Superman

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Powers and abilities

Superman possesses extraordinary powers which render him, as stated in the lead-in to the 1950s television series, "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound". His powers were relatively limited in the early stories, but grew to become near-godlike by the 1980s. After Byrne's 1986 rewrite, Superman's powers were diminished, though have grown again since then.

Related Topics:
1950 - Bullet - Locomotive - 1980s

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His powers include:

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• Near invulnerability: In the 1940s, "nothing less than a bursting artillery shell could break his skin"; by the 1970s he could fly through a star and shrug off a nuclear blast. In 1986, Superman was somewhat depowered. Still able to withstand artillery shells, lasers, and even nuclear explosions, he would be killed if he flew into a star. His powers have since increased, allowing him to fly into the sun unharmed. Because Superman's powers are partly due to Earth's yellow sun, in Action Comics #782 (October, 2001), during the "Our Worlds at War" series, Superman flies through the sun, which gives him enough strength and power to move an entire planet. In addition, his immune system protects him from toxins and diseases.
• Vision-related powers:
• X-ray vision: The ability to see through anything except lead. He can see things behind a wall as if the wall were not there, or can "peel back" layer after layer of matter in his mind. Opponents sometimes use lead-lined constructs in an attempt to hide things from Superman. In one post-Crisis story this trick backfired when Superman simply scanned the field for lead, which instantly stands out as the only opaque substance to his vision, and found the hidden item easily.
• Telescopic vision: The ability to see very distant objects, without violating the laws of physics.
• Superman can also see the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including infrared and ultraviolet, allowing him to see in the dark.
• Microscopic vision: The ability to see extremely small objects and images.
• Heat Vision: The ability to apply heat to a target by staring intensely at it with the conscious act of activating his power. Visually, the power is typically depicted as twin laser beams firing from the eyes. These beams can be made invisible, allowing Superman to work undetected. This ability was first introduced in the 1950s comics as "the heat of his x-ray vision"; in the early 1960s, heat vision became its own power distinct from x-ray vision.
• Super hypnotism: Pre-Crisis, Superman had the ability to hypnotize others at will. This ability was dropped in the modern comics. One late 1970s story, attempting to explain the effectiveness of Superman's disguise as Clark Kent, suggested that his super-hypnotism, aided by his Clark Kent glasses, worked continually to make others see him as a thin, mild mannered man, not an athlete in a suit, and even included photographs of himself. However, this theory presented numerous flaws, such as various stories where Batman would disguise himself as Clark Kent; it also failed to account for anyone studying Kent's build from behind, let alone how the illusion could work on a video camera or whenever Kent was performing his job as a TV news anchorman. For these reasons, this explanation for his disguise's effectiveness was dropped, in favor of the traditional "suspension of disbelief" status quo.
• Super-hearing: The ability to hear any sound at any volume or pitch. The only Earth creature who can detect sounds at the frequency he can is a Blue Whale (0.01-200,000 Hz).
• Super voice: Superman is a master ventriloquist; he used this once to rescue Lois from criminals. He is also a brilliant mimic, able to impersonate human voices or animal sounds. Pre-Crisis, Superman also possessed the power of "super-ventriloquism," or the ability to pitch his voice across vast distances, which he would use in combination with his super-hearing as a means of communication.
• The power of flight, by force of will, which also allows him to maneuver precisely in any direction, as well as hover. Originally, Superman could jump 1/8 of a mile, and only acquired the ability to fly in the early 1940s, when the first Superman animated films were being produced and super-jumping proved to not look very impressive on theatre screens. (These quirks were later retconned into the Earth-Two Superman, who could indeed only jump 1/8 mile, although he later learned to fly.)
• Super breath: The ability to create hurricane force winds by blowing, and to chill his breath to freeze a target (this latter ability has also been called "freeze breath").
• Super speed: The ability to move at an incredible speed, like the Flash. This includes running, but flying is less strenuous and more versatile. The earliest Superman ran at a mere 30 miles per hour, but quickly became much faster; by the 1950s, Superman became capable of flying through space at faster-than-light speeds, as well as travel through time. Post-Crisis, his top speed seems to be at or near the speed of light, and he can no longer travel through time under his own power.
• Super strength: While the exact magnitude of Superman's strength is unknown, it is generally accepted that his strength easily surpasses the capacity to lift 100 tons, but how much more is not known exactly. This is because Superman's strength, like his other powers, has fluctuated over time, with the Man of Steel being at times able to shift a planet from its orbit. One figure for Superman's strength is 800,000 tons (pre-The Death of Superman story arc).
• Super memory: Superman has total photographic memory. He has, for example, memorized the Metropolis phone book and all of the files at the Daily Planet, very useful abilities in his guise as a reporter.
• Super intellect: In the earliest comics, Kryptonians were endowed with genius-level intellects on their native planet. Eventually, this superior mental talent was altered to being another superpower gained only under the influence of a yellow sun (though Krypton still possessed an advanced educational and intellectual state). In the Silver Age comics, Superman possessed the intelligence of a collection of the world's greatest minds. He had a computer-like brain, which gave him total recall and the ability to speak all earthly languages and even most alien ones. His skill with science and mathematics were beyond human comprehension. However, over time, this power as a whole has been scaled back, if not eliminated, in current comics. The ability is evident in The New Batman-Superman Adventures, the Justice League cartoon series, though.

When Superman was revamped in 1986, he became more vulnerable and was no longer omnipotent. As in the original series, writers again gradually increased his powers. Since "coming back to life" during The Death of Superman story arc, Superman can once again survive nuclear blasts, though they leave him wounded and weakened, and he can no longer fly faster than the speed of light or travel through time under his own power. His strength too has increased, to the point of allowing him to move mountains again.

Related Topics:
1986 - Omnipotent - The Death of Superman - Speed of light

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How Superman's powers work

Superman's powers are derived from his Kryptonian biology and Earth's sun (a yellow star), and are likely increased by Earth's lesser gravity (versus Krypton's higher gravity).

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Various explanations have been offered over the years explaining how Superman's powers work. In the earliest comics, all Kryptonians were said to possess superpowers while on Krypton. By the late 1940s, this was changed to Kryptonians only gaining superpowers when under a lower gravity environment such as Earth's. In the early 1960s, after the introduction of Supergirl, this was amended to Kryptonians deriving their powers from mainly exposure to a yellow sun (vs. Krypton's red sun), as well as to a much lesser degree Earth's lower gravity; when under a red sun, a Kryptonian would be completely powerless, even if it was a low-gravity environment. John Byrne in his 1986 reboot suggested that Superman's powers were telekinetic or psionic in their functioning (as a result of the traditional yellow sun explanation).

Related Topics:
1940s - 1960s - 1986 - Telekinetic

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One such pseudo-scientific explanation used in various recent analyses of how Superman's powers might work is as follows:

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Kryptonian mitochondria absorb certain wavelengths of the radiation emitted by solar fusion. Under a red sun, this yields increased abilities, which are multiplied a thousand-fold by a yellow sun. The solar energy supplements respiration, such that when cellular materials (perhaps Kryptonian ATP) combine with glucose, they produce abilities beyond those of humans under a yellow sun.

Related Topics:
Mitochondria - Wavelength - Radiation - Fusion - Red sun - Respiration - ATP - Glucose

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"K-ATP" is produced rapidly, enabling a Kryptonian to build up reserves that permit days of super-powered activity in the absence of sunlight. In addition, Krypton's gravity was 50-100 times stronger than Earth's, so Kryptonian cells are also much stronger and denser than a human's. This is a simple logical fallacy, however, as this would alter Superman's movement much as a human's movement on the moon is altered, and would make him incapable of passing as a human.

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Under a yellow sun, other factors contribute to invulnerability. First, cell membranes and organelles become more resistant to harm; secondly, a bioelectric field surrounds the cells, making them thousands of times tougher. This "aura" surrounds Superman's epidermis and teeth, and possibly his nails as well. His hair is invulnerable, too. Superman has been shown shaving and presumably cutting his hair by reflecting his heat vision off of a piece of curved, reflective metal from the rocket in which he landed. In fact, any type of highly heat-resistant reflective metal will work, as shown in Action Comics #663 (page 11). When his cells become "supercharged" under a yellow sun, a Kryptonian becomes super-powered. He is invulnerable to forces under 1 kiloton, and is harmed only by repeated blows of over 1 megaton. His brain and nervous system keep up with his enhanced speed, as they too are amplified by K-ATP.

Related Topics:
Cell membrane - Organelle - Epidermis - Action Comics - Kiloton - Megaton - Nervous system

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Some have hypothesized that Superman's "super-strength" is a result of his extending his bioelectric energy field around whatever he is carrying so as to negate gravity's effects upon it, based upon his moving objects with far greater mass than himself in ways that seem to violate the laws of physics and other such seemingly impossible feats. However, this need not necessarily be the case. Superman can simply use his gravity-manipulating abilities to hold himself in place relative to the Earth (or wherever he may be), thus making him effectively immobile - the Kryptonian equivelant of "planting one's feet" when trying to move a heavy object. Holding himself in one spot, Superman's 100 kg. of mass suddenly has the inertial effects of something significantly more massive, and as such he is far less likely to move when exerting force upon another object. If a person with just incredible strength were to attempt to lift a locomotive above his or her head with just one hand by grabbing it by the frame in the front (assuming that the frame would be capable of supporting the force, of course) and swinging it upwards in an even motion, they would simply have their legs pulled out from underneath them by their own strength; however, Superman would be able to do so with ease due to his abilities in manipulating gravity. He cannot break the laws of physics, but he can sneak through the loopholes.

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As for holding up heavy objects which seemingly lack the structural support to be moved the way Superman moves them (i.e. lifting a battleship above his head), the answer lies in Superman's other incredible abilities as much as his superhuman strength. Superman can use his X-ray and infrared vision to pinpoint the stronger points of whatever he happpens to be lifting (by searching for bulkheads, support beams, and denser areas of the structure) and lift from whichever of them is closest to the item's center of gravity. Of course, Superman has had plenty of practice with this sort of thing; when he was just starting out, he probably dropped more ships than he held onto! (Presumably, Clark practiced on mothballed ships or planes and abandoned buildings before making a career out of it.)

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The reason that the idea of Superman's strength coming from his extension of his bioelectric force field is unlikely stems from, again, the laws of physics. Superman's force field (the source of his invulnerability, his gravitation manipulation abilities, and some have argued his strength) is generated by his body, and (as the name implies) places force on things - for example, when he is hit by a missile, it creates a force in the opposite direction as the force of the missile and explosion - otherwise, it would go right through the Man of Steel! But force weakens with increased distance at an exponential rate, so if Superman extends his field around another person his size, he would be doubling its size - and its strength would drop to one-fourth. So, either Superman would find himself having to quadruple his internal energy output to compensate, or find himself only a quarter as tough as he had been before. (Of course, one might argue that being only 1/4 as invulnerable as Superman is still fairly tough.) If he were lifting an aircraft carrier, things would be far worse. With his field now stretched out over an area thousands of times the size of his body, Superman's field would drop to an infinitesimal percentage of its previous strength. He would either find himself effectively mortal and flightless or need to increase his energy usage nearly a million times over to maintain his usual power levels - and even with his massive reserves, to do so would liekly eat through all of his stored energy in a matter of seconds. So either the Man of Steel is exploiting some heretofore unknown loophole in the laws of physics, or his super-strength is really nothing but that - incredible, old-fashioned strength.

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(Also, were he extending his field around other objects when he lifted them, it would make them as invulnerable as him - something that has been shown in the comics to be untrue on multiple occasions. However, it has also been shown having him carry people at such speeds that would kill them normally, so no real conclusion can be drawn one way or another from this data.)

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Superman's other senses are less linked to solar energy than his strength and speed. Due to Earth's lighter air, he can hear things no human can. Solar energy magnifies its accuracy, allowing him to fine-tune it. His taste, smell, and touch are equally acute. He sees all wavelengths, from radio to X-rays, allowing him to detect thermal trails and other "invisible" things.

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Recently, Superman has exhibited superhuman healing capabilities in addition to his invulnerability, healing wounds in seconds which, if their equivelant was inflicted upon a normal human, would result in weeks of recovery. While this is perhaps a somewhat more feasible explanation (in certain respects) than total invulnerability for an indestructible person, it is probable that this super-healing consumes great amounts of energy in order to immediately regrow cells and tissues capable of function right away.

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Superman's cells store vast amounts of yellow solar energy. He replenishes his supply even on cloudy days, and weakens only after a week without sunlight. Near a red sun, his powers would fail faster. Red solar radiation creates a chemical which does not lead to the super energy produced by K-ATP. Kryptonite exposure also stops the process that converts yellow sunlight into superpowers, leaving Superman immediately weakened. His powers return quickly once the kryptonite is removed. In recent comics, Superman seems to be slowly building up immunity to kryptonite, and it is possible that its effect is in part psychological. In several late 1980s and early 1990s storylines, Kryptonians demonstrated a biological and possibly psychological link to their planet, which may explain the intense effects Superman experiences when in the presence of different types of kryptonite. In one of the storylines' issues, however, Jor-El explained to Lara that he eliminated the particular weakness that connects Kryptonians to their planet from Kal-El while he was still in his birthing matrix, which could also mean that kryptonite effects might be a result of the lack of connection to Superman's home planet.

Related Topics:
1980s - 1990s

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Earlier in his life, as in his battle with Doomsday, Superman's solar energy supply was depleted by exertion. More recent exertions caused less of a power drain, suggesting that he is now either storing more energy, or growing stronger under the yellow sun. It is unknown whether higher energy stars might increase his powers even more.

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It does not seem likely that Superman would be able to extract enough energy simply through solar absorption in order to allow him to perform the super-feats he is capable of, which suggests that he is in fact using the yellow solar photons as a conduit or gateway to access larger power levels - the yellow photons either are a catalyst or create a chemical which serves as a catalyst to get more power. Perhaps Superman, while under a yellow sun, is capable of converting matter directly to energy in his cells as described by Einstein - E = mc^2. Superman would eat and drink as a normal human, but upon reaching his cells, it would be converted directly into energy or into a higher energy form thanks to the yellow solar radiation interacting with certain organelles in his cells. The super-powers might simply be an unexpected byproduct of this reaction; the cells become more invulnerable as they absorb energy so as to be able to withstand higher energy reactions, which then serves as the gateway to his other powers.

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In the late 1990s, a story arc involving Superboy and Supergirl shrinking down to about cell-size to investigate why Superman had become ill, discovered that Superman's stomach converted his food directly into energy, calling his stomach a nuclear furnace. This could explain some of his enormous energy-output levels compared to the comparitively low energy he receives from the sun's rays.

Related Topics:
1990s - Superboy - Supergirl

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In 1997, the Superman titles began a year-long storyline; beginning in February 1997, Superman began experiencing problems with his powers---a conventional plot element. Superman soon found that his conventional superpowers were replaced with electrical-based ones that required a special new costume to contain them. Superman (volume 2) #123 introduced both Superman's new powers and his new costume.

Related Topics:
1997 - February

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Superman appeared with his new costume and powers until the end of 1997, when the comic special "Superman Red / Superman Blue" saw him split into two beings: a red-colored Superman, or "Superman Red," and the then-current blue-colored Superman, or "Superman Blue." These elements, as well as the comic special title, were a reference to the classic Silver Age "imaginary story" of the same name. After a few months of stories, March and April 1998 saw the comic special "Superman Forever," in which the two Supermen united into one whole, with Superman's classic powers and costume restored.

Related Topics:
Imaginary story - March - April - 1998

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