Precedent for Smallville's "Freak of the Week"

[Domino]

I was bagging comic books today while listening to some recordings from the Superman radio show from the 1940s, and I heard the most interesting thing: It was theorized on the show that Kryptonite was the substance that turned Krypton's population into a "race of supermen." I know that that part of Superman's origin has been ret-conned out of existence, but I still found it ironic that the effect in the Smallville series isn't the only time that Kryptonite has been the source of super powers. I wonder if the series creators were even aware of that.

[Calhoun07]

I didn't even know that there was ever a theory that people on Krypton were supermen. I thought they were normal people who developed powers on Earth. That whole thing is news to me.