A Discussion on Supermans' Powers

[Unspeakable Horror]

Batman

Superman

[Barinthus]

I have always wondered what happens when he's doing the naughty deed with Lois and when he 'erupts' does his stuff shoot through her, ripping up her insides and ulimately killing her. Wouldn't that make sense?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by SnowFire
With super-speed, I mean, heck, he could be the entire world's cop if he wanted, not to mention do quite a bit more as far as constructive civilian projects (which sadly do not make good comic book material, but for an altruist with super-powers, would in some ways be far more rewarding than merely fighting crime).

Superman can singlehandedly make this world into a communist paradise. Now that would be the best use for his powers.

[DinoDoc]

That didn't really turn out so well when he tried it, UR.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by GePap
I must say I generally hate "flying" as a superpower, because most of the hero's who 'fly' do so in some completely magical way.

Already accepting a large willingness to ignore reality, one could imagine that the kryptonian race grew up in say much higher gravity, or whatever, for some reason the race is superstrong (thought crushing coal into dimonds is just, well, silly)- but what does being super strong have tyo do with the ability to ignore gravity and it seems all other basic universal forces, and move about whichever way you wanted? The hulk is also usperstrong, but the writer of that comic seems to understand this does not mean flying. I can accept some telekenetic character flying, in theory they are simply throwing themselves about, or some character like storm, who in theory has control over air pressure...but someone like Rogue should not fly because Miss Marvel had no reason to have that ability, anymore than Superman.

Batman rocks because his character is relatively utterly believable- a vigilante who trained himself to fight, and happens to have enough cash to buy himself the best toys possible.

Here is a big if. If there was life on Saturn or Jupiter and that being was to come to Earth, they would much stronger then Earth people because of the gravity of Saturn and Jupiter.

[SnowFire]

(Edit: Referring to Dino's post) I've never actually read any of the Superman comics, but I'm guessing that if they did do a plotline like that (in an alternate universe, of course, gotta have alternate universes), Superman would rule the world by force and order people around. I'm talking about something much simpler, like being the world's greatest civilian engineer, diverting rivers, building dams, and so on. At the very least, Superman could put a major dent into the world's food problem- I'm certain he could help with transportation of the already available food into Africa, not to mention being able to safeguard convoys from rebels and so on. Plus there's all the irrigation plans and so on I mentioned above.

GePap: Superman actually didn't originally fly. You might recall the line about "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?" It was apparently later on when animators realized it'd be easier just to show him flying somewhere than jumping/running. Or maybe it was for a TV show version they made the change, I forget. But it stuck.

[FrostyBoy]

Originally posted by SnowFire
(Edit: Referring to Dino's post) I've never actually read any of the Superman comics, but I'm guessing that if they did do a plotline like that (in an alternate universe, of course, gotta have alternate universes), Superman would rule the world by force and order people around. I'm talking about something much simpler, like being the world's greatest civilian engineer, diverting rivers, building dams, and so on. At the very least, Superman could put a major dent into the world's food problem- I'm certain he could help with transportation of the already available food into Africa, not to mention being able to safeguard convoys from rebels and so on. Plus there's all the irrigation plans and so on I mentioned above.

GePap: Superman actually didn't originally fly. You might recall the line about "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?" It was apparently later on when animators realized it'd be easier just to show him flying somewhere than jumping/running. Or maybe it was for a TV show version they made the change, I forget. But it stuck.

Peace on Earth
A good comic

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
That didn't really turn out so well when he tried it, UR.

Did that surprise you?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by SnowFire
(Edit: Referring to Dino's post) I've never actually read any of the Superman comics, but I'm guessing that if they did do a plotline like that (in an alternate universe, of course, gotta have alternate universes), Superman would rule the world by force and order people around.

I was referring to the "fact" that Superman has a near infinite productivity, at least on earth.

[Rex Little]

Originally posted by Barinthus
I have always wondered what happens when he's doing the naughty deed with Lois and when he 'erupts' does his stuff shoot through her, ripping up her insides and ulimately killing her. Wouldn't that make sense?

See JohnT's earlier post. Science fiction writer Larry Niven wrote an essay, "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex," which covered this and related topics.

[Blake]

Here’s how I figure superman’s powers work.

Superman is imbued with some kind of special magical field effectors; in short, he can manipulate time, gravity, quantum forces etc at least on a local level. This field extends around him and includes his clothes and perhaps whatever he is carrying so when he goes superspeedflying his clothes don’t burn off and when he catches someone falling really fast they don’t go squish in (or around – it’s gory) his arms of steel. The field is always on when it comes to “hardness” but he has active control over time, gravity and quantum effects (like for laser vision and that molecular disassociation teleportation thing he does).

Kryptonite also has a special magical field, but it's of the opposite polarity to Supermans - it's just as strong though. This means that when Superman encounters (green) Kryptonite the fields cancel, leaving SM weak as a kitten. Meanwhile when mortals do strange things with Kryptonite they can also gain the magical field effect thing and gain superman like powers.

And Note: Supermans powers didn’t develop until he teenage years, it is likely super-sperm are in fact just normal sperm and as long as Superman can control his powers during intercourse his partner will not end up splattered or impaled…

Funnily enough the must glaring ARRGGHHH abuse of techno babble I've seen in Smallville is when they trace an email to a harddrive using these magical IP's. It was truly awful.