How many tons can Superman press?

[XSpidercideX]

Can anyone give an indication to how strong he would normally be on a normal day without sun-bathing?

 

[Spike_x1]

I remember in the story where the Toyman killed Cat Grant's son, Superman was having difficulty dragging a beached oil tanker back into the water and really had to wrestle with it.

 

[The Question]

Really, it varries like crazy. Sometimes it's hundreds of tons, sometimes it's thousands, and sometimes it's millions. The writers have yet to place an exact limit.

 

[Zeu]

I really wish they hadn´t elevated his powers to the ridiculous quasi per-crisis levels,

 

[kiuju2k]

200 hundred gazilliontrillion tons.

 

[RockSP]

I really wish they hadn´t elevated his powers to the ridiculous quasi per-crisis levels,

You and me both...

 

[drastic_quench]

I'm all for the pre-crisis strength level. They force writers to come up with better stories; any mediocre stories stand out as a consequence.

 

[The Question]

That's onpy because it makes it a good deal harder to write good stories. Often, with pre crisis levles, either the story makes no sense or descends into silver age sillyness. The only way I could see the pre crisis levles working is if he ;eft Earth and dealt with primairily cosmic threats. And that takes away his entire supporting cast and half of his life.

 

[Zeu]

That's onpy because it makes it a good deal harder to write good stories. Often, with pre crisis levles, either the story makes no sense or descends into silver age sillyness. The only way I could see the pre crisis levles working is if he ;eft Earth and dealt with primairily cosmic threats. And that takes away his entire supporting cast and half of his life.

Exactly.

A less powerful Superman would give room for plenty of very interesting stories since he would have to explore more than his fists to deal with the the threats he´d face.

Look at Fleischer´s Superman, he´s even somewhat less powerful than Byrne´s MoS and he still manages to win the day through amazing stories.

 

[Batmanx]

Superman can lift a 100 million tons PLUS...I read this n the Wizzard Book.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Exactly.

A less powerful Superman would give room for plenty of very interesting stories since he would have to explore more than his fists to deal with the the threats he´d face.

Look at Fleischer´s Superman, he´s even somewhat less powerful than Byrne´s MoS and he still manages to win the day through amazing stories.

A less powerful Superman would just create different stories. There'd be good stories and bad stories, just as there are with Superman at his current power level. I really don't understand where this kick that Superman needs to be depowered to be interesting comes from. What's the point of Superman, who's billed as the first and best superhero, if he's scarcely more powerful than a normal human being?

 

[Spike_x1]

I'd like to know where everyone gets the idea that Byrne's (or any other early post-crisis writer) Superman was weak . He could lift mountains and buildings, and could still punch badguys far into the horizon. He just wasn't insanely overthetop in terms of power (ie - pushing/smashing planets, going 10x light speed, etc). He had all the power needed for a "super" story, IMHO.

Too much power, and you can take away the intended drama of certain stories. Just imagine if Kingdom Come's Superman was the uber-tough character from the 60's; he (or Capt. Marvel for that matter) would've easily taken care of the nuke in the climactic battle as if it weren't even a bug, and we wouldn't have gotten the infamous scene with Superman screaming amid the ashes of all those dead folks.

I like my Superman to be very powerful and strong, but there are limits to just how powerful he should be.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The fact that Superman has to work while tethered to Metropolis is his only real limitation as far as I can see. If he and Captain Marvel were more powerful in Kingdom Come, all that would've meant is that Waid would've had to come up with something more powerful than a nuke to threaten their lives with. Not really a big deal.

 

[Spike_x1]

Something powerful enough to kill pre-crisis Superman would likely kill everyone on earth. I mean, if Superman and Marvel (or anyone/anything with enough power to challenge that incarnation of Superman) were blasting/hitting each other with the force of colliding planets, earth would probably be thrown out of orbit, crushed, or otherwise demolished to a large degree by the sheer force of the first punch thrown.

There's only so much disbelief one can suspend.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Superman and Captain Marvel at the levels they were at in Kingdom Come would've created much more damage than they did anyway. If you can buy that the splash damage from their established power levels wouldn't tear through the planet, I don't see why it's less believable that they wouldn't tear through the planet at higher power levels.

 

[Delta-Recon-1]

well, supes stopped a black hole, and can push the earth out of its orbit. So im saying (as a rough estimate) one hundred decatillion metric tons.

 

[Spike_x1]

Superman and Captain Marvel at the levels they were at in Kingdom Come would've created much more damage than they did anyway. If you can buy that the splash damage from their established power levels wouldn't tear through the planet, I don't see why it's less believable that they wouldn't tear through the planet at higher power levels.

For an example off the top of my head, I could very likely suspend my disbelief in science fiction exploits where an asteroid, or something akin to that kind of disaster, can crash or explode on earth and not create a nuclear winter or a barren wasteland around its impact, but I cannot repeat that same suspension of disbelief if something the size of the moon or another planet were to collide with earth.

You see, there are different levels of what I can and can't take seriously in science fiction. Planet-tossing Superman getting into any kind of struggle where he exerts some of the true power behind his muscles, and not killing everyone around him, is one of those things that I can't buy with any amount of seriousness. It just goes way, way, way too far beyond all logic and reasoning.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

For me, it's all or nothing with physics. When a guy can lift mountains without them falling apart under their own weight or punch someone into orbit without the reactive force shooting him through the Earth's crust, a punch from the same guy at planet-tossing strength doesn't really make much difference.

 

[Whirlysplat]

For me, it's all or nothing with physics. When a guy can lift mountains without them falling apart under their own weight or punch someone into orbit without the reactive force shooting him through the Earth's crust, a punch from the same guy at planet-tossing strength doesn't really make much difference.

This may be due to the psionic element of his powers a version of SB's tactile tk but on a sub comcious level.

How much can Supes lift depends on the writer, here are some feats! Taken from another time and another place.

Adventure of Superman #473: From Earth, Superman threw an alien space craft clear of Earth?s gravity and into outer space. This craft was larger than an aircraft carrier and over a mile long (a typical aircraft carrier is about a 1/4 of a mile long and weighs about 100,000 tons, so this ship was about 4x that size)

Several events show Superman as a moon-mover. In JLA # 7, as Electro-Superman, he halted the fall of the Moon towards Earth (caused by Neron's magical machinations), then moved the Moon back its proper position in orbit. He later commented that he's more powerful as "regular" Superman. Writer Grant Morrison and artist Howard Porter had originally intended the moon-moving event in JLA #7 be done by "regular" Superman , but DC forced them to use Electro-Supes. This event is butressed by several more. In JLA: The Century War, ancient "alchemical engines" were causing the moon to fall towards the Earth. Superman and Green Lantern took turns holding the moon back against the "geometrically increasing force" that was causing it to fall. Superman got the last "moon-bracing" shift. In Superman Man of Steel #30, Superman grabbed, easily broke the forward movement of, and easily threw in the opposite direction, a space ship the size of a small moon. In JLA # 58, Superman , Wonder Woman and Green Lantern collaborated to tow Earth's moon a distance of 238,900 miles in mere seconds, indicating a fantastic acceleration, and then pulled the moon out of Earth's gravity (which increases its weight tremendously). As he is universally regarded as the JLA's most powerful member, I'm inclined to give Superman more than one-third, and - conservatively - about one-half, the work effort. In the Lex 2000 special, with a single strike, Superman split one of Saturn's moons in half. Saturn's moons are small moons.


Action Comics #782: After emerging from the sun energized, Superman physically pushed WarWorld, (a small, Pluto-sized planet) across the solar system and into a boom tube. WarWorld did engage a "full throttle countermeasure" in resistance Superman?s push. We can see WarWorld's engines (which encompass nearly an entire hemisphere of WarWorld's surface) firing in resistance, to no avail. WarWorld's engines allow WarWorld to travel at faster than light speeds through space, so they generate the power to accelerate a planet beyond light speed. "How is he moving my planet! The Kryptonian does not have that power!" Braniac's disbelief is reasonable since WarWorld's engines had no shortage of power ; WarWorld had just pirated the energy of Imperiex - energy gleaned from the devouring of many galaxies. (Hence Imperiex's reputation as the "Devourer of Galaxies.") Please note that Superman was energized beyond his usual power levels at this time.

Action Comics Annual #7: Fighting in space, Superman successfully resisted the pull from a black hole that had opened up directly below (inches from) his feet. The miniature black hole had been induced by advanced alien (Ht'ros) war technology.

Keep the faith

- Whirly

 

[pussywillow1972]

Wot's all this "Batman can't press more than 400lbs. B.S."!

I can throw up 275-300 no problem. I'm NOT ripped/huge/ect. You're telling me the goddamn Batman can only best my ass by a hundred pounds?!

Next time you're at a gym, hell - even a highschool gym, check out the lifting records. There's a hell of a lot of guys that're in that range - and none of them are Batmen.

BAHAAAAHAAAAHAAAAHAAA

 

[tgjensen]

Action Comics #782: After emerging from the sun energized, Superman physically pushed WarWorld, (a small, Pluto-sized planet) across the solar system and into a boom tube. WarWorld did engage a "full throttle countermeasure" in resistance Superman?s push. We can see WarWorld's engines (which encompass nearly an entire hemisphere of WarWorld's surface) firing in resistance, to no avail. WarWorld's engines allow WarWorld to travel at faster than light speeds through space, so they generate the power to accelerate a planet beyond light speed. "How is he moving my planet! The Kryptonian does not have that power!" Braniac's disbelief is reasonable since WarWorld's engines had no shortage of power ; WarWorld had just pirated the energy of Imperiex - energy gleaned from the devouring of many galaxies. (Hence Imperiex's reputation as the "Devourer of Galaxies.") Please note that Superman was energized beyond his usual power levels at this time.
- Whirly

There's the answer then. It takes an infinite amount of energy to reach lightspeed, so Superman is infinitely strong.

 

[Spike_x1]

There's the answer then. It takes an infinite amount of energy to reach lightspeed, so Superman is infinitely strong.

There's just one very, very large hole in that entire scenario: Superman gets his power from the sun. The sun does not have infinite amounts of energy to give to Superman. So how the hell did Superman get enough energy to push against something with enough thrust to travel at lightspeed?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Because they're comics. No one should be able to reach light speed except for the speedsters if you're doing the infinite energy thing, since only the speedsters are connected to the infinite energy of the Speed Force.

 

[Whirlysplat]

Because they're comics. No one should be able to reach light speed except for the speedsters if you're doing the infinite energy thing, since only the speedsters are connected to the infinite energy of the Speed Force.

Superboy Prime seemed able to deal with the infinite energy of the speedforce.

- Whirly

 

[gildea]

A less powerful Superman would just create different stories. There'd be good stories and bad stories, just as there are with Superman at his current power level. I really don't understand where this kick that Superman needs to be depowered to be interesting comes from. What's the point of Superman, who's billed as the first and best superhero, if he's scarcely more powerful than a normal human being?

Exactly.

To the people to complain that making superman too powerful would result in dull stories its thinking like that that stops DC from paying you to write their comics