Why does superman become superweak around kryptonite? (1 Viewer)

[Al.Anderson]

You guys have this all wrong, the reason Superman loses his power with kryptonite is the same reason I get ill when I see a bottle of Jack Daniels - he got toasted on it at an early age (kryptonite is an inebriant on Krypton) and just the sight of the stuff makes him gag!

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Joe,
to answer your question, the citizens of Krypton were normal beings, meaning that they were just like us in regards to their strength and physical ability. The only reason Superman is so super, and you should know this already, is because of our sun. His super abilities are really nothing more than a side effect of our sun.

Their was a rather funny episode of Smallville where a solar eclipse took place and it caused Clark's power's to go all nutty on him! He would be running at normal human speed only to suddenly take off at 300 mph and ended up in another state, then, because he couldn't summon his super speed again for the return trip, he was forced to take a bus back to town!

Another scene in that episode is when Clark was helping his dad with a tractor and his dad asked him to lift it up, but because of the eclipse, he momentarily lost his super strength. He decided to try it once more, and this time his super strength suddenly returned while he was trying to lift it and he ended up tossing the tractor into the next zip code! It was really funny, that's why I love that show.

 

[Joe Szott]

Why should I know this? I don't follow Sman and rarely watch Smallville, most of what I know comes from the Sman movies or his appearance in other comics.

Again though, why didn't the kryptonians move to a system with a yellow sun then? They seemed quite advanced and could travel into space, and yellow suns are a dime a dozen as far as suns go. They still sound like a bunch of idiots to me, but ah well. I guess that's why they all sat around (except Jor-El) and died.

Doesn't really matter, Superman is ultimately a lame duck. Give me Batman or Spidey any day of the week over the SuperBoyScout...

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Joe,
because Krypton is their home, that's where they live and have always lived. Perhaps they didn't know what effect a yellow sun would have on them, or if they did they did not take the initiative because being a race of super beings was of no interest to them. You should know because this information was discussed in both Superman: The Movie and Superman 2. By Jor-El in the first, and General Zod in the second.

In any case, your trying to pump unnecessary logic into things, their are many inconsistancies with Spider-man and Batman as well. We are talking about comic book hero's here afterall.

I must ask this, if you have no interest in Superman, why did you even post in this thread in the first place? I'm not being mean or anything, but i'm just curious.

 

[Thomas Newton]

They seemed quite advanced, but there was no direct evidence that any of them had travelled into space beyond (a) exploring/settling their own Solar System, and (b) putting criminals into the Phantom Zone.

The DCU seems to have a tradition of powerful, technically advanced races suffering near-total extinction, often for no especially good reason. Consider the Kryptonians, the Daxamites, the Martians. The Guardians appear to be the main exception to the rule (probably because without them, there is no Green Lantern Corps). And even many of them were "killed" and later resurrected.

 

[Joe Szott]

So maybe they are Xenophobes and therefore would not leave even when Jor-El discovered the planet was doomed?

I have a passing interest, but what I mean is I don't have a lexiconical knowledge of Superman. I never read the comics but saw the movies and obviously there is spill over into other cartoons that I saw as a kid (eg - The Superfriends.) I have watched Smallville once or twice, but not enough to fill out the gaps (plus it seems like that show is sort of an 'unofficial' or 'alternate' Sman past.)

Didn't mean to offend, just never made sense to me why no one else ever discovered this racial boon on krypton before Jor-El blasted his kid into space.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Jor-el's claim that Krypton would explode was cast off as rubbish by his scientific peers and other elders, thus, no need or urgency for off-world settlement to escape Krypton. (Jor-el was treated as the equivalent of "Chicken Little" in their scientific community).

Jor-el believed in his work and knew that Krypton would indeed explode soon, which would kill everyone on the planet, so he worked tiredlessly to build the space ship that would send his son Kal-el to Earth, a planet he discovered that would be hospitable to his son, and would also imbue him with super-powers due to Earth's proximity to a yellow sun, with the sun's ray's effect on his Kryptonian physiology.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

What was it that Jor-El was saying in the movie about his "molecular density" making him strong? Was that in the comics.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Maybe at some point. Originally, Krypton was just a high-gravity planet, then the red sun thing came about. I wouldn't be surprised if that phrase has been used to explain some of Superman's powers at least once.