Adventure Comics #299 (June 1962) has the imaginary tale “The Unwanted Superbaby!”, in which authorities discover baby Kal-El has super-powers before the Kents can adopt him. The result is that Kal-El grows up resentful of Earth people, who only take advantage of him and mis-trust him.
Eventually he leaves Earth, despite thinking wistfully back towards that kindly couple who almost adopted him. He travels around in space having adventures, but then realizes that maybe he should give Earth one more try. On his way back to Earth he encounters a gold meteor.
Watch out Superboy, that meteor is Gold Kryptonite! Moments after landing on Earth, Clark discovers that Gold Kryptonite has removed his superpowers permanently. Oh no! The Kents still adopt him though and he lives out the rest of his unremarkable life helping Pa Kent run the general store in Smallville. Wah-wah.
It’s an ok imaginary story, but they make a point to state that Gold Kryptonite is real, and to expect it in future stories. I always found the concept of Gold Kryptonite strange though. Since its effects are permanent, it seems like it can only be used as a way to defeat a villain or to de-power a one-shot character.
