Max: I was referring to Spider-Man 70-77. That’s the story arc where Kingpin somehow acquires the Petrified Tablet, Spidey takes it from him and gives it to Capt. Stacey, the Shocker takes it from Capt. Stacey and hides it, somehow the Maggia gets involved and grabs the tablet and kidnaps Dr. Connors and his family to study the tablet’s secret, Dr. Connors eventually turns into the Lizard, and the arc ends with Spidey beating the Lizard after tricking the Human Torch into taking off (Spidey was afraid the Torch would hurt the Lizard by mistake).
Some of the events I obviousily know, but I’m curious as to how the Kingpin got his hands on the tablet, where it came from, how the Kingpin learned of its existence, how Quicksilver’s appearance figured into the story arc, where the Shocker hid it, how the Maggia got into the deal, and who died during the story arc, a death apparently felt heavily by Spidey, judging from the cover of issue #75. I found one site with all the old covers, but it did not have plot summaries. Also, right now I’m too broke to buy second-hand copies of Marvel Tales, let alone early editions of Spider-Man.
Errgh, that hurts. A period of Spidey history I’m shaky on. I’m almost certain that Captain Stacy was the death in issue 75. I know Doc Ock was appearing in some issues around that time and since he’s the one who did the dirty deed that killed Stacy, I think it’s a safe bet.
Can you afford $15? Essential Spider-Man vol 4 covers that span of history. It’s B&W reprints of issues 69-89 and Annuals 4 and 5. If not, saunter down to your local Borders or Barnes & Noble, grab the book, and settle back in a big comfy chair. That’s why they have 'em!
Thanks for trying, Max, but Capt. Stacy died in Spider-Man 90 or 91. I read that one when it first came out (I swear I would not have any financial problems if I had saved all of the comics I bought as a kid, kept them in decent shape, and sold them at today’s prices).
When I get the cash, I think I will take your advice and buy The Essential Spider-Man.
The guy who died at the end of “Tablet of Time” is Silvermane, the crimelord who was trying to acquire the tablet. He got it, and it worked, but he “de-aged” himself right out of existence.
Okay, I’ve got some Superman questions (I know enough about the continuity to get most of the references in The Dark Knight Strikes Again!, but a few eluded me…). Here goes:
What’s up with the “bottle city of Kandor?” I gather that it was a Kryptonian city that was somehow preserved and miniaturized before the rest of the planet went kablooie, but who did this, and how? TDKSA implied that it had once been in Superman’s possession, so what kept him from returning it and its inhabitants to their original size? Did he simply choose not to, so as not to release a few million beings with powers equal to his on Earth, or was there some reason he couldn’t, or what?
What, exactly, is the deal with the “Bizarro” world? Was it artifically created or something? If not, why is it full of ass-backwards clones of Superman and Lois Lane? The whole thing strikes me as some bored writer’s idea of a joke.
Okay, I know green kryptonite hurts Supes, blue heals him, and red affects him with random weirdness (usually multiple limbs, if I remember correctly), but are there any other kinds? Which ones appear most often? Just wondering.
Anyway, that turned out to be… um, more than just three questions. Thanks in advance for any answers you can give me!
You are only asking for most of the pre-Crisis history of Superman. But I am sure we can help you out.
Kandor was the capital of Krypton, and the location in which Jor-el was building a giant space-ark to save his people. Right before he finished this green dude named Brainiac showed up and added to his collection of bottled cities. There goes the space-ark. Superman gained possession of it when Brainiac showed up on Earth and tried to do the same to Metropolis. Unfortunately, Superman was only able to restore one city, and since Kandor did not have a world to be placed on, they got stuck in the bottle. Over the years, Superman, Batman, and a host of others had many adventures in the city. Superman and Jimmy Olsen created the identities of Nightwing and Flamebird there, although someone else took over later.
Not too long before Crisis, Superman managed to enlarge Kandor, on a planet under a red sun. This was at the request of the population, they wanted their own planet, not to take over Earth.
The present day Kandor is very different and not related to Krypton at all. But Supes has still vowed to restore the inhabitants to their full size.
Bizarro world is artificial. It was created by Bizarro #1 so he could have his own world to protec…destroy. Everything he does is backwards from the original Superman. I will leave it to someone else to give more detail, since I have only limited exposure.
Green Kryptonite - kills Superman/Kryptonians
Red Kryptonite - Causes bizarre things to happen to Superman. (Each exposure pre-Crisis had a different effect, the effect lasted 24 hours, and each piece could only affect him once. Don’t know if that is still the case.)
Blue Kryptonite - Created by exposing Green to the same machine that created the Bizarroes. Affects them the same as Green affects kryptonians. No other effect.
Gold Kryptonite - Permanently removes the powers from kryptonians.
White Kryptonite - Deadly to plant life
Diamond Kryptonite - Fake used by Superman to fool a bad guy.
DocCathode,
Anti-Kryptonite was deadly to all non-super Kryptonians. (They had to invent it when someone pointed out that the Argonians should not have been affected by Kryptonite, since they didn’t have any powers.)
No, white K is deadly to all plants. Fortunately, there was not much of it.
If you are thinking of Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite, I beleive that was the first post-reboot appearance of red K. It was created by Mxyzptlk and given to Luthor. Red K has only appeared once or twice since then that I know of, most notably in JLA’s Tower of Babel storyline, where Superman’s skin was turned transparent.
To clarify: we don’t know if Anti-kryptonite affects humans or not, we know it affects non-super-powered Kryptonians.
And to answer the question more thoroughly than anyone wanted:
A Field Guide to Kryptonite
Note: this is all based on Pre-Crisis stuff. Post-Crisis, who cares?
Just for fun, a few years ago, I decided to compile a list of various types of Kryptonite, it’s effects and some of it’s subtler effects. This was intended to be a rough draft of a Kryptonite SAQ (Seldomly Asked Questions)
The five major varieties
#1: GREEN KRYPTONITE
Origin: When Krypton blew up, (almost) anything not vaporized became Green Kryptonite
Effect: Kills superpowered Kryptonians (over the course of hours/days depending on amount, proximity and strength). The first stage of Green-K poisoning is the immediate reduction of powers (the loss of powers gets worse over time) accompanied by pain, As the Kryptonian gets close to death, they begin to sweat, possibly halluncinate and in the very final stage, turn green.
It does not effect Kryptonians without superpowers, despite a few stories to the contrary. It also has no effect on humans. Note: quantity matters (more is more dangerous) and different pieces of Green-K have different levels of power.
Also note that despite what you may know of normal radioactive elements, nothing but lead and distance can stop K-radation. All types of K-radiation can be stopped by lead, but gold, which is better at stopping normal “earth” radiation doesn’t protect against the effects of K-radiation.
A) There is some debate on whether or not Green-K (as well as Red-K, see below) is invulnerable in an Earth-like environment. I fall into the “no, it’s real tough, but it’s not invulnerable” camp, but there is quite a bit of evidence for both sides of the debate.
Note, its been explicitly stated many times that Green-K is immune to friction heat (but not heat vision…note that I think that this is silly, but it was said over and over) the reason being that “Kryptonite can’t combine chemically with Oxygen, which causes combustion!”
B) Yes, there is a lot of it on Earth. Baby Kal’s rocket had an experimental warp drive which ripped open a hole in space and a vast quantity of Green-K came through
C) Unlike normal radioactive substances, the damage caused by Green-K is not cumulative. So each time Superman is rescued from the final stages of Kryptonite poisoning, he recovers at once with no permanant or lasting effects. It may defy common sense, but that was the unequivocal rule for 20+ years. Note: If an exposure to Green-K is long enough to turn the victim green, the victim will die. (Turning green is the last stage of K-poisoning.)
D) There’re also contradictory accounts as to whether the power-loss and weakness that Superman experiences include him losing his invulnerablity (to the point where a normal gun would be a danger to him). I tend to think that his invulnerablity remains till (or even after) death.
#2) RED KRYPTONITE
Origin: A (large!) swarm of Green Kryptonite passed through a space cloud and changed into Red-K.
Effects: Red Kryptonite causes strange, unpredictable and (strangely) exclusively non-fatal mutations on superpowered Kryptonians (it doesn’t change a Kryptonian into a rapidly dispersing cloud of vaporous kryptonite particles) . These mutations are usually physical in nature (Superman becomes a giant gorilla, gets an ant head, hair and nails grow wildly). Occasionally the effects are power related (causes heat vision to turn on permanently, makes effectee immune to Green-K ). Rarely the effects are psychological (Superman hallucinates that he’s back on Krypton, thinks that he’s Superbaby, etc), Regardless of the effect, Red-K 's effects wear off in a 24-48 hour period of time. Note that despite one story to the contrary, Red-K cannot affect humans.
A) Each piece of Red-K has a particular effect. IE: If a piece of Red-K makes Superman swell up like a balloon, it will have the same effect on Krypto, Jax-Ur, Supergirl etc.
B) Each piece of Red-K has a unique effect. (There aren’t two pieces of Red-K that’ll make a Kryptonian swell up like a balloon). Caveat: In later stories, the writers exploited a rule loophole: No two pieces of Red-K have exactly the same, identical effect, so while there’s only one piece of Red-K that’ll make Superman swell to 3 times his normal size, there might be another piece that makes him swell to 3.0001 times his normal size. I’m not thrilled with this, but they published it.
C) Despite a few stories to the contrary, Red-K 's effects do not last exactly 24 hours (based on the vast majority of stories). You cannot set your watch by a Red-K exposure.
D) Once a Kryptonian has been exposed to a particular piece of Red-K , he or she can never be affected by that particular piece again (but that same piece affects other Kryptonians)
E) If a piece of Red-K is broken up, it “counts” as the same piece (each fragment has the same qualities as the original and a Kryptonian immune to the “parent” piece is immune to the fragments. #3) WHITE KRYPTONITE
Origin: It was created when another swarm of Green-K went through a different space-cloud.
Effects: Kills plants. All plants. Kryptonian or earth, superpowered or not. One of the only three Kryptonite variants that will affect non-super types
A) White-K will kill any and all plant life, Kryptonian, Earth-based, sentient (Swamp Thing) etc…except intestinal flora (we regularly saw people handling the stuff without dying)
#4) GOLD KRYPTONITE
Origin: Just a variant of Green-K . Created in Krypton’s explosion (someone suggested that it’s the remnants of Krypton’s Gold Volcano. I LIKE this idea!)
Effects: Permanently removes the superpowers (or the ability to gain superpowers in the case of non-powered Kryptonians) from any Kryptonian exposed. Gold-K radiation has a very short range.
A) Gold-K is rare. It’s the second rarest of the five major types of Kryptonite. We’ve only seen about 4 Kryptonians (in non-Imaginary Stories) affected by Gold K: Quex-Ul, Jay-Ree and his wife Joenne, and a Kryptonian wrestler guy in Superman #204 (plus a clone of Superman in Action #500)
B) There’s a debate about whether the loss of superpowers is inheritable (bias alert: I think it is). Those who think it is say that in Superman #179, Jay-Ree and Joenne explicitly state that their kids won’t have superpowers either and rather than spread this genetic damage throughout Kandor, they choose to be exiled on Earth (and live in a doll-house in Jimmy Olsen’s apartment).
Those who think it isn’t inheritable say that acquired characteristics can’t be passed on, and besides, Jay-Ree and Joenne weren’t geneticists, so they could have been wrong. The debate continues.
C) There’s another debate regarding the origin of Gold-K. The story in Superman #179 has that piece of Gold-K being created when a talking piece of Red-K (don’t ask) is zapped by a nuclear ray from a passing satellite. From this story a number of sources claim that Gold-K is created by irradiating Red or Green-K. I don’t buy this. The other pieces we’ve seen weren’t irradiated in that way, and that particular piece of Kryptonite (the sentient one) was unique in that it had already been Green and Red-K (and I’m pretty sure that it later became White-K). Besides, if all it took was a nuclear zap, Luthor would have been manufacturing the stuff by the truckload.
D) The stories are unclear as to how close a Kryptonian must be for Gold-K to affect him/her. Either they must be extremely close (a matter of inches) or it must touch them. Gold-K’s effects are, however, an all-or-nothing deal. Either the Kryptonian is affected and loses all his powers, or he isn’t and loses nothing. #5) JEWEL KRYPTONITE
Origin: The final one of five major Kryptonite types. By far the rarest of the five major types, only one piece exists. Jax-Ur went back in time and carved a chunk of the Jewel mountains into a shape that would survive Krypton’s explosion. That one piece eventually reached Earth.
Effects: Jewel-K has no effect on anyone. What it does is allow the telepathic inhabitants of the Phantom Zone to focus their telepathy and blow things up.
A) Jewel-K may be a telepathic lens for any telepath, not just those in the Phantom Zone
B) The one piece of Jewel-K has been broken into two pieces.
Minor varieties
#6) ANTI-KRYPTONITE
Origin: Debateable: It may just be a normal radioactive Kryptonian element.
Effects: Kills non superpowered Kryptonians the same way that Plutonium kills people from Earth. Effects are cumulative and rapidly fatal.
A) Argo City’s foundation turned into this stuff after Krypton exploded.
B) This stuff may also affect humans. Since we’ve never seen a human exposed to it, we don’t know, but it’s a persistant fan theory that I like. #7) KRYPTONITE X
Origin: Supergirl accidentally created this variant (As far as I know, there’s only one piece running around) while searching for a Kryptonite cure.
Effects: Gives cats (remember Streaky?) and humans superpowers equal to Kryptonians. The effect is temporary and the person (or cat) affected may or may not be vulnerable to other types of Kryptonite.(I seem to recall that Streaky was affected by Green-K once.) In addition, Kryptonite X affects super-powered Kryptonians just like Green K does. (it makes them weak and sick and will eventually kill them.)
#8) SLOW KRYPTONITE
Origin: Only appeared once (in Brave and Bold(!) #179) Accidentally created in by an Earth scientist in an unrepeatable experiment.
Effects: May affect Kryptonians like Green-K does, but definitely affects humans as Green-K does Kryptonians. (makes humans weak, they sicken and eventually die). The effect is non-culmulative on humans.
#9) BLUE KRYPTONITE
Origin: Superman put Green-K in front of a Bizarro Machine and got Blue-K, an imperfect duplicate.
Effects: Blue-K affects Bizarro Kryptonians as Green-K affects normal Kryptonians. (The only Bizarro Supergirl ever created died from Blue-K poisoning) but Bizarro Humans (Bizarro-Lois Lane or Bizarro Perry White, for example) are immune.
#10) SILVER KRYPTONITE
Origin: Despite the famous cover, there’s no such thing as Silver-K. It was a hoax created by Superman’s friends to keep him busy while they set up a surprise party for him.
#11) YELLOW KRYPTONITE
Origin: Luthor created a machine to generate synthetic Kryptonite. Amongst the normal types it created, it also generated Yellow Kryptonite. Superman was busy so a Superman robot showed up quickly. Superman robots were programmed to simulate being affected by Kryptonite so as to maintain the illusion that they were Superman. The robot kind of freaked out when it saw the Yellow-K since it didn’t know how to act in it’s presence.
Effects: If Yellow-K has any effects other than confusing Superman Robots, we’ve never seen it.
#12) PURPLE KRYPTONITE
Origin: Net legend. Doesn’t exist. At least, no-one’s ever shown me a reference. Allegedly it does to Bizarros what Red K. does to Kryptonians. I’ve tried to find a reference in a comic-book to this stuff for years, but never have. Every time the subject of Kryptonite comes up, someone’ll mention Purple K. and say they read it somewhere. (The “Tales of the Bizarro World” series in Adventure or Jimmy Olsen are two major candidates) but no one can give an issue number. I’ve combed every Bizarro World tale written and every Jimmy Olsen that I own (most of 'em above #50) and can’t find it ever used in a story. I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that maybe it was mentioned in a letter column somewhere, but it never appeared in a story. If anyone can reference a title/issue number, I’d be greatful
Thanks LoK, DocCathode, and Fenris! You guys really went above and beyond the call of duty! Never heard of Gold Kryptonite before… and now I’ve gotta’ ask, why hasn’t Luthor gotten his hands on any of it yet?! You’d think a resourceful megalomaniac like him could come up with at least one chunk from somewhere… is it just too rare, or does he not know about it, or what?
Oh yeah, and one other query: am I correct in my belief that the Flash is indeed faster than Superman? Have their respective top speeds ever been established? Just wondering.
Depends actually. If you’re talking about the pre-crisis, pre-destruction of Oa Green Lanterns their only limits were vulnerability to and inability to affect the color yellow, a twenty-four hour time limit, and most importantly their will power. As long as they make sure to recharge their ring within twenty-four hours from their last charge there’s not a whole lot to stop them. Time travel was nothing to them. About the only thing I didn’t see a Lantern doing was mind control, and I could be wrong about that.
Ultimately however, it looks like there is a direct correlation to willpower and just how powerful an individual GL is with his/her ring. In other words a top notch GL might be able to blow up planet with significant effort, but a novice would have trouble lifting a mountain.
Post-crisis, pre-destruction of Oa things were turned down a little. Since GL’s powers can be kinda vague it’s hard to get down to the gritty details, but basically they lost the ability to do time travel, and it looks to me that they were powered down a bit.
Now if you’re talking about post-crisis, post-destruction of Oa there were two big differences from the above: For starters the vulnerability to yellow was scrapped. If Banana-Man invades NYC Green Lantern’s gonna hand him his ass.
The other big difference was that they got rid of the twenty-four hour time limit. Now when GL (there is only one now) charges up he has a finite charge and doesn’t have to recharge until he uses it up. That means he can slowly use up his ring’s charge over time or he can let it all out in one big burst.
I’ve always thought that this would weaken him a little bit, because if he got into a long enough fight he would eventually be rendered helpless, but so far this hasn’t happened. In one story arc he blew up a planet (Oa), and then flew halfway across the universe back to Earth, stopping for various adventures along the way, all without recharging. So I guess that it’s not that big of a deal.
Yes, the Flash is indeed faster than Superman. They had a race and the Flash won. Flash is so fast that he can in effect make time stop relative to people around him (post-crisis he can’t time travel just through his own power however, he has to bounce off the speed force. Don’t ask).
In one cheesy post-crisis story he had to race someone who was using instantaneous teleportation. He got everyone on the planet to start running at the same time and then “borrowed” their speed. So given the proper circumstances he’s faster than instantaneous teleportation. Sheesh.
He was fighting Hal Jordon, the GL who he had replaced. Hal had gone bad and gotten a significant power increase by tapping into Oa’s core. Kyle Rayner (the current GL) was having trouble stopping him when he realized that if he blew up the planet he’d take Hal’s powers away. Wound up not quite working like that, but Kyle still won the fight as a result.
And of course Fenris shows up and makes the necessary corrections.
Nitpick, I remember at least once case of white K being used to kill bacteria. And having you intestinal flora die off would not kill you. It would give you a massive case of the runs until more grew. A strong enough dose of antibiotics now can have that result.
**
Hmmm…I didn’t know that about intestinal flora: I’d had the idea that it was instant death.
And now that you remind me, wasn’t it Virus X, not a bacteria, that White K killed? (It’s been years since I read it…but I do remember that you’re right)
Thanks in advance for any answers you can give me!