Why do people think that Superman can only die from Kryptonite?

Question

It has been clear in many places that he can be killed by several things. He can die from having limited exposure to the sun, by not getting oxegyn for more than 90 minutes, from magic, and from getting the crap beaten out of him by super strong aliens like Doomsday, in the comic book seires, the Death of Superman.

Yes, Kryptonite is the easiest way to kill him, but if you'd also remember the movie, Superman II, those three Kryptonion people from his planet nearly killed him. If he was trully invincible, there would be nothing to worry about. If you were to say that they are as strong as him and that's why, then what about the Hulk? He can be even stronger when angry.

Just try to argue.

Answer 1

Characters like Superman are rarely accurately considered. Most people only associate a few things with said characters.

Answer 2

Kryptonite is and easier and more simple nemesis to use as a weapon against the Man of Steel.

Remember, simplicity is the key to great comic book writing.

He can die from having limited exposure to the sun, but that is boring. You and I can die by not getting oxygen for more than 90 minutes. Supes dying from magic is great fun, remember his battle with Dracula? The Doomsday, story the Death of Superman was phenomenal.

I still say that dyiing from a piece of the planet that you were born on that exploded and killed your parents makes a better story than all.

Answer 3

The big three for Superman have always been Kryptonite, magic and things that come from Krypton, like weapons or diseases. For garden variety criminals, Kryptonite has always been the easiest to get.

Back in the early days (60's), Superman fought a villain who seemed to be an invincible knight, whose sword was able to cut his (back then) indestructible costume. It was actually a robot, made out of indestructible Kryptonian metal! I always wondered, why Superman didn't save the robot after he found the bad guy and take it apart and use them metal to make invincible armor for himself; it might even have protected him from Kryptonite! At least, save the sword. That would be so cool, to have an indestructible sword. And, why didn't he remember that he had those things in his fortress, on those occasions when he lost his powers...?

Lasers that emit the same light frequencies as a red sun have been shown to hurt Superman before (late70's/ early 80's)

Superman has been hit with Virus X, also called Kryptonian leprosy before. It almost killed him, until the Bizarros accidentally cured him! They threw Blue Kryptonite at him, which only kills plant life, and it killed the virus instead of Superman! (That was also pre-Crisis, when there were different varieties of Kryptonite.)

But you have to understand how much Kryptonite was landing on Earth in those days. You could look out a window of the Daily Planet building and see a Kryptonite meteor landing in the middle of the street, for crying out loud! It's been theorized that the space warp that Superman's ship came through drew huge amounts of Kryptonite along with it. Also, since Krypton was so much larger than earth, probably much more Kryptonite exists than the mass of the Earth.

There was a series of stories in the late 70's or early 80's where an alien secretly treated Clark Kent's clothes with a sort of super 'sunblock', so that Clark had no powers. He thought he was suffering from a psychological block that prevented him using his powers when he was dressed as Clark! Once he jumped out the window and started falling to the street. He had forgotten to take off his socks! Luckily for Superman, he managed to get them off in time and became invulnerable again before he hit the sidewalk. It was a nice gag and an interesting storyline.

But even today, limted exposure to the sun will not kill Superman. It took years before he developed his full power on Earth and his metabolism was simply not enhanced by the solar rays then. Now, if he was in space and his powers were shut off, that would be a different matter.

Doomsday was a special case because he was mutated in Kryptonian conditions, so you could say that he was another Kryptonian, in a way. He was intelligently designed to kill Kryptonians. Mongul is a better example. I don't know that his origin has ever been shown, but he has been shown to be able to kick the snot out of the big red S as in the story set in the Fortress, (I think it was titled What do you get for the man who has everything...?)

Answer 4

Sure Superman can die. But who can throw him in the sun? How many Doomsdays' are there. Who can deprive him of O2 for an hour and a half. The answers are all pretty slim pickings. But, any schmuck can find some Kryptonite to use.
The Hulk is a different story, it would have to be some sort of drop from an unbelievable altitude onto land. I know the movie (Which sucked) had him falling from the upper atmosphere and surviving. But I believ that at that high altitude, lack of O2 would convert him back to Banner and render him unconscious

Answer 5

Yes, those things you mentioned have the 'potential' to kill Superman, but kryptomite is the only sure method. If there were other sure ways he wouldn't be Superman now would he?

Answer 6

The short answer is that most people are not nearly as nerdy as you or I. They only know the most popular things that tv and movies have made big deals about.
Cut the ignorant some slack.

Answer 7

You are absolutely correct, just like the real batman always is. If anything people should questiont the hulk, I mean, he survived a NUCLEAR BLAST and then became stronger (ultimate wolverine vs. Hulk).

Answer 8

Wow Mr. Bat Man I did not know all of that. Thanks for the info.