A Key Piece of Superman Lore Isn’t Even From the Comics, But Its Origin Is Even Weirder Than That

Superman is one of the strongest, most invulnerable heroes out there, but even non-comic book fans know that he has one glaring weakness: Kryptonite. The glowing remnant of his homeworld is toxic to the Man of Steel, and the weakness has become so iconic that kryptonite is a common synonym for anything that completely shuts someone down. Over the decades, comics have introduced multitudes of different Kryptonite shades that can do anything from permanently rip away Superman’s powers, to making him into an ant. Everyone knows that Kryptonite defeats Superman, but what many don’t know is that the lore didn’t originate in the comic books.

Despite its essential place in comic book history, Kryptonite didn’t join the comic mythos until Superman #61 in 1949, six years after it premiered in the radio drama The Adventures of Superman. The story isn’t so simple as an adaptation having a new idea; Not only is the story of why Kryptonite was invented impossible to believe, but the story behind why it wasn’t introduced in comics sooner ties into a comic that would have changed everything about Superman forever.

A Super Excuse for a Rest Day

Kryptonite first appeared in The Adventures of Superman episode “The Meteor from Krypton”. As usual, the green rock would rob Superman of his powers and cause him great pain, leaving him incapacitated. The radio show would often have Superman reduced to painful grunts, and that truth spawned the theory that Kryptonite was introduced to allow Superman’s voice actor, Bud Collyer, time off. The serial never aired reruns, and broadcast three times a week, so this idea is that Kryptonite was created as an excuse to write Superman out of the episode if Collyer got sick or wanted a day off. 

This theory was substantiated in the memoir of Julius Schwartz, one of Superman’s early and most important editors. However, it’s also questioned by Michael J. Hayde, who wrote a book on the history of the radio serial. Hayde insisted that Kryptonite was introduced to help Superman realize his origins, which would make sense, given that Superman wasn’t even exposed to Kryptonite in its debut episode. Still, it is quite possible that Kryptonite was established as a convenient excuse to write Superman out of a story, which makes the theory fit right at home with how it’s used in comics.

Of course, there’s always another option with Kryptonite’s origin, as well. While The Adventures of Superman invented Kryptonite, it might not be responsible for the original concept.

A Rejected Story that Would Have Changed Everything

Way back in 1940, DC rejected a Superman script from Jerry Siegel that came to be titled “The K-Metal from Krypton”. This story would have introduced a metal from Krypton that served as a prototype Kryptonite; a meteor from the destroyed Krypton passed by Earth, with the radiation of the “K-Metal” sapping Superman’s powers. He met with the scientist Professor Winton, who had a chunk of K-Metal himself. Not only did the metal poison Clark just like Kryptonite does, but it gave any human who touched it powers just like Superman’s. This story was rejected, however, because it saw Superman reveal his secret identity to Lois Lane. 

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It cannot be understated how much would be different if Lois had known Superman’s identity since 1940, but the heads of DC at the time didn’t want to take a chance with such a massive status quo change (some things never change). But even though “The K-Metal from Krypton” went unpublished, it’s very possible that this script influenced the creation of Kryptonite. After all, not only are the effects on Superman all but identical, but K-Metal would have let the Man of Tomorrow learn of his Kryptonian heritage just as Kryptonite did for his radio serial counterpart.

The superhero community was much, much smaller back when The Adventures of Superman was on air, and so it would make sense if everyone who made Superman content were in a close circle. “The K-Metal from Krypton” had plenty of great ideas, and it’s entirely possible that the creatives behind the radio serial heard about the story and were inspired to create their own version, whether it be an answer to Collyer’s time off requests or not. At the end of the day, Kryptonite’s origin is almost as strange as the mineral itself, and while we may never know why it was made, we can definitely keep on guessing.

Which origin for Kryptonite do you find most believable? What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!