Over the years, it has been often commented that Clark's reaction to Kryptonite varies, from seconds to days.

Most times this has been explained by the length of exposure, proximity (internal versus external), but those don't account for some of the writers fiats.

I think I have an idea that will cover all bases and I am offering it up to any and all who want to use it.

What if Green K came in different strengths? Some forms of Green K just don't have the same effect on Clark as other forms. Some are more lethal than others!

It just makes sense.

Now, I have never seen anything like this postulated before and if it has, then my apologies.

James

Well, Red K has different effects, so I guess it's plausible that some chunks of Green K would be more deadly than others.

PJ

I posed a question about different types of Kryptonite for a story I've been working off and on for two years. Someone suggested that K could be diluted or changed by outside forces so that it might have different properties. That's the solution I've adopted for the story I hope to finish before the next millenium.

Jude

Jude,
Having read the first chapters of this story you've been working on, all I can say is get off your butt...or should that be park your butt in front of your computer.

Just get writing...

gerry

It's a mineral, right? So it would absolutely make sense that it has either multiple types of crystals it can form, or different degrees of purity. Think of the difference between a very high quality diamond and a flawed one.

Not to mention it's radioactive. So it would have to have some sort of half-life, right?

Well, I'd always assumed kryptonite was some heretofor undiscovered on Earth radioactive element, which would make it pretty consistent across the board.

Since it's radioactive, it would have a half-life, and materials do lose radioactivity over time, but *short* half-lives are often numbered in millions of years. I would think kryptonite would be rare enough as it is that there would not be so much drastic variety in it, especially since the few samples that landed on Earth were from a specific singular event (an itty bitty small part of the planet being sucked along the path of the ship). So, I don't think that would be the answer to why it would be stronger or weaker in different cases.

But maybe now I'm just thinking too darned much ;p

It's strength could be definitely from its purity. Just as diamonds are not pure many crystals aren't. As they show kryptonite on the show it is a glowing crystal. So it could have any number of impurities in it that would make the strenght of the radioativity vary. Also as in GGG of Home when Clark throws it against the rock in the pond and it explodes - it appears to be unstable. This could also be caused by the degree of impurities which could also affect the strength of the radiation. Just an amateurs guess.

It could also depend on whether he was in the sun at the time or had much sunlight afterwards...

Not necessarily, depending on the stability of the isotope the half-life may only be hours long. The shortest I know of, used in cancer treatment has a half life of about 45 minutes. It has to be made almost immediately before administration. The name of the compound escapes me, and it's unlikely that I'll remember anytime soon...

Though it is true that the more commonly found isotopes have longer half lifes, from thousands to millions of years, not all do.

My personal opinion is that kryptonite wont kill him...

I think, given his metabolism and the rate of cell growth in his body (think how fast he heals) that over a long period of exposure he'd adapt to the presence of kryptonite in much the same way early life adapted to other noxious stimulants, like air and sunlight.

He seems to deal with each subsequent exposure better than the last, though to be fair that trend may be to do with his increasing tolerance to pain.

It might get to the point where he's unaffected by the kryptonite, baring a mild pain, or he'll evolve into a giant ameobia :p

David (who had to find some way to make his classes more interesting and related it all back to Superman)

Just a note on half-lives: Some isotopes, like Uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. But some isotopes have half-lives measured in seconds, minutes, or days. Iodine-131 has a half life of 8.07 days. We can only guess for Kryptonite, and since it's fiction...