Kryptonian Racial Traits

Yellow Star | Kryptonite Weakness | Magic Weakness

TraitDescription
Yellow StarOn their native planet, Kryptonians were not known to possess any superpowers as Krypton revolved around a red star. However, when on planets like Earth which orbit a yellow star, Kryptonians utilize solar energy on the cellular level to achieve abilities unattainable by ordinary human beings. Like all Kryptonians under a yellow sun, Kara Zor-El possesses vast super strength, speed, and stamina, various extra sensory and vision powers (including super hearing, x-ray vision, telescopic vision, microscopic vision, and heat vision), tremendous lung capacity and super breath (wind and ice), invulnerability, a healing factor, and hypersonic flight.

Superman has shown he can survive in outer space as long as he has a breathing apparatus, and doesn't lose too much solar energy. Without an air supply, Superman can last between an hour and ninety minutes in space, after taking a deep breath. Using his powers of flight and super-speed Clark can travel inter-planetary distances by himself. Interstellar distances require assistance, e.g. a spaceship or teleportation belt.

For this game, while in the presence of a yellow sun, a Kryptonian gains +1 Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, and Perception, as well as Flight and other plot sensitive powers. (Superman is often abused by writers to be able to do anything that needs to be done, up to and including moving an entire planet on his own.)

Kryptonite WeaknessGreen Kryptonite: The most common form of kryptonite, created by the "radioactive chain reaction" which destroyed Krypton, and "scattered throughout space as meteors." In superpowered Kryptonians, it causes immediate physical pain and debilitation, reduces their powers, and kills within hours. Green kryptonite is a radioactive substance and as such, prolonged exposure to green kryptonite can cause cancer in humans. Lead as well as normal containment methods for radioactive substances has been shown to block kryptonite radiation.

Red Kryptonite: No two chunks of red kryptonite have the same, "unexpected," effect on Kryptonians. In one episode of Superfriends, 3 Kryptonian criminals exposed at the same time were all affected differently. Effects are typically depicted to last for 1-2 days, after which the Kryptonian in question is always immune to that specific chunk of red kryptonite. However, in some incarnations the effects of red kryptonite last only as long as the Kryptonian is exposed to it. Superman has suffered the following random effects upon exposure to various pieces of red kryptonite: being turned into a dragon, a non-powered giant, a dwarf, an ant-headed humanoid, a lunatic, and an amnesiac; being made unable to see anything colored green; growing incredibly long hair, nails, and beard; being rendered totally powerless; growing fat; gaining the ability to read thoughts; growing a third eye in the back of his head; losing his invulnerability along the left side of his body; being split into an evil Superman and a good Clark Kent; being split into young and old forms (Superboy and Superman); being rendered unable to speak or write anything but Kryptonese; growing an extra set of arms; becoming clumsy; swapping bodies with the person nearest him upon exposure to it; transferring his powers; rapidly aging; multiple personality changes; and having his skin rendered transparent, overloading him with solar power.

Black Kryptonite: Black Kryptonite was first introduced in the Smallville television series, in the fourth season premiere episode "Crusade", as Kryptonite with the ability to split the personality of Kryptonians. It later made its first appearance in a DC comic in September 2005's Supergirl #2, where it again possessed the ability to split a person or a person's personality into two separate entities. In Supergirl #3, Luthor used Black Kryptonite on Supergirl, which caused her to split into two separate people, one wearing Supergirl's traditional costume (good), and another wearing a black-and-white version (evil).

Magic WeaknessKryptonians have little to no protection from attacks based in magic. A Kryptonian's invulnerability is mainly due to a force-field, and magical foes have been able to get past this and directly injure Superman in the past. It was hypothesized by Lex Luthor that the chaotic energies of magic simply disrupt Superman's force-field. Likewise, weapons that have been magically blessed are capable of harming Superman. But he's still Superman. He can still fight back and his wounds still heal faster due to his Kryptonian powers.

It's important to note though that his powers don't vanish in the presence of magic or a magical being. He may not be able to use his super-vision to detect a magically invisible fortress, but if someone else (say Batman) is standing next to him then Superman can still examine Batman's internal bone structure with his X-ray vision.