The source of Kryptonian powers

[achilles]

my krypton
1: Krypton is one of the most advanced civilizations in the universe.
2: Kryptonian gods are afraid of Krypton and somehow prevent Kryptonians from leaving Krypton.
3: the destruction of krypton creates an exit, but very small so the whole planet does not leave.
4: Krypton is a planet in which the existence of life is almost a miracle, that is why Kryptonians have evolved to absorb cosmic energy (energy from stars, planets, etc.) this ability is what causes the destruction of Krypton.
5: Kryptonians are a strong species by nature, even without their powers they are 1 or 2 levels (cap america) above the human being.
6: due to their ability to absorb cosmic energy (pure energy), their bodies develop perfectly, that's why they are so handsome and they have those muscles (one of the questions that is always asked about superman, where does he get those muscles)
7: Due to their extremely harsh environment, the Kryptonians have developed a survival ability greater than that of other species (the death of Superman and his return).
8: the base powers of the Kryptonians are superior physical abilities (strength, speed, etc.) but the different types of cosmic energy give them other abilities, the sun of the earth gives them the powers that we all know.

but that's my krypton, dc's krypton is any planet that doesn't paint anything in the history of superman, superman has his powers from the sun, but it doesn't matter how much energy he absorbs or which planets his powers are always the same, basically the origin of Kryptonian powers has no real explanation.

Well, I agree with pretty much everything you listed there save 2...I'd just go with the much simpler explanation that they had their chance at exploration, and didn't see anything they liked nearly as much as Krypton, so decided to stay mostly on that one planet...and then got caught by their own arrogance, believing they could handle anything. That also leaves open the option should someone choose to take it later to bring in a lost Kryptonian colony from back in the day. Kryptonian gods...just have never seemed to worried about mortals, Kryptonian or otherwise.

[superduperman]

I like the solar powered explanation just fine because it gives him an infinite source of energy. He doesn't need to eat or sleep if he doesn't want to and it ensures he never really runs out of power. I also don't have a better explanation for where his powers came from. Unless Kryptonians performed some experiment on themselves to give themselves powers, this is the most plausible of all the explanations. That having been said, I always envisioned Jor-El putting a "solar battery" onboard his son's ship to ensure his powers came to him early to increase his chances of survival. Jor-El has no way of knowing where his son's ship will land. On a planet made up of 70% water, best not to take chances.

[magha_regulus]

I like the original explanation of the Kryptonians being highly evolved and adapted for their high gravity world. I always like the idea that the 1938 power levels were standard for everyone on Krypton. They all had x-ray vision, were faster than a speeding bullet and could leap over tall buildings in a single bound because they were evolved that way. In my headcanon they almost represent an evolutionary fork in the road where they could either become something like the Guardians of the Universe on the one hand or the New Gods on the other.

I like the solar explanation for things like heat vision and the obscene powerlevels we all love, I do think it should be the result of kryptonian Super-evolution though.

[achilles]

I like the solar powered explanation just fine because it gives him an infinite source of energy. He doesn't need to eat or sleep if he doesn't want to and it ensures he never really runs out of power. I also don't have a better explanation for where his powers came from. Unless Kryptonians performed some experiment on themselves to give themselves powers, this is the most plausible of all the explanations. That having been said, I always envisioned Jor-El putting a "solar battery" onboard his son's ship to ensure his powers came to him early to increase his chances of survival. Jor-El has no way of knowing where his son's ship will land. On a planet made up of 70% water, best not to take chances.

Actually, it gives him a few watts power, given that not much sunlight can strike a human size body. Dark energy however...under some theories can give you truly cosmic levels of energy for the same size body. And, unlike sunlight, it happens 24 hours a day. Just establish it, then ignore it, and Superman and all the rest are good. There are way too many holes in the solar power thing, as anyone who's ever had a solar cell charging unit knows. Dark energy, or vacuum energy happens everywhere in the universe and seems inherent in space itself, (obviously including any planets or whatever), and is just about the only source of energy that's even theoretical that can account for the cosmic amounts of energy a Kryptonian would need. And since we know nothing really about it, there's no current contradictions in using it.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Over the years there have probably been different explanations for kryptonian powers, but the only one I can recall is the high gravity thing which is very outdated.

I want to read about how people have explained both kryptonian powers and what kryptonians know of those powers and why they don't travel to another galaxy.

I've always felt that the best explanation is that at some point in time kryptonians used technology to change their physiology and that gave them powers, and for generations they were able to fly on Krypton. Eventually a war broke out and one side decided to infect their yellow sun and turn it red so that they could deescalate the conflict, and the reason why kryptonians didn't travel that much to other planets is that their interstellar technology wasn't very developed specifically because they had all those powers.

Well I got an idea of what caused Krypton to explode. Krypton is an artificial shell World built around an ancient white dwarf. There is an upper limit on a white dwarf's mass and that is 1.4 times the mass of the Sun. If that limit is exceeded, the white dwarf's core collapses into a neutron star while its outer layers explode as a supernova. The "Planet" Krypton has a radius of 4,382,693 kilometers or about 684.8 times Earth's radius, it has a surface area equal to 468,945 times that of Earth, and getting off this thing requires a lot of energy, so pretty much all of the Kryptonians remain on this World, the gravity is Earth normal. Kryptonians look like humans because they are descended from humans from a different and much older Universe, a possible future Universe. Raoul is a red giant, a fairly stable one as red giants go this one has passed it maximum size and is slowly shrinking and cooling, because of this Krypton has become a frozen wasteland except for its domed cities, an effort has been made to warm it up again by dropping mass in the form of hydrogen on the white dwarf in the center of this shell World, as this is done, the mass of the white dwarf approaches the Chandrasekhar limit. Jor El has been warning the Krypton Council about this, but they dismiss his warnings and say the Chandrasekhar limit is actually higher than what he's saying Rao is shrinking and giving off less light, so they must compensate by heating up Krypton's core, and so a chain reaction is occurring. Jor El builds a spaceship that is capable of taking his son to Earth and Zor El, learning of his brother's plan builds another spaceship to take his daughter to the same place, because of Kara Zor El's greater mass, her spaceship takes longer to arrive at Earth.

[achilles]

Well I got an idea of what caused Krypton to explode. Krypton is an artificial shell World built around an ancient white dwarf. There is an upper limit on a white dwarf's mass and that is 1.4 times the mass of the Sun. If that limit is exceeded, the white dwarf's core collapses into a neutron star while its outer layers explode as a supernova. The "Planet" Krypton has a radius of 4,382,693 kilometers or about 684.8 times Earth's radius, it has a surface area equal to 468,945 times that of Earth, and getting off this thing requires a lot of energy, so pretty much all of the Kryptonians remain on this World, the gravity is Earth normal. Kryptonians look like humans because they are descended from humans from a different and much older Universe, a possible future Universe. Raoul is a red giant, a fairly stable one as red giants go this one has passed it maximum size and is slowly shrinking and cooling, because of this Krypton has become a frozen wasteland except for its domed cities, an effort has been made to warm it up again by dropping mass in the form of hydrogen on the white dwarf in the center of this shell World, as this is done, the mass of the white dwarf approaches the Chandrasekhar limit. Jor El has been warning the Krypton Council about this, but they dismiss his warnings and say the Chandrasekhar limit is actually higher than what he's saying Rao is shrinking and giving off less light, so they must compensate by heating up Krypton's core, and so a chain reaction is occurring. Jor El builds a spaceship that is capable of taking his son to Earth and Zor El, learning of his brother's plan builds another spaceship to take his daughter to the same place, because of Kara Zor El's greater mass, her spaceship takes longer to arrive at Earth.

There is a theoretical limit, I believe, on the total mass of a rocky planet. I believe it's around 2 Earth radius for a similar to Earth rocky planet, before the planet starts turning into a gas giant. Round about ten times Earth mass is the limit on the mass for a rocky planet.

[Incognito]

But why would kryptonians know they have powers if they never left the galaxy. And if they knew they would have powers in other galaxies, why didn't they go there?

If I remember correctly I could be wrong but they do not know about the effect under the yellow sun so they would not know that they would receive powers under different types of stars.

[Tom Kalbfus]

There is a theoretical limit, I believe, on the total mass of a rocky planet. I believe it's around 2 Earth radius for a similar to Earth rocky planet, before the planet starts turning into a gas giant. Round about ten times Earth mass is the limit on the mass for a rocky planet.

Well its an artificial planet, specifically a Matrioshka World consisting of a series of concentric shells all leading to the planet's core. The shells are supported by spinning rings embedded within each shell, centrifugal force counteracts the weight under gravity of the layers of rock between the shells. The rings are supported by opposing magnetic fields like a magnet train and they spin within an evacuated tunnel. If something should happen to those rings, such as too much air leaking in they explode the layers of rock collapse towards the core and when too much mass hits the core the whole planet explodes as a supernova leaving a pulsar and an expanding gas cloud behind.

[achilles]

Well its an artificial planet, specifically a Matrioshka World consisting of a series of concentric shells all leading to the planet's core. The shells are supported by spinning rings embedded within each shell, centrifugal force counteracts the weight under gravity of the layers of rock between the shells. The rings are supported by opposing magnetic fields like a magnet train and they spin within an evacuated tunnel. If something should happen to those rings, such as too much air leaking in they explode the layers of rock collapse towards the core and when too much mass hits the core the whole planet explodes as a supernova leaving a pulsar and an expanding gas cloud behind.

Why would the super-advanced Kryptonian race build themselves a planet with a flaw like that when they presumably had an original planet, and billions of others already there to choose from?

[SuperX]

Jsut make it the dark energy answer, it sounds like it is actually possible, and helps the idea of supermans power being infinte.

If they used this his weaknesses would come into play a lot more, cause you would have a harder time cutting him off from his power source

[Alpha]

Jsut make it the dark energy answer, it sounds like it is actually possible, and helps the idea of supermans power being infinte.

If they used this his weaknesses would come into play a lot more, cause you would have a harder time cutting him off from his power source

I think thematically the sun as a source for his powers is far more interesting than dark matter.

[SuperX]

I think thematically the sun as a source for his powers is far more interesting than dark matter.

And it can work thematically but dark energy is a actual answer that works on most or all levels which the sun doesn't

[manwhohaseverything]

I think thematically the sun as a source for his powers is far more interesting than dark matter.

are you seriously saying jesus imagery being done in superman stories is thematically rich?I have seen religious iconography being used better in things like the immortal hulk,evagalion or fullmetal alchemist.for me,it's yeeesh! in superman.Dark matter or dark energy or some sort of unknown powering silverage/bronzeage superman would be cool.Heck!i wouldn't mind if they don't explain at all.Why is that even needed?as if a surreal explanation would make superman real.Explanation is just for scifi elements of the narrative and for when we are going in that route rather than pure fantasy route.That's it.

[Prime]

I'm ok with the solar power thing. But I will say this, due to it Superman should start aging suuuuupppperrr slow when he reached let's say, 25 or so. Like right now Superman has to put on makeup when he is Clark to give the illusion he is much older

[SuperX]

I'm ok with the solar power thing. But I will say this, due to it Superman should start aging suuuuupppperrr slow when he reached let's say, 25 or so. Like right now Superman has to put on makeup when he is Clark to give the illusion he is much older

His powers WONT let him age, nuff said