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Salman Rushdie talks eruditely about Superman—and gets it wrong
Salman Rushdie, controversial author of The Satanic Verses.
Salman Rushdie, awarded a knighthood as part of the Queen's Birthday Honors for his services to literature.
But Salman Rushdie ... comic-book expert?
He may think he is, but based on a recent TV appearance ... not so much.
While on the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson to discuss his novel The Enchantress of Florence, Rushdie revealed that he'd been asked to write a graphic novel.
"When I was a kid, I was a real comic-book nut," he said. "I can tell you a lot about superheroes."
So far, so good. But check out what happened when Rushdie attempted to share some of his knowledge, starting at 8:53 in the following clip—and then join us below to see where he got it all wrong.
"What's the difference between green kryptonite and red kryptonite?" Rushdie asked rhetorically, and then answered:
"One of them takes away his superpowers, while the other one can kill him, you see. Green kryptonite, it takes away his superpowers, it makes makes him just like you or me. But red kryptonite can actually kill him."
Not so fast!
Actually, it's green kryptonite that can kill, after first causing excruciating pain, while it's gold kryptonite that takes away a Kryptonian's superpowers, making him like you or me. If you don't believe us, check out this handy guide plucked from the pages of a DC comic:
And as for red kryptonite, rather than killing Kryptonians, it causes them to undergo bizarre changes for 24-48 hours, with no two transformations alike. Over the decades, Superman has been turned into a giant, a dwarf, a dragon ... and has even (in perhaps the weirdest red kryptonite effect of them all) been given the head of an ant, as you can see from the 1963 Action Comics cover below.
So, Sir Salman, while we're thrilled you're willing to come out as a comic-book fan—before you start scripting that The Supermanic Verses graphic novel, we suggest you haul out those back issues and reacquaint yourself with the details first!
By silverrose1313 at 2:12 PM ON 11/09/09
skip the novel, lets get him started on the superman returns script right away
By silverrose1313 at 2:14 PM ON 11/09/09
sorry,,,ment the sequal
By Tony at 2:15 PM ON 11/09/09
Will there be a fatwa issued against him by the Superman purists as well?
By farrah fawcett's hawt ghost at 2:42 PM ON 11/09/09
By jenferral at 4:22 PM ON 11/09/09
@silverrose1313
Joel Schumacher can direct
By gorehound696 at 4:43 PM ON 11/09/09
he just might be what is needed for a superman reboot.
bet he would do a better job than most of these bigwigs in hollywood.
he just needs to use the suoerman encyclopedia.
By Roger Workman at 5:19 PM ON 11/09/09
I think it depends on which continuity you decide to follow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptonite#Variations
By Imagica at 5:19 PM ON 11/09/09
To Scott Edelman.
You are aware that comic book legend John Byrne rewrote and powered down Superman, redesigning him in 1986 in the famous mini series Man of Steel. This would be the Superman that DC uses now. Which was why DC hired him in the first place. Your handy guides and graphics are from pre 1986 and yes John Byrne did change the properties of the none Green Kryptonite and got rid of most of the others including gold.
By Bruce at 6:02 PM ON 11/09/09
It's got to be a damn slow news day when a blog dedicated to science fiction news posts only one article and all it does is call someone out on their knowledge of Superman comics.
If this is all you have, don't bother posting. Take the day off.
By MichaelSacal at 6:22 PM ON 11/09/09
@Imagica
Interesting, I had forgotten that in the Post Crisis reality Krimson Kryptonite takes away his powers like Gold Kryptonite used to do.
Maybe he is making a reference to that Post Crisis story (Krisis of the Krymson Kryptonite) and not using the Pre Crisis formula.
By Imagica at 6:30 PM ON 11/09/09
Bingo Michael Sacal.
I am disappointed that the Scott Edelman did not do his research before he posted here. The John Byrne rewriting Superman gained national attention was ins newspapers in 1986 and is still considered one of John Byrne's great accomplishments.
Post Crisis how can anyone forget those comics?
By dfcomics at 8:16 PM ON 11/09/09
Edelman assumes (or appears to assume) Rushdie references the Superman of his boyhood. In which case, Edelman's comments are valid. Did Rushdie read the Post Crisis comics, and if so, would he have made the error? Unless Rushdie forgot those comics.
By Fury161 at 8:34 PM ON 11/09/09
What I wanna know is if Superman and Mighty Mouse got into a fight, who would win?
By MichaelSacal at 8:41 PM ON 11/09/09
@dfcomics
After a decade of seeing Silver Age fanboys wank off to nostalgia with the Superman comics I wasn't expecting to see someone Rushdie's age make a Post Crisis reference.
At worst, all he did was confuse the color of the Post Crisis green and red Kryptonites. He got the effects right.
By Anrkist at 9:44 PM ON 11/09/09
Pro tip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3P_Y3s3rKk#t=8m35s
Would have saved some time ;] Nice photo of the various colors.
By mac90000 at 9:45 PM ON 11/09/09
I think their should be a sliders remake. If this is done use only the history episodes from season one as a starting point since that was the best season ever.
By jolinar at 10:26 PM ON 11/09/09
What does Sliders have to do with Superman?
By SCOTT EDELMAN at 10:27 PM ON 11/09/09
@Imagica
You're right that John Byrne played with Superman's Kryptonite mythos, much the same way Denny O'Neil did way back in 1971. I remember them both. But since Rushdie prefaced his comments by saying that "When I was a kid, I was a real comic-book nut," it certainly seemed that he was quoting kryptonite lore from his youth, rather than any other era ... particularly since he didn't get it quite right for _any_ era.
@MichaelSacal
And as for Krimson Kryptonite, my memory is that Supe's power loss was due to Mr. Mxyzptlk's magic rather than any properties of the kryptonite itself. Am I wrong?
Thanks, all! I can see I'd better haul out those back issues and start re-reading them myself!
Am I sounding enough like Comic Book Guy yet?
By tinmiss at 10:47 PM ON 11/09/09
I bet everybody in the audience, was looking at him (Salman Rushdie) & saying "he's stupid!!!".
By Cyrus at 11:34 PM ON 11/09/09
i don't know what's worse, the fact that Rushdie got the uses of Kryptonite wrong, or the fact that Superman once had an ant head and sought to make Lois Lane the Queen. then again, i'd almost welcome the confusion of Kryptonite if it meant avoiding stories like that.
By Michael_GR at 4:10 AM ON 11/10/09
As with all similar questions, the correct answer to the question "What is the difference between red and gren kryptonite?" is: "who cares?"
By Fanboy79 at 8:28 AM ON 11/10/09
@ Everyone discusing the post crisis kryptonite.
In recent years DC has been returning Superman back to close to his pre-crisis power levels. They've discarded most of Byrne's 1986 retcon. Several of the kryptonite version on the wiki list have been reintroduced including gold kryptonite which removes a kryptonian's powers for 15 seconds now.
By Michael Sacal at 9:43 AM ON 11/10/09
@SCOTT EDELMAN
You are correct that it was Mxy's magic that removed Superman's powers and not so much the rock that did it.
The deal Mxy made with Lex was that the rock would remove Superman's powers but only as long as Lex did not tell Superman that Mxy gave it to him.
You are right that the rpreface comment does make it sound like he was talking about the Pre Crisis K, and that no matter which era he was talking about he got it wrong.
I think we're trying to determine just how wrong he was.
If he was talking about Pre-C K, he got confused green with gold and red with green, but if he is talking about Post-C K, he just confused green with red/crimson.
By Michael Sacal at 9:46 AM ON 11/10/09
@Fanboy79
I wouldn't worry too much about what current comic book writers do as they can't keep their crap consistant for more than two years ago.
Case in point the now-current Superman: Secret Origin, which claims to be the definite origin of Superman.
Two years ago in Countdown, they showed Lex Luthor's origin as being the son of the wealthy Lionel Luthor and his wife Letita.
Two years later (i.e. today) he is the son of a drunk farmer.
For the last decade the fanboys who write the Superman comics have been changing things willy-nilly with no regard to consistancy whatsoever.
By Michael Sacal at 10:02 AM ON 11/10/09
"more than two years ago"
That should be, "more than two years at a time".
By QuantumSam at 11:42 AM ON 11/10/09
Salman Rushdie is right and you are a nit piky wrong person: Green Kryptonite causes pain AND takes his powers TEMPORARILY. Gold Kryptonite takes them away PERMANENTLY!!!
Think about it -- under Green K, SUpes can be shot, knifed, crushed, pummeled, etc. He falls out of the sky!! Green K basically causes his cells to rapidly and painfully shed all the Yellow Sun energy they have stored.
Red K could kill, but only as an extended side effect -- Red K still causes weird effects.
Gold K is still around -- just see what going on in the current World of Krypton arc.
Rushdie is simply batting 500 on his boyhood memories. Get over it.
By Daniel at 1:35 PM ON 11/10/09
I would cut him some slack. I didnt know there was anything but the green stuff. The fact the he even knows about the red variety means that he knows more about it than 95% of the population
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Daniel:
I would cut him some slack. I didnt know there was anything but the green stuff. The fact the he even knows about...More »