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We know that Clark Kent (Superman) is "allergic" to green Kryptonite. His blood "boils" around it and it may be fatal to him. He first came to Smallville in 1984 along with the debris from Krypton which contains green Kryptonite.

We see that the ship cannot block green Kryptonite in the season 2 finale "Exodus". Also the ship lacked the power to neutralize green Kryptonite as it did in "Visage" since during the entire space journey the ship had enough time and was in close enough proximity to green Kryptonite to neutralize all of it but this didn't happen as Kryptonite still landed in Smallville.

Therefore during the entire space journey, the baby Kal-El was in close proximity to green Kryptonite. **Shouldn't he have died due to the continual expos**ure?

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  • "He first came to Smallville in 2001" - I think Smallville was first shown on TV in 2001, and was set in the present day. Thus, in-universe, Clark must have arrived in Smallville around 1986.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Nov 4, 2013 at 9:35
  • I would say that because Clarke was not yet acclimatised to Earth, the Kryptonite wouldn't have harmed him. Kryptonite certainly wasn't poisonous on Krypton and it is logical to assume that the ship had life support replicating Krypton rather than Earth.
    – Matthew Stevenson
    Nov 12, 2015 at 9:20

9 Answers 9

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I have never seen Smallville (although I know very well about Superman), So my answer to the question will be in accordance with what I read about kryptonite on this wikipedia article. Particularly this part:

In Smallville, Green Kryptonite is used to counter the effects of any other form of Kryptonite that may enter a Kryptonian's system, for example a kiss with red Kryptonite laced lipstick or Gem Kryptonite dust in the eyes. In Lois and Clark, a green Kryptonite bullet is also used to bring Superman back in control when his powers become over-amped by red Kryptonite and a sample of Kryptonite was used to starve out a Kryptonian virus.

It can be inferred that Green Kryptonite is harmless to Superman (or any other Kryptonian) when used with other form of kryptonite.

When he first came to Smallville in 1984, the debris that came along with him would surely have had a mixture of all forms of Kryptonite and thus, green kryptonite would have been harmless to him.

This all is of course an assumption but I think it is kind of logical.

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  • What about the neutralizing effect of the ship on Green kryptonite?
    – Adeetya
    Nov 9, 2013 at 2:49
  • @Adeetya: For my answer, I assumed that if somehow ship was not able to neutralize the effect of Green Kryptonite, how was baby Superman safe from it. My apologies, but as I said I haven't seen Smallville to be an expert on the topic.
    – kmdhrm
    Nov 12, 2013 at 13:05
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It was simple enough , the ship left before krypton exploded , so he was a safe distance ahead untill he slowed down reaching the earths atmosphere .

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  • And why the downvotes ?i just watched the first episode and the flashback episodes and the ship is always ahead of the meteor rocks during the journey .
    – howler
    Nov 6, 2013 at 16:05
  • Downvotes maybe due to fact that the ship and the meteor arrived at Smallville together.. also were seen heading to Earth together..
    – Adeetya
    Nov 7, 2013 at 10:09
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Kryptonite ONLY has its weakening affect on Kryptonians in earths atmosphere. Otherwise, every Kryptonian on Krypton itself would have died. And Kryptonite only has an affect on "superpowered" Kryptonians. When Clark doesn't have any powers (episode "Blue") there is no sign of him weakening. I hope that answers your question completely.

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    This is a good (in-universe) answer. It would be vastly improved by backing up your assertions with a quote, either from within the show or by someone involved in the writing.
    – Valorum
    May 3, 2014 at 16:56
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The interior of the ship would have had to have been shielded against all manner of cosmic radiation to protect not-yet-invulnerable baby Kal-El, so that must have protected him from the Kryptonite radiation as well.

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  • What about the neutralizing effect of the ship on Green kryptonite?
    – Adeetya
    Nov 9, 2013 at 2:49
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I'm not super-familiar with Smallville, but two possibilities spring to mind:

  1. Whilst travelling from Krypton, perhaps the ship wasn't actually close enough to all of the green Kryptonite to neutralise it. The debris came from the destruction of an entire planet, so the meteorite shower produced could have been pretty big.

  2. During transit, the ship may have had some sort of energy-based field that deflected radiation (there's a lot of radiation in space), which was turned off once the ship landed. This could have shielded baby Clark from the Kryptonite's effects.

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    In one episode, the ship neutralized Lana's meteor rock necklace turning it from green to clear. It's possible the ship did the same thing with meteor fragments that got too close to it in space. http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Lana%27s_necklace However--kryptonite does affect the ship, as it reacted badly to the kyrptonite key that was fashioned by Lionel Luthor to fit in it. http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Kryptonite_key
    – Force Flow
    Nov 4, 2013 at 18:28
  • You're just repeating what is said in the question with a few added links to Smallville wikia.. .:P
    – Adeetya
    Nov 5, 2013 at 2:39
  • @Paul D. Waite.. The kryptonte had to be very close to the ship otherwise all that would not have landed in Smallville.. but would have landed all over the US.. Due to no guidance systems for the rocks :P , even a small angular change could have changed their course by hundreds of miles.. therefore they would all have to be nearly parallel with respect to each other and would have to be very close to one another in order to land in the same town..
    – Adeetya
    Nov 5, 2013 at 7:42
  • @Adeetya: "The kryptonte had to be very close to the ship otherwise all that would not have landed in Smallville." Not necessarily. The ship could have been followed by Kryptonite on the same trajectory, but a couple of miles behind it.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Nov 5, 2013 at 10:11
  • In the Pilot all the kryptonite and the ship were seen heading towards Earth together... and also that couple of miles would then make a time difference of almost an hour which we see did not happen..
    – Adeetya
    Nov 5, 2013 at 10:36
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First of all, I think you answered your own question (i.e. the ship protected him) But here goes anyway:
Smallville (TV) is not considered a part of the DC Superman canon.
Second, we have the old problem of different writers interpreting how the ship and Clark's powers behave (i.e. inconsistencies).
Third, Smallville (a large portion of the town) was hit by a meteor shower but not all the debris was Kryptonite and more importantly the ship couldn't have been near all of the Kryptonite.

Think about it; a tiny ship VS a significantly larger debris field? The ship isn't going to "win". So, the ship will simply just avoid any collisions or dangers.

And people had to actively look for Kryptonite and dig it up.
And the ship obviously had to protect Clark from the rigors of space flight and that would go for Kryptonite as well.
So, why isn't Clark dead? Because the ship protected him in transit.
Why didn't the ship neutralize all the Kryptonite? Because it wasn't near all the Kryptonite.
And the ship did alter it's course to land near the Kent farm. The meteor shower can't alter it's course.

The out of universe answer is there will always be Kryptonite around as it is the only MacGuffin that can quickly slow down, disable or kill Superman.

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May be green kryptonite is effective only on adults of Krypton.

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    Do you have canon support? If not it's not an answer, just a random guess
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Nov 7, 2013 at 13:12
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Superman gains his powers from the earths sun. This is countered by the effects of Kryptonite from Krypton. At the time of his arrival at earth, and until he became empowered by the sun of earth he would have been a normal Kryptonian, and immune to the effects of Kryptonite. The ship that neutralized the powers of the Kryptonite may only activate this ability in response to its programmed mission of protecting Cal El. With no threat at the time of entry there was nothing to neutralize. When we was older, and the threat of Kryptonite on Cal El presented, the threat was neutralized.

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  • The ship was programmed to protect only itself as seen in the Season 2 Finale
    – Adeetya
    Nov 9, 2013 at 14:37
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Another possibility is that Green Kryptonite only "works its magic" in a livable atmosphere such as Earth (or Krypton for that matter). In other words, maybe it is activated by oxygen or some other element found in the atmospheres where it has affect. We know that Kal-El is powered by the Earth's sun, from various sources, including other answers here - so maybe that contributes to it.

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  • What about the neutralizing effect of the ship on Green kryptonite?
    – Adeetya
    Nov 9, 2013 at 2:48

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