When Superman is exposed to green kryptonite, I know he's incapacitated. Would that prevent him from signaling for help by utilizing his heat vision, superbreath, super ventriloquism, etc.?
Just something I was thinking about recently.
Additional question: was it ever established what distance he needed to be away in order not to be affected? Was it something like 20 feet? A mile? Ten miles?
Replies
I gather that the effects of the kryptonite on Superman are more pronounced the larger the particular piece of it is. To wit, if he was three feet away from a chunk about the size of a baseball it would affect him, but not bother him much if he was 20 feet away. On the other hand, if he was 20 feet away from a piece of kryptonite the size of a car, it would.
We had a similar discussion here, in "How Much Kryptonite Is Lethal?", but it doesn't address your questions.
While Green Kryptonite can weaken Superman so much that he can barely move, he can and has used his heat vision and super breath to save himself. Strangely enough he remains invulnerable when exposed to Green K.
He has also used his super ventriloquism to summon help but not every time. It's almost like it varies from story to story!
"Strangely enough he remains invulnerable when exposed to Green K."
That used to be true. Now it's pretty much "canon" (in both comics and on TV) that a kryptonite bullet can pierce his otherwise invulnerable skin.
Which is odd to me since I grew up being told that kryptonite was the only substance from Krypton that didn't become indestructible on Earth!
Jeff of Earth-J said:
So, now, if he wanted a haircut he could have it while exposed to a small piece of kryptonite.
(threadjack: I never hear about his costume being made from his baby blankets any more. It periodically is torn but never to the point he is naked.)
Jeff of Earth-J said:
"I never hear about his costume being made from his baby blankets any more."
John Byrne did away with that by establishing that Superman's body emits an "aura" which extends an inch or two away from his skin, thus protecting any clothing he might wear (even from dirt). This is why, in the early post-Crisis years, Superman's cape was often destroyed while his costume was not. (Of course, I haven't heard that mentioned in a while, either.)
I addressed your primary question, Randy, in the middle segment of my triptych on the stuff from a couple of years ago:
https://captaincomics.ning.com/forum/topics/superman-kryptonite-ques...
To save you the trouble of searching through the article, I'll re-post the germane section:
When, in the Metropolis Mailbag appearing in Action Comics # 290 (Jul., 1962), Bill Love, of Tucson, Arizona, asked how, in a recent issue, Superman was able to use his X-ray vision while wearing green-kryptonite shackles, Weisinger’s response clarified these other consequences:
You are somewhat confused as to the insidious effects of green kryptonite on [Superman’s super-powers]. Its main effect is to render Superman helpless to fly or to use his super-strength . . . However, in the early stages of exposure to kryptonite, he is still able to use his X-ray and heat vision at short range. He is also able to use his super-ventriloquism and super-breath---but with modifications. Of course, even those powers keep fading the longer he endures exposure to green k. An interesting sidelight is that no matter how long he is exposed to the stuff, his body, at all times, is invulnerable to weapons, explosives, acids, etc.
Hope this helps.
With regard to the range at which Superman feels the effects of green kryptonite, CK was spot-on: it depended on how large the particular chunk of green kryptonite was. The bigger the piece, the farther away he was affected.
The only version of kryptonite that was given a specific effective range was gold kryptonite. That was a range of two feet, per "The Cape and Cowl Crooks", from World's Finest Comics # 159 (Aug., 1966).
Sorry, Randy, I just saw that I posted the wrong link to my "Kryptonite---a Glowing Reference" segment. (I hate trying to do this stuff from my phone.) Here's the proper link:
https://captaincomics.ning.com/m/discussion?id=3370054%3ATopic%3A52...