Should Kryptonians be "blessed" by Kryptonians Gods for different powers?

[Masterff]

Hello,

I liked the Chris Kent Idea with the Connection to Nightwing (Kryptonian God).

Now as I have seen that Kenan Kong for example has many other powers together with his "Kryptonian" Powers and that there are now with
Conner, Jon, Clark and Supergirl many Kryptonians around I would have liked to ask what do you think about taking the Chris Kent way and giving them different additional powers from Kryptonian Gods in order to make them different and give them advantages over certain types of enemies.

[Tzigone]

No, absolutely not. Their powers should be purely due to the species' biology and all should be the same. I don't even like Wonder Woman being blessed and tons of heavy mythology-focus in her mythos, and I certainly don't want it in Superman's, which doesn't even lend itself (in premise) to it. Not to mention addressing the issues of the uselessness of an entire pantheon of gods who (for some reason, now) decide to bless individuals, but seemingly never did so on their own planet or at least never bothered to notify the population the planet was about to be destroyed or try to save any of their own followers.

It also takes them from just people who choose to do good things to "special" or "chosen" ones, which I dislike in general. It takes agency and imitative away from the heroes and also feels a bit "trying to hard." Worse yet, now they're all chosen one, which would generally be a bit a stretch. I guess it's less so here since there are so few left to choose from.

And what happens if the god that bestowed powers on them isn't good and they don't want to follow them - lose powers? Then another god has to come along to give them different powers. Or gods battle it out for a single hero - you know that story is coming. Nope. Not my thing.

[CRaymond]

I don’t mind there being a difference between genders or even specific aptitudes between characters. Like if SuperMan was stronger and SuperGirl had hotter heat vision.

Though this kind of ranking tends to bring out the nerds with nothing better to do than bicker.

[Tzigone]

I don’t mind there being a difference between genders or even specific aptitudes between characters. Like if SuperMan was stronger and SuperGirl had hotter heat vision.

Though this kind of ranking tends to bring out the nerds with nothing better to do than bicker.

I'm totally in support of general, within-species variation. I think it only makes sense for Superman to be stronger than Supergirl if it's a binary "under yellow sun = powers" thing (which I prefer it to be). A man of that size will be stronger than a woman of that size. Flying speed and x-ray vision are things I have no idea how to determine what variations would be, given how far removed from reality they are. But they are so strong, that the difference should almost never be apparent/distinguishable.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I really liked how Jason Aaron used the Shi'ar gods in Thor. I would like to see the Kryptonian Gods show up. What would their Captain Marvel/Shazam be like?

[DochaDocha]

I guess it isn't fundamentally all that different, but I guess I'd prefer the idea that there was some genetic engineering involved to make Kryptonians the way they are than have their pantheon involved.

[Phoenixx9]

Hello,

I liked the Chris Kent Idea with the Connection to Nightwing (Kryptonian God).

Now as I have seen that Kenan Kong for example has many other powers together with his "Kryptonian" Powers and that there are now with
Conner, Jon, Clark and Supergirl many Kryptonians around I would have liked to ask what do you think about taking the Chris Kent way and giving them different additional powers from Kryptonian Gods in order to make them different and give them advantages over certain types of enemies.

Hello. I find this to be an interesting idea. Not for every Kryptonian and not for the Superman Family, though. Maybe make it for a handful of Kryptonian characters, some turning out good, the other bad.

[Ascended]

Generally speaking, no, I have no interest in this.

Clark doesn't need to be the "champion of Rao" or anything like that. Hell, Kryptonians are so powerful anyway, this would just be extremely unnecessary.

And as far as I know, most modern versions of Krypton have them abandoning religion generations and generations before Clark was born. Their "religion" is science. So it'd be a bit of a thematic conflict to have one of their nearly forgotten, ignored gods to reward someone with blessings. That could be good for contrast, but I don't want the whole mythos shifting.

That said, the idea of one or two original characters (not Clark or Kara or any of them) being the host or champion of a Kryptonian god could be cool. I did like the concept when it was toyed with during New Krypton, and I'm also interested in the idea of a Kryptonian metahuman (also toyed with in New Krypton). Again, not Clark or Kara or any established character. But it'd be a interesting way to set a new character apart, and for them to offer something the others don't.

Kryptonian myth is interesting and I'm not against it being used to drive a plot here and there, nor am I against a new character who uses that mythology directly. But I'm not at all interested in seeing any established Kryptonian changed to fit this concept.

[Jon Clark]

I can't see it being handled well.

If you apply the proportinate strength rule (Kal-El>Kare on Krypton = Superman>Supergirl on Earth) then the Thor of Krypton pretty much wiped up the deck with any of the Super-family the same way Thor outclasses average humans at Marvel. But since that isn't something that couls stand in an ongoing Superman story the writers would downplay the scale of difference to let Clark and Kara win. Maybe someone would handle it well and give them a legitimate way to triumph but enough writers would cut corners that the "gods" of Krypton would soon be no more impressive than Zod

The other approach of making them no more powerful (except for their godly additional abilities) makes them little more than Olympians from Wonder Woman just with different names. And where is the fun in that?

[PCN24454]

It’s not a horrible idea, but I don’t think that it should be implemented.

Maybe if they reintroduce the Nightwing Flamebird plot thread but outside of it, it’s just to fantasy.

[Masterff]

I'm totally in support of general, within-species variation. I think it only makes sense for Superman to be stronger than Supergirl if it's a binary "under yellow sun = powers" thing (which I prefer it to be). A man of that size will be stronger than a woman of that size. Flying speed and x-ray vision are things I have no idea how to determine what variations would be, given how far removed from reality they are. But they are so strong, that the difference should almost never be apparent/distinguishable.

If I am not wrong than Kenan Kong has actually a "better" X-Ray than Superman has, because he can also watch behind MAGICAL illusions...

Speed is difficult, because NEW52 Superman was already INCREDIBLE fast for example (I think we speak about Attoseconds), but H'El for example EASILY catched him.

I can't see it being handled well.

If you apply the proportinate strength rule (Kal-El>Kare on Krypton = Superman>Supergirl on Earth) then the Thor of Krypton pretty much wiped up the deck with any of the Super-family the same way Thor outclasses average humans at Marvel. But since that isn't something that couls stand in an ongoing Superman story the writers would downplay the scale of difference to let Clark and Kara win. Maybe someone would handle it well and give them a legitimate way to triumph but enough writers would cut corners that the "gods" of Krypton would soon be no more impressive than Zod

The other approach of making them no more powerful (except for their godly additional abilities) makes them little more than Olympians from Wonder Woman just with different names. And where is the fun in that?

I wasn't thinking of making stronger etc.
I was thinking about like it was done to Chris Kent and Flamebird.

ADDITIONAL POWERS!

Thara Ak-Var had pyrokinesis and if I remember right an even faster healing
Chris Kent had TTK, Teleportation, Shadow Construct, Virtual omniscence

I really liked how Jason Aaron used the Shi'ar gods in Thor. I would like to see the Kryptonian Gods show up. What would their Captain Marvel/Shazam be like?

We already saw how it works with Chris Kent, Thara Ak-Var.....

[achilles]

Done for a strictly limited time, with a specific goal in mind for the character, it could be a good story. But not on a permanent basis, or even and extended basis.

It might be instructive to look at one of the better stories involving the Kryptonian gods, one which gave a reasonably detailed look at how that all worked, especially back in the day on Krypton. It also showed that there are evil Kryptonian gods as well, and that the queen of them, Cythonna, was stronger and faster than Superman, but not overwhelmingly so. I mean he had to flee and use his brain to trick her in order to win, and needed Lois' help, but it wasn't the gap you'd expect between say a human and a god, (in our comic book conception of that idea).

And for a Kryptonian to achieve their version of godly powers, I'd say there are a couple of ways for that to happen. First is the Shazam method, where presumably benign gods bestow their powers on an individual willingly, making him or her their champion. The second would be...possession. That presumably wouldn't be benign, and could prove to be the more interesting story of the two.

Of course, there is always ascension, whereby a Kryptonian character could simply become a god. THAT should not be done on a character you intend to keep using, IMO. In essence, that character would become a NPC.

[Masterff]

Done for a strictly limited time, with a specific goal in mind for the character, it could be a good story. But not on a permanent basis, or even and extended basis.

It might be instructive to look at one of the better stories involving the Kryptonian gods, one which gave a reasonably detailed look at how that all worked, especially back in the day on Krypton. It also showed that there are evil Kryptonian gods as well, and that the queen of them, Cythonna, was stronger and faster than Superman, but not overwhelmingly so. I mean he had to flee and use his brain to trick her in order to win, and needed Lois' help, but it wasn't the gap you'd expect between say a human and a god, (in our comic book conception of that idea).

And for a Kryptonian to achieve their version of godly powers, I'd say there are a couple of ways for that to happen. First is the Shazam method, where presumably benign gods bestow their powers on an individual willingly, making him or her their champion. The second would be...possession. That presumably wouldn't be benign, and could prove to be the more interesting story of the two.

Of course, there is always ascension, whereby a Kryptonian character could simply become a god. THAT should not be done on a character you intend to keep using, IMO. In essence, that character would become a NPC.

Actually with the Nightwing Chris Kent I think, it was done in such a way that he became the host of Nightwing and the 2 merged.

I personally like the idea very much, since these extra-abilities would make the Kryptonians different and also give them certain advantages.
So I would like them as PERMAMENT additional powers.

These powers can be used for Half-Kryptonians like Kon-El, Jon-El,... who might be weaker because of being half-kryptonians but have certain advantages because of these powers..

[mathew101281]

Why? He's hard enough to write consistently as is. Gods and magic isn't even really his thing. Superman really doesn't need any new powers he just needs writers that use the ones he already has well. Superman already stands out he's Superman. The biggest issue the character has these days is translating a his underlying positive qualities to a cynical world.

Anyway, it's very unlikely that anyone is going to be able to give him any new powers that will stick. Remember when they tried to give him that new "solar flare," power? For better or worse Superman's power set is pretty set in stone.

[CRaymond]

I like the idea that Krypton is the Fourth World in its solar system, and its gods followed Kal-El. Explains why they're preoccupied with Superman.

Planet 1 - Helion (red)
Planet 2 - Neon (orange)
Planet 3 - Argon (yellow)
Planet 4 - Krypton (green)
Planet 5 - Xenon (blue)
Planet 6 - Radon (indigo)
Planet 7 - Oganesson (violet)