Why is kryptonite deadly to superman

Learn more. Why, exactly, does kryptonite hurt Superman? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 9 months ago. Active 1 year, 10 months ago. Viewed k times. Improve this question. It is to solar radiation what carbon monoxide is to oxygen.

Must be why Earth rocks turn to poison for Earthlings instantly on Mars. It's really really mean. Related: What actually happens to Superman when he is exposed to kryptonite?

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Kryptonite is a transuranic element or compound we are never told which for certain whose inherent radioactivity inhibits the absorption of high-energy solar radiation which Kryptonians use to power their feats of superhuman ability. EFFECTS Not only does it prevent the further absorption of solar energy, it displaces, painfully, said solar energy with kryptonite radiation causing the immediate loss of a Kryptonian's superhuman abilities within seconds and can, depending on the purity and exposure length, lead to the death of a Kryptonian by a form of "radiation poisoning".

Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. Thaddeus Howze Thaddeus Howze k 22 22 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Im wondering if the radiation is more a vacuum to supermans stored solar energy, then it is a blocker. Since he feels "drained" every time he's around it. The Kryptonite "pushes" out Superman's stored energy and replaces it with poisonous radiation he cannot process!

When you mentioned it 'inhibits absorption' it made me think of how ethanol makes you drunk inhibits the uptake of methanol makes you blind. Or carbon monoxide being absorbed instead our oxygen by haemoglobin. Perhaps a similar analogy would help your already very good answer? I asked this question hoping to get an answer from specifically you, Thaddeus.

You rocked it again. So, it basically sucks the sunlight out of him? Show 1 more comment. No, Krypton was not made of Kryptonite - at least, not initially. Kevin Matheny Kevin Matheny 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. If Kryptonite is radioactive, is it also lethal to humans then? Lex Luthor got cancer from all the time he spent working with Kryptonite.

Show 8 more comments. You're Earthling, but lots of Earth-based rocks can hurt you Radioactive ores. Crazy Frog Crazy Frog k gold badges silver badges bronze badges. If you go fast enough, according to Einstein, time will slow down for you. The faster you go, the slower you age.

So if you did a Kessel run like Han Solo--a trip over many light-years in a few hours--you would only experience a few hours while the rest of the galaxy ages 40 years.

By flying really, really fast around the Earth, Superman will actually speed into the future, not the past. In fact, by the time he is done, he might return to find everyone he knew dead of old age. Superman is a time traveler.

Before it blew up, Superman was sent to Earth from the planet Krypton-- 50 light years away. A little Kryptonian baby hurtling through space, Kal-El reached Earth in years the nerds disagree on the time. To travel such a long distance trillion miles--in such a short time, the baby would have to warp the space-time continuum with his speed. Actually, such a speed, 25 times the speed of light, is physically impossible.

But if the baby traveled for two years at nearly the speed of light--the universal speed limit--any remaining Kryptonians would be two years older while he only aged three months. Forward time travelers don't get to make a lot of long-term friends. Superman's weakness was inspired by a real element. Kryptonite, that glowing green rock from the core of Krypton, is one of Superman's few Achilles' heels.

Time and again it is a plot device to make the hero human. In , two British researchers discovered the element that would become the inspiration for this material. William Ramsay and Morris Travers were looking for elements in the helium family when they stumbled upon krypton, a gas that doesn't want to play with any other element. It's too noble for that.

The team later discovered other noble gases, and Ramsay won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. When Superman was created in , the authors Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster named the hero's home planet after the previously discovered gas. While an oxyanion of krypton could give scientists a reason to actually call something "kryptonite," the gas is simply non-reactive with most other elements. It's radiation that makes Superman weak. The prevailing theory in geekdom is that kryptonite can kill Superman because it disrupts his solar panel-like energy absorption.

Without energy from the Sun, he weakens and eventually dies. Though kryptonite is a fictional mineral, the way it interferes makes sense. Radioactive materials emit radiation in the form of particles and energy. This can be anything from whole helium nuclei to gamma rays. If gamma rays were emitted by kryptonite, they would ionize Superman's cells.

By knocking electrons and atoms around in his body, this process of ionization would wreak havoc and disrupt normal cell sun-gathering. Radiation sickness can be lethal, and it's a form of it that reduces Superman to a defeated hero.

It's also the reason why water bears should have saved the Enterprise instead of Captain Kirk. Superman didn't destroy the Russian meteor earlier this year because it would have destroyed the city. As he comes to his rescue, he feels things start to heat up. However, it isn't from the victim's flames, it's from a series of lasers blasting Superman from all directions.

Though he flies out and escapes, it soon becomes clear the damage is done and that those weren't any ordinary lasers. The burning sensation stops once he's up in the air, but Jon can see what it did to him. Not only that, he starts feeling it too. Suddenly, all of his powers are supercharged.

His heat vision bursts out of control and he can hear everyone in need, unable to block them out anymore. There's only one thing capable of causing a Kryptonian's power to overcharge and spiral dangerously out of control like that - Red Kryptonite.

Although many portrayals of this variant of Kryptonite have had it turn Kryptonians into evil or more morally loose versions of themselves for example, Superman III and Smallville , in the comics it is far more unpredictable. Whilst other Kryptonite colors have pretty consistent effects, every piece of Red Kryptonite has a different effect.