Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #1
Scheduled to arrive in stores: August 13, 2025
Cover date: October 2025
“Book One”
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Cover: Martin Morazzo & Chris O’Halloran
Variant Covers: Juan Ferreyra, Tula Lotay, Alex Eckman-Lawn, Wes Craig
Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel
Superman is in his Fortress and one of his robots, Bot 27 is retrieving a meteoroid that is housing chunks of kryptonite. Superman ponders the types he has encountered so far.
Green – Causes pain
Red – Causes anger
Black – Splits his brain in two
Gold – Robs his powers
The Fortress bots inform Superman that they have encountered new varieties of kryptonite. Superman despairs that Luthor would be overjoyed if he ever found out but at that exact moment in Metropolis Lexcorp scientists inform Mr. Luthor that they made the same discovery. Luthor, of course, is outraged that Superman was able to retrieve the samples before him.
Clark calls Bruce for assistance and they learn that there are four new variations with unknown side effects…
Purple
Cobalt
Speckled
Rainbow
Superman is torn when Batman suggests destroying the samples before they get into the wrong hands. Superman points out that Batman is the world’s greatest detective; who else but he would be best to discover their secrets?
Batman relents to Superman’s attempts to manipulate him and puts his fears of the results aside. Batman and the bots prepare and restrain Superman and fire a beam of radiation from the purple shard.
Clark begins hearing and seeing things seemingly out of sync with reality and Batman analyzes the results surmising that purple affects his hearing and cognition. He mumbles something about Solomon Grundy that makes no sense… but back in Metropolis Lex is face to face with Solomon Grundy.
Back in the Fortress, Batman shows Clark a calendar and is perplexed when Clark sees all of the dates out of order but of course duty calls and Superman can’t resist rushing to save the day. Batman warns Clark that his brain is under the influence of the kryptonite and reluctantly accompanies the Man of Steel on his mission.
Lois and Jimmy have summoned Superman to stop a rampage of Solomon Grundy. Superman’s mind knocks him for six, and he realizes that purple kryptonite gives him glimpses of the future, albeit out of sync.
Superman takes on Grundy with Batman but the influence of the radiation throws Superman off and he can’t focus on the present. Batman urges Superman to focus on a moment in time instead of its natural flow and it works.
Superman begins piecing events together and is able to win the battle with a powerful punch that sends Grundy into outer space.
Back at Lexcorp, Luthor comes to a realization, Superman is testing the kryptonite on himself! With this knowledge he urges his scientists to speed up a mysterious project.
As the last of the purple kryptonite radiation leaves his system, Superman’s mind flashes forward to his dinner date with Lois and some heartbreaking news.
Bruce confiscates the purple shard and gives it to the Fortress bots to seal away.
Next on the agenda? Cobalt kryptonite…
To Be Continued…
Story – 3: The story is decent, paced well and felt very much like a Silver Age throwback. My biggest issue with the book is the scene with Batman and Superman arguing over Kryptonite. It felt completely off because I am a long-time reader and I just don’t see the opinions they had over what to do as their real opinion. Would Clark really be so reluctant to destroy the shards given the effects of the four he already knew about and their devastating effects?
An interesting storyline, I guess it’s too early to tell where it’s going, but I’m guessing that dinner with Lois may factor into things going forward.
Art – 4: The art is stylized well to match the story and well suited to the writing style. I think it works well in a short form serial as it works symbiotically with the scripting. It definitely stands out with the fine ink lines and bold color palette.Cover Art – 3: The cover is a mystery to me, I’m not entirely sure I ‘get’ it. It’s definitely bold but it feels quite bland at the same time. Aside from the color impact it has nothing about it standing out.
Variant Cover (Juan Ferreyra) – 5: Really like this cover as there is a tease of things to come and adds some gravitas to the story. It really draws you in (which I guess is the goal!) with the beautiful paint work.Variant Cover (Tula Lotay) – 5: Some great looking pastel style work here. Love the softness and then you glimpse into the red shard and suddenly that softness has a sinister edge!Variant Cover (Alex Eckman-Lawn) – 4: As a piece of art it’s a cerebral, with so much going on in terms of context, style thematics but as a cover, it just doesn’t seem to fit. It’s the only cover that deals with the effects of purple kryptonite but it feels too arty for the book.Variant Cover (Wes Craig) – 3: I’m looking at a version of the cover without the foil embossment so I can only judge it as a standard cover, it’s bright, eye catching and on theme with the story, I can see how the foil would elevate it, but eek! I hate that S shield!
Check out the Mild Mannered Reviews contents page.
