Break it Down - Superman's Heat Vision...

[mgs]

How far does it travel? and How Fast? Cause, technically, flying at his fastest speed, would he be able to utilize them propely (i.e., shoot them out his eyes) cause he could probaly outfly them and then, they would only be like, really hot eyes or like two big lightsabers coming out of his eyes, but not really shooting anymore, right? (i'm thinking straight ahead flying and eyesight here) Can he burn them through the earth, given enough time?

Am I making any sense here?

[Forsaken_One]

Don't try to measure DCU superhero's powers. This is both because DC never ever puts measurements on them themselves and because each and every writer seems to write each character's power levels differently. Superman might be like a God, able to move faster than light and defeat Darkseid with a single punch in a Loeb book but have trouble with a generic superstrong soldier in the pages of JLA. Batman might be superintelligent in JLA but is taken down by a street punk in his own book. Flash can vibrate through someone's skull and take their brain out, not to mention outmaneuver anyone at all, in his own book but Deathstroke puts a sword through him like a rookie in the pages of Identity Crisis.

Measuring any DC powers is an effort in futility. But hey, if you wanna try, have fun!

[666MasterOfPuppets]

I have to agree on this. Sometimes I think it's a pity, and sometimes I don't.

[mgs]

thanks guys! ;)

I knew this was one of those questions, that....just there is no answer to, so, i was not sure to post this here or on the RUmbles board, where this is the kind of thing they can debate for a lifetime. thanks! :)

[666MasterOfPuppets]

You're welcome.

[Titanium]

If Superman was flying at his max speed and fired his heat vision, the rays would go faster than him.

[Mainline]

In Flash #209, Geoff Johns- who will be writing the new Superman origin- had Superman chasing Flash at top speed, nevertheless, his heat vision projected forward... but still was outraced by the Flash. So- at least according to that rendition by Johns- Superman's heat vision is faster than Superman... but both Superman himself and his vision are slower than Flash.

[Shawn Hopkins]

This is where relativity comes into play, not power levels.

If we reckon that Superman's heat vision moves away from him at the speed of light, then no matter how fast he was going it would still move away from him at what, from his position as an observer, appears to be the speed of light. Because the speed of light appears constant to all observers. Superman would notice no difference.

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/as...s/970102c.html

[Retro315]

I don't know about distance and speed ... but I can actually think of ways it could work scientifically ...

After all, a laser is basically a beam of light from a battery or power source, put through a system of mirrors that focus it to high intensity.

The human eye has all sorts of lenses in it ... and some random stuff floating around in it ... so all Superman has to do is put a little pressure on his eyes. His body IS a battery for solar energy, so he channels it into the eye, and it bounces off the various optic floaties and lenses and whammo, heat vision.

[Mat001]

The most recent examples of distance was in Superman #670, when he fired his heat vision into space and had it bounce off of a satalite, reflecting back down and hitting the Kent apartment. Prior to that was from in orbit down to a door in Metropolis, as seen in "Countdown To Final Crisis" #50 or 49. Not sure how high in orbit he was supposed to be.