Notice! Spoilers for Action Comics #1080!Even someone as powerful as Superman is quickly taken down by kryptonite – but not by his brother. As every Kryptonian's weakness, using Kryptonite is a great idea when hunting escaped Phantom Zone prisoners, as Superman is on his last legs. Action comics bow. But since Superman can't use kryptonite, he must rely on his Daxamite brother, Mon-El, who is completely immune to kryptonite – but not invulnerable.
The Super-Family begins capturing fugitive criminals from the Phantom Zone in Action comics #1080 by Mark Waid and Clayton Henry. Rounding up a band of escaped Kryptonians is definitely a difficult task. Naturally, the easiest way to capture the Zoners would be using kryptonitebut considering most of the Super-Family are Kryptonians themselves, they would be equally affected by kryptonite.
Superman and the rest of his family began using the Phantom Zone's new weapons, which allow them to directly send their target into the Zone. But when the Phantom Zone's prisoners are too smart or too strong to be hit by these special weapons, Superman's brother, Mon-El, shows up to help. While the rest of the Super-Family are easily defeated by kryptonite, Mon-El is completely immune due to a major difference in his biology.
Superman's Daxamite Brother Mon-El Can Use Kryptonite Without Harm
Action comics #1080 by Mark Waid, Clayton Henry, Matt Herms and Dave Sharpe
Kryptonite is the irradiated fragments of the planet Krypton, and even a small piece can be deadly to Kryptonians – but Mon-El is not Kryptonian. Mon-El is a Daxamite, which is a biological offshoot of the Kryptonians. Daxamites have all of the same powers as Kryptonians, but none of the weaknesses. Under a yellow sun, Mon-El is as powerful as Superman, but is able to wield kryptonite with ease and suffers no ill effects, making Mon-El one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe. However, it actually has a much worse weakness than Kryptonite.
While it is true that Daxamites are not weak to Kryptonite, they are weak to something that is much more abundant. Instead of being weak to kryptonite, Daxamites are fatally weak against lead, meaning anything containing lead, like bullets, would be deadly. In fact, Superman sent Mon-El to the Phantom Zone to save his brother-in-arms from a fatal case of lead poisoning. Without a cure, Mon-El will die and therefore have to spend most of his time in the Phantom Zone. Even with this great weakness, Mon-El is still one of the best people to face Kryptonians due to his strength and his invulnerability to kryptonite.
Mon-El has a weakness even worse than kryptonite: lead
Daxamite's main weakness can kill him at any time
Not being weak against kryptonite is an incredible advantage over Kryptonians, but Mon-El's leadership weakness is much easier to take advantage of. As long as he is able to keep his Daxamite heritage a secret, he will be practically unstoppable. Seeing the powers he has under a yellow sun, most people would just assume he's a Kryptonian, but if they tried to use Kryptonite on him, nothing would happen. Unfortunately, Mon-El never got his time to shine. While it's nice to see Mon-El use Kryptonite to take down these Kryptonian criminals, it's unlikely he'll help Superman soon due to his lead poisoning.
Action comics #1080 is now available from DC Comics.