You can’t be as famous as Superman without the world also knowing both your greatest strengths and your most legendary weaknesses. Fortunately, so much attention has been paid to Green Kryptonite over the past half-century that few fans are even aware of a much more dangerous variation. Forget making the Man of Steel sick, one form of Kryptonite could kill Superman in seconds.
Golden Kryptonite Is The Deadliest Form, Even If Fans Don’t Know It
“Green K” remains the most famous color, but gold is superior
While more and more colors of Kryptonite have been introduced to dramatic effect on Superman, the green variety still reigns supreme, across comics, animation, films, and video games. And while the lore or logic behind the mineral itself has changed over the years, even casual fans will know that while green Kryptonite is harmless to humans, it is as radioactive (or at least harmful) to a Kryptonian as radioactive earth material would be to human beings.
While certain colors of Kryptonite actually help Superman, TV shows like Smalltown, SupergirlAnd Superman and Lois all this has contributed to making a few selected colors famous for their negative effects. But while red Kryptonite caused Kryptonian emotions to spiral out of control and black Kryptonite triggered “evil” transformations, there was one variation that stood out. We are of course talking about Gold Kryptonite, with the impressive effect of… erasing all of Superman’s powers. Permanently.
It’s almost impossible to believe, but the first introduction of Gold Kryptonite dates back to Aadventure comics #299, released August 1962. This means that during 60 years of intrigues by Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Darkseid and many others, plans to alter the world have been created and foiled, seemingly without realizing that Superman’s abilities have, functionally, an “Off” button.
But forgetting supervillains and divine entities, anyone would be able to accomplish the task if Gold Kryptonite was involved. Simply expose Superman to the substance, and he would be as vulnerable to injury or death as any standard human being. And if that sounds like a Superman weakness that DC regrets introducing in the first place, the impact is actually even worse.
Golden Kryptonite would allow almost anyone to kill Superman (or his family)
Why would DC create a weakness that makes Superman mortal?
In case a form of Kryptonite capable of de-Superman Superman doesn’t seem overpowered enough, the genetic damage caused by Gold Kryptonite extends far beyond just Kal-El’s physiology. If exposed to Golden Kryptonite, a Kryptonian is not only rendered completely powerless and human, but their genetic code is rewritten so that all of their children will also be deprived of any beneficial aspects of a half or full Kryptonian heritage. Sorry, Superboy.
With these facts impossible to rewrite, it’s almost pointless for DC to claim that Golden Kryptonite is an extremely rare variety, safely contained in Superman’s own vaults. Whatever the intentions of the original creators, the modern fanbase is forced to accept that Gold Kryptonite is the comic’s worst kind of weakness: one readers must simply ignore, as none of the other plans or attacks hatched by SupermanVillains can have any meaning.
- Created by
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Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel
- First appearance
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Action Comics
- Alias
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Kal-El, Clark Kent, Jonathan Kent
- Alliance
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Justice League, Superman Family
- Race
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Kryptonian
- Franchise
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CC
