Highlights
- Kryptonite weakens Superman to the point of death and has been used in various forms throughout DC Comics.
- Magical attacks can damage Superman because he lacks the same protections against them as he does against physical attacks.
- Atomic radiation can rob Superman of his powers and leave him vulnerable to attack for an extended period of time. Red sun radiation also nullifies his abilities.
One of the most enduring symbols of comic book pop culture is Superman. Clark Kent or Kal-El is a formidable figure, having not only had many comic books, television shows, and films made about him over the last century, but also been responsible for the creation of many other characters. From the idea of what someone less responsible could do with that sort of power to other white knight heroes that would only use it for good, Superman’s reach is massive.
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However, one of the difficulties in continuing to make so much Superman content is keeping him interesting and relatable, though there still haven't been many video games about the character. Somebody with abilities like his doesn’t seem easy to bring down to earth, but many writers have tried by adding more weaknesses that can affect Superman over time, making the list of his vulnerabilities a little longer than some might expect it to be.
6 Kryptonite
The most obvious of all weaknesses that Superman has, the term Kryptonite is as well-known and frequently used in pop culture as Superman himself. The substance, generally appearing as a green crystal, originates from Superman’s homeworld of Krypton and weakens, or even kills, Kryptonians, making it brutally dangerous to Superman in any form. The radiation emitted by Kryptonite has killed or severely injured Superman a vast number of times over the years in various media.
Additionally, Kryptonite has been shown and used in many other forms over the years in DC Comics. From gold Kryptonite which destroyed the capability of a Kryptonian to generate power from a yellow sun, permanently removing their powers, all the way to Pink Kryptonite, which actually was once used to turn Superman gay in a rather bizarre scene. There have been a huge number of varieties of the material.
5 Magic
Though Superman’s body is resistant to almost every form of attack, with some of the heaviest hitters in the DC Universe being powerless against the Man of Steel, there is a type of attack that many characters in his world have access to that he can’t stop. Magical attacks, including those by heroes such as Zatanna and Shazam, can damage Superman. This was even teased in the DCEU when a potential showdown with Black Adam came up, Black Adam being a magical character who has often proven a match for Kal-El.
There are plenty of examples throughout DC Comics of characters managing to beat Superman in different ways, and often they are forced to resort to magic in order to take him down. There is nothing about Kryptonians that makes them particularly weak against magic, it is just that he doesn’t have the same protections against these attacks that he does against most others.
4 Atomic Radiation
It seems slightly surprising that the Man of Steel is actually affected by a nuclear bomb, and while it isn’t actually enough to kill Superman, atomic radiation does work strongly against him. Unlike the rays of the sun, which provide strength for Superman through a different kind of radiation, atomic rays can rob him of his powers. Not even the most powerful of superheroes is immune to the evils of radiation poisoning.
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The most notable example of this being used against him is in The Dark Knight Returns, a legendary and dark Batman comic that looks to the future of the DC Universe and has Batman and Superman feuding. When Clark tries to stop a nuclear bomb, he is hit directly by the blast and is left heavily emaciated until the sun’s rays have had a chance to heal him. This blast was enough to leave him extremely vulnerable to any sort of attack for an extended period of time.
3 Red Suns
There is nothing debilitating about the radiation from a red sun toward Kryptonians, in fact, this is the exact sort of sun that orbited Krypton itself. As a result, however, under red sun radiation, Superman doesn’t have any of his abilities. This makes him perfectly susceptible to attack and even death under the rays of such a star, there was also the time that Superman actually became a 'Red Son', which is entirely different.
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On a number of occasions, Kryptonians, including Superman, have had this used against them. When fighting on other planets, or even just when attacked by red sun radiation that has been manufactured by villains such as Lex Luthor, Kal-El has lost all of his abilities and has been left as a normal man. This also explains why, back on Krypton, the natives were never able to fly around or use extreme levels of strength.
2 Sensitivity
Superman’s greatest problem when learning to control his powers, both in the DCEU and at other times throughout his history, has always been his super-sensitive hearing. Adult Kal-El can, with his full powers, hear noises from great distances, making for a very useful power. However, when he first started accustoming to this ability, loud noises or busy areas were extremely painful for him and still can be at times, even the most terrifying versions of Superman have struggled with this pain.
However, despite mostly having mastered this issue, his incredibly sensitive hearing still leaves him vulnerable to certain types of attacks. Another way that Lex Luthor has managed to bring Superman down in the past is by using sonic attacks that operate at brutal frequencies. These won’t be able to kill Superman, but they make him completely unable to operate for a time, allowing his enemies to do whatever they want to him in the meantime.
1 Mental Attacks
There have been plenty of times in other Superman media when he has fallen victim to mental attacks. Kryptonians again have no special defenses against this sort of assault, although there was a bizarre time that Superman had telepathy, and therefore there have been a number of occasions when Kal-El has been forced to turn against his friends at the behest of some villain, recent examples of mind control on Superman include Queen Bee and Maxwell Lord, the latter only stopping because Wonder Woman killed him.
These aren’t the only sort of mental attacks that have troubled Superman over the years, the Joker in an alternate timeline poisoned Superman’s mind with an altered version of Scarecrow’s fear venom, making the Man of Steel much more violent. This led to him accidentally killing Lois Lane and going down the road to take over the world in his rage, creating the well-known Injustice timeline that was teased in the DCEU.