Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Super-_________________

If I know my Superman lore correctly, didn't he originally only have super strength, which gave him the ability to leap great distances, and limited invulnerability (nothing short of a bullet could pierce his skin)? Does anyone know when the creators or which creators started giving him (and Supergirl) Super this, that and the other to the point of being ludicrous?

Here's a list of powers I can remember him displaying over the years:

Super strength
Super speed
Invulnerability
Flight
Microscopic vision
X-ray vision
Infrared vision
Telescopic vision
Super hearing
Super breath
Super scent
Super taste
Super intelligence
Super memory
Time Travel
Super voice
Super ventriloquism

Now Supergirl has displayed Super subsonic whistling. Did I leave anything out? Where will the madness end?

Add in super-hypnotism and heat vision (if you count that as separate from x-ray vision, of which it was originally just an application).

My understanding is that Supes kind of gradually acquired more powers beginning in the late 40s and culminating in the Weisinger era Superman's near omnipotence. A lot of the original powering up of Superman was in response to the more popular Captain Marvel.

It would be interesting, however, to see a breakdown of exactly when he acquired each ability.

didnt he have telepathy or some crap like that at some point aswell?

Oh and super-lame-arse occasional super energy being power, coupled with super lame arse split into two ability. FEH!

Oh, yeah. I can't believe I forgot heat vision. Thanks, EDE.

I don't remember him ever having telepathy. I wasn't counting all the temporary powers he's had due to red kryptonite or whatever.

I'm fairly certain he was never telepathic, but weren't Kryptonians telekinetic or something in the Superman movies? I don't think that was ever established in the comics, however.

maybe it was just the hypnotism then. boy do I feel silly. haha. (I dont really)

Morrison gave him the power to extend his bio-electric field into some sort of force field in All-Star Superman 1.

General Zod at least had some sort of telekinetic power in Superman II, as demonstrated when he points at a man an the man goes up in the air ("These humans are beginning to bore me!").

In Superman IV, Superman himself is able to move a group of people by staring at them and rebuild the Great Wall of China with a glance (a reviewer at the time wrote "Since when does Superman have Masonry Vision?").

doesnt movie Superman have the power of Super-Sex?which no mortal woman can withstand?

Didn't Superman have the power of Super Muscular Control which allowed him to change the way his face looked.

what about electicity? when he was electric blue and red? do they count?

Super voice? super taste? what's next - Super Touch?

I don't know if he still has this, but in the early John Byrne issues he seemed to have the power of Super Speed Beard Growth.
I seem to recall quite a lot of instances of him having to shave.
Whether this was to distance him from the pre-crisis "clutzy Clark" and show him as an all new "Virile manly Clark"; or because John Byrne has a beard and it was a case of "beards-are-cool-so-there", I guess we'll never know.

It should be noted that in addition to a red sun and magic, Superman has had one other major weakness: lacking a certain amount of tact on occassion!

Examples:

Superboy (to Bouncing Boy about his new gal Iresa): "She's...er, really great!" Talk about not being able to hide his disgust!

Superman of Earth-2 to Red Tornado: "Red Tornado, I like you but I'm sorry to say you have a tendency to really bungle things!" Even E2 Supes had it!

And there's no doubt that Supes of E1 had the most examples of all!

How about the cover of Adv. 313? "I'm sorry, Saturn Girl, but all the girl members of the Legion are doomed!"


Tangent Lad

Movie Superman could also turn back time and erase Lois's memory. Had those dorks ever even read a Superman comic?

In the Supergirl movie didn't Kara have the ability to grow to Earth-size and shrink to Argo City-size? I don't know, it's been 20 years, but it seems that she had some other deus ex machina powers in the movie.

Shan

What about super farting? Or was that just part of the time travel coolness..?

didn't Byrne's revamp....included stating all Supe's powers were psychokinetic in nature. (the Who's Who of that era under "powers" section)

example: heat vision - he mentally heated up molecules.

and he had some personal force field aura that explained why his uniform didn't get trashed all the time (although it does seem to now) but in particular when he flew at super speed (like the flash has a "force field" when he runs)

Supes could dematerialize in the original TV series.

I think that was a way of explaning why large objects such as ocean liners, buildings etc... didn't collapse under their own weight when Superman lifted them.

I don't like Byrne's solution at all. That just gives them carte blanc to make up a new power any time they feel like it.

I remember one story where Superman rearranged the letters on a handwritten cue card by combining his heat and x-ray vision to rearrange the pencil markings. WTF? Why didn't he just move at super speed to substitute a new cue card?

Super-speed came very early. My "Superman from the 1930s to the 1970s" books has several 1940s stories where Supes used super-speed a LOT, mainly to avoid revealing his identity to Lois Lane. Clark and Lois would be trapped in some thingy, so Clark would move at super-speed, build a replica of himself inside his Clark clothes using rags, break the trap thingie, and then get back into his Clark clothes, all before Lois could say "Great Krypton." Siegel and Schuster were pretty creative in using Supes limited abilities.

To many he also possess the power of Super-Sexiness!