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Hello,
I have a question about NEW52 Superman/Supergirl Powers.
Were they more developed than the Pre-Flashpoint/Rebirth Ones?
Because for example the X-Ray seems to be more powerful than the Pre-Flashpoint One.
In Superman Unchained Superman used the X-Ray also to destroy a battery or he also used it to read DNA.
Broadly speaking I'd say yes, but there's no consistency to this stuff. New 52 Superman isn't inherently stronger than pre-Flashpoint Superman, it's all a matter of what a given writer wanted at a given time.
Im with Adekis on this. In a general sense New52 Superman was more powerful. In Morrison's run Clark begins at Golden Age-ish levels and the run ends with Clark on a roughly post-Crisis type of level. When Scott Lobdell took over, he had Clark lose a fight to Helspont and basically hit the gym. From that point we had a Superman who could bench press the planet's weight for days, survive a black hole, and spend months in space without needing air (and his senses were sharp enough he could identify where he was and navigate home). All of that puts him closer to typical Silver Age levels than Clark had been since the 86 reboot.
But functionally, Clark's only as strong as the story needs him to be, and there were stories within the New52 uber-powerful framework where Clark was handled as if he were only at post-Crisis levels, or above them, or whatever the writer needed.
Yeah, what the story needs. As the Rebirth writers have said he's the same, but different people will have him do different things. With all he's done, your vision example for one doesn't seem unlike splitting anti energy cells or forcing a concussion within Manchester Black as far as vision feats go.
[QUOTE=Kuwagaton;4701399]Yeah, what the story needs. As the Rebirth writers have said he's the same, but different people will have him do different things. With all he's done, your vision example for one doesn't seem unlike splitting anti energy cells or forcing a concussion within Manchester Black as far as vision feats go.[/QUOTE]
Yes,ok,BUT!
As far as I remind the Manchester Black example was with HEAT VISION and it was rather a kind of "normal" use of powers.
Here in this NEW52 Story he used the X-RAY Vision and showed so much control over it, that he could decide the type of radiation which he uses.
In the story you heard the thougts and he says that he uses GAMMA RAY to destroy the battery.
And he was also able to read DNA as in the storyline with the alien weapons who transformed humans in aliens he said that he read the DNA of them.
So yes Heat Vision feats I read a lot, BUT these 2 examples showed also a greater control of his X-Ray Vision than I read before.
I find it interesting, because the X-Ray Vision is often displayed only as "been able to see trough things", but these 2 examples shows that NEW52 Superman seemingly had an even greater control of it.
Heat vision, like other vision based powers, came about as a manipulation of what we call his X Ray vision. The problem in discussing feats with Superman though is the fact that these things are almost never mentioned before or after, so they don't really tell us about his limits one way or the other. Could he do that before, we can't say. Why he doesn't do it again, we also can't say. It's just what the writer wanted at the time.
[QUOTE=Kuwagaton;4703349]Heat vision, like other vision based powers, came about as a manipulation of what we call his X Ray vision. The problem in discussing feats with Superman though is the fact that these things are almost never mentioned before or after, so they don't really tell us about his limits one way or the other. Could he do that before, we can't say. Why he doesn't do it again, we also can't say. It's just what the writer wanted at the time.[/QUOTE]
Well, I do think there's an answer for that in Superman Beyond (the Final Crisis story) and Year One, if we choose to take it. Not something I'd really call canon most of the time, but it might work.
In Beyond, Clark's taken to Monitor space, well beyond any realm he's ever visited. And his senses struggle to make sense of it all, until he takes a deep breath and forces himself to adapt to the environment. And then suddenly he's got "5D vision" or whatever Morrison called it, and he's good to go. And in Year One, we see Clark in the water, forcing himself to adapt.....and suddenly he can breath underwater. Yet once Clark leaves Monitor space and Atlantis, he no longer seems to have those abilities.
We talk about how Clark always manages to pull out the win, like he's got this deep, bottomless reserve of extra power he can draw on. We could, I think, say that instead of writers changing Clark's limits to fit the story, that Clark actually does adapt on a cellular level to match whatever stress his body is being put under. I mean hell, we could even say Doomsday sets a precedent; he was created on Krypton and does that whole "hyper evolution" thing.....maybe that originates with the Kryptonian genetic code. This is a race of people who evolved to look just like us despite an infinitely harsher world with much higher gravity after all.
So maybe Superman truly is as strong as he needs to be, and his strength ebbs and flows a bit depending on what he needs. Perhaps we could say this is part of the character and not merely inconsistent writing (even though its totally inconsistent writing :D )
There was that idea directly promoted but briefly, that he's as strong as he believes. But that really got played at a psychic level and somehow never seemed to get connected like you did after Doomsday.
Superman may struggle or get outclassed, but essentially doesn't have a real limit in power quantity or application.