Superman's possible first unknown experience with Red K

[dave]

Superman's heat vision become uncontrollable and stronger because of a comet before earing off. Action Comics Vol 1 #227 April 1957

[dans]

seems right, would have to be the E2 Superman

[redsycorax]

I think I'll repost this list of debut in-continuity appearances of the various forms of kryptonite:

Green K first appeared in Superman 61 (November 1949), in the story "Superman Returns to Krypton", where he learns about his origins and that Green K can affect him

Red K debuted in Adventure Comics 255 (December 1958)

Anti-K debuted in Action Comics 252 (May 1959)- destroyed nonpowered Kryptonians in Argo City

X-Kryptonite debuted in Action Comics 261 (February 1960) -gave temporary superpowers to Streaky the Supercat

Blue K debuted in Superman 140 (October 1960) -deadly to Bizarros

White K debuted in Adventure Comics 269 (December 1960)- defoliant and antimicrobial properties- effective against Virus X

Gold K debuted in Adventure Comics 299 (August 1962) -removes Kryptonian superpowers permanently

Jewel K debuted in Action Comics 310 (March 1964) -enables telepathic focus from Phantom Zone prisoners.

Magno K debuted in Jimmy Olsen 62 (April 1966) - biomagnetic attraction to Kryptonians, same effect as Green K

As you can see, the various subsequent forms of kryptonite other than green K all appeared after the canonical Earth One/Earth-Two cutoff point in 1955. Although I'm told that there have been subsequent appearances of Krypton-Two red kryptonite and bizarro red kryptonite in 5Earths continuity. Logically though, unless there was a vast number of kryptonite meteorites that went through the Universe Two red cosmic cloud, there would be far fewer than those in Universe-One. And when did the manufacture of Universe-Two red kryptonite occur, because it wouldn't have been canonical to have Kal-L and Power Girl exposed before that point? Which does raise some interesting questions about why Krypton-Two's explosion didn't produce gold and jewel kryptonite as well, implying that Krypton-Two may have had divergent geology (kryptology) from that of Krypton-One and lacks the Gold Volcano and Jewel Mountains that were probably the origin of those variant kryptonite forms on Krypton-0ne.

Another question occurs to me. Why is it that Universe-One has all the variant forms of kryptonite? It'd be interesting to see whether Krypton-Three's destruction produced its own variant forms, for instance. Is there a form of kryptonite that has orthodox kryptonite effects on Ultraman and Ultragirl, for instance? I'd hate to see kryptonite variant proliferation on Earth-Two, but need we feel so constrained when it comes to Earth-Three, though? It'd certainly help keep Ultraman in line.

[dans]

I don't know about Red K in the E2 universe, but E1 Superman encountered Red K as Superboy, regardless of when it was introduced. So any Superman who doesn't recognize Red K must be from some other universe. Unless maybe certain exposures to Red K temporarily erased the ability to recall earlier exposures to Red K? It's unpredictable, even though it has rules - so who knows what the effects might be?

[redsycorax]

I'm not sure that'd work out that way, dans. Remember, red kryptonite effects are only one-time phenomena. Once a particular red kryptonite meteor has exercised its effects on a given Kryptonian, it cannot affect her or him the same way again- so any memory loss would be a one-time proposition, unless it affected another Kryptonian the same way.

[dave]

The Earth 2 Superman made his last appearance 1955 until his appearance with the JSA in their annual team ups with the JLA. So, this was Earth I Superman. Thing is the affect was said to be from the radiation of a comet. But I think it would have to be Red Kryptonite.

[redsycorax]

Unless the comet had magical origins and that was the source of the uncontrollable heat vision? It does sound like something Mxyzptlk would do.