Pink Kryptonite?

[Rory]

So I just read an article about this kryptonite that is pink that was said to give Superman 'gay tendencies'.

Was this in a joke comic book or something?
Has it been used more than once?


What would it do to Supergirl?

[Expletive Deleted]

It was a single-panel joke in an issue of Peter David's Supergirl. I believe it may have also been an alternate universe, although it's been a while since I've looked at those comics. Either way, it was just a one-off.

[Kid A]

What would it do to Supergirl?

Wouldn't you like to know.

[Pinsir]

So I just read an article about this kryptonite that is pink that was said to give Superman 'gay tendencies'.

Was this in a joke comic book or something?
Has it been used more than once?


What would it do to Supergirl?

The idea is that it made Superman silver agey

[Don C]

So I just read an article about this kryptonite that is pink that was said to give Superman 'gay tendencies'.

Was this in a joke comic book or something?

Yes

Has it been used more than once?

No

What would it do to Supergirl?

Nothing. Interesting, that.

[tabo61]

What would happen if he was exposed to green,red,silver,black,ect .. kryptonite all at once?

[Pinsir]

What would happen if he was exposed to green,red,silver,black,ect .. kryptonite all at once?

Gold kyptonite takes away his powers so it would in effect be nulled since he would no longer be super.

[Jim Kelly]

It's a bad joke in all kinds of ways. Associating anything pink with being gay. Making fun of gay men. Trotting out the usual stereotypes of what gay men do and say. And it's a cheap joke. Surely, we're past the time when obvious gay stereotypes were enough to get a laugh. But Vladimir Putin would find it funny--and then send anyone to Siberia for publishing the joke.

[Qwathings]

It's a bad joke in all kinds of ways. Associating anything pink with being gay. Making fun of gay men. Trotting out the usual stereotypes of what gay men do and say. And it's a cheap joke. Surely, we're past the time when obvious gay stereotypes were enough to get a laugh. But Vladimir Putin would find it funny--and then send anyone to Siberia for publishing the joke.

It wasn't making fun of gay people, it was making fun of how the subtext in silver age stories often went over the heads of the readers and characters. Yet when we look back and analyze the stories this subtext can be humorously obvious. The Supergirl in the issue, being a character with modern sensibilities and sophistication, could see the sexual subtext, but the other characters were unaware of it. To her, and we the readers, it was obvious that pink kryptonite had turned Superman gay, but the other characters only knew that Superman was acting strange (uncomfortably so for Jimmy Olsen, as I recall).

It was humorous commentary on silver age stories.

Considering Peter David's other portrayals of gay characters in his stories, which I've always felt were respectful, I doubt he had any malicious intent.

[Jim Kelly]

For parody to work it has to be funny. And that panel doesn't make me laugh--it just makes me groan. Maybe, out of contect, that panel falls flat. But even in context, I don't know if I would have found it funny--it's just too forced and too leaden. And I still say there's something wrong in the use of pink (as in the Pink Triangle that the Nazis used to identify homosexual prisoners). Would that ever happen in a real Weisinger story? I doubt it.

Yet, something from the actual comics--such as Miss Jimmy Olsen (from SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 44)--makes me laugh right out loud. That's really funny--I think any '60s kid would find it funny and '60s adults would find it funny for different reasons. But not for some simplistic reason, such as Jimmy appears gay. It's funny for all its outrageous zany humour--in the same way that Bugs Bunny dressed up as a Valkyrie warrior woman is funny for some reason that goes beyond any narrow gay stereotyping.

If the characters in the '60s really didn't get the humour in their own situations, then why were they so often winking at the audience?

I don't like many latter day parodies of vintage comics because they are too often overly broad and forced; they try to pigeon-hole old comics as simplistic and naive; and they never admit the complexity of the original stories or the intelligence of the audience that read them. Kids are more perceptive than you think--but often what they pick up from comics is something a grown up would totally miss.

[Qwathings]

For parody to work it has to be funny. And that panel doesn't make me laugh--

Humor is subjective.

[Lorendiac]

What would it do to Supergirl?

Nothing. Interesting, that.

More precisely, I would say: "It did nothing to the Post-Crisis Linda Danvers Supergirl, a human being whose superpowers came from a source which had absolutely nothing to do with Kryptonian genes. It presumably would have affected 'Silver Age Supergirl' (Kara Zor-El) the same way it affected Peter David's version of 'Silver Age Superman.'"