“ …from what I heard Lara on the spaceship idea was suggested by editorial as a way to explain how they know Kryptonite will kill Kryptonians since Lara was to die after landing on earth with Kal-El. Byrne nixed that himself by coming up with the idea that irradiated pieces of Krypton was already killing Kryptonians before the planet exploded.”

This is a near perfect example of how twisted things can get, the more time elapses.

When I started on Superman, there was one small itch in particular that I wanted to scratch. Something that had bugged me even as a child:

How do we know kryptonite can kill Superman? We’ve seen him suffer all kinds of agonies from exposure,* but proving the lethal nature of the stuff would be pretty much a test to destruction. Don’t wanna do that!

So I came up with the idea that it was pregnant Lara who Jor-El sent to Earth. Kal-El would be born here, and some time later Lara would find, and be killed by, the only piece of kryptonite on Earth.

Jenette Kahn felt that changed the origin too much, and it was she who suggested pressures in the soon-to-explode core were creating kryptonite before the full-on catastrophe occurred.

I liked that idea, and coupled with Dick Giordano’s suggestion that I completely redesign Krypton, I put together the original pages as you saw them. (Dick wanted the readers to “know everything was different” from the very first page.)

———-

* apparently, kryptonite radiation is not cumulative

•••

It’s surprising how many readers seem to have fused the Earthly arrivals of Kal-El and Marrina. Other than both being (very different) aliens, they have nothing in common.

Edited by JohnByrne4 on 23 July 2026 at 6:06pm