Kryptonite Was Created To Give Superman a Vacation

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound! Superman is known for many many things, including the fact that he only has one weakness, Kryptonite. While it is fairly well known that Superman’s powers have grown and changed over the years, many people don’t realize the change to his invulnerability, the creation of Kryptonite, was not so much a story decision, but a decision to give Superman a break from crime fighting. That’s right, Kryptonite was invented to give Superman a vacation.

What makes this even more surprising is the fact that Kryptonite didn’t make its first appearance in the comics, but actually on the radio. Between 1940 to 1951, Superman was the star of his own audio drama titled Adventures of Superman, one of the highest rated radio broadcasts of its day. Switching between multiple networks and growing in length over time, the radio broadcast aired 2,088 original episodes completely disconnected from the comic publication storyline. Being a radio drama using real people, the show required voice actors to work grueling daily recording schedules with insanely long hours, and it is actually this issue that led to the creation of Kryptonite.

As a Superman show, it meant there was one person that was pretty much required to be in every episode, the titular hero himself. Playing the voice of Superman, Bud Collyer served as the real life secret identity of Clark Kent, not publicly revealing his name as the voice for the first six years of broadcasting. As awesome as it is to get to be the vocal embodiment of the Man of Steel himself, being the star of the show came with its own set of problems, specifically having no way to take a day off, and this is exactly what spawned Superman’s infamous weakness to Kryptonite.

In an effort to give Bud Collyer some time off, a man much in need of a vacation, the writers of the show invented Kryptonite in 1943 in order to make Superman sick. This allowed the voice of Superman to be absent without ruining the regular broadcast schedule. In an age of no reruns and ass one of radio’s most popular shows, it was especially important to remain on air without interruption, and a sick Superman allowed his voice to disappear and get some bed rest of his own.

Now if this isn’t crazy enough, what’s even wilder is the fact that Kryptonite didn’t make its debut on the comic pages until six years later. First appearing in 1949, Superman #61 featured the first on-paper appearance of Kryptonite. Here’s where the weirdness continues; this Kryptonite was red! While Red Kryptonite eventually went on to become its own thing within the Superman universe, causing some pretty bizarre side effects, this original Red Kryptonite is actually far more similar to the traditional Green Kryptonite fans are accustomed to today. It wasn’t until 1951 that fans saw the first appearance of standard Kryptonite with its green hue in Action Comics #161.

If there has ever been a reason to explore the Adventures of Superman, this is definitely it. Since Kryptonite plays such a vital role in the character of Superman, it’s definitely an intriguing look at his history to go back and hear how the weakness was first introduced, especially as a fan that is used to Superman being in a more physical medium.