superman: forgotten powers

[Kuwagaton]

Super ventriloquism is a very significant power that's been left by the wayside.

Cracking the time barrier isn't necessarily its own power, but another significant ability.

Torquasms Rao and Vo had all sorts of developments as he was really only a beginner, but it's all been abandoned.

The bioelectric aura just suddenly disappeared pre flashpoint.

[JackDaw]

Never read any of the Golden Age material...but think he could change way his face looked.

I suppose one thing I miss from the Silver Age was way Red Kryptonite could bring about amazing temporary changes.

[Laufeyson]

That's still wierd as heck for me. A circus strongman trying to do katas

That's what makes it awesome, man. Like with the first and second part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, where the main characters are still muscular people doing katas in a very fabulous pose. That thing is what makes Superman doing kata is really cool.

[Sutekh]

Super-Hypnotism, he could even use over a television broadcast to affect an entire city!

I don't know if it's been forgotten, but I haven't seen him use Microscopic or Infrared Vision much lately.

He used to have a 'fifth-level effector' brain that allowed him to cobble together uber-tech stuff like the Supermobile. The way 'effector' worked, was each was an order of magnitude higher than the one before it, and humans were 'third-effector,' so he was *100x smarter than a human.* (I always smiled to see their write ups in various DC heroes RPG type games or conversions, where Batman would be smarter than Superman, who was actually 100x smarter than Batman, a mere human, could ever be, even *before* having had all the science and knowledge of Krypton downloaded into his noggin, and gaining the ability to think and react at light speed!)

[Laufeyson]

Super-Hypnotism, he could even use over a television broadcast to affect an entire city!

I don't know if it's been forgotten, but I haven't seen him use Microscopic or Infrared Vision much lately.

He used to have a 'fifth-level effector' brain that allowed him to cobble together uber-tech stuff like the Supermobile. The way 'effector' worked, was each was an order of magnitude higher than the one before it, and humans were 'third-effector,' so he was *100x smarter than a human.* (I always smiled to see their write ups in various DC heroes RPG type games or conversions, where Batman would be smarter than Superman, who was actually 100x smarter than Batman, a mere human, could ever be, even *before* having had all the science and knowledge of Krypton downloaded into his noggin, and gaining the ability to think and react at light speed!)

Microscopic or Infrared Vision were used in Superman: Unchained or DCEased last time I remember. But the brain part, please, DC gave Batman a dumb ray you know. He used it in nearly part of his clothes, so with his presence, everyone become dumber than Batman. But, it only works for heroes and other villains outside of Gotham. So, if you pit Superman against Harley Quinn he will immediately lose because he forgot how to fight, how to fly, that he is weak against kryptonite and he forgot that he is fighting against the strongest woman in DC comic.

[TaliaJoy]

Never read any of the Golden Age material...but think he could change way his face looked.

Yup, that's correct.

Also, I recall Superman having some sort of weak telepathy in the Lois & Clark show.

[magha_regulus]

I loved Torquasm-Rao and Torquasm-Vo! It was such a great addition to the mythos that need to be brought back. I am a known stickler for super-intelligence being vital for kryptonians to have. It also seems that Bendis has kept Superman's solar blast (if i'm interpreting things right in some of these panels), but took away the way it would weaken him after he'd use it. It's not a lost power but i like that he has it.

[Jim Kelly]

Super-ventriloquism is an interesting one. Whoever came up with it must've thought ventriloquism is real (or that the children reading the comics believed it was real). But it's just a parlour trick. I guess Superman's voice is so powerful that he could create the illusion that it's coming from somewhere else. But if he can actually throw his voice, then that's a unique power--and how exactly can he manage it? He somehow would have to create sonic vibrations distant from him that sound like the human voice.

With the powers he has, Superman could probably do a lot more. He can emit electro-magnetic radiation from his eyes. And the range of radiation seems fairly wide, including very high frequency and very low frequency--so in theory he can create gamma rays and radio waves. There are all sorts of things he could do with those powers.

[K7P5V]

Never read any of the Golden Age material...but think he could change way his face looked.

Somewhat related, but I always liked Superman's ability to vibrate his facial features whenever anyone tries to take his picture (resulting in a blurry photograph and everybody being unable to describe what he really looks like).

[manwhohaseverything]

That's what makes it awesome, man. Like with the first and second part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, where the main characters are still muscular people doing katas in a very fabulous pose. That thing is what makes Superman doing kata is really cool.

Jojo does it in a different context though. Those guys have this flamboyant style generally that it doesn't feel wierd. Superman doing a namaskara mudra is just wierd. Sure enough, he submitting his salutation to the sun. Maybe it's because i am expecting something from superman and this is generally not it. Moreover, it doesn't help that these things are very familiar to me. The style just doesn't suit clark for me. If clark was to do something fancy i pictured him doing taichi and wing chun.

[marshal88]

Somewhat related, but I always liked Superman's ability to vibrate his facial features whenever anyone tries to take his picture (resulting in a blurry photograph and everybody being unable to describe what he really looks like).

not sure about the vibrating bit but in the bronze age , they explained it as subconscious super hypnotism and because he's a tv anchor , he's broadcasting that super hypnotism to millions of viewers.

[Sutekh]

Jojo does it in a different context though. Those guys have this flamboyant style generally that it doesn't feel wierd. Superman doing a namaskara mudra is just wierd. Sure enough, he submitting his salutation to the sun. Maybe it's because i am expecting something from superman and this is generally not it. Moreover, it doesn't help that these things are very familiar to me. The style just doesn't suit clark for me. If clark was to do something fancy i pictured him doing taichi and wing chun.

It would be cool if there were some sort of funky Kryptonian martial arts, and if even a powerless Kryptonian could throw down with surprising skill, using advanced alien pressure points techniques or joint locks or whatever. Heck, a hero could be based around a powerless human with Kryptonian tech (much as Rocket, Icon's sidekick, gets her 'powers' from his alien tech). There's tons of side-characters that could spin off, without actually having all the Superman powers in addition. A 'Batman' who has access to Kryptonian science/technology, and no powers at all, could be scary.

[marshal88]

super shape shifting , thankfully once and done , he's not plastic man,

[Jim Kelly]

not sure about the vibrating bit but in the bronze age , they explained it as subconscious super hypnotism and because he's a tv anchor , he's broadcasting that super hypnotism to millions of viewers.

Only in that one story (from an idea that Al Schroeder gave Marty Pasko) and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you think about it for any amount of time. When asked about it in THE COMIC BOOK READER, E. Nelson Bridwell said it was an error and was not part of canon. They never did bring it up again.

But the part about Clark's glasses being made from the glass in the rocketship that brought him to Earth was in continuity and mentioned in other comics.

I can imagine that people see Clark differently, just because of the little things he does to change his appearance. Has no one else ever ignored someone, because they weren't all that attractive to them, and then one day they look at them and realize they are the most beautiful person in the world? People are funny like that.

[Jim Kelly]

I've been re-reading the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES vol. 1, and when I got to the first appearance of Ultra-Boy [sic], something stood out that I hadn't noticed before.

"The Boy With Ultra-Powers" by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan and George Klein comes from SUPERBOY 98 (July 1962)--3rd story--and it reads like a detective story. Jo Nah and Marla are undercover in Smallville (in the 20th century) and Ultra-Boy has to figure out Superboy's secret identity--at the end of the story it's revealed he's from the 30th century and this is his test to get into the Legion, but we don't know that as the story unfolds, and it seems odd that Superboy's alter ego isn't an open secret in the 30th century, unless Saturn Girl gave Ultra-Boy a mental block.

In the story, Jo's penetra-vision--which can both see through things and heat things up--is better than Clark's vision power, because x-ray vision doesn't work on lead. Here's the thing that stood out for me. Clark can't melt lead, either. This is because he uses x-ray vision to heat things up--but this story came out in 1962 and I thought by then x-ray vision and heat vision were established as two distinct powers. I know that his x-ray vision for a long time was what he used to heat stuff up, but in 1962? Seems late in the publishing history for that still to be a thing.

In the story, Superboy says he can't melt lead bullets, because his x-ray vision is ineffective on lead. This got me thinking further--the reason x-rays can't penetrate lead is because it's too dense. Denser elements--thorium, rhodium, mercury, tantalum, uranium, tungsten, gold, plutonium, rhenium, platinum, iridium, osmium--can't be penetrated by x-rays either. Yet in the comics, it's almost like lead is magical and has special properties all its own. It's the one metal that x-ray vision can't penetrate or melt--it's also the one metal that Kryptonite radiation can't pass through and the element that kills anyone from Daxam.