Superman Confirms His Famous Kryptonite Weakness is His Dumbest Mistake

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Justice League #73

In the latest issue of DC Comics’ Justice League, it’s revealed that Superman is well aware that he made a rookie mistake when it comes to his weakness to kryptonite. While it’s extremely well-known that the Man of Steel grows weak and could die from being in proximity to irradiated pieces of his homeworld, the same can’t be said for his susceptibility to magic which can be just as devastating. This is intentional on Superman’s part as he apparently learned from missteps with kryptonite.

In previous issues of Justice League, Black Adam has been corrupted and possessed by the ultimate Lord of Chaos Xandadoth. Now, Justice League #73 from Brian Michael Bendis, Emanuela Lupacchino, Wade Von Grawbadger Szymon Kudranski, and Scott Hanna sees Madame Xanadu, Zatanna, Doctor Fate, Etrigan, and the entire Justice League coming to bear on the Chaos Lord, prompting the powerful being to teleport away. As such, the superheroes and sorcerers regroup at the Hall of Justice to discuss their options and next steps.

While the League’s newest and youngest member Naomi speaks to the idea of calling Superman back from his mission in space to take on Black Adam, the rest of the League explain that that would be a terrible idea given Superman’s weakness to magic. While this was something Naomi wasn’t aware of, the other heroes explain that it’s by design. According to Superman himself, advertising his weakness to kryptonite (such as in interviews with Lois Lane) was “a rookie mistake“.

This issue highlights an excellent question: why would Superman so freely reveal one of the few weaknesses he has? The answer that he shouldn’t have done so and that it was a mistake made early in his career makes a lot of sense at this point in the DC timeline. Likewise, his lesser-known susceptibility to magic is the result of Superman intentionally keeping the weakness much more secret and on a need-to-know basis, having learned from his error (likely due to fighting so many foes who frequently use kryptonite to get the upper hand).

As a result, this new issue helps explain why Superman won’t be joining this current battle with a magically-possessed Black Adam. Not only would he struggle against the Lord of Chaos just like any other Justice League hero, it’s also not worth the risk of the Man of Steel getting possessed instead of Adam. Regardless, the fact that Superman has acknowledged his “rookie mistake”  with his kryptonite weakness is the perfect reason why he keeps his other weakness much closer to the chest and isn’t as well known.

About The Author

Kevin Erdmann
(2533 Articles Published)

Kevin Erdmann is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers. With a major in Cinema Studies and a minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies from the UofO, Kevin is pretty sure he’s writing for the right site. While Kevin is a huge Marvel fan, he also loves Batman because he’s Batman and is a firm believer that Han shot first. Disney also shares a big part of his fan patronage. Kevin lives in Oregon with his wonderful wife and sinister cat who is no doubt currently plotting his demise.

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