From leaping buildings to pushing planets...how?

[Superlad93]

No, yeah. I read it, but I was just restating it.

Lol oh I'm very sorry it just seemed like you were telling me it. But yeah I think the theory makes some more sense if you also look at his solar absorption as a "muscle" too in some ways. Like the more he works it and makes his body want more it expands and gets more potent I suppose.

Again sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Henzapper]

I like Superman being strong and all (especially considering how badly he was treated in Superman issues #1-12), but Lobdell is making him a little too strong for my tastes. I know it's not a direct comparison, but when you factor in the weight he's pushing now vs. what he was doing in All-Star Superman, Lobdell's Superman is actually much stronger. Keep in mind that All-Star Superman was deliberately making an overpowered version of the character.

And now we have fights where Superman is getting knocked across continents. It's just a little too much for me, but I guess it's too late to change it. Not a big deal, I'll live with it. It's just not the best decision in the world in my opinion.

[Mr Prince]

I hate the planet-pushing strength business. I dislike even more being told it versus shown it during a storyline. A missed characterization moment IMHO where Superman is shown struggling to do something he doesn't know he can do or think he can do, but still attempts it to help people.

Save the planet pushing for finite series like All Star Superman.

[Dr. Hurt]

So by this time I assume that everyone on this board has see and read the preview to the up coming Superman issue #13 but Mr. Scott Lobdell. So I'll just get to the point and bring up the fact that Superman is MUCH MUCH MUCH stronger than he was in Action comics 1-12 (10-12 taking place only a year after issue 8).

A big question has been how has be actually gotten so much stronger in such a short time (even with the idea that his powers grow very very fast), it's only been 5 years after all. Well I have an idea that I posted on another site that I would like to run by everyone here.


"The principal behind getting stronger and building muscle for any human is (any mammal actually) is that you put the muscle under a lot of stress to the point where it is actually damaged and it rips this is why it's called getting "ripped" or "shredded" because that's what you are doing. Then you give yourself time to heal and your body says "ok so I don't wan't to feel this bad again so this time I will come back stronger" and so you body gets bigger to meet the challenge that you gave it when you were working out. So now if you want to get stronger you add more weight or intensify your work out so you body must now get stronger once again....this is known as progressive over lode and it's the biases for any good work out for someone who wants to get bigger and stronger.

Your body is all about survival. That's it's one any only concern. It can't tell that you're not actually in danger when you work out all it knows is "oh crap there is something big on me that's hard to move". So it the makes itself ready for the next time you decide to do something like that by making itself stronger. Now this means that your body needs gas to make it work in the form of food and water and when you are taxing it with a work out it will need more food and water because it will actually demand it in the form of making you a lot more hungry that you normally are because it has calculated how much it needs to expand and build mass (aka big muscles). This is why athletes eat at least 3 times the normal amount normal people do. Their bodies demand it.

Now with all of that said now apply that to a man whose norm is lifting a tank with little to no problem. You find ways to tax his body (stronger people or harsher situations) his body will rise to meet at challenge......but on a Super level. His body will now demand more gas in the form of sunlight and it will put it to much better use than before. All of this because it feel that it is in danger and wants to live on no matter what. Also he is likely more durable than before because of the same reason.......you get beat up enough times your body makes you "harder" and as we saw in the 1st few issues of Action comics Superman was beat up quite a bit and his healing factor and durability were likely getting a "work out" from that.

Now how did his other powers grow so much too? Well his powers are already constantly growing but the big "jump" was simply because of the extra sunlight he was getting because his body demanded it cuz he was fighting such strong foes. His powers are powered by the sun so more sun=more power.

Superman is an alien, yes, but he is also a living being like you or I and all our bodies want to do is survive no matter what and they will do it in whatever way they can."


I would love to discuss what you all think about my theory (that is what it is BTW, not fact) and I would be more than happy to elaborate on anything that is here. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your responses.

That's not how muscles work actually.

Also, i dont think Superman grows stronger by building more muscles otherwise he'd be a mountain in DC One Million. It's all about the yellow sun radiation.

[Grendel01]

And the Phantom Zone guy was powering up instantly.
So I guess, the only answer which will halfway work is that adult kryptonians bodies can convert sunlight to superpowers very effectivly.
Unlike Kryptonian Children. Supergirl could be an exception, because she was exposed for decades to yellow sunlight while being in suspended animation, or maybe as teenager she was already at that point, so she would have gotten the full powers regardless.
Superman is also an exception, since the blocks in his mind are so strong that he downgraded his own powers, even as he reached adulthood. Even invulnerability, which in order to make sense in that scenario has to be forcefield based.

[Iopy]

Trying to explain it with the idea that he's a "solar battery" works as long as we leave it at that and don't look at it too closely. When we start talking about him being more powerful when he's had the chance to absorb more energy from sunlight it starts to get shakey since the amount of energy in sunlight, even at 100% conversion/storage/utilization, isn't great enough to let him do a fraction of the things he does. And the writers kept the idea that the light from a red-sun can de-power him immediately from the Silver Age, which means there has to be more to it than just a yellow sun power-up, there's a toggle-switch effect from a red sun.

The "solar battery" explanation isn't even at the level of Star Trek techno-babble because it doesn't work based on what we know about solar radiation. It would have been a good candidate for change to something more sci-fi in this reboot, but since we're still using it my answer would be that Superman is stronger or weaker based on the wishes of the writer at the time. He's powered by the irresistible strength of plot requirement.

[Superlad93]

That's not how muscles work actually.

Also, i dont think Superman grows stronger by building more muscles otherwise he'd be a mountain in DC One Million. It's all about the yellow sun radiation.

Oh I know I dumbed it down a bit so some stuff is lost. I wasn't going to explain Hypertrophy or Hypertrophy. But I'm not saying that Superman is building muscle I'm saying that the greater need for solar energy comes from the greater stress and challenge that he's put under. This pushes his stores to their limits and then expands them for next time.


So what I'm really saying is that I think his solar energy stores are a "muscle of sorts".


I don't think I'm an expert on the subject at all but I do a great amount of weight training myself and I've gone off research, word of mouth, and actually going through it. So that's where my knowledge is coming off.

If you have a theory of on the subject of Superman's power then I'd love to here it. I'm always down for expanding my views on things

[Superlad93]

And the Phantom Zone guy was powering up instantly.
So I guess, the only answer which will halfway work is that adult kryptonians bodies can convert sunlight to superpowers very effectivly.
Kryptonian Children. Supergirl could be an exception, because she was exposed for decades to yellow sunlight while being in suspended animation, or maybe as teenager she was already at that point, so she would have gotten the full powers regardless.
Superman is also an exception, since the blocks in his mind are so strong that he downgraded his own powers, even as he reached adulthood. Even invulnerability, which in order to make sense in that scenario has to be forcefield based.

Yeah I thought about the instance with the Phantom king and I saw it as his "thought powered" ecto suit giving him a boost maybe....but idk we'll see as time goes on and maybe more kryptonians are shown. I do think that you sort of get a "boost" as an adult though and maybe more powers developed (heat vision, flight, ect) but are not as intense I guess....that seems about right.

[Grendel01]

To keep the solarbattery aspect, I would say that they power up faster or even instantly as adults, but have less reserves. So if they go full power, they max out faster than Superman would in the same situation, because they have far less fuel. And an exchange of superpunches is not enough to cause that, it would take a full blown brawl like Superman/Doomsday to make them reach their limits.
Of course the longer the Kryptonian is living on Earth, the closer to full saturation he has become. I really don't think, that Superman's cells have unlimited storage room, and that he has reached 100% already.

[Cypher-Z]

From what I understand before its been said Superman doesnt lose energy from not being out in the sun, he only gets more powerful when hes in it. Or so was said before.



Also, it's comics.

[dupersuper]

The "solar battery" explanation isn't even at the level of Star Trek techno-babble because it doesn't work based on what we know about solar radiation.

That sounds exactly on the level of Star Trek technobabble...

[Kymeric]

If it were about muscles hed have to be freaking huge to move a planet. Guess its some weird way of energy being stored and used by his cells. The real question is, what is he bracing against to move a planet?

[jackdaw53]

Characters being massively over-powered is something I oft moan about.

Its not just Superman, of course.

Among the problems of showing characters over-powered is that it leads to markedly inconsistent story telling from one arc to another. One day, Flash can speed steal, or GL can will a planet to move, or Superman can bench press the moon.

Then a week later a later a powerful ruthless villain shows up... he fights the three flat out on Earth (Flash for umpteenth time forgets to steal villain's speed)... and maybe a few buildings topple over, and a by-stander needs a plaster put on a slight head wound. Complete cobblers... if characters are that powerful, millions would die in any full on Earth based fight.

[Last Son]

If it were about muscles hed have to be freaking huge to move a planet. Guess its some weird way of energy being stored and used by his cells. The real question is, what is he bracing against to move a planet?

Superman typically doesn't have to brace against anything to lift stuff. We see him flying around carrying large objects all the time. If he is bracing against anything, it's the force that allows him to fly.

[Kymeric]

Arent there 2 possible sources for his powers? The physical muscle strength from evolving on a high gravity planet that EVERY kryptonian would have on another planet. And the solar charged powers that kryptonians only get after soaking up some yellow sunlight for a number of years.

A kryptonian on a earth sized planet with a red sun could probably leap tall buildings and outrun trains just because of their anatomy and theyre walking on such a smaller lighter world, its like bouncing around on the moon.

I think its the yellow sun powerset that makes him fly and hover and shoot eye beams. Especially after supergirl soaked up a megadose and skipped all of Supermans low power stages.