How should Superman's powers develop?

[stargazer01]

I voted some powers instantly like super strength, and he continues to develop others in puberty with flight as a big culmination somewhere in his early 20s ideally. I think the movies and Smallville have done a good job showing it.

I also love the idea that he keeps pushing himself further as he needs to. Like Jor-El said in Man of Steel, "You've grown stronger here than I ever could have imagined. The only way to know how strong, is to keep testing your limits."


I was also just thinking, could Superman become even more powerful and develop new powers if he lived near a star like Sirius, which is supposed to be a lot bigger and brighter than the Sun?

[raidensix]

I was also just thinking, could Superman become even more powerful and develop new powers if he lived near a star like Sirius, which is supposed to be a lot bigger and brighter than the Sun?

In Superman Unchained, Wraith (another alien from a red star system) learned to manipulate energy in addition to the same powers as Superman. Wraith implied this was something Kai would eventually learned to do and Wraith looked forward to the things about their powers that he could teach Kal. I actually liked that potential but this was Flashpoint Superman so most likely a dropped concept.

[Coal Tiger]

Some form of super strength from day one. Other powers develop as he gets older. The more exposure to earth's sun, the more powerful he gets.

Basically, the image of a baby Kal-El lifting the end of the Kent's truck needs to happen in some way.

[stargazer01]

In Superman Unchained, Wraith (another alien from a red star system) learned to manipulate energy in addition to the same powers as Superman. Wraith implied this was something Kai would eventually learned to do and Wraith looked forward to the things about their powers that he could teach Kal. I actually liked that potential but this was Flashpoint Superman so most likely a dropped concept.

interesting, thanks. I guess Superman is meant to live on Earth because is his home now, but we can also have adventures in other planets and star systems with different kinds of stars. It's really fun to think about that. I remember in All Star Superman the movie, he took the Kryptonians inside the bottle to another planet where they could live. I wonder how far that was. I forgot what he exactly said in that scene.

[Ascended]

Voted "natural strength that gets enhanced by yellow sun" and "gets more powerful as he gets older."

Clark's biological baseline should be "Golden Age" level. De-power him completely and he's still leaping tall buildings and throwing tanks and shrugging off rockets.

With the proper solar radiation, his biology is increased. And the more solar radiation he takes in, the older he gets, the more powerful he grows.

And don't even get me started on what the bioelectric aura might tell us about how Clark's powers work and what he might really be capable of.........

[Kon93]

A mix of physical golden age and Byrne bio aura works so that both sets of power explanations work

[Lightning Rider]

In my head he's fairly invulnerable from the start, gets stronger as he gets older, but develops heat vision and flight last, as a young adult (18-20).

One question I was wondering recently is whether or not he feels a mental hangover when depowered. His brain is calculating and processing sensory information at such a high level, and remembering so much stored information, that I can see it actually hurting when his brain has to dial it back after trying to pull off the same functions with a fraction of the energy.

[superduperman]

In my head he's fairly invulnerable from the start, gets stronger as he gets older, but develops heat vision and flight last, as a young adult (18-20).

One question I was wondering recently is whether or not he feels a mental hangover when depowered. His brain is calculating and processing sensory information at such a high level, and remembering so much stored information, that I can see it actually hurting when his brain has to dial it back after trying to pull off the same functions with a fraction of the energy.

It might depend on what version we're talking about. The post-Crisis version didn't have super-memory so I imagine not in his case. Of course I'm not sure how it works so it might be a matter of detail. Are his super-memories stored in a particular part of the brain that humans don't use or have? When his powers wear off, does he simply not have access to that part of the brain? Do Kryptonians naturally have better memory abilities than humans? Being from an advanced society, I would imagine that Kryptonians are naturally better at everything than humans anyway.

[Lightning Rider]

It might depend on what version we're talking about. The post-Crisis version didn't have super-memory so I imagine not in his case. Of course I'm not sure how it works so it might be a matter of detail. Are his super-memories stored in a particular part of the brain that humans don't use or have? When his powers wear off, does he simply not have access to that part of the brain? Do Kryptonians naturally have better memory abilities than humans? Being from an advanced society, I would imagine that Kryptonians are naturally better at everything than humans anyway.

Yeah those are interesting points. I suppose the more detailed the memory, stored in a place or manner that ordinary humans have trouble accessing, the harder it is to summon once depowered. And yes, I imagine they have a natural boost already.

[Jim Kelly]

It seems to me that the guiding principle in Superman's powers was a magnification of what humans could already do. Now, the eyesight has become so far beyond merely a super version of human vision, but it started out that way; likewise, while humans can't fly, initially Superman was just leaping much further and higher than human beings (which we could do if on a lower gravity planet).

So it seems to me that super-memory and super-intelligence are perfectly within the playbook and should actually be part of the Man of Steel's complement of powers. In fact, there are some people in the world who have total recall of every day--and those folks would have the advantage over Superman, if he couldn't remember as much as them.

The weird thing is, in trying to make the Superman concept more rational, latter day creators have added some inhuman qualities (like force fields) while taking away other human-based abilities.

[Kon93]

Combination of species that is centuries older than humans and tech far beyond anything we could dream of,with yellow sun energy giving him a combination of perfect clarity and euphoria.