Really interesting thread guys!
I have a question:
If those other powers come from being exposed to earth's atmosphere, does that mean Superman loses those specific powers while he's in space (flying above the earth's atmosphere)?
That could be an interesting way for him to "get a break" from his super-hearing...
PS: I've seen MOS three times already so far, and it's true, it gets better with each viewing! I've NEVER seen a movie in theaters more than once, so this is quite a new experience for me.
I was going to make this really deep detailed mega-post about something that I've been considering since seeing MoS the first time on the day of release, and I literally had it typed out and then I realized meh, most people won't even read it so, I'm gonna redo it and make it really simple.
It's a belief I have at this point based on this new telling of Superman and it's got a basis in this whole "he's not powered just by the sun anymore, now our atmosphere itself plays into some of his powers directly" and this is backed up by Jor-El's statement that our atmosphere is more nourishing to Kal - it's not just the younger yellow sun's radiation.
So here's the short-short version of that mega-post I worked out and just deleted (and boy was it a doozy):
Kal and the other Kryptonians are not capable of surviving in a vacuum as Superman and other Kryptonians could in pre-MoS tales and canon.
That's it in a nutshell. Why do I say this, where does this come from? It comes from direct evidence provided in MoS that very plainly shows Kal and the other Kryptonians, even when exposed to a yellow sun's radiation, are still dependent on some kind of atmosphere to survive.
Now, having said that, I know what the first reaction will be from most of you (ok, maybe a second or even third reaction): "Ok, wait a second, if that's true then how come we see Kal/Clark underwater after saving those men on the oil rig and he's not drowning, he's under there for a rather long period of time apparently."
And you'd be right to point that out as the first example but, consider this: water is made from two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom - we humans can survive on pure oxygen just as I'm confident that Kal can, and when he's underwater I'd surmise - my belief and conjecture here - that his skin is capable of literally providing him with that sustenance from oxygen in water molecules.
Of course it's speculation and conjecture but, I think it makes sense.
The next situation would be the fact that we see Kal during his "learning to fly" sequence finally getting the hang of it and going ballistic into Earth's upper atmosphere - and yes he's still inside our atmosphere, he doesn't directly fly out of it. How can I say that with any sense of confidence? Because we not only see a sonic boom shock wave "cone" effect but we hear a sonic boom as well, and both of those require air to happen - if he was in space we wouldn't see the "cone" effect nor would we hear it.
Disclaimer: as for the hearing aspect I know, I know, Hollywood loves to screw with the basic rules of the universe and one they almost always break is adding sound effects to events that happen in space - since there's no air or atmosphere, we'd never hear things like a space ship blasting off, laser weapons firing, photon torpedoes launching, planets and moons exploding or imploding, and so on.
The next one is Kal punching a hole in the side of the Black Zero and then all that atmosphere rushing out and people complaining about "He just opened the side of the ship and all the air is running out so how the hell can he and Jor-El's consciousness still talk?" Well, I'd say it's because the atmosphere in the ship just keeps pumping into that small room they're in I suppose. And Jor-El is a projection, not a physical being so he's most likely speaking to Kal telepathically (not confirmed, just a good guesstimate on that one).
Anyway, the next instance would be when Kal once again flies into the upper atmosphere on the way to the World Engine and the final time is when Zod basically flies him into space during their fight (most people say it's Kal flying Zod and it's not - after Zod does that cape hammer throw move and Kal goes crashing through about 9 skyscrapers, when he exits the last one he's stunned and completely upside down (pretty neat visual effect, actually) and then Zod slams into him from underneath (the perspective on the screen is him coming down from the top) and basically body-flies Kal into space. When Kal snaps out of his stunned period, he pushes Zod off him and Zod ends up catching himself on the Wayne Enterprises satellite which he then kicks in Kal's direction and then they head back to Earth for the finale.
They're not up their long enough to matter, in my opinion, and even though this will probably prompt some laughs and giggles, if I had to give my reasoning for it it's this simple:
For those short periods of time that Kal and Zod are in the upper atmosphere where the air is thinner - but still exists to some degree - there's a good chance they simply held their breath on the way up. Seriously, no joke: Kal and Zod with their enhanced Kryptonian physiques now enhanced even further by our younger yellow sun's radiation as well as exposure to our atmosphere means they literally could take a deep breath and hold it and fine for rather extended periods of time considering how much air they'd be able to suck in and compress - think of their lungs working like a S.C.U.B.A. diver's tank and giving them the ability to survive upwards of an hour depending on the situation.
But the last little tidbit is this:
We know that even here in range of our younger yellow sun's radiation that Kryptonians are now obviously implicitly affected by the atmosphere of Earth directly. They get something from the sun, but not everything they require to survive. It's plain to see that in the dream sequence when Zod is telling Kal that he and his crew had spent basically the last 33 years searching out old colonial outposts and scout ships that whenever they were exploring they themselves were wearing suits that allowed them to do that exploration and survive in their Kryptonian "space suits" more or less.
It would be completely illogical and somewhat ludicrous to think that in 33 years of searching out colonial outposts and scout ships - of which thousands were launched according to Jor-El's consciousness when he explains Kryptonian history to Kal -Zod and his crew never happened upon a colonial outpost or crashed scout ship someplace else in the universe and it wasn't under a younger yellow sun like ours. Somewhere in their journeys they had to have been exposed to another yellow sun to some degree - as for whether or not they developed powers from it or even realized they were enhanced by it is up for grabs, but they had to have come across one in 33 years of travels in space.
So, I think that this means we're looking at the potential that Kal can't survive in space for extended periods of time. He can't just go up and flying to Mars under his own power or whatever because he'd never make the journey without something to assist his need to breathe in our atmosphere - he's acclimated to it and requires it as part of that two-piece catalyst to make him what he's become. And no, we won't be seeing Kal flying around inside our sun's troposphere anytime soon for a decade to "charge up" either.
Just my line of thinking, tear it apart if you want, but it makes sense to me on several levels. It's pretty obvious we're not dealing with Superman of old, of legend and 75+ years of canon - as I say, "This ain't your Daddy's Superman" so I fully expect things to be different with Kal in a lot of respects, this could be just one of them overall.
ps
Yes, this is still a long post but the mega-post I worked on was about 5x longer and a lot more detailed babbling.
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She didnt overpower anyone.
