How many different types of kryptonite are there and what are they?

Question

as in superman!

Answer 1

Originally, there was just one kind, Green K, which could hurt (and eventually kill) Superman. It was supposed to have been introduced in the 1930’s! But the publisher refused to print the story by Siegel and Shuster (and the courts said that the publisher owned Superman, not the writer and artist who created him, so they got the shaft.)

This story is now being restored and published for the first time on the web site Superman Through the Ages. (The K-Metal from Krypton.) In this story, Superman feels pain for the first time, learns that he is from Krypton, and reveals his secret identity to Lois Lane! You can see why the publishers did not want it released.

Although that story was not published until modern times, in the 40’s, they used Kryptonite on the Superman radio show, which allowed the star (Bud Collyer) doing Superman’s voice, to have a few days off.

Later (jn the 50’s, I think) they introduced Red and Gold K. Gold K will take away a Kryptonian’s powers permanently. Thus it is only useful as a threat against Superman, because if it was ever used, there would be no more Superman. It was used in some classic stories to take the powers permanently away from a released Phantom Zone prisoner, and once (just before Crisis on Infinite Earths) to take Supermans powers away because he had killed Mxyzptlk. (He then married Lois and they settled down together.)

Red K caused unpredictable effects on Superman. It could take away his powers, or cause them to go haywire, it could remove his memory, or cause delusions. It could mutate his body so that he grew extra fingers on his hands, or hair all over his body, or his head would turn into the head of an animal or insect. It could cause him to grow to enormous size, or shrink to microscopic size. Once it caused his face to turn different colors depending on his emotions. These usually caused difficulties keeping his secret identity. Each piece of Red K would only affect a given Kryptonian once. Thus he couldn’t shrink to microscopic size again at a time when it would prove useful. But Supergirl could, if she hadn’t been exposed to that piece. So it was used to make the stories more interesting. They supposedly have a new kind of Kryptonite that will split a Kryptonian into a good and an evil twin, but originally only Red K could do that.

Blue K would only affect Bizarros, the imperfect unliving duplicates of Superman. I hear there is a new kind that affects them differently, but that also is very recent.

White K would only kill plant life. This accidentally saved Superman’s life once when he got a Kryptonian disease, which looked like it would be fatal for him. The Bizarros exposed him to white K, thinking it would hasten his death, but it killed the microbes, which were apparently plant related life. Superman did not die that time.

Jewel K was a hoax on the part of Phantom Zone criminals. They told Superman that it had a permanent effect on his body that caused him to detonate any explosive material he came near, while it was actually a crystal that amplified their telepathic powers into telekinetic powers and enabled them to detonate explosives. They wanted him to exile himself from Earth, lest he blow it up as Krypton blew up. But they slipped up. They failed to detonate the flashbulbs for Jimmy Olsen’s camera, the lighter of Perry White’s cigar, and the gasoline in a lawn more that Superman flew past. Once he realized it was a trick, he got rid of the piece of ‘jewel K’ and there was no more problem with it.

Silver K was similarly a hoax, for Superman’s 25th anniversary in 1963.

Kryptonite-X was an isotope of regular K, made by Supergirl when she was experimenting with it, trying to develop a cure for the radiation poisoning. She didn’t realize that it gave her pet cat, Streaky, super powers. There was also something called Anti-K, that was supposed to kill nonsuper Kryptonians (i.e., those still in the bottle city of Kandor.)

In the 1970’s there was a freak nuclear reaction that turned all Kryptonite on Earth into iron. At the same time, they reduced Superman’s powers to half of what they had been, but they forgot—half of infinity is still infinity. They had never adequately defined or quantified Superman’s power levels. Eventually, more green K fell on Earth as meteorites, and things were back the way they had been.

Incidentally, for a while you could look out your window in Metropolis on any given day and have a good chance of seeing—and recognizing!!!! A Kryptonite meteor landing. It was ridiculous. To account for this, they said that when Superman came to earth as an infant, his rocket was propelled by a space warp device, which accidentally drew a lot of Kryptonite along with it.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC rebooted their universe and Superman was brand new. There had never been all those varieties of K. There was one piece of Kryptonite known, which had struck Kal-El’s rocket after it was launched, and stuck to it, so that it was brought with him. An unknown enemy found it and used it to build Metallo, who was powered by it. Luthor eventually got this piece, and when he learned that it hurt Superman, he had it made into a ring that he could wear all the time. What he didn’t realize was that it was also very slightly poisonous to humans, too. Luthor eventually got cancer from the slow radiation poisoning, and had to have his hand amputated. So he hated Superman and blamed him for that, too. Before he got himself cloned and his mind transplanted into the healthy young body, Luthor had a prosthetic or bionic hand.

Mxyzptlk made something he called Red K once, but it was just a trick. He took Superman’s powers away with his magic, and let S. think the Red K did it. (It was a bet with Luthor.) At this time, Clark acted like a normal man, romanced Lois, etc. That was when they got engaged, IIRC. The basis of the bet was that Superman had to figure out how he lost his powers without Luthor telling him. It drove Clark crazy for a while. Eventually Luthor told Kent, who interviewed him, because he wanted to brag to someone. But he made clear that Kent had better not tell anybody else! Mxyzptlk, however, knew that Kent was Superman’s secret identity, and regarded that as cheating, so he restored Superman’s powers without telling Luthor why.

As far as I know that was the last kind of Kryptonite introduced in the comics. The Smallville show and the animated cartoons are not necessarily canonical.

11JAN 07, 0551 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

Types Of Kryptonite

Answer 3

6 or 7

Answer 4

Green Kryptonite radiation drives out the solar energy (source of his powers) stored in Clark's cells; prolonged exposure to Green Kryptonite will be fatal to Clark. A fragment can cause weakness.

Red Kryptonite radiation rids Kryptonians of their inhibitions. "Bad Clark" the Party Animal.

Black Kryptonite rarest form of Kryptonite yet, created through intense heating of Green Kryptonite. Black Kryptonite separates Clark and his Kryptonian alter-ego, Kal-El, into two separate beings.

Silver Kryptonite is an artificial form of Kryptonite created by Professor Milton Fine (aka Brainiac) using a meteor rock and his body's own liquid metal. Causes intense paranoid delusions in Clark. "Petrified Clark"

Answer 5

Too many (at least 14- 15)....!

Here is the short list of all types of Kryptonite there has been (many of these do are not in the current comics)

Green- lethal to Kryptonians after just a few hours and painful upon exposure. Long term exposure is fatal to humans.

Red- Has different effects. Pre-Crisis it caused random temporary effects ranging from physical transformations to mental changes.... Post-Crisis it caused Superman to absorb more solar energy than normal and pushed his powers out of control.

Gold- removes powers

White- destroys plants

Blue- Pre-crisis: effected Bizarro like Green effects Superman; Post-Crisis: Made Bizarro speak "normally'

Jeweled- Amplyfies psycic powers

Black- Splits a Kyrptonian into good and evil

Anti-Kryptonite- As per Green but effects only non powered kryptonians. Also fuels Powerman (Antimater universe superman)

X Kryptonite- bestows temporary powers

"Slow" Kryptonite- As per Green but on humans

Magno Kryptonite- attracts anything from Krypton to it

Bizzaro Red- As per Red but on humans

Krytonite X (Kryptisium)- A "purified" version of Green K radiation... restored a Powerless superman's abilities.

Pink- Makes Kryptonians gay.

Silver- haox in comics but makes Clark paranoid in "Smallville"

Answer 6

It's radioactive parts of the destroyed planet of Krypton. There's no real science behind it, but i guess the Krypton chunks (kryptonite) were irradiated from the destruction of krypton, and i guess there where different levels of radiation mean different forms of kryptonite will exsist producing different radiations. It's kinda lame, but it's the only explanation i can think of because the only thing i know for certain is that kryptonite is just parts of krypton that sruvived and scattered through out the universe.

Answer 7

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How many different types of kryptonite are there and what are they?
as in superman!

Answer 8

In the pre-crisis timeline there was green-k, red-k, blue-k, gold-k, white-k, pink-k, black-k. Do you also want to know their effects on superman?

Answer 9

im afraid that info is too much for u to handle...

lol jk