Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… Kryptonite?! Superman is famously faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but even the Man of Steel has a weakness: Green Kryptonite, radioactive remnants of his exploded home planet. (Although Green K wouldn’t debut in the comics until 1951’s Action Comics #161, coming to Earth on a fallen meteor, Superman has been susceptible to the effects of Kryptonite since its first appearance in a 1943 episode of the Adventures of Superman radio serial, “The Meteor from Krypton.”)
More than 80 years later, a Kryptonite meteor will once again upend the status quo for the Last Son of Krypton. Superman Unlimited, a new ongoing series from writer Dan Slott (The Amazing Spider-Man) and artist Rafael Albuquerque (American Vampire), sees a Kryptonite asteroid shower Superman’s greatest weakness down upon the Earth — creating an arms race for the new most valuable resource on the planet.
“In the Blink of an Eye,” a 10-page prelude included in DC’s All In 2025 Free Comic Book Day special, out now, sees Superman called into space after receiving an alert from the Justice League Watchtower. With the League’s heavy hitters away in deep space, this looks like a job for Superman: intercept an asteroid headed towards Earth and prevent an extinction-level event.
The Red Tornado’s scans detect the asteroid’s surface is made of pure Inertron, an other-worldly metal from the 31st century that is practically unbreakable, highly reflective, and impervious to Superman’s x-ray vision.
As the near-invulnerable mountain of metal hurtles towards the Earth, Superman smashes the meteor’s top layer — revealing a mass of solid green Kryptonite beneath the surface, which will make the Man of Steel more vulnerable than ever in Superman Unlimited.
“When I was a kid, I worried if Batman or Green Arrow was going to win,” Slott told the DC.com blog. “But I never doubted from page one that Superman was going to solve everything by page 22. I never worried a second. The guy can lift an ocean liner over his head. He can change the orbit of the moon. He can do whatever the heck he wants. I was never worried he was going to lose.”
“We’re not taking anything away from Superman, Clark is still going to be able to do all the amazing feats that Superman’s done throughout his entire legacy, but now he’s going to have to sweat for it. He’s going to have to work hard for it,” he continued. “His Achilles heel is way more exposed. He’s in a world with far greater stakes for Superman, and people who know me and my work know that he might not win now. He’s still going to be Superman, he’s still going to be this character of great empathy and optimism and hope, but now he’d better hope he wins.”
Superman Unlimited #1 opens in classic Superman fashion: Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for The Daily Planet, ripping open his shirt to reveal the “S” symbol underneath as he gets up, up and away into a streak of red, blue, and yellow.
First, the Man of Steel stops a high-speed chase with Intergang assaulting the police with high-tech guns as they give chase on 78th and Donner (a nod to 1978’s Richard Donner-directed Superman: The Movie). In the blink of an eye, Superman saves a child who fell into a lion’s den at the zoo; prevents a plane’s crash landing; extinguishes an apartment building fire; hoists a sinking ship’s hull out of the sea; and finally, the Big Blue Boyscout tips an amateur musician playing guitar in the park before answering the Justice League’s distress signal.
All in a day’s work for Superman, who will soon find himself on the back foot as evildoers — from supervillains to Intergang and Metropolis’ street-level criminals — wield his most lethal weakness.
“If you live in the DC Universe and you see that shield and that red streak, you know you’re okay,” Slott said. “He’ll find a way. He’ll do something. He’ll come through for you. He’s Superman. That’s never going to change. Whether it’s a mountain of kryptonite or a world of kryptonite, nothing stops him from being the Man of Tomorrow. Even when he’s vulnerable. Because if anyone’s going to come through for you, it’s him.”
Superman Unlimited #1 goes on sale May 21 from DC Comics.
Superman’s Emerald Era sees a Kryptonite asteroid shower Earth with deadly Green K. Read More