The Kryptonite Chronicles (Part 2 of 5): Altered States

In the first installment of the Kryptonite Chronicles, I took a look at the primary colors of Kryptonite, most of which resulted from Krypton's explosion or were altered by other cosmic phenomena (such as transformative "space clouds"). In part two, the focus will be on man-made alterations or derivations....by far the largest of the five categories.

First Appearance: Action Comics #261 (1960)

History: Seeking an antidote for the effects of Green Kryptonite, Supergirl accidentally created a new variety that, while harmless to her, granted superpowers to her cat Streaky.

Effects: As stated, X-Kryptonite does not affect Kryptonians, but grants temporary superpowers to Earth lifeforms instead.

First Appearance: Superman #140 (1960)

History: As Bizarro and the forces of Bizarro World began an invasion of Earth, Superman focused the "duplicator ray" (the same device that created Bizarro) onto a deposit of Green Kryptonite. A new "imperfect" form of Kryptonite resulted, which was harmless to Superman and other superpowered Kryptonians, but deadly to Bizarro creatures. Naturally, the Blue Kryptonite turned back the hostile army of Bizarros, and actually proved fatal to Bizarro-Supergirl (who'd just been created in this very issue).

Effects: Causes weakness and eventually death for all Bizarro creatures (both superpowered and non-superpowered) within range of its radiation. Blue Kryptonite has no effect upon superpowered Kryptonians or humans.

First Appearance: Action Comics #310 (1962)

History: Shortly before Krypton's destruction, a time-traveling criminal named Jax-Ur altered a chunk of the planet's Jewell Mountains.  As he planned, Krypton's explosion further altered the chunk into a new form of Kryptonite that Jax-Ur and his fellow Phantom Zone criminals could use against Superman.

Effects: Amplifies the psychic powers of Kryptonians in the Phantom Zone, allowing them to remotely cause explosions, project illusions, or perform mind control outside of the zone.

First Appearance: Jimmy Olsen #80 (1964)

Effects: As an "imperfect duplicate" of standard Red Kryptonite, Bizarro Red Kryptonite triggers bizarre behavior or radical transformations in Earth humans, and not superpowered Kryptonians.  The effects are non-lethal and last for 48 hours. Each piece of Bizarro Red-K causes a unique effect that cannot affect the same human the same way twice.

First Appearance: Jimmy Olsen #94 (1966)

History: Created by the villainous Mr. Nero.

Effects: Magnetically "clings with unbreakable force" to all substances originally from Krypton while emitting the same deadly radiation as Green Kryptonite.

First Appearance: Action Comics #350 (1967)

History: This rare Kryptonite isotope was stolen from a mineral collection of socialite Carter Hagen by a gang of criminals.

Effects: It's potent radiation will kill a superpowered Kryptonian within minutes instead of hours.

First Appearance: The Brave and the Bold #175 (1981)

History: Created by the villain Metallo to affect humans instead of Superman.

Effects: By slowing down the rate of Green Kryptonite's particle emissions, the "slower" rays affect humans the same way Green Kryptonite affects superpowered Kryptonians.

First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #84 (1985)

History: Kryptonian criminal Zo-Mar arrived on Earth with a mysterious card that could bend the will of others to his own. Curiously, Zo-Mar did not gain superpowers on Earth, but did later when the card was taken from him.  Superman deduced that the card, unknown to Zo-Mar, was laced with a mutated form of Kryptonite.

Effects: Temporarily robs any superpowered Kryptonian of their power when in close proximity to the card.

First Appearance: Adventures of Superman #511 (1994)

History: When a villain named the Cyborg Superman blasted the Eradicator with Green Kryptonite, the energy passed through the Kryptonian entity and struck Superman instead. Instead of weakening Superman, it restored his powers (which had been severely diminished following his "death").

Effects: Restored the ability of Superman's body to absorb solar energy, but with a price. Kryptonite-X caused Superman to absorb so much solar energy that his body mass and super powers expanded beyond his control.

First Appearance: Supergirl (vol. 4) #79 (2003)

History: In an alternate timeline visited by Supergirl, Pink Kryptonite is shown to temporarily turn Superman gay.

Effects: Temporarily changes heterosexual superpowered Kryptonians into homosexuals. Whether the opposite effect is true is unknown.

First Appearance: Supergirl (vol. 5) #2 (2005)

History: Given to Lex Luthor by Darkseid (who presumably created it).

Effects: Splits superpowered Kryptonians into two separate beings, one good and one bad.

First Appearance: Superman/Batman #46 (2008)

History: An enchanted moon-shaped piece of Kryptonite is found, with an interlocking round piece found later on.

Effects: The moon-shaped piece affects Superman similar to the effects of Marijuana, which is canceled out when the round piece is united with it.

History: Various villains and evil scientists have created simulated versions of Kryptonite.

Effects: Effects of synthetic Kryptonite vary widely. Some have a lesser effect than natural Green Kryptonite, while others have had a much more powerful effect.

History: Capable of transforming a Green Lantern's thoughts into reality, their powerful rings (on occasion) have been used to emit rays of simulated Kryptonite.

Effects: By precisely duplicating the radioactive wavelengths of Green Kryptonite, the Green Lantern's Kryptonite rays can be just as powerful and painful to superpowered Kryptonians as those from natural Green Kryptonite. However, the effect can be dispelled by breaking the Green Lantern's concentration, or (when such a rule was in effect) interposing anything yellow between the beam and the Kryptonian.

Stay tuned for The Alloys, part three of the The Kryptonite Chronicles!

Comments

[Marionette]

The volume listings for Supergirl miss a few. The black kryptonite is from vol. 5 and pink kryptonite would be vol. 4.

Also, the history given for Bizarro red kryptonite is the same as for blue kryptonite, although it cites a different comic.

And is there any evidence that X-kryptonite affects any creature other than Streaky? It might just give orange cats super powers.

[Mark. Engblom]

Thanks for the corrections, Marionette. The repeated history for Bizarro Red Kryptonite was an error I'd missed, so thanks for the catch. I must have left it there as a placeholder until I could find the history for that variety (which I obviously didn't). If anyone can shoot me a short capsule history of Bizarro Red K, I'd appreciate it.

As for X-Kryptonite, I'm not sure if it ever affected any other creatures..but if it hasn't, I guess you COULD say it only gives orange cats superpowers!

[ShadowWing Tronix]

Are you people kidding me about the Pink K? And what about Major Disaster's "K-Crystals", that messed with Supes' brain when inhaled? (From the first Radio Shack comic.)

[John Nowak]

I truly hope that Pink Kryptonite is a sly jape on the part of mine host, but after Black Goliath's funeral in Civil War, I find myself quite capable of believing it actually got published.

[DIane]

You know, if I were gay, I think I'd be seriously offended by pink kryptonite. And just how, exactly, did they demonstrate the effects? On second thought, don't tell me.

[PAUL SAETHER]

Why would the Bizarro invasion be stopped by Blue K?

If it was deadly to them they would WELCOME it surely, and go ahead to meet their doom...

...There again, why would Bizarro get upset because he believed Superman had kidnapped baby Bizarro - wouldn't he think that that was a good thing?

Ah - but if he thought Superman had done a good thing, that would be a reason to get revenge...

You know, sometimes, those Bizarro stories made very little sense...

[John Nowak]

In the Bizarro Jimmy Olsen story in "Amazing Transformations," Bizarro Jimmy is shown to be an ineffective reporter for the Daily Planet, because he reports on stories like "People throw garbage away." In other words, the assumption is that Bizarro Jimmy follows the "Man Bites Dog" rule to find stories. Bizarro Jimmy finds it unusual that people throw garbage away; therefore he reports on it.

However, this fails to take into account that Bizarro newspapers would print ordinary stories everyone already knew. Bizarro newspapers should print "Dog Bites Man" stories. And therefore, Bizarro Jimmy should non-report non-News; meaning he reports news.

Bizarro stories can be considered elaborate Boolean equations in which arbitrarily selected terms are negated.

It just ruins the whole concept for me.

[suedenim]

"Bizarro stories can be considered elaborate Boolean equations in which arbitrarily selected terms are negated."

I think the key to enjoying Bizarro (and something frequently *not* done with modern stories, to their detriment) is not to think like that.

IMO, everything about Bizarros is imperfect - *including* their imperfections! "Bizarrothink" isn't just a matter of making every single thing its opposite, but picking and choosing what's funniest, while not ignoring the central concept.

White Kryptonite has always seemed a strange outlier to me, and potentially a greater weapon for bad guys to focus on than endless attempts at obtaining or synthesizing the "kill Superman" varieties. Massive crop destruction? Deforestation? I suppose scaling would be the problem, though....

Re: Pink Kryptonite, it was "for real," but basically, IIRC, just used for a quick joke, just a panel or two, and not meant to be taken very seriously. I think the essence of it was the "modern, edgy" Supergirl relating her adventures in a Silver Age-y timeline, which was as goofy as the Weisinger stuff, but with a few modern twists here and there.

Re: Jewel Kryptonite. Never read the story (stories?) about it, but it seems every "List of Kryptonites" I've ever read refers to it with an asterisk, that it was merely a hoax of some sort, not a "real" Kryptonite?

[suedenim]

(Oh, and it strikes me that "People throw garbage away" would be big news on Bizarro World!:

"Us know garbage must be preserved and treasured! Us throw out *new* stuff! Which then become garbage too me suppose, but me not think too hard about this aspect of phenomenon."

[Mark Engblom]

"Are you people kidding me about the Pink K?"

"I truly hope that Pink Kryptonite is a sly jape on the part of mine host..."

"You know, if I were gay, I think I'd be seriously offended by pink kryptonite."

No, I'm not kidding about it. The mention did occur in the Supergirl story listed, as written by Peter David...a card-carrying Sensitive Liberal, so I guess it's okay when guys like him write stuff like that, right? I personally think it was a pretty stupid bit, but for this article, I was just trying to include everything I could find...regardless of how illogical or stupid it was (which, as you can see, there was plenty of illogic and stupidity in many of these Kryptonite varieties)

"Jewel Kryptonite. Never read the story (stories?) about it, but it seems every "List of Kryptonites" I've ever read refers to it with an asterisk, that it was merely a hoax of some sort, not a "real" Kryptonite?"

No, Jewel Kryptonite was real. It didn't appear much, but it was genuine. Maybe you're thinking of Silver Kryptonite...which I'll be featuring in Part Four: The Hoaxes.

[PAUL SAETHER]

Hope no 0ne thought I was serious about the Bizarro stories not making sense.

Of course you have to simply enjoy their daftness.

Odd, though, that no one thought to give him a reversed 'S' until long after his first appearance.

In an ad for the first adult Bizarro story Wayne Boring gave him a 'B' on his chest!

I think Plastino may have once drawn him with a 'B' too.

How could a 'B' be the imperfect equivalent of an 'S'???

Ridiculous!!!

[John Nowak]

>I think the key to enjoying Bizarro (and something frequently *not* done with modern stories, to their detriment) is not to think like that.

Untrue! I spent much of my childhood mystified by the concept. And now, Boolean equations are my life.

[De]

as written by Peter David...a card-carrying Sensitive Liberal, so I guess it's okay when guys like him write stuff like that, right?

Encountering Mr. David at least twice a year for the past 15 years, he's a giant jerk. It doesn't surprise me he'd write an offensive gag like that.

[Mark Engblom]

I only met the guy once about fifteen years ago at our FallCon and came to a similar conclusion. I've noticed there's a large segment of comic fandom that enjoys interacting with acidic wits like David, but I'm definitely not one of them.