The Kryptonite Chronicles (Part 3 of 5): The Alloys

We've covered the primary colors and the dizzying array of altered Kryptonite, but what happens when one or more varieties of Kryptonite combine into strange new alloys?  Let's find out:

First Appearance (supernatural): Jimmy Olsen #42 (1960)

First Appearance (natural): Superboy #83 (1960)

History: At various times, Green Kryptonite has combined with living beings either through magic (Jimmy Olsen was transformed into living Kryptonite by an evil genie) or natural forces (a teenage criminal who flew through a space cloud of Green-K became the Kryptonite Kid).

Effects: Living Kryptonite has the same deadly effect on superpowered Kryptonians as mineralized Green Kryptonite.

First Appearance: Action Comics #275 (1961)

History: Created by the evil Brainiac, this synthetic blend of Kryptonite caused Superman to grow a third eye on the back of his head. Using the combined heat vision of all three eyes, Superman was able to destroy Brainiac's defensive force field and take him into custody.

Effects: Red-Green Kryptonite possessed the mutating power of Red Kryptonite, while it's possible the Green Kryptonite extended the mutation past the customary 48 hours of Red-K.

First Appearance: Superman #162 (1963)

History: In this unofficial "imaginary" story, Superman invented a Brain Evolution Machine to increase his problem-solving brain power. Powered by four varieties of Kryptonite, the machine exploded shortly into the procedure, which resulted in Superman splitting into two separate beings. The two Supermen then decided to operate as Superman-Red (wearing an all-red costume) and Superman-Blue (wearing....well, you know).

Effects: Caused Superman to become two Supermen, each with enhanced super-intelligence.

First Appearance: Superman #178 (1965)

History: When Red and Gold Kryptonite meteors collided above Earth, the impact fused them into a single meteor that then fell into the Atlantic Ocean. During an undersea rescue mission, Superman was exposed to the Red-Gold K's radiation, causing him to lose his memory but not his superpowers.

Effects: Its effects are temporary amnesia with no loss of super-powers (which is normally the case with Gold-K).

First Appearance: Superman #192 (1967)

History: In this unofficial "imaginary" story, three meteors of Kryptonite collided in outer space and fell to Earth. When Superman rescued the geologist who found the fused meteor, the tri-K radiation caused a him to not only lose his superpowers, but also his memory of ever having been Superman.

Effects: Permanently robbed Superman of his powers and caused him to forget his super identity.

With so many colors and alloys of Kryptonite, there were bound to be some fakes, right? Stay tuned for part four of The Kryptonite Chronicles: The Hoaxes!

Comments

[Pat Curley]

Man, you have to be cheating to remember all this stuff! I'm supposed to be the Silver Age guy and while I remember the stories when you mention them, I didn't remember the alloys.

One correction, and one supplement. The Red-Green K Brainiac story is in Action #275. And to supplement you might mention that living Kryptonite made an appearance well before the Kryptonite Kid, in the Superman Radio serial, The Atom Man (late 1945). This is generally considered the greatest story of the radio show. A young Nazi (played by Mason Adams of "With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good" fame) is injected with Kryptonite by an evil scientist. His powers are similar to the Kryptonite Kid's in their effect on Superman, but he can also make lightning rays come out of his fingers, causing enormous damage to Metropolis.

[DIane]

This series is great! One comment - the Superman-Red/Superman-Blue story was also an "imaginary" story.

[Mark. Engblom]

See? What would I do without you guys? Thanks for the corrections!

My notes actually *did* have Action #275 listed, but thanks to the magic of copy-paste (picking up the Jimmy Olsen #42 listing from the previous entry), it came out as "Action Comics #42. D'oh!

Thanks for the imaginary story reminder as well, Diane. Again...in the notes, but I overlooked getting it in there.

Both are now corrected!

Oh, and thanks for the info on Atom Man, Pat!

[suedenim]

I kinda have to wonder what the *point* of these alloys was, as most of them don't seem to do much beyond what the "normal" (though amazingly versatile) Red K could do. Red-Gold and Red-Green, for instance, don't seem to have any obvious attributes of the Gold or Green K in their effects.

I think my favorite Kryptonite story is one where it doesn't actually appear. It was an issue of Supergirl's last pre-Crisis solo series, guest-starring Ambush Bug, who apparently never heard of Kara before. Seeing Supergirl flying around, he assumes it must be his pal Superman, under the influence of Red Kryptonite.... :)

[Mark Engblom]

LOL! Thanks for reminding me about the Ambush Bug story. There's a new Ambush Bug project coming out from DC, and I'm really looking forward to it.

As for what the point of the Kryptonite alloys was, I think it all boils down to editor Mort Weisinger trying to keep the reader's interest. It's likely one of them wrote a letter wondering what would happen if various Kryptonites combined, and Weisinger realized there was some ground to explore there. However, you make a good point...since the effect of "Red-Gold" Kryptonite could just as easily have come from Red-K. Maybe the added presense of Gold-K made it seem that much more dangerous and rare.