Planet-moving strength nevermore

April 11, 2026

by Avi Green

Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore TPB
Writer: Denny O'Neil
Artist: Curt Swan

Back in the early 1970s, DC wanted to take steps to reduce the Man of Steel's superhuman strength in-story, because they felt previous depictions of Superman having the ability to practically move huge planets was giving him too much power, his established vulnerabilities to Kryptonite radiation and magic energies notwithstanding. And they assigned none other than the late O'Neil, who was becoming notable at the time as a leading Batman writer, to develop a storyline that could serve the purpose of setting up a premise for downplaying these outrageous strengths.

What happens for starters is that, during one of Superman's errands to help a scientist with research, they manage to turn all Kryptonite on earth at the time obsolete, meaning that in that sense, Superman wouldn't have much to worry about regarding radiation originating from his destroyed home planet anymore. But of course, there were still going to be weaknesses of other sorts turning up, and during the course of a few issues, a bizarre sand-creature from another dimension turns up, and siphons abilities belonging to the Man of Steel, making it difficult for him to operate properly at times, until finally at the end, all is sorted out and Kal-El has his powers fully restored as the sand creature leaves for its home dimension again.

It's an interesting attempt to experiment in building a premise where succeeding writers could establish the Man of Steel having less strength than before. But, it didn't last, as the editors in charge (eg-Julius Schwartz) ultimately decided in the end not to follow through with such a setup, and a subsequent cover for one of the later issues saw to that by depicting Supes hauling a planet along.

Still, the stories here are impressive for their time, and O'Neil was overall a talented enough writer back then to tackle the assignment of writing the Man of Steel's adventures, and certainly demonstrated a lot more talent as a writer than the editor that he became years later with the Green Lantern stories published in Action Comics Weekly in 1988.

So I'll recommend this collection as a gem of its time that's worth reading. In the years since, as many know, after Crisis on Infinite Earths, that's when DC really did lay out serious groundswork for reducing Superman's strength, and became pretty much the norm for years after.

Copyright 2026 Avi Green. All rights reserved.

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