"What do you mean 'formed'?" I asked him. "Do you mean can it be shaped? Or carved?"
"Yes. Can you form it into something else?"
"Well, kryptonite isn't real. You know that, right?"
"Yes, I know. But could it be formed?"
"Well, it's a rock, but they've changed it in recent years so that it's radioactive." And as I spoke, I started to get my geek on. "It used to be only harmful to Superman and other Kryptonians, but now it's radioactive to people from Earth, too. So it's deadly."
"Okay," Gee said, ignoring but I'm certain nevertheless *dazzled* by his father's embarrassingly rich geeky insight, "but could you form it into something else?"
"I guess you could," I replied. "Like what?"
"Well, why doesn't someone just shape it into a bullet and kill Superman using a kryptonite bullet? Wouldn't a bullet kill him?"
And in my mind I'm thinking of a fanboy response: it would take two bullets, a gold kryptonite bullet to temporarily rob him of his powers, and then a green bullet to kill him. But it might take some time for the gold bullet to take effect, and in that time Superman could spot the shooter and melt the rifle with his heat vision. And it would have to be a very powerful gun because there's the chance that the gold kryptonite would slowly rob him of his invulnerability and his skin might be only slightly weakened. Superman can heal after being attacked by green kryptonite, therefore the assassin would have to ensure that it was a kill shot and make sure not to just wound him. But it probably could be done -- use two different kinds of bullets and go for the kill shot with an incredibly powerful gun.
This is all the stuff I thought.
But what I said was different.
I replied, "You can't kill Superman with a gun. He'd figure out a way to protect himself. He's Superman."
Gee reflected on my response and said "Okay."
And this is why I resisted sharing my fanboy thoughts and answered the way I did: at age ten he no longer believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. As he gets older, he loses so many of the things that are wondrous, magical and magnificent as the everyday realities of the world gather around him. That's part of growing older and there's not much I can do to protect him from it.
But he should always have Superman.
