptonite weaken superman

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Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why, exactly, does kryptonite hurt Superman? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 9 months ago. Active 1 year, 10 months ago.

Viewed k times. Improve this question. It is to solar radiation what carbon monoxide is to oxygen. Must be why Earth rocks turn to poison for Earthlings instantly on Mars. It's really really mean. Related: What actually happens to Superman when he is exposed to kryptonite? Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Kryptonite is a transuranic element or compound we are never told which for certain whose inherent radioactivity inhibits the absorption of high-energy solar radiation which Kryptonians use to power their feats of superhuman ability.

EFFECTS Not only does it prevent the further absorption of solar energy, it displaces, painfully, said solar energy with kryptonite radiation causing the immediate loss of a Kryptonian's superhuman abilities within seconds and can, depending on the purity and exposure length, lead to the death of a Kryptonian by a form of "radiation poisoning".

Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. Thaddeus Howze Thaddeus Howze k 22 22 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Im wondering if the radiation is more a vacuum to supermans stored solar energy, then it is a blocker. Since he feels "drained" every time he's around it. Here's the hilarious thing about kryptonite.

The whole idea is that they come from Krypton, right? That's just logical enough, though, right? Later comic book stories and films have come up with ways to explain why Superman would learn his origins earlier in his life, but generally speaking, if you just land on earth as a baby in a rocketship, how in the world do you know where you cam from?

Not only that, but Superman's early years were very forward-thinking. There was not a whole lot of time spent on Superman's past. For many years the only way a character could have access to kryptonite in the DC Universe was to have a piece of this original sample, or to somehow fetch it from the remains of Krypton itself. A variety of kryptonite types similar to the pre-Crisis range appeared in the Pocket Universe created by Legion of Super-Heroes villain the Time Trapper.

Superman, while visiting the pocket universe, used this universe's native Gold Kryptonite Superman found he was immune to the kryptonite that existed in that universe to remove the powers of General Zod and several other Phantom Zone criminals who had destroyed all life on that world; Superman then executed the criminals by use of green kryptonite, as punishment for the villains' crime.

Two post-Crisis stories have featured artificially created red kryptonite. The first kind was a kryptonite-like, but non-radioactive rock that seemingly stripped Superman of his powers although the source was actually Mr. Mxyzptlk 's magic in the story "Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite".

The second, in the Justice League story "Tower of Babel", was created by Batman as a way of stopping Superman without killing him, should this prove necessary. It was stolen by Ra's al Ghul , who quickly put it to use.

It is a "relatively stable" isotope of kryptonite, which, like its pre-Crisis version, disrupts Kryptonian cells in an unpredictable way. In the story, it turned Superman's skin transparent, resulting in his "solar batteries" overloading.

In the s, jewel kryptonite made its reappearance in modern continuity in DC's The Silver Age limited series. As shown in the Action Comics Annual 10, Lex Luthor put a piece of red, green, gold, and blue kryptonite into Metallo. Some issues of Superman have indicated the mechanism by which green kryptonite may hurt Superman. Like Hanna-Barbera 's Birdman , Superman in some ways is a living solar battery; his cells absorb electromagnetic radiation from stars like Earth's sun.

Kryptonite's radioactivity possibly interferes with this process, driving the energy out of his cells in a painful fashion. Long term and high-level exposure to green kryptonite can be fatal to Superman.

In post-Crisis comics, long-term exposure to kryptonite is known to have the same effects on human beings as exposure to Earth-born radioactive materials; these effects include cancer. Lex Luthor discovered this inadvertently after acquiring a ring with a green kryptonite fragment set in it to provide protection against Superman—Luthor first lost the hand he wore the ring on to cancer and later had to have his brain transferred into a new, cloned body after the cancer was found to have spread throughout his original body.

It is speculated that kryptonite may be located in a hypothetical " island of stability " high on the periodic table , beyond the currently known unstable elements, in the vicinity of atomic number The transmutation of Earth's kryptonite could be explained by the acceleration of its natural atomic decay under this theory. The different forms of kryptonite may represent multiple allotropes or isotopes of green kryptonite, or a more exotic variation in composition based on currently unknown particles.

Under normal chemical nomenclature the -ite suffix would denote a compound e. Thus the name implies that kryptonite is a compound and not an element something supported by the "tar" analysis in the third Superman movie. This issue was normally overlooked in the pre Crisis comic books, but a non-canonical game sourcebook did refer to kryptonite as "the common ore of the super-actinide Kryptonium, an unusually stable transuranic element, whose atomic number is believed to be One thought about the source of the -ite ending is found in astronomy wherein a meteoroid is a rock floating in deep space, a meteor is one streaking through the sky, and a meteor ite is a rock lying around on the ground after falling from the sky.

The -ite ending could have been used to denote chunks of Krypton that had fallen to Earth. The aforementioned atomic number was reinforced by the first season episode of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman entitled "The Green, Green Glow of Home," where it was stated that kryptonite was "periodic element " and that it "emits an extremely high band radiation that does not seem to affect humans".

The substance itself had no formal designation until the very end of the episode, where Lois Lane 's suggestion that it be named "kryptonium" was eschewed in favor of Clark Kent's "kryptonite" due to the fact that it initially appeared in the form of a meteorite.

In Superman Returns , an additional piece of kryptonite is found in a rock fragment, once more in Addis Ababa. Lex Luthor steals it from a Metropolis museum and uses it in his quest to create a new kryptonite landmass.

During the extraction process, the rock appears to hold a significant amount of green kryptonite. The scientific name for the rock was displayed on its case, 'Sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with fluorine'.

Though more likely, the researchers who performed the analysis of the fragment did not perform a core sample test. They may have only chipped off the outer layer in order to test it.

Amazingly, in April it was announced that geologists in Serbia had found a mineral identified as having the chemical formula sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide [1]. But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and isn't radioactive. The mineral, to be named Jadarite after Jadar , the location of the Serbian mine where it was discovered , will go on show at the London Natural History Museum [2].

In both Superman Returns and its indirect predecessor, Superman: The Movie , Green Kryptonite is shown as effectively removing Superman's powers during the time he is exposed; in the first movie, Superman is nearly drowned while exposed to Green Kryptonite, and in Returns , Superman is brutally beaten by Lex Luthor's henchmen and stabbed with a Kryptonite shard by Luthor. In most versions of the comics continuity, Superman retains his powers and invulnerability to conventional weapons while exposed to Green Kryptonite, although dramatically weakened and in severe pain.

This avoids the logical shortcut which would result if a villain could, for instance, simply expose Superman to Kryptonite and then shoot him with a gun. The comics continuity has consistently held that only exposure to Kryptonite, in and of itself, would be sufficient to kill Superman but his body can reject it before death as seen in Smallville. Green Kryptonite has no short-term effects on humans though strictly in post-Crisis continuity, long-term exposure is apparently lethal to humans, due to radiation poisoning or non-superpowered Kryptonians.

In one early Silver Age story, Superboy built up immunity to specific chunks of Green Kryptonite through repeated non-fatal exposure, as seen in the story "The Great Kryptonite Mystery", Superboy volume 1 58, July This idea was further developed in the Elseworlds series Kingdom Come , when Luthor reveals that the older Superman's absorption of solar radiation over the years rendered him immune to Kryptonite.

In most incarnations, lead blocks the effects of Kryptonite. In the television series Smallville , Green Kryptonite, refined or not, can cause normal humans to mutate special abilities, although an outside catalyst such as a strong electrical charge is usually required.

Although most of these were accidental the mutants were accidentally exposed , others started to refine and take in Kryptonite willingly to obtain its effects. One character named Marsh inhaled liquid Kryptonite to gain superhuman strength. This also gave him temporary Kryptonite radiation, thus causing Clark to be unable to stop him until the "dose" wore off.

In the episode Void when clark is injected with kryptonite,his body rejects it before death meaning it can't actually kill him. Whenever Clark was exposed to it, it caused nearly crippling pain and temporarily removed his powers.

Additionally, it would take some time usually a few minutes after the Kryptonite was taken away for Clark to regain his powers; during this period, he was as vulnerable to injury as a human.

Removes superpowers from Kryptonians permanently; however, in one story, a temporary antidote was developed that negated this effect for a short period of time. For obvious reasons, this variety was little used in Superman stories. It played key roles in the limited series "The Phantom Zone ", as well as in three noncanonical stories, namely the tale Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Additionally, it appeared briefly in the post-Crisis DC Universe , when Superman used it on a trio of Kryptonian criminals while visiting the Pocket Universe Adventures of Superman , Superman v2, Gold Kryponite also made an appearance in The Flash when Superman and the Flash had to race to the end of the universe.

In the mainstream post-Crisis DC universe, it appears that instead of removing Kryptonian super-powers pemanently it causes cellular degeneration and once caused Superman to age at an accelerated rate; however, it is not confirmed if this is true of all Gold Kryptonite because this version was presumably created by the time traveller Gog. Recently, Lex Luthor has stated that Gold Kryptonite like its previous pre-crisis version can permanently rob Superman of his powers stating that it completly destroys the ability for Superman's cells to process solar energy.

Jewel Kryptonite amplifies the psychic powers of Phantom Zone residents, allowing them to project illusions into the "real world" or perform mind control. It was made from what was left of a mountain range on Krypton called the Jewel Mountains it is shown in one comic story to be used by Zod and Ursa outside the Zone in the "real" world as well, to blow up the piece they had and transport themselves back to the Phantom Zone.

So it is probable that any Kryptonian can make use of Jewel Kryptonite as long as they are in close proximity to it. In the post-Crisis Silver Age limited series, a "prismatic gem from the Jewel Mountains of Krypton" was used by the Injustice League to amplify the psychic powers of the Absorbascon , but was not referred to as Jewel Kryptonite.

Also use in the Smallvill e episode Persuasion when Clark accidently inhales Jewel Kryptonite and accidently forces Lois to quit work and have a 'traditional' relationship, Chloe to protect him above all else and Dr. It's a valiant effort that works in the movie, but has no basis in physics. We have theories on how it might be possible to do so, but they all involve wormholes and black holes and other stuff that would probably kill you. If you want to travel forward in time, you just have to go really fast.

If you go fast enough, according to Einstein, time will slow down for you. The faster you go, the slower you age. So if you did a Kessel run like Han Solo--a trip over many light-years in a few hours--you would only experience a few hours while the rest of the galaxy ages 40 years. By flying really, really fast around the Earth, Superman will actually speed into the future, not the past.

In fact, by the time he is done, he might return to find everyone he knew dead of old age. Superman is a time traveler. Before it blew up, Superman was sent to Earth from the planet Krypton-- 50 light years away. A little Kryptonian baby hurtling through space, Kal-El reached Earth in years the nerds disagree on the time.

To travel such a long distance trillion miles--in such a short time, the baby would have to warp the space-time continuum with his speed. Actually, such a speed, 25 times the speed of light, is physically impossible. But if the baby traveled for two years at nearly the speed of light--the universal speed limit--any remaining Kryptonians would be two years older while he only aged three months.

Forward time travelers don't get to make a lot of long-term friends. Superman's weakness was inspired by a real element. Kryptonite, that glowing green rock from the core of Krypton, is one of Superman's few Achilles' heels. Time and again it is a plot device to make the hero human.

In , two British researchers discovered the element that would become the inspiration for this material. William Ramsay and Morris Travers were looking for elements in the helium family when they stumbled upon krypton, a gas that doesn't want to play with any other element. It's too noble for that.

The team later discovered other noble gases, and Ramsay won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. When Superman was created in , the authors Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster named the hero's home planet after the previously discovered gas.

While an oxyanion of krypton could give scientists a reason to actually call something "kryptonite," the gas is simply non-reactive with most other elements.