Red Kryptonite stories

[comicstar100]

As a kid I loved the series Smallville. My favorite episodes were always the red kryptonite episodes which caused Clark to lose his sense of morality. I'm wondering what comics do you recommend that have red kryptonite?

[Kuwagaton]

I think the top two would be Superman#162 from the sixties and Krimson Kryptonite from 1990. It's kind of a rare plot device and sometimes it's substituted (the synthetic Kryptonite from Superman III was really red K, for example).

[seismic-2]

Whenever the writers couldn't come up with a good story, thank goodness they always had red Kryptonite at their disposal, so they could at least come up with a stupid story instead!

[Timothy Hunter]

The unfortunately named Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonits introduced the concept of Red Kryptonite to Post Crisis continuity. It"s one of my favorite Superman stories and crosses over with the Roger Stern Starman of the late 80s early 90s which is also phenomenal.

[Vordan]

JLA Tower of Babel has a pretty good showcase of how horrifying Red K can be for Supes.

[LordMikel]

As a kid I loved the series Smallville. My favorite episodes were always the red kryptonite episodes which caused Clark to lose his sense of morality. I'm wondering what comics do you recommend that have red kryptonite?

Question. Red Kryptonite in the comics really doesn't do what the Smallville Kryptonite does. As we saw in a later posts, the Silver age red would change Superman in weird ways. The Krimson which was mentioned removed his powers. I don't recall Tower of Babel. But I am wondering, are you more looking for Superman stories where he has lost his "goodness" if you will?

[Vordan]

Yeah “Black Kryptonite” in the comics is what makes Kryptonians evil. I wonder what it would do to someone like Zod?

[Midnighter]

Yeah “Black Kryptonite” in the comics is what makes Kryptonians evil. I wonder what it would do to someone like Zod?

Doesn't it split you into a good half and bad half?

[comicstar100]

Question. Red Kryptonite in the comics really doesn't do what the Smallville Kryptonite does. As we saw in a later posts, the Silver age red would change Superman in weird ways. The Krimson which was mentioned removed his powers. I don't recall Tower of Babel. But I am wondering, are you more looking for Superman stories where he has lost his "goodness" if you will?

good point, I guess red K isn't exactly what I remember. Maybe stories where Superman loses his ethics is a better term. I don't think I'd say turns evil most those red k episodes he simply more selfish than normal.

[mikelmcknight72]

In Pre-COIE continuity, each chunk of red kryptonite had a different effect. It was seemingly random, but it definitely could cause the same effect as the Superman III synthetic kryptonite.

The DC Wikia on Fandom has an article detailing various types of kryptonite and their effects. It covers comics, TV, etc.

[manwhohaseverything]

Whenever the writers couldn't come up with a good story, thank goodness they always had red Kryptonite at their disposal, so they could at least come up with a stupid story instead!

Superman became gi-ant man. Honestly, i think kal el would fit in an ant colony much better than a human one.

[achilles]

Red K is a funny beast. There was a Brave and the Bold (#7 IIRC) that put Wonder Woman and Power Girl together. This was after PG was retconned back to being a Kryptonian again. The plot involved mind control of PG, who set out to turn the Fortress into Red K and murder Superman, (mind controlled). Problem was, while Superman himself was turned into many different things, PG herself.....also Kryptonian, was NOT hurt by it at all. The story ended with Wonder Woman using her plane, the only way she can approach PG undetected, to break the bad guy's control over PG by the simple expedient of crashing the plane into PG and jarring the philosopher's stone out of her hand.

[godisawesome]

Red Kryptonite is kind of a tricky beast - it was used far too often in the comics as an excuse for whatever imaginatively conceived but lazily thought out cover idea they had. Smallville hit one a good idea of it impacting behavior, but because of the kind of show that was, it’s execution was always just kind of cheesy. Superman III’s only really good part is the way the false Kryptonite works on Superman, but it’s not really red kryptonite.

All three could really be used more cleverly in the future.

Red K that causes mutations has some strong elements of cosmic horror is could use, while behavioral effecting Red K has some imaginative uses. You could probably separate the two types, write them a bit more seriously, and get some great stories.