Superman's power level

[elgaz]

Man, I hate it whenever the idea of a depowered Superman rears it's ugly head and I find myself asking 'why'? I mean, it's not like he's actually omnipotent as is or anything - Supes has enough viable villains who are more powerful than him who can be used without the need to neuter his abilites just so other villains can have a shot at defeating him.

I hear 'Oh, but Supes need to be relatable - no one can relate to a guy who's so powerful' but I'm sorry, a character who can press 10 tonnes is no more relatable than a character who can press 100 or 1000 tonnes - it's a fantasy medium which expects a certain level of suspension of disbelief from it's audience. Additionally, there's the visual aspect for me too - I want to see Superman performing absolutely amazing feats on screen, I dont want to go knowing that I'm only going to get half a Superman [even though, as a fan, I'll end up going regardless].

Amen to that. I just want to facepalm when I see that whole 'depower him to make him relatable!' argument again - it doesn't make sense.

To make him 100% relatable, he'd have to be totally human. Taking away some of his powers doesn't do that. And I agree that the whole relatable thing hinges more on character than physical abilities anyway.

If I went out to buy a supercar tomorrow and was offered a choice of 2 - one faster and more thrilling, or one which is slower and easier for me to get to grips with - I'd take the faster one. If you want a supercar, you want the best, otherwise you may as well buy a run of the mill family hatch. Same with superheroes - Superman's the biggest and strongest so don't put a leash on him when we finally have the chance of seeing a film where his powers can really be shown off on screen.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Amen to that. I just want to facepalm when I see that whole 'depower him to make him relatable!' argument again - it doesn't make sense.

To make him 100% relatable, he'd have to be totally human. Taking away some of his powers doesn't do that. And I agree that the whole relatable thing hinges more on character than physical abilities anyway.

If I went out to buy a supercar tomorrow and was offered a choice of 2 - one faster and more thrilling, or one which is slower and easier for me to get to grips with - I'd take the faster one. If you want a supercar, you want the best, otherwise you may as well buy a run of the mill family hatch. Same with superheroes - Superman's the biggest and strongest so don't put a leash on him when we finally have the chance of seeing a film where his powers can really be shown off on screen.

Well that's the thing, what makes these characters relatable and compelling is what is underneath the powers and the fantasy. It's them as people.

You could have the most uberpowerful character ever, in the most outrageous universe ever, but you ground them, as a person, in real, relatable emotions and characteristics.

Exactly - if it's about the person underneath, their emotions and charachteristics then there's no need to touch his powerbase.

 

[Rocanrol]

Like they said before, a kind of "Fleischer & Famous" level of power. Bullets cannot hurt him, extremely powerful, but not ridiculously level of strenght and other superpowers like the silver-age. To me, it's a matter of scalation. If you continue making superman more and more powerful, his enemies will have to increase in power too. There has to be some sort of limit or the very idea of a "Superman" will end up being really childish. And kind of boring in the end, doesn't it?

A depowered Superman (a fusion between golden age Superman and maybe a Miller Superman) would be awesome, and could boost the creativity of what his enemies can and cannot do.

 

[The Morningstar]

Yea, i don't want him depowered.

But i don't want him sneezing solar systems out of existence and pulling hundreds of planets along on a chain.

 

[Rocanrol]

And one more thing:

It's not about realism. If we were talking about realism, aliens (as long as i'm concerned) doesn't exist, xray vision doesn't either or even a planet named Krypton!

It's all about credibility. If there is a godlike being, capable of sustain almost infinite (oximoron!) amount of damage without being hurt (not a single scratch), fly at the speed of light (time traveling/teleportation), awesome reflex and über strength... you cannot depict an interesting enemy... A relatable enemy. All the atmosphere, the creative universe begins getting out of proportion!

 

[Brian Braddock]

We're both talking English but ultimately speaking in different languages.

 

[The Guard]

I've never agreed with the whole "If he's so powerful, nothing will seem like a threat" thing.

It's pretty simple to create and show threats to him.

Superman is powerful? Not with Kryptonite involved.

Superman is powerful? So is Zod, on a similar or greater level.

Superman is powerful? So is Braniac. So is Darkseid. So is Mongul. So is Doomsday.

Superman can do a lot? He can't do everything.

It's not that hard to create a physical or emotional/psychological threat, regardless of his level of power. You simply have to make the threats...threats to Superman and/or those he cares about/innocent people.

And Superman being relatable should have next to nothing to do with his power levels.

 

[Brian Braddock]

^^^This, multiplied by about a thousand.

 

[JAK®]

The people who say Superman is too powerful are the same people who justify Batman being able to hold his own against Darkseid and other powerful beings.

 

[elgaz]

But ...... prep time ........ t: t:

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I love Batman, but screw prep time. t:

Make Superman incredibly powerful. I want him him to be Godlike, but not Silver age powerful like being able to move planets with one hand. He can still be relatable as he tries to deal with the fact that he is kryptonian and now the world looks to him as a God and he has to deal with that while also handling human emotions like his love for his family, his job, and Lois.

He should be the person people aspire to be while he deals being the inspiration.

 

[Fudgie]

But ...... prep time ........ t: t:

I hate those two words so much.

 

[The Morningstar]

But with prep time it is conceivable that...



Bats would be splattered against a wall before he can even process a thought!

 

[solidsnake86]

The people who say Superman is too powerful are the same people who justify Batman being able to hold his own against Darkseid and other powerful beings.

You know, Iron Man was basically unstoppable in the avengers, maybe even to powerful. He was taking hits and walked away like it was nobody's business.

To depower him they have to make some story up with the arc reactor.

So I don't think superman is really all that powerful when there basically portraying iron man as invincible (pun intended).

 

[GreenKToo]

It makes no sense to me for two beings capable of moving planets fighting on the surface of the Earth. They would literally destroy it in the fight, intentional or not..

eye rolls don't bother me, I know what I want to see. If his strength level is like I want to see on film, then great. If not, that's fine too.

 

[Lone]

As long as he's not breathing in space and playing cosmic ping pong, I'm good.

 

[BigThor]

the people who say superman is too powerful are the same people who justify batman being able to hold his own against darkseid and other powerful beings.

Qft

 

[Rust]

What if the action takes place elsewhere than Earth? Will he be depowered then?

Is it the Earth's atmosphere combined with our sun that powers him or is it the sun alone? Would Superman even be able to fly into outer space, perhaps go to Krypton or other worlds? Will he then have a suit of some kind?

This would have to be addressed too somehow.

 

[The Guard]

I wouldn't mind seeing Silver Age levels of power...

If the context is right.

Let's say Superman's not normally powerful enough to push the moon out of orbit, or back into orbit, or destroy something the size of the Moon or the Earth, or whatever.

But then he flies through the Sun, has more power, and does so.

Presto, Silver Age power display, really cool moment, but not breaking any rules about Superman's power levels.

 

[The Morningstar]

Yea a "sun dip" could be a way to have his powers grow, temporarily.

 

[Brian Braddock]

I dont get it though - why is it the people in favour of de-powering always assume that those against it want to see a Superman capable of moving a planet?

I dont want him to be so powerful that it becomes ridiculous - I'm just against de-powering as I dont want to see a Aboveaverageman up there on the big screen. I want to see them do the guy justice.

 

[Rocanrol]

Lifting a truck without effort isn't powerful enough?

Silver-age Superman it's ridiculous. I would prefer a early golden-age!

 

[The Morningstar]

Early Golden Age? He doesn't even fly.

Thinking about it, it's strange that people always go on about Supes being overpowered. Well, why does no one moan about Wally West being overpowered? Or J'onn Johns?

Wally Flash was ridiculously powerful. More powerful than Superman. J'onn basically is Superman... but with Professor X level telepathy.

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

Actually, saying "Early Golden Age" really isn't specific enough. Now, I'm no Kurosawa, but I think it was around Superman #14 that Superman could fly, survive atomic bombs and had some of his vision powers.

The powers don't really matter to me. It's the character that should be focused on. And as always, I'll refer people to my favourite comic writer, Grant Morrison. The man who won an Eisner Award for writing a story about Superman who was at Silver Age power levels, and who now is writing a terrific critically acclaimed ongoing with a Superman not much more powerful than the one who debuted in Vol 1 of Action Comics.

A high power level does not mean no threat, it just means it's not always a threat you can just punch into submission. Apparently, that's a problem for Superman, but not Batman.

 

[Rocanrol]

40' cartoon superman

http://archive.org/download/superma...s/superman_the_mechanical_monsters_000030.jpg