The Greatest Super-Story Never Told

A reporter denied her biggest scoop.

What is the greatest Superman story never (officially) told?

There are many “untold stories” we’ll never know about, but even the known ones include many candidates. Some fans might point to fanfic or rejected comics pitches. Others might go with stories about Superman stand-ins—villainous ones like in Invincible or The Boys, or different heroes like in Supreme or Astro City.

The film projects Superman Lives and Superman Reborn would’ve been amazingly weird. A recent TV pitch called Superman Family included the sons of Superman and Batman and goofy adventures inspired by the comics of the 1960s.

But for my money, nothing beats “The K-Metal From Krypton!”

Superman’s original creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, produced it for publication in Superman #8. It was rejected and remained unknown until its discovery in the DC offices in 1988. The original art is incomplete and damaged, but fans have restored most of the pages on this website. That’s the third wildest thing about it.

The second wildest thing? It would’ve introduced kryptonite years before it appeared anywhere else. (When it did first appear, it was in the radio serial and not the comic book, but that’s another story.)

Due to the approach of a meteor in space, Superman loses his powers, with no idea if they’ll ever return, and has to contemplate life without them.

He knew he was an alien, but now he learns the name and nature of his homeworld—and floats a theory about his powers never repeated before or since.

In a jaw-dropping decision, Clark continues his crusade despite having no powers, preferring a likely early grave to surrendering the quest that has defined his life. Still in glasses and a suit, he ends his pretense of cowardice and starts acting like a crimefighter.

And I haven’t even gotten to the wildest part yet.

Clark and Lois get trapped in a sealed mine with some mobsters. All begin to suffocate…but luck intervenes. The K-metal meteor misses Earth and moves out of range, so Clark’s powers start returning. He then faces a familiar dilemma: should he reveal his secret identity or let others, including Lois, die?

Most stories like this would have Clark find a third option. Perhaps he could wait until everyone has passed out, then smash open a wall once no one was awake to witness it? Siegel and Shuster had already done a story where he did exactly that (Action Comics #3, reprinted in Superman #1):

But this time he chooses option one, revealing his identity not only to Lois but to the mobsters, who aren’t grateful for the rescue. This panel is from Shuster’s original art:

There was no walking this back. The love triangle between Superman, Lois, and Clark had been a mainstay of Superman stories for two years at that point. It would continue as the default for another fifty years or so—and many other superhero stories would follow its example.

Here, Siegel discarded the idea and gave Superman and Lois another kind of relationship—one based less on Freudian mind games, more on honesty and trust. Art here is by Jon Bogdanove, who drew Superman for DC Comics in the 1990s (in a very different style).

I find the penultimate panel above extra fascinating. It comes within inches of calling that love triangle a stupid idea well worth discarding. “Why didn’t I think of it before?”

In fairness, the ending does struggle a bit with its new status quo, sending Lois into a sudden snit just to tease some conflict.

And it’s easy to see why DC editors vetoed the story—Superman was doing great business, and the love triangle was as established as the red-and-blue costume. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

But for those of us who know how toxic secret-keeping can be to romance, something was a little broken about the setup. And the veto was disheartening for another reason—it underscored the fact that Siegel and Shuster were no longer in control of their greatest creation.

But in its way, “The K-Metal of Krypton” has a real-world happy ending. After it saw the light of day in 1988, more and more Superman stories would show Lois knowing his secret—and not just as a short-term thing (as in the 1980 movie Superman II) but as a permanent arrangement. In 2024, Lois has appeared in two different TV series and numerous comics—and she knows Clark’s identity in all of them.

More about Lois and her evolution—tomorrow!