Stupid ways writers have people take Supes down

[Pariah128]

Just wondering what some people thought were some of the more ridiculously stupid ways writers have had weaker enemies "defeat" superman, even for a time or if the plot called for it, i found one earlier today..

I was bored earlier, reading some old issues, decided to re-read action comics #827, and by god..reading it just made my head hurt

The part where polaris takes superman down by "bending solar radiation away from him" made me do a double take..why would redirecting solar rays do anything? he should already have enough energy stored in his cells to take polaris down in a split second..wtf? sorry this just bothered me

[Gauss]

Well, Dr. Light once turned the electrical Superman into radio waves and sent his "broadcast" shooting out into space... which is actually pretty cool, come to think of it, but it's the way Supes survived (I bounced myself off a satellite) that bothers me. Even if Light sent him out as a tight-beam transmission, the "bounce" should have scattered him around quite a bit.

As for Polaris, I guess it would depend on what radiation he bent away from Superman. If he could somehow bend everything except red-spectrum rads (which I doubt), it kinda works...

[Pariah128]

As for Polaris, I guess it would depend on what radiation he bent away from Superman. If he could somehow bend everything except red-spectrum rads (which I doubt), it kinda works...


He said he was bending the solar rays AWAY from superman, which only means he wouldnt be getting any yellow sun rays for the time being, however current supes does NOT lose his powers immediately when yellow rays stop hitting him, he can last for days

[foxfire]

I haven't read the issue, but wasn't Superman taken down by a Dracula bite once?

[Alan2099]

I haven't read the issue, but wasn't Superman taken down by a Dracula bite once?
No. he was just controlled by Dracula, which makes sense given his vulnerability to magic. However when Drac tried to bite him, Superman's sun saturated blood fried the vamp.

[Mike Smith]

I always think something is amiss when a person claims Batman can beat Supes no matter what.

[Sean Whitmore]

This one is not quite canon, but Venom curbstomped Superman in the second Marvel vs DC mini series.

I honestly can't think of too many times Supes was taken down stupidly. Now, if this thread were about J'onn, we'd be at ten pages already. ;)


SEAN

[Alan2099]

Wasn't Superman still recovering from loosing his powers in Final Night when he fought Venom?

[Gauss]

He said he was bending the solar rays AWAY from superman, which only means he wouldnt be getting any yellow sun rays for the time being, however current supes does NOT lose his powers immediately when yellow rays stop hitting him, he can last for days

Oh I know, but I'm suggesting that Polaris bent the yellow rays away from him and let the red rays hit him full-force, or something dumb like that. Although to be honest, I'm not sure getting hit with red sun rays drains Supes's powers or not... anyone know?

[Sean Whitmore]

Wasn't Superman still recovering from loosing his powers in Final Night when he fought Venom?


I remember that was one of the theories of the time , but I don't think it was ever said in-story.

Plus, it doesn't work. Superman didn't slowly get his powers back after Final Night. He remained powerless for awhile, until he was tossed in the sun and got his powers back full-force. The only time he would have had some, but not all, of his powers was when the sun was actually out. And Venom beat him up in broad daylight.


SEAN

[Rik]

In the seventies DC introduced a villain called Blackrock, who had some kind of weapon that supposedly drew power from every TV set and radio in Metropolis, and was therefore powerful enough to hurt Superman.

That always struck me as ridiculous. The combined power draw of every TV and radio in a large city would represent a tiny fraction of the total power output of Metro Power & Light. Which in turn would be a small fraction of the power of whatever that company used to generate electricity (nuclear? Hydro? Coal-burning? Whatever, it couldn't be anywhere near enough to even tickle Superman. A full-scale nuclear explosion could barely ruffle his hair in those days.)

I read somewhere that a single lightning bolt contains more electrical energy than the combined output of every power plant in the United States put together. And pre-Crisis Superman laughed at lightning bolts.

[Pariah128]

In the seventies DC introduced a villain called Blackrock, who had some kind of weapon that supposedly drew power from every TV set and radio in Metropolis, and was therefore powerful enough to hurt Superman.

That always struck me as ridiculous. The combined power draw of every TV and radio in a large city would represent a tiny fraction of the total power output of Metro Power & Light. Which in turn would be a small fraction of the power of whatever that company used to generate electricity (nuclear? Hydro? Coal-burning? Whatever, it couldn't be anywhere near enough to even tickle Superman. A full-scale nuclear explosion could barely ruffle his hair in those days.)

I read somewhere that a single lightning bolt contains more electrical energy than the combined output of every power plant in the United States put together. And pre-Crisis Superman laughed at lightning bolts.

Whats funny is, blackrock made a return recently, in the last few months, but someone else had the rock, superman couldnt physically hurt him..but he beat him pretty easily with heat vision, whats confusing is it made it seem like superman remembered fighting the first black rock, who in the issue was shown to be old, and here I thought supes was only in his 30s..

[Pariah128]

Oh I know, but I'm suggesting that Polaris bent the yellow rays away from him and let the red rays hit him full-force, or something dumb like that. Although to be honest, I'm not sure getting hit with red sun rays drains Supes's powers or not... anyone know?


Pre Crisis a red sun took them away immediately, but now its a slow process, and actually superman only loses power bry using his abilities, if he doesnt do anything he'll retain his powers, but if he uses them heavily he'll lose his powers in probably a few days, but the red sun wouldnt work immediately as it did for polaris

[Rik]

Here's a little red-sun trivia.

Somewhere around 1960, the powers that were at DC decided to try to come up with a slightly more reasonable explanation for Superman's abilities, beyond the "Krypton had heavier gravity than Earth" premise. Which was so blatently ridiculous that even young children had trouble swallowing it.
So the "yellow sun" idea came along. No explanation was given as to why he didn't lose those powers at night; it was simply assumed that yellow suns gave off some form of energy as yet unknown and undetectable to present-day Earthly science, which could pass effortlessly through an entire planet.

Around this time there was a story in a Lois Lane comic, in which Lois dreams that she has gained super-powers greater than Superman's, and embarrasses him by rescuing him from Luthor's "red-sun projector".

As a kid reading this, I thought that it didn't make sense: a red sun shouldn't actually weaken Superman, it just didn't give off the energy that empowered him. But, hey, it was a dream sequence, so it was okay.

Until red sun weapons started appearing in regular continuity, and it seemed that red-sun radiation DID take away Superman's powers, even if he was still in a yellow-sun solar system. It's always been my theory that some other writer saw that Lois Lane story and DIDN'T REALIZE IT WAS A DREAM.

In 1986, of course, Byrne retconned all this. Now Superman absorbs yellow sun radiation over time, building up a power charge like a human battery. So he keeps his powers at night, without any mysterious radiation that penetrates the entire planet. And red suns don't weaken him, which is as it should be, they just don't give him any power, so his stored energy is gradually depleted.

Except, of course, that some writers apparently haven't gotten the memo, and red-sun weapons are starting to make a comeback. They SHOULDN'T work on Superman, but depending on the writer, sometimes they do.