/co/ - Comics & Cartoons

>How does exactly kryptonite work on Superman?

However the writer decides it does. There's no solid rules besides "kryptonite hurts Superman". Different colors, being nullified by water, those are optional.

Didn't Superman once give Batman a Kryptonite bullet to kill him with? Wouldn't that imply the substance itself it harmful to him?

>>1015955

I'm pretty sure in later eras kryptonite, the element, can bypass his durability and pierce him yeah. It really just depends on which era and what writer.

It varies per writer, yeah.

I'd say it's the radiation that affects him, just like it affects regular humans if they're exposed to it long term, so Superman would be equally vulnerable to regular bullets at the time as he'd be to a kryptonite bullet.

A bigger mystery is how rapid it works. Kryptonite can cripple Supes nigh-instantly (to the point where a Kryptonite bullet fired at him can disable his invulnerability quickly enough to pierce his skin instead of bouncing off), with so much as a few minutes of exposure being enough to kill him. Superman replenishes his energy with solar radiation, but are we to believe that in between brushes with kryptonite he can soak up as much as he did in his entire life until his first encounter with kryptonite? As far as we know, he does not have an upper limit in how much solar radiation he can absorb. A throwaway line in Kingdom Come mentions he'd absorbed so much that kryptonite had become pretty much ineffective, and All-Star Superman took in so much he ascended into some higher form of being. Yet every time someone blasts him with kryptonite, he's down for the count in moments. Either kryptonite should become more effective every time it's used (draining him faster than he can recover afterwards), or it should take much longer to drain him to the point where he can be hurt.

>>1015900

>How does exactly kryptonite work on Superman?

It doesn't.

SuperIntellect+Superspeed+Microscopic vision+Superhearing=Kryptonite wouldn't even get near superman.

Even if we are talking about radiation it must be some fast as fuck radiation.And superman sees it.Getting closer.And doesn't do anything.Not a thing…Then all of a sudden he starts screaming and writhing in pain, putting his hands in a way to shield himself from the deadly element, telling the one who holds it that he has won…almost like a man letting a child win.

I think he is just fucking with people.

>>1015900

Let's run a comparison:

Red sunlight robs him of his extraneous powers and weakens him to the level of a normal human with the same muscular density. He feels sluggish and weak because he's not used to actually using his muscles

Green kryptonite exudes a radiation that either does the same (perhaps by having absorbed red sun energy?) or physically deteriorates his cells at an accelerated rate for some reason (kryptonite does cause cancer in humans), depending on the author.

In the hands of competent writers, he is also vulnerable to electricity (his cells are still full of water) and magic

Other things to consider:

Did kryptonite, being chunks of the exploded planet Krypton, have an impact on the lives of Kryptonians before its destruction? Are all pieces of planet Krypton kryptonite, or is it a particular mineral found on Krypton?

Are the various colors of kryptonite all variations of the same mineral (ruby and sappire are both corrundum, for instance) or different minerals?

And just how did so fucking much kryptonite land on Earth when Krypton is in galactic sector 2813, many light years away?

If the Kryptonian race is spacefaring, as implied by some writers as well as the Supergirl TV show, why are there so few survivors of the planet's death?

Why does red sun radiation push out the yellow sun radiation that he's accumulated when nighttime does not? Red light is weaker than yellow. And why do recent writers forget that kryptonians are fucking beast under suns of higher spectrums like blue and white stars (Supergirl TV is guilty of this at least)?

And why are Daxamites vulnerable to the overwhelmingly common element lead?

>Did kryptonite, being chunks of the exploded planet Krypton, have an impact on the lives of Kryptonians before its destruction? Are all pieces of planet Krypton kryptonite, or is it a particular mineral found on Krypton?

Cue in that picture from Scarlet Spider where he's glad they're all gonna get cancer before they die.

>And just how did so fucking much kryptonite land on Earth when Krypton is in galactic sector 2813, many light years away?

Suppose Krypton explodes moments after Superman's shuttle is off the blast radius and sends chunks everywhere around. Some of them actually catch up with the rocket and both of them (rocket and large amount of chunks) go through a worm hole that exits in the milky way.

>If the Kryptonian race is spacefaring, as implied by some writers as well as the Supergirl TV show, why are there so few survivors of the planet's death?

Same reason only a handful of saiyans survive planet Vegita's destruction despite being invaders. Because the plot demands it and writers only find out they've written paradoxical things after the stories are published.

>>1015973

>In the hands of competent writers, he is also vulnerable to electricity (his cells are still full of water)

But he has a forcefield remember?

>>1015973

>And why are Daxamites vulnerable to the overwhelmingly common element lead?

Why are humans?

>>1015969

>are we to believe that in between brushes with kryptonite he can soak up as much as he did in his entire life until his first encounter with kryptonite?

See, I always interpreted it as his body hasn't so much absorbed a constantly building and stockpiling a well of solar energy, but his capacity to absorb and store it increased over time. He can potentially go over that limit and absorb a shit ton at once (empowering him), but the amount he levels out at would go up over the years.

But I don't think the comics handle it this way, and it's always just been my own misunderstanding of it.

Isn't that stuff bad for humans as well, since it's radioactive and whatnot?

>>1016633

Yes.

One thing I was always curious is that since Kryptonite is supposed to be rare how does Luthor keep getting it? Maybe he makes a synthetic version that's not as strong but can still hurt superman?