Superman

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Weaknesses

There are some things Superman cannot do. Since he is not human, he cannot donate blood, tissue, or organs. This is an alteration from an earlier era, which featured a story of an Earthman receiving a blood transfusion from Superman and also briefly receiving his powers. Procedures like surgery are impossible without special equipment. He does not sweat under earthly conditions, as no temperatures are high enough to make him secrete liquid to cool himself down. The issue of whether Superman can father children is humorously explored in the movie Mallrats, as well as in the essay Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex by sci-fi author Larry Niven (originally published in his 1971 collection All the Myriad Ways.). During the Armageddon 2001 storyline, a possible future was seen in which Lois Lane, with the aid of fertility drugs, was able to conceive. However, a kick from the fetus inflicted fatal internal injuries. On the final episode of the television series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the pair adopted a child who, like Clark, came from mysterious origins, and the "Death of Superman" novel established that Kryptonian DNA is twelve-stranded, and thus incompatible with two-stranded human DNA. But historically, many stories have established that Superman can in some manner have progeny.

Related Topics:
Blood - Tissue - Organs - Surgery - Mallrats - Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex - Sci-fi - Larry Niven - All the Myriad Ways - Armageddon 2001

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As a Kryptonian, he has one specific area of vulnerability. Since Krypton was destroyed, its remains (rendered radioactive by the explosion) have been spreading throughout the universe as kryptonite, a crystalline substance which has several major variants:

Related Topics:
Radioactive - Kryptonite - Crystalline

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• Green kryptonite is fatal to Kryptonians exposed to it for a sufficient period of time, and causes immediate intense pain to Kryptonians upon exposure. Pre-Crisis, Green Kryptonite had no effect on humans; post-Crisis, it can give humans cancer with very long term exposure, as Lex Luthor discovered.
• Red kryptonite has unpredictable effects on Kryptonians' physical or mental states, such as splitting Superman in two, inducing amnesia, turning him into a giant, etc. The effects wear off in 24-48 hours, after which a Kryptonian becomes immune to that particular piece. In the television series Smallville, red kryptonite serves to lessen kryptonian inhibitions, similar to the way alcohol lessens human inhibitions (but without the concurrent depressant effects); on Lois and Clark, red kryptonite had three different effects: one inducing a sense of apathy, one transferring all powers to another being, and one amplifying his powers by seven times. In the "Tower of Babel" story arc in the JLA comic book, a piece of synthetic red kryptonite made his skin invisible, allowing the sun to supercharge his cells past their normal limit and cause great pain to Superman himself.
• Gold kryptonite permanently removes a Kryptonian's superpowers. In Action Comics #823 (March, 2005), yellow or gold synthetic Kryptonite was used to give a frail man incredible size and strength, rivaling that of Superboy AND Superman. This particular kryptonite was apparently uniquely different from regular Gold Kryptonite, in that it was part of a plan by Gog to weaken and age Superman.
• Blue kryptonite affects only Bizarros, in the same way that green kryptonite affects only Kryptonians. In some story arcs, it can also counteract the effects of red kryptonite.
• White kryptonite affects (and kills) only plant life.
• Jewel kryptonite gave Phantom Zone prisoners amplified mental powers.
• Slow Kryptonite is a modified variety of Green Kryptonite produced by a Terran scientist that decelerates the speed of nerve impulses, and movements of both Kryptonians and Terrans.
• X-Kryptonite was created by Supergirl while she was trying to find a cure for Green Kryptonite. It gives Terrans, or at least Terran cats, Kryptonian style powers for a limited time. See also: Streaky the Supercat.
• Anti-Kryptonite affected non-superpowered Kryptonians in the same way that Green Kryptonite affected superpowered Kryptonians. This form of kryptonite was what killed the residents of Argo City.

For more information on kryptonite, see also: Kryptonite.

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Other variants were introduced sporadically, but after the 1986 John Byrne reboot, all versions except for green were retconned out of existence. Since that time, an updated version of red kryptonite was reintroduced into the comics. Recently, with the destruction of the Kryptonite meteor in Superman/Batman, large quantites of kryptonite have fallen to earth; new forms beyond the red and green are believed to be amongst them, as of now, blue, black, and clear forms have been seen in addition to the previously known types so far. The effects of the new blue Kryptonite were unknown until recently, when, in a Superman/Batman comic, a Bizarro-Batman (self-proclaimed "Batzarro") was shown giving a Blue Kryptonite ring to Bizarro, causing Bizarro to actually speak normally and intelligently while still being "positively lethal" to him.

Related Topics:
Reboot - Retconned - Batman

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Superman is also vulnerable to magical and psychic effects, although he is no more detrimentally affected by such effects than a normal human would be.

Related Topics:
Magical - Psychic

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