DCEU Superman strength levels (contains BvS: DoJ and JUSTICE LEAGUE spoilers)

[Buried Alien]

In BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, Superman (even with the support of Wonder Woman and the diversions created by Batman) struggled against Doomsday and was ultimately killed by the creature. In JUSTICE LEAGUE, however, the resurrected Superman toyed with first the Justice League and then, Steppenwolf, defeating both with minimal effort.

Are we to take this as Doomsday being that much more powerful than the Justice League and/or Steppenwolf, or did Superman's strength and resilience greatly increase upon his resurrection?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Superlad93]

*Shrugs* bit of both I guess.

It's basically established that Steppenwolf stayed away from Earth because after the war the scout ship landed, Krypton called dibs apparently, and he wasn't tryina catch a cold Kryptonian flavored fade. At the end of BVS Lex confirms that once Superman died it "rung the bell" and Earth was up for grabs. That seems to imply that one average Kryptonian is enough to keep Steppenwolf and his forces back.

So, I can only assume that Doomsday would've wrecked him and the army. However, it's also likely that Superman has gone through a boost in power given he seems overall more powerful and he has super breath. He's probably stronger than that version of Doomsday by this point.

It's also worth noting that the Superman in these films has never been hurt in any substantial way by anything short of kryptonite or Kryptonian atmosphere interference. He's warn down and even rendered unconscious by a fight with two full grown Kryptonians (one much more grown than average), but never injured. And over the run of MOS to BVS to JL he goes from struggling to hold an oil rig, to pulling an oil tanker full of people across the arctic, to effortlessly lifting a building full of people and then beating up a god.

So, it's a bit of both, and he's never been shown to be particularly physically vulnerable to begin with.

[Lokimaru]

*Shrugs* bit of both I guess.

It's basically established that Steppenwolf stayed away from Earth because after the war the scout ship landed, Krypton called dibs apparently, and he wasn't tryina catch a cold Kryptonian flavored fade. At the end of BVS Lex confirms that once Superman died it "rung the bell" and Earth was up for grabs. That seems to imply that one average Kryptonian is enough to keep Steppenwolf and his forces back.

So, I can only assume that Doomsday would've wrecked him and the army. However, it's also likely that Superman has gone through a boost in power given he seems overall more powerful and he has super breath. He's probably stronger than that version of Doomsday by this point.

It's also worth noting that the Superman in these films has never been hurt in any substantial way by anything short of kryptonite or Kryptonian atmosphere interference. He's warn down and even rendered unconscious by a fight with two full grown Kryptonians (one much more grown than average), but never injured. And over the run of MOS to BVS to JL he goes from struggling to hold an oil rig, to pulling an oil tanker full of people across the arctic, to effortlessly lifting a building full of people and then beating up a god.

So, it's a bit of both, and he's never been shown to be particularly physically vulnerable to begin with.

He didn't struggle with the oil rig, it collapsed out from under him. Guy pushed a bus full of water out of a river as a kid and drove tree trucks through a truck. He crushed the reinforced steel door to that room like tinfoil I mean come on.

[Powerboy]

It could mean anything we want it to mean. My take is that Doomsday was a Kryptonian whatever else he was. So DD was more of a fight than Steppenwolf was.

Don't get me wrong. I think JL Superman was really more powerful but I'm just trying to explain it.

We could also go with the idea that the Mother Box powered up Superman.

Then again, I'm of the opinion that, because Superman died at night and then was inside a coffin and buried, he had no exposure to sunlight. I'm surprised nobody even considered just exposing him to sunlight for a prolonged period of time. I mean, he came back from a nuclear missile by exposure to sunlight albeit that was in outer space with no atmosphere filtering it. But that might mean it just would take longer.

[Powerboy]

He didn't struggle with the oil rig, it collapsed out from under him. Guy pushed a bus full of water out of a river as a kid and drove tree trucks through a truck. He crushed the reinforced steel door to that room like tinfoil I mean come on.

True. He didn't struggle with the oil rig. He just didn't have the power of flight yet and had no means to completely stop it.

[Powerboy]

*Shrugs* bit of both I guess.

It's basically established that Steppenwolf stayed away from Earth because after the war the scout ship landed, Krypton called dibs apparently, and he wasn't tryina catch a cold Kryptonian flavored fade. At the end of BVS Lex confirms that once Superman died it "rung the bell" and Earth was up for grabs. That seems to imply that one average Kryptonian is enough to keep Steppenwolf and his forces back.

So, I can only assume that Doomsday would've wrecked him and the army. However, it's also likely that Superman has gone through a boost in power given he seems overall more powerful and he has super breath. He's probably stronger than that version of Doomsday by this point.

It's also worth noting that the Superman in these films has never been hurt in any substantial way by anything short of kryptonite or Kryptonian atmosphere interference. He's warn down and even rendered unconscious by a fight with two full grown Kryptonians (one much more grown than average), but never injured. And over the run of MOS to BVS to JL he goes from struggling to hold an oil rig, to pulling an oil tanker full of people across the arctic, to effortlessly lifting a building full of people and then beating up a god.

So, it's a bit of both, and he's never been shown to be particularly physically vulnerable to begin with.

Or a nuclear missile.

[The Learner]

Or a nuclear missile.

Wasn't he weakened at that time though? I mean he had inhaled kryptonite gas and been exposed to raw kryptonite just before the fight with Doomsday began. It was night, so Kal couldn't have recharged and been back at full power when he fought Doomsday, took him off Earth and was hit by that nuclear missile.

[Powerboy]

Wasn't he weakened at that time though? I mean he had inhaled kryptonite gas and been exposed to raw kryptonite just before the fight with Doomsday began. It was night, so Kal couldn't have recharged and been back at full power when he fought Doomsday, took him off Earth and was hit by that nuclear missile.

True but he was still at a significant power level and it still goes against the idea that nothing but kryptonite could harm him. It killed him or seemed to. Even had he been at full power, it's reasonable to think it would have done him some real harm.

Now, by JL, I'm not sure it would have. There's been a subtle or not so subtle reset. Now, according to Batman, Superman is more powerful than a planet and supposedly was all along. A nice well-placed nuclear missile should have done wonders to give Steppenwolf an attitude adjustment if it could harm even Superman and the air force certainly didn't show any hesitations about doing things like, oh, launching all-out strikes in the middle of small towns. By JL, I don't think it could have harmed Superman.

[Kuwagaton]

Hmmm....

DCEU Superman's power is accurate to modern comics in that he's depicted with virtually infinite strength, but that doesn't mean he lifts anything and everything easily. Rather, he has an untold power to surpass barriers as he pushes. So if he needed to defeat the Justice League he could, but I wouldn't really say it's because he died as opposed to dealing with the ultra high power level of Doomsday. Being unhinged after resurrection probably made it a lot easier.

People say Doomsday killed Superman, but they killed each other. Superman and Doomsday don't have X strength, they escalate and cancel each other out, so it doesn't really put them in a category with others who are able to fight or even beat them.

[Superlad93]

He didn't struggle with the oil rig, it collapsed out from under him. Guy pushed a bus full of water out of a river as a kid and drove tree trucks through a truck. He crushed the reinforced steel door to that room like tinfoil I mean come on.

What was all that strained sounding screaming about then? He sure looks less comfortable doing all that than he did pulling the tanker in BVS. There he just looked kind of pensive.

Regardless, my point is that he's clearly grown in power likely via "testing his limits" as Jor-El talked about.

[Superlad93]

Or a nuclear missile.

Almost forgot about that! Nothing short of a nuke or Kryptonite has proven to do any lasting harm on him.

[Agent Z]

In BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, Superman (even with the support of Wonder Woman and the diversions created by Batman) struggled against Doomsday and was ultimately killed by the creature. In JUSTICE LEAGUE, however, the resurrected Superman toyed with first the Justice League and then, Steppenwolf, defeating both with minimal effort.

Are we to take this as Doomsday being that much more powerful than the Justice League and/or Steppenwolf, or did Superman's strength and resilience greatly increase upon his resurrection?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Doomsday didn't kill Superman on his own. The kryptonite helped a lot.

[GreatKungLao]

Don't forget that unlike Justice League and Steppenwolf, Doomsday got a few power ups during the fight. Superman flew him into space pretty easily when he was Level 1. At the end of the fight he was probably at Level 5.

[Superlad93]

Doomsday didn't kill Superman on his own. The kryptonite helped a lot.

Yeah. During the fight with Doomsday Superman didn't seem to be hurting all that much, did he? He was mostly overwhelmed in terms of power, but not by a ridiculous margin. He seemed more annoyed and concerned more than anything.

[Dr. Banner]

As some have said it here, the strength levels Superman has displayed are pretty much consistent with what has been suggested in the previous movies.

He didn't get more powerful, there's absolutely nothing in JL that suggests the mother box made him more powerful (it seems most of the people who came up with this "theory" were fanboys mad at the fact Supeswas so much more powerful than their favorite(s)). Batman himself described Supes as being more powerful than earth itself: Superman, when he woke up, simply was unleashed, and that's more than enough to handle the rest of the league.

Against Steppenwolf, well, that was Superman restored, at peace with himself and full of confidence. The god wouldn't have a chance against that: not surprisingly, he feared kryptonians enough to avoid invading earth!

That's pretty much the Superman we know and love from the comics: his strength and power probably don't even have a limit. He's the guy to go when no one else can defeat the enemy. As Jor-El (in MoS) put: you've grown stronger here than I ever could have imagined. The only way to know how strong, is to keep testing your limits. Is there a limit? We don't know.