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

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Superman is famous for being incredibly powerful and nearly indestructible, but even people who don’t read comics know about his one major weakness: Kryptonite. This glowing material, a piece of his destroyed home planet, is poisonous to him, and the term ‘kryptonite’ has become widely used to describe anything that completely disables someone. While comics have since introduced many different types of Kryptonite with varying effects – from permanently removing his powers to shrinking him down – the idea actually didn’t begin in the comics themselves.

Although Kryptonite is now a key part of Superman‘s story, it didn’t appear in the comics until 1949, six years after it was first featured in the radio show The Adventures of Superman. The origin of Kryptonite is quite strange, and the reason it wasn’t introduced in the comics earlier is connected to a particular issue that could have drastically altered Superman’s entire history.

A Super Excuse for a Rest Day

Kryptonite made its first appearance in the 1940s radio drama, The Adventures of Superman, in an episode about a meteor from Superman’s home planet. As it always does, the green rock stripped Superman of his powers and caused him intense pain, leaving him helpless. Because the show often featured Superman reduced to pained sounds, a popular theory arose: Kryptonite was invented to give Bud Collyer, the voice actor, time off. The show wasn’t rerun and aired three times a week, so the idea is that Kryptonite provided a convenient way to temporarily remove Superman from the story if Collyer was unavailable due to illness or personal reasons.

The idea that Kryptonite was created to boost Superman’s backstory is supported by the recollections of Julius Schwartz, a key early editor of the Superman comics. However, Michael J. Hayde, a historian of the Superman radio show, disagrees. He argues that Kryptonite was first used to reveal Superman’s origins – a point strengthened by the fact that it didn’t appear in the very first radio episode. Despite this, it’s likely Kryptonite also served as a simple way for writers to temporarily remove Superman from stories, which aligns with how it’s frequently used in comic books.

There’s also another possibility when considering where Kryptonite came from. Although the comic The Adventures of Superman first introduced Kryptonite, it might not have been the very first idea behind it.

A Rejected Story that Would Have Changed Everything

In 1940, DC Comics turned down a Superman story idea by Jerry Siegel called “The K-Metal from Krypton.” This story featured a substance from Superman’s home planet that acted like an early version of Kryptonite. A piece of this “K-Metal” passed by Earth, and its radiation weakened Superman. He encountered a scientist named Professor Winton who possessed a sample. The K-Metal not only harmed Superman like Kryptonite, but it also temporarily gave superpowers to anyone who touched it. The story was ultimately rejected because it included Superman revealing his secret identity to Lois Lane.

It’s hard to overstate how much the Superman story would have changed if Lois Lane had learned his secret identity back in 1940. However, DC Comics executives at the time were hesitant to make such a big shift to the established story. Although a story called “The K-Metal from Krypton” was never released, it likely played a role in the creation of Kryptonite. The effects of K-Metal on Superman would have been nearly the same as Kryptonite, and it would have revealed Superman’s Kryptonian origins – just like the radio show did with Kryptonite.

When The Adventures of Superman first aired, the world of superheroes was quite limited, so it’s logical that the people creating Superman content knew each other well. The story “The K-Metal from Krypton” had some interesting concepts, and it’s likely the writers of the radio show were aware of it and drew inspiration from it – perhaps even as a way to explain Superman’s occasional absences. Ultimately, the origin of Kryptonite is almost as mysterious as the substance itself, and while we may never have a definitive answer, it’s fun to speculate.

What’s your take on where Kryptonite comes from? Share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion on the ComicBook Forum!

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2025-10-31 02:12