What's kryptonite poisoning like?

[Permanus]

I've got some sort of stomach bug, and am a bit feverish, so forgive me if I am making even less sense than usual. It's got me wondering what Superman feels when he is exposed to kryptonite. I mean, it's like radiation poisoning, right? Except he doesn't seem to be vomiting or losing his hair and teeth, and it's not giving him cancer or anything -- it's killing him outright. The reaction is instantaneous. He often holds his stomach, as though he is suffering from instant food poisoning and his guts really hurt, or even as though you or I might do if we had been shot in the abdomen.

How does it work? Is it affecting him on a molecular level? When humans handle radioactive material or asbestos, the adverse reactions aren't instantaneous: it takes years of progressive illness and litigation. What's that darn rock doing to him to cause him so much pain?

[TELLE]

I can of have a slight stomach ache an now I know what it is!  There must have been Kryptonite in my Saturday afternoon fried eggs!

[JulianPerez]

Whenever Superman has been shown to die from Kryptonite, he turns green; this happened during "Death of Superman" and also to Krypto during "Whatever Happened to..." This may indicate that after a certain point, the krypton-matter of the body of Kryptonians starts producing Kryptonite themselves, which is why after a certain point Kryptonite poisoning is irreversible.

Superman has never super-upchucked, which means that Kryptonite's effects aren't like a "sickness." Usually he falls to his knees and collapses, which may mean that Kryptonite causes paralysis and muscle lock; it may be for this reason that Superman doesn't "run away" or use his Super-breath at the first sign of the appearance of Kryptonite.

In the "Five Legion Orphans" (ADVENTURE #357, 1967) Mon-El describes mild lead sickness after his lead potion wears off (a weakness very similar to Kryptonite): he describes himself as feeling sick and "dizzy." Perhaps the reason Superman doesn't run away from Kryptonite is because of this nausea.

BIRTHRIGHT described what it was like to be around Kryptonite in first-person detail (paraphrased): "It was like my blood turned to battery acid and all the gravity I ignored came down on me at once..."

JLA #4 (1997) describes some of the symptoms of Kryptonite poisoning in more detail: they include delerium, hallucinations, and confusion.

[RedSunOfKrypton]

To my reckoning, Kryptonite seems to act as a very powerful allergen. It seems to turn Superman's own superfast supersystem against itself.

[Uncle Mxy]

Whenever Superman has been shown to die from Kryptonite, he turns green; this happened during "Death of Superman" and also to Krypto during "Whatever Happened to..." This may indicate that after a certain point, the krypton-matter of the body of Kryptonians starts producing Kryptonite themselves, which is why after a certain point Kryptonite poisoning is irreversible.

I've tended to think that his skin absorbs radiation and never gets rid of it.  Because the radiation is green, Superman is shown to be green.  I know -- it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I never thought he was actually turning into Kryptonite.

Superman has never super-upchucked, which means that Kryptonite's effects aren't like a "sickness." Usually he falls to his knees and collapses, which may mean that Kryptonite causes paralysis and muscle lock; it may be for this reason that Superman doesn't "run away" or use his Super-breath at the first sign of the appearance of Kryptonite.

The lack of spew could indicate that the artists are just being nice to us.

[nightwing]

Well, it hurts, that's for sure.

As for why he grabs his stomach, I think it's just a time-honored bit of stage direction to show when someone's not well.  Remember Shatner's standard gesture for pain on "Star Trek" was to pull his elbows in toward his belly, hold his hands out and bend forward with a grimace on his hammy puss.  Sure its kind of over the top, but we knew exactly what feeling he was trying to convey, didn't we?

The other common "pain" gesture in comics is to hold your throat like someone's choking your air off.  I guess it could just as easily have gone that way.  Anyway, it's gotta be hard for an artist to draw a script direction like, "Superman feels pain everywhere in his body at once."  You've got to make some kind of choice, haven't you?

[JulianPerez]

I've tended to think that his skin absorbs radiation and never gets rid of it.  

If that's the case, why is it Kryptonite radiation affects Superman, but he is immune to other types of radiation?

One of my favorite all time Superman covers is one where he holds a camera, flying and filming a nuclear explosion. This one always made me laugh because it really is something to wonder about: how DO they get those "mushroom cloud" stock footage from nuclear explosions?

The "Superman obtains radiation through his skin" explanation is interesting, though, as he obtains rays and uses them for superpowers. This may be why Kryptonite is dangerous: the specific kind of radiation may be dangerous to him.

If exposure to Kryptonite IS like radiation poisoning that only Superman is vulnerable to, the "effects" of Kryptonite poisoning would be identical to radiation poisoning. True, Superman has never lost his hair or nails as would be common to radioactive exposure, however, this can be explained in light of the fact that neither his hair nor nails grow under a yellow sun. Thus, as they don't grow, the radiation has nothing to interfere with.

The lack of spew could indicate that the artists are just being nice to us.

Maybe. Although it wasn't even hinted as happening "off-screen," the way Englehart indicated that Mantis was a prostitute without coming out and SAYING it, for instance.

[alschroeder]

I always thought of Kryptonite radiation to being akin to some other radiation---it's often not the initial radiation that kills you, but the secondary particles it forms upon collision.

    Kryptonite radiation probably passes right through us, like neutrinoes do, without even pausing. But when they meet an "invulnerable" Kryptonian, much harder than the objects around it, it splits into seconary particles that are deadly to the Kryptonian.

    Which would explain why the Silver Age Kryptonians weren't vulnerable to Kryptonite until they were rendered super-powered.

---Al