c/lemmyshitpost · by ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 1y

What is Superman's "kryptonite"?

In literature, mythology, and comic books, heroes often have a "kryptonite" or "Achilles's heel", basically a weakness that makes them vulnerable. I'm curious, what would be considered Superman's "kryptonite"?

139 points · 69 comments · view on lemmy.world

69 Comments

Pippipartner@discuss.tchncs.de · 58 pts · 1y (4 replies)

Obviously loss of glasses, making him recognizable in civilian life.

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Superman doesn't wear glasses tho

Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 22 pts · 1y

Yeah, what a dumb thing to say. He's super, he'd never wear glasses.

Running out of hair gel is a big weakness though

kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Contacts. Super contacts.

FooBarrington@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

Sure, he at least has the contact info of Green Lantern I think, maybe Wonder Woman

unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de · 52 pts · 1y

Dats a shitpost alright

TabbsTheBat@pawb.social · 36 pts · 1y (4 replies)

Superman's kryptonite is interesting writing

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1y

I wouldn't know, I haven't seen smallville

kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1y (2 replies)

As a life long Superman fan with like 4 notably good Superman stories to read in his 87 year history. Fuck you... but yes.

Not_Dav3@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Which 4 ?

kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y

The truly classic ones I've read are Red Son, All-Star Superman, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, For the Man Who Has Everything, Kingdom Come, and the Death of Superman.

I also like the New Krypton/War of the Supermen storyline though.

CitizenKong@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 1y

Zack Snyder.

Wilco@lemm.ee · 24 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Superman's kryptonite is the fact that he is popular and everyone thinks the character would make great media, but the character is way too overpowered to write good plots for.

Oh, that and actual Kyrptonite.

Hoimo@ani.social · 7 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Superman makes for great stories, as long as you don't focus on his power. You can't beat him with physical strength, so stop trying to write strong villains. Probably stop writing villains at all. What Superman struggles with isn't physical embodiments of evil, it's the good intentions paving the way to hell. You can't punch a person with good intentions for their bad outcomes. It's hard being the ultimate arbiter of good in a world of complex morality.

explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y

Counterpoint: Lex Luthor is awesome. He takes advantage of social structures that Superman can't punch. He fights Superman using everyone else as his shield. A true mustache-twirling villain.

leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl · 19 pts · 1y (6 replies)

he needs a telephone booth to change?

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y (5 replies)

Change?

some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Undress.

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y

This isn't gonewild sorry

leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 1y (2 replies)

pretty much take off his glasses and spin, looks like.

https://www.supermanhomepage.com/other/other.php?topic=phonebooth

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Isn't that spider hyphen man

Belgdore@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 1y

No it’s dr who

hactar42@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Per Glen Weldon in his book Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, kryptonite representing the destructive force of nostalgia and survivor’s guilt, reminding us that clinging to the past can undermine the present.

Siegel and Shuster had created the Man of Steel as the ultimate immigrant, the personification of the promise America represented to them. His abilities are metaphors for limitless potential and opportunity, for new horizons stretching out before us: the American Way.
It seems fitting, then, that the only thing capable of harming him would be a reminder of the Old World he left behind, a past that is irrevocably gone. Only the past—our past—can hurt us.
To this day, kryptonite functions in the Superman mythos as the physical manifestation of both survivor’s guilt and a particularly toxic kind of nostalgia, a reminder that when we dwell on what we’ve lost, we can kill what we have.

Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 1y (2 replies)

First time I've ever read of this interpretation and that's super fucking cool.

hactar42@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)

It's a really great book that I recommend to even the most casual Superman fan and especially people who think Superman is just an overpowered boy scout. It explores how Superman has evolved over the decades through the influence of different writers and artists and how their personal experiences and cultural shifts helped to evolve the character. He also examines the character’s transformation across other media, including radio, television, and film. Like how the now cheesy sounding, "It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman" originated from the radio broadcasts that had to adapt a comic to a non-visual medium. Or why they didn't just write a Superman comic in the 40's where he goes and defeats Hitler, because they didn't want to take away from the GIs or give kids false hope that Superman could just swoop in and save the day in a real life situation. But they also didn't want kids to think Superman would ignore what was going on, so that's when they started introducing a lot of off-world stories.

Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 1y

Sounds like I'm going to have to get hold of this book. Both Superman and Lois are two of my all time favourites and this sounds great. I'm throw in another random fact. Pretty sure he only got his ability to fly during the running of the Fleischer cartoons. Originally he could "leap tall buildings in a single bound". Then somewhere along the line in the cartoons, they just found it more convenient if he could actually fly to take on some threats.

Twinklebreeze@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1y (2 replies)

I'm pretty sure it's magic.

Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y

yep, which is why a lot of the magic team ups in DC start with superman getting owned.

kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y

Psychic abilities too.

dumbass@leminal.space · 16 pts · 1y (5 replies)

Kryptonite....

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 1y (4 replies)

Yes, that's what I'm asking. What is it???

dumbass@leminal.space · 9 pts · 1y (3 replies)

He hates green rocks I think, specifically ones that look like the guts trophy.

Notyou@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 1y (2 replies)

You mean Mt Agg? So someone just has to challenge him to climb it.

dumbass@leminal.space · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Why do you think superman never entered it? He could easily dominate the Aggro-Crag, but it's made entirely of kryptonite.

Notyou@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 1y

Now I'm picturing Superman watching Guts.

At the end when the host asks the signing off questions. "No if's and's, but's these kids got guts. Do you have it? Guts!"

Superman quietly sobs into his hands and gentle cries, "..no..."

Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Superman's kryptonite is still unkown, unfortunately.
Scientists have speculated that understanding the physiology of Subman (Superman's greatest threat) may help us find it, but so far polite requests for non-invasive experiments have been declined and we cannot, in good conscience, forcefully subject him to them.

helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y

They got the wrong guy, subman is a breeze in the wind compared to subparman.

harlyson@lemm.ee · 13 pts · 1y (1 reply)

I’m like 99% sure that he is afraid of bald people. Whenever the reoccurring token bald guy shows up he gets really scared. He could just be afraid of robots, I remember he was afraid of batman’s robots too, I don't believe batman is bald, but I’ve never seen batman without his suit. Superman has X-ray vision though, and I'm not sure he can turn that off so maybe he is afraid of batman because he is bald and not because he is afraid of robots.

Robots and bald people, final answer.

FooBarrington@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

His ultimate weakness: bald robots

SuDmit@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 12 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Trying to recreate that reddit post, huh?

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y

What is Reddit idk

Freshparsnip@lemm.ee · 11 pts · 1y

Reminds of when Barney on How I Met Your Mother was trying to remember the holy grail of cups

DrBob@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 1y (1 reply)

True heterosexual love between a biological man and a biological woman. It's why he never hooks up with Lois Lane and keeps sneaking peeks at Jimmy's junk at the gym.

hactar42@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y

Man of steel...woman of tissue paper

RandomVideos@programming.dev · 9 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Childhood trauma

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y

Same

polderprutser@feddit.nl · 8 pts · 1y

Superman's Kryptonite is that he can never, ever be fed after midnight!

Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 1y (1 reply)

He's super pee-shy, can we use that against him?

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y

Superpeeshyman

zout@fedia.io · 8 pts · 1y (5 replies)

A mixture of: 15.08% plutonium, 18.06% tantalum, 27.71% xenon, 24.02% promethium, 10.62% dialium, 3.94% mercury, 0.57% an unknown element not found on the known periodic table. You could use tar instead.

ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y (4 replies)

What about using wet socks

zout@fedia.io · 2 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Might help. As long as it's 0.57%.

FooBarrington@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Dry or wet weight?

zout@fedia.io · 3 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Wet obviously. You have to maintain the wetness though.

FooBarrington@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

Oh, I've got ways to maintain the wetness, don't you worry

betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Horses.