In celebration of the superhero Weakness.

[DrNewGod]

There are a great many things from which the superhero genre has moved away (to at least, some degree). Teen sidekicks. Secret identities. Hand-wringing girlfriends. Casually oblivious privilege. Some for the better, some for the worse (your mileage is almost certain to vary on some of the specifics, let's not get too hung up on that here).

There's one, tho, that I miss: The Weakness.

Now not every superhero had one. Green Arrow didn't, unless you count archery cyclic rate relative to firearms as a weakness. Black Panther didn't, unless your head-canon requires that he consume the heart-shaped-herb regularly, rather than as a one-and-done.

But a lot did, and sometimes it added more than it subtracted. IMO, losing that closes as many plot options as it opens.

It gave Iron Man something extra that using his powers drained his pace-maker. In a similar manner, (Ditko's original) Captain Atom was immensely powerful, but it waned as he expended energy, sometimes having to be content watching doves outpace him in flight. Mr. Fantastic originally grew weaker and fatigued the further he stretched, and the more complex the shapes he adopted. There was some value in Green Lantern's power being useless against some substances (although, I'll grant you that the color yellow was overly arbitrary, no matter what the metaphor was supposed to be). That was good stuff.

One of my favorites was Golden Age Starman: His gravity rod simply wouldn't work under direct sunlight. Now the "science" used to explain it (something about the intensity of our sun's UV rays) was dubious, at best; a kid with a UV lamp literally shut him down once. But it made things interesting. It confined him to operating at night. A plot had to account for his need to get stuff wrapped up and back to safety before sunrise, almost like a vampire. It made it easier for a writer to complicate his adventures, instead of having him blow into town like The Spectre and blast the issue into submission. It forced the author to write some cleverness into the character, and to rely on skills other than his ability to build and use the gravity rod.

Anybody else out there have a favorite superhero weakness?

[K7P5V]

I've always been fascinated by how many different kinds of Kryptonite there are in known existence...

[Jim Kelly]

Are posters trying to break my soul? Seeing that break down of Kryptonites is hurting my geeky nerves. Gold K removes powers permanently. Red K is unpredictable and each isotope causes different changes, but the effects are temporary and once exposed that particular Red K isotope has no effect after that. White K kills plants which is how Superman was cured of Virus X.

[PCN24454]

Are posters trying to break my soul? Seeing that break down of Kryptonites is hurting my geeky nerves. Gold K removes powers permanently. Red K is unpredictable and each isotope causes different changes, but the effects are temporary and once exposed that particular Red K isotope has no effect after that. White K kills plants which is how Superman was cured of Virus X.

That was from a fan-universe, Earth-27. It doesn't have to be accurate to the comics.

[K7P5V]

Correct. But if you want accuracy, then this should be more to your liking...

[Jim Kelly]

"Gold K" was the Kryptonite that gave me the most scares. With the green stuff, I always knew Superman and Supergirl were going to come back from it--even if they literally died from exposure. And the red rocks never did permanent damage. But the gold isotopes they threatened to take away the Kryptonian's powers and the effect was immediate and permanent. There was no getting powers back later. In all stories I read, the character in question was powerless from then on. Superman and Supergirl didn't dare get near to the rocks. And this treatment made those meteorites seem like the greater danger.

Given we all have our weaknesses--physical and psychological--I don't understand why anyone would see that as something belonging to a bygone age. We're literally engaged in a global battle against a weakness that threatens to kill us all. It's hardly so fantastic that each super-hero has his Achilles heel.

Learning which super-hero has which weakness is supposed to be a rite of passage in becoming a super-hero fan. Other faiths involve memorizing creeds and liturgies. The comic book faith requires a memorization of factoids and numerals.

Green Lantern Corps--yellow, a necessary impurity. Alan Scott Green Lantern--wood. Aquaman--staying out of the water too long. The Marvel Family--gags, not just because they're fetish freaks but because they have to say the magic word. Wonder Woman--binding her bracelets together. Martian Manhunter--lighters. Thor--losing his hammer. People from Daxam--lead. Spider-Man--Aunt May. Batman--P.T.S.D. Morpheus--his own code. Wicked Witch of the West--water. Wicked Witch of the East--houses. Charlie Brown--footballs yanked away at the last second.

[Odd Rödney]

I've never liked that there are so many different Kryptonite variants. I would prefer that Earth has a bunch of green Kryptonite and no others. It gets too weird and complex for my liking. But, that is just my opinion.

[SquirrelMan]

I liked some of the villains' weaknesses, too. Like Mxyzptlk saying his name backwards, or Luthor loving cakes so much.

[Jim Kelly]

I've never liked that there are so many different Kryptonite variants. I would prefer that Earth has a bunch of green Kryptonite and no others. It gets too weird and complex for my liking. But, that is just my opinion.

Well really, there were only two types ever used with great regularity. Pink is just in a spoof story as far as I know. Anti-Kryptonite had to be invented because readers spotted an error in the Supergirl origin story, so the editor had to retcon anti-Kryptonite as a means of explanation. Gold K., as I said, was never used against Superman or Supergirl (other than imaginary stories). The blue and white were just for a few stories, for specific reasons. Jewel--I guess that was in one story only--the funny thing is when Kryptonite first shows up in the comics it looks like a jewel not a green rock.

Of green and red, I actually like red better because it's useful as a plot device. It makes stories happen. If I had to choose between them, I'd take the "Krimson K."

Complexity is the corn flakes of comic book collecting. It wouldn't be as flavourful if there weren't so many details to digest.

[MyriVerse]

There are a great many things from which the superhero genre has moved away (to at least, some degree). Teen sidekicks. Secret identities. Hand-wringing girlfriends. Casually oblivious privilege. Some for the better, some for the worse (your mileage is almost certain to vary on some of the specifics, let's not get too hung up on that here).

There's one, tho, that I miss: The Weakness.

Now not every superhero had one. Green Arrow didn't, unless you count archery cyclic rate relative to firearms as a weakness. Black Panther didn't, unless your head-canon requires that he consume the heart-shaped-herb regularly, rather than as a one-and-done.

Normal guys don't really need a weakness. Pretty much everything is their weakness.

[mathew101281]

I've never liked that there are so many different Kryptonite variants. I would prefer that Earth has a bunch of green Kryptonite and no others. It gets too weird and complex for my liking. But, that is just my opinion.

Yeah, it should be Green and maybe red and that's it. After that, it just seems silly. I like the fact that more recent stories have played up the lack of magic defenses more. Superman isn't a creature of magic so it makes sense that he should have issues with it.

[PCN24454]

Yeah, it should be Green and maybe red and that's it. After that, it just seems silly. I like the fact that more recent stories have played up the lack of magic defenses more. Superman isn't a creature of magic so it makes sense that he should have issues with it.

It's the wide variety of kryptonite that keeps its usage from getting stale.

[DrNewGod]

The Black Knight was given an interesting one: he had a sword that could cut anything, but had to be extremely careful with it because drawing blood came with a number of curse effects.

[Jim Kelly]

Colour weaknesses--yellow, red, green stuff--were probably used because the comic books were in colour and the publishers believed it was a good idea to exploit the colours they could offer in their visual medium.

[K7P5V]

The Black Knight was given an interesting one: he had a sword that could cut anything, but had to be extremely careful with it because drawing blood came with a number of curse effects.

Agreed. The Ebony Blade is an all-time fave