Superman's power level

[Lead Cenobite]

I have to say, out of all the things Superman does on a daily basis, I never had much trouble suspending disbelief over him flying into space unprotected. It just doesn't seem like much of a feat for a man who can get shot and not have it leave even a small scratch.

 

[DarthAlani]

Comic characters are always under strength in movies. Superman needs to be very powerful

 

[SuperMike335!!]

I have to say, out of all the things Superman does on a daily basis, I never had much trouble suspending disbelief over him flying into space unprotected. It just doesn't seem like much of a feat for a man who can get shot and not have it leave even a small scratch.

Yeah the whole not needing to breath thing I have no trouble believing. Just an extension of his invulnerability. I love STAS, but having him need the space suit seemed silly, at least in regards to superman.

What I don't like is when they powers start to get silly, like SM4, when when he has telekenesis repairing stuff vision, or whatever that was.

So far as I know the list should be.

Invincible

Super Strength

Super Speed

Super Senses (hearing, smell etc...)

Super control over his muscles (allowing him to imitate voices, its rarely used but he has done it even up to recent times)

Super healing factor (rarely seen as its hard to injur him, but he heals just as well as the Hulk or Wolverine, perhaps better)

Arctic breath

Heat Vision

X-Ray Vision

Telescopic vision

Ages so slowly that he is practically immortal

He can fly

Did I miss any that should be there?

 

[DarthAlani]

I agree with the list, and Superman needing a Space Suit or Dive Suit is just stupid as hell.

 

[afan]

He should need to breath, eat(only when he's hungry), and sleep, etc.
However that's not to say he can't hold his breath, or need to sleep evry day and be fully rested after a brief sleep period.

He should not need a Space Suit or Dive Suit to function on missions into space or underwater. His invulnerable body would protect him in space and underwater, however he would after a prolonged period need some source of air. Just a deep breath would allow him to carry on.

 

[Kryptonian Warrior]

I don't want it to define him. And I'm not chatting about taking Superman down a dark Batman-style route. But during his growth and his progression towards becoming Superman, I'd like to see some of these issues explored. He didn't just go straight from a baby to a teenager to this perfect adult superhero, with absolutely no self-doubt or loneliness. He's a product of a lost world, his real parents dead, no-one else on earth like him ...................... don't tell me that doesn't raise some questions for him?

Smallville explored some of these issues. And whilst it may not always have been successful and may have went a bit overboard at times, the intent was good and it made for a better understanding of Clark Kent.

The best Superman stories have involved aspects like this, and that's the beauty of the character. Despite all his power, all his might, all his abilities ........ he still deals with simple issues like we do. We can't relate to his powers and abilities as no human will ever have them, but we can relate to those issues which all of us experience at one time or another - isolation, doubt, etc. It doesn't define us, but it does influence the type of person we become.

I don't want Superman to be simply defined as a man of action and adventure, and nothing more. We've got Indiana Jones for that!

Right, because it's not who we are underneath, it's what we DOO that defines us.













Sorry, I just had to.

 

[manofsteel4life]

Lol great timing

 

[SuperMike335!!]

He should need to breath, eat(only when he's hungry), and sleep, etc.
However that's not to say he can't hold his breath, or need to sleep evry day and be fully rested after a brief sleep period.

He should not need a Space Suit or Dive Suit to function on missions into space or underwater. His invulnerable body would protect him in space and underwater, however he would after a prolonged period need some source of air. Just a deep breath would allow him to carry on.

I don’t agree on the "needing" to breath thing.

Superman has the ability to use solar energy for all of his powers, his invulnerability, and it serves to reason that so long as he has enough solar energy stored he would not need to breath.

Now if he was running low on stored solar energy, or exposed to Kryptonite, or anything else that reduces his powers, then I could see him needing to use air and breath until he had his powers back fully.

Even a need to breath once every 24 hours, or however long he can hold his breath for would be hard for a villain to exploit anyway.

If you have the so much ability and power to keep him contained somewhere then you really don’t need to worry about waiting all that time to suffocate him, as if you really had him contained you would just add a bunch of kryptonite and finish him off fast.

That is just my personal preference that he should not need anything for physical sustenance as long as he has plenty of solar energy and his powers are working, seems more in place for the character to me.

 

[spider_rob]

Sealing him in an air-tight room, blocking him from solar energy would have the same effect as suffocating him anyway... Right?

If Superman doesn't breath, would his lungs atrophy?

 

[DarthAlani]

Depends on how long he is in the room, he can store the solar energy for a long time

 

[Lead Cenobite]

Sealing him in an air-tight room, blocking him from solar energy would have the same effect as suffocating him anyway... Right?

If Superman doesn't breath, would his lungs atrophy?

Except it takes a long long time for him to run out of stored up energy. He'd be kindof useless if he could lose his powers every time he stepped into a shadow ala Nuclear Man.

 

[elgaz]

Plus there's not a room on Earth which could hold him. I know you're just hypothesising, but thought I'd throw that in too

 

[GreenKToo]

I need to see him do more than just smashing through brick walls or lifting cars. We got that in the hulk and spider-man already.
BUT, I don't want to see him moving planets or lifting islands either. Somewhere in the middle is what I want.

 

[SuperMike335!!]

Sealing him in an air-tight room, blocking him from solar energy would have the same effect as suffocating him anyway... Right?

If Superman doesn't breath, would his lungs atrophy?

Superman should be immune to all forms of atrophy, as an extension of his invincibility.

If he could suffer from atrophy he would look anorexic as his muscles don’t get the normal amounts of stress needed to stimulate them to the point of preventing atrophy.

Being he has as muscular of a build as he possibly can hide as Clark, then that pretty much points to him being immune to atrophy.

 

[DKDetective]

Comic characters are always under strength in movies. Superman needs to be very powerful

Partially, that is because they are trying to reach a different demographic than comic book fans. Also, as I've mentioned before and no one seems to care or acknowledge the point, although comics and film are both visual media, they are incredibly different. It is a lot harder to interestingly and convincingly portray a Silver Age-powered Superman on film than a Golden Age or Byrne era one. If Superman can move at near the speed of light, the action scene will over in seconds unless you do it in slow motion and we have all seen how annoying overuse of slow motion can be. It looks fake and cheesy.

On the other hand, look at the plane sequence in Returns. Superman's maximum speed is much slower than what has been depicted in the comics... and it works because you need time to develop tension and suspense. There is the same issue with him lifting physical objects. It is nowhere nearly as visually interesting in live action to see Superman move planets around (see Smallville finale or the climax of Superman Returns) as it is to see him struggle with a crashing plane or stop a runaway train. Now, please don't take this as the opinion of some Byrne-era troll. I love the moral dilemmas of the Silver Age stories. I just think that version of Superman works best on the printed page. I think a more Golden Age inspired version works best on film.

 

[Lead Cenobite]

But remember that he didn't just leap tall buildings and lift cars throughout the golden age. He got pretty powerful by the end of the 40s, maybe equal to the pre-DCNU Superman.

 

[TheBat812]

I think it would be interesting to explore a Superman that makes some biological sense. I'll take his 'using the sun for his powers' thing, which explains why he can fly/is super powerful (which can also be explained by the difference in gravitational pull of krypton as well), etc. But he is a biological being, meaning no matter how strong he is on Earth, he would still be subject to the immense pressure of space and the need for oxygen. That's my own personal view. I like the ridiculously powerful version as well, haha, we just never get to see the Fleischer treatment these days. He always felt vulnerable, which made him feel even more invincible when he battled his way through it.

 

[Lead Cenobite]

There's no pressure in space though. Pressure comes from the atmosphere, and space is nearly a vacuum. Honestly though, why does Superman have to be limited in a way that makes him need a space suit? How does that make things more challenging for him? To me, it just looks dorky and odd to see him dressed up like an astronaut, especially considering the iconic final shot of Superman in the movies.

 

[elgaz]

I thought the whole 'Superman doesn't need a suit in space' thing was explained by his incredibly dense molecular structure. Put simply, it's so dense that the pressure we humans feel (under water, gravity, atmospheric pressure, etc) wouldn't even tickle him.

 

[Kurosawa]

The space suit thing was mostly done in the name of "realism" because they were taking Superman apart at the time.

Stupid as hell.

 

[Lead Cenobite]

At least there it was only because he couldn't hold his breath forever and was actually traveling in space for an extended period of time. He still remained immune to the effects of space otherwise.

 

[Godzilla2014]

I think if you're expecting Superman to be at Silver Age power levels in Man of Steel, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. That would just be too expensive to put on screen.

 

[Dr.]

The space suit thing was mostly done in the name of "realism" because they were taking Superman apart at the time.

Then they had a narrow and misguided view of what “realism” is.

Within the fantasy genre, I think “realism” means (to a large degree) internal logic and consistency. So if you establish that Supes can fly in space, is as strong as ever and is impervious to a freezing vacuum and cosmic radiation, then a mortal need for a few breaths of oxygen is conspicuously ludicrous – i.e., “unrealistic.”

Stupid as hell.

Supes in a little oxygen mask? On that point we agree. Stupid.

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

I think if you're expecting Superman to be at Silver Age power levels in Man of Steel, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. That would just be too expensive to put on screen.

Um... How? Firstly, it's Zack Snyder, who squeezes every penny into getting amazing visuals. And secondly, this film will have a budget of around $185 million.


Not that I think he will be mega powerful.

 

[Godzilla2014]

Then they had a narrow and misguided view of what “realism” is.

Within the fantasy genre, I think “realism” means (to a large degree) internal logic and consistency. So if you establish that Supes can fly in space, is as strong as ever and is impervious to a freezing vacuum and cosmic radiation, then a mortal need for a few breaths of oxygen is conspicuously ludicrous – i.e., “unrealistic.”

Supes in a little oxygen mask? On that point we agree. Stupid.

"Realistic" could also apply to the setting. Personally, I like the idea of placing Superman in world much like the one we inhabit, with all of its complexities.

Um... How? Firstly, it's Zack Snyder, who squeezes every penny into getting amazing visuals. And secondly, this film will have a budget of around $185 million.


Not that I think he will be mega powerful.

Because the special effects for a Superman of Silver Age power levels would be insanely expensive.