Supermans Powers

[datsyuk]

I don't read much Superman but I have a question about his powers. Has DC dulled down his powers? He used to be so invincible with the eyebeams, cold breath super speed, invulnerability, super strength, flight and all that. From the Comics I have been seeing it seems he is much weaker now. I haven't seen him use his superspeed at all.

Also, I have heard the term, "Post Crisis" Superman, what does this mean and is it related to Superman having weaker powers.

[Smokey]

after the crisis on infinite earth series is when superman got severely depowered, he still has all his same powers but toned down a notch or two, but hes still pretty powerful, just a lot of writers dont know what theyre doing when they write him, and throw that in with PIS and you get a bad taste in your mouth

also he has superspeed, but doesnt speedblitz a lot, if he did then every cartoon would be 1 minute long and every comic would be 5 pages

[chriskenny]

I liked his power levels at the Animated Series levels. When he was in his own book, he was certainly one of the most powerful beings in the world, but he would actually have villains who could fight him...

[Kistler]

One major way he was deemed LESS POWERFUL after the Crisis was that he was easier to injure. Before, Superman was pretty much untoucheable unless you were magically empowered or made out of kryptonite or red-sun radiation. After the Crisis, he can indeed feel a punch from Lobo and Mongul and the like and can be injured (though not nearly killed) by massive amounts of electricity like when Batman used all of Metropolis's power grid to hurt him once.

Also, certain powers were done away with, such as super-ventriloquism and super-hypnosis.

And finally, it's been emphasized more that now Superman, while super, can also get tired and thus somewhat weaker if he fights for a prolonged period of time.

On the super-speed front, Superman has to focus a bit to do it. He's not like the Flash where he can go into it effortlessly or where being attacked at super-speed makes him automatically react at super-speed.

[Azrael52]

I teethed on post-crisis Superman and missed out on super-ventiloquism because of that, but as for Supes powers, they have grown and lessened and growned and lessened again and changed to energy, and changed back all since I've been reading for the past 12 years or so. There was a couple of different story arcs in the 90s that dealt with his powers needing bleeded off by the likes of the Parasite, etc.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

And that's what I don't like about writers. They depower Superman so they CAN write a Superman story (notice the word "good" is not written before the word "Superman").

Terrible.

[HartyPotter]

I personally don't undersatnd why he doesn't use his artic breath and heat vision more often. It's quite a mystery.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

Not a mystery really. Either writers forget it, or PIS.

If I wrote Superman, that wouldn't happen, DAMMIT.

[Lurch]

It's the same theory as to why GL gets taken out early in a lot of the JLA stories...He's such a powerhouse, that if he does all the work, and does it quickly, it makes for dull writing. Flash has been left out of many of the animated series adventures for the same reason. He could wrap up a battle before J'onn could finish his Oreo. It's all about making interesting stories guys, and if the "hard and fast" rules of their powers that are so painstakingly poured over in the Rumbles forum were always in effect, then each issue of every superhero comic would be about two pages long.

[kane]

The need to depower Flash. I don´t buy Flash, because i think it is ridiculous. With his powers every fight should be over in a nano second. Why did DC make him so fast, did the not think about it?
They should make him slower, quecksilver level would be enough.

The other way is to make powerfull villians. Superman should fight with threads on mongul, doomsday (the old doomsday), darkseid level - forget villains like toy man, the repo man etc. His villains should match him in speed and power.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

I think the solution lies in writing stories in which they HAVE to use their powers effectively, and not in writing stories in which Superman "forgets" he has Arctic Breath. I believe great stories can be made, regardless of how powerful a character is.

[Lurch]

The need to depower Flash. I don´t buy Flash, because i think it is ridiculous. With his powers every fight should be over in a nano second. Why did DC make him so fast, did the not think about it?
They should make him slower, quecksilver level would be enough.

The other way is to make powerfull villians. Superman should fight with threads on mongul, doomsday (the old doomsday), darkseid level - forget villains like toy man, the repo man etc. His villains should match him in speed and power.

They did that once. Whe Mike Baron tokk over with Flash #1 when Wally becomes Flash, his top speed is a little less than the speed of sound. I thought it worked well, and I remember those stories fondly.