The source of Kryptonian powers

[Alpha]

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different explanations for kryptonian powers, but the only one I can recall is the high gravity thing which is very outdated.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.

[Stanlos]

I think this is something that has become increasingly muddled over time. In my mind--as in, completely head cannoned into oblivion fan theory--Kryptonians never achieved space travel due to the intense gravity of the planet. No one knows they get powers under a yellow sun as they have never been in that situation.

Further, I would 86 the Donner/Byrne "we know he will have powers on earth and that they will look like him BLAH blah" stuff. That adds in what I perceive as the phony and contrived Jesus bit that was not there. I see his parents as acting in desperation to save their boobear , not save a world of recreate Kryptonian or what did they say in Smallville? He was coming to conquer earth? No thanks.

Instead, he was sent here on a hope and a prayer. And what makes his story beautiful is that he becomes a man who repeats that action from his birth and saves many lives. It makes the story awesome that way.

[Alpha]

I think this is something that has become increasingly muddled over time. In my mind--as in, completely head cannoned into oblivion fan theory--Kryptonians never achieved space travel due to the intense gravity of the planet. No one knows they get powers under a yellow sun as they have never been in that situation.

Further, I would 86 the Donner/Byrne "we know he will have powers on earth and that they will look like him BLAH blah" stuff. That adds in what I perceive as the phony and contrived Jesus bit that was not there. I see his parents as acting in desperation to save their boobear , not save a world of recreate Kryptonian or what did they say in Smallville? He was coming to conquer earth? No thanks.

Instead, he was sent here on a hope and a prayer. And what makes his story beautiful is that he becomes a man who repeats that action from his birth and saves many lives. It makes the story awesome that way.

Thing is, why would they have heat vision, flight, super breath under a yellow sun? I believe think there were stories where humans went to krypton and they had the same powers kryptonians have, but I might be mistaken. Of course this is a fantasy world, but this is one of the things I'd like to be a bit less fantasy.

[13th Superman]

I dislike the solar radiation explanation. Majority of the stars in our galaxy are red dwarfs. He can't be zipping around the galaxy freely like he's portrayed. Plus how far from a star does he have to be before he's no longer powered? I would have made the Kryptonians a race of Superpeople on Krypton like the Strontians in Marvel and the Viltrumites in Image. The Kryptonians have a combination of physical and mental powers.

[SuperX]

I'll take evolution and genetic engineering for a answer.

Physically ALL kryptonians should be like superboy on YJ or AC#1 superman, and mental powers thst work along his physical powers and amp him to God level and make every cell in his body absorb and expel energy from him.

[Kuwagaton]

Further, I would 86 the Donner/Byrne "we know he will have powers on earth and that they will look like him BLAH blah" stuff. That adds in what I perceive as the phony and contrived Jesus bit that was not there. I see his parents as acting in desperation to save their boobear , not save a world of recreate Kryptonian or what did they say in Smallville? He was coming to conquer earth? No thanks.

Instead, he was sent here on a hope and a prayer. And what makes his story beautiful is that he becomes a man who repeats that action from his birth and saves many lives. It makes the story awesome that way.

I guess you can say Donner came with the heavy allegory but that was a part of the origin since Superboy.

Of course they had the gravity thing... I never cared for that. I like the solar battery not because it's more scientific but because it just sounds cooler and has been used so extensively

[SuperX]

If they are gonna use solar battery as his power source then they need to treat it more like a switch thst makes his body go through a chemical reaction that makes every cell in his body constantly burn like a sun,not actually supply the entirety of his energy

[Jon Clark]

I sort of prefer a hybrid explanation.

Krypton being a high gravity world with a humanoid population designed to survive there. Stronger muscles, tougher skin, and so on. Also adaptations to deal with a greater range of environmental extremes (light, temperature). As a result of all this if you sent a Kryptonian to an Earth-like world under a red sun they'd be able to leap great distances, shrug off conventional gunfire, lift a few tons, and basically match the stuff from Action Comics #1.

Besides it's brutal conditions Krypton also would have no moons or sister planets in its solar system. A high escape velocity and lack of places to go even if you left the planet kept the Kryptonians from developing space travel. Much of what Jor-El and Zor-El used to send their children away would be based on studying the ships of alien invaders like Brainiac.

The second art of the powers would be tied to the "solar battery" explanation. In addition to the purely physical adaptation Kryptonians had an inherent biological "integrity" field that enhanced their resistance to inertia. This kept them from being injured in falls abd such under the heavy gravity. This field was fueled by tapping into the solar radiation from Krypton's dim red dwarf star. Under a more powerful energy source like Earth's sun the field magnifies the physical properties of the body. Where before it absorbed the inertia of a fall or collision, it now would allow for defying gravity and flying. It augmented skin that could resist bullets to resist nuclear explosions.

All of this has the downside of removing that overdone story crutch where Superman is reduced to being "human" because someone has a red flashlight, but I can live with that

[Tzigone]

I like the Yellow Sun explanation for powers. It's ridiculous, but so is the planet blowing up, and I definitely want to keep that. Yes, that means Superman only has powers when within the range of a yellow sun. I'm good with that- not a fan of space-based stories, anyway, as a general rule. I prefer it as a simple on/off thing, so Kara lands on the planet or Zod exists the phantom zone and immediately has full-strength superpowers instead of saying decades of soaking up energy make one as powerful as Superman.

I see his parents as acting in desperation to save their boobear , not save a world of recreate Kryptonian or what did they say in Smallville? He was coming to conquer earth? No thanks.

Agreed, sending Kal-El off was, for Lara and Jor-El, solely an act of desperation to save their beloved child. They were not doing for mankind, for a better Kryptonian race, or any of that stuff.

The lack of space-travel technology on Krypton is important to me. I feel that Clark's origins only work in the context of non-space-faring race (to the point they have no colonies and no where to escape to or ability to leave en masse, not that they never put up a satellite). Not former colonizers or whatnot, preferably, but ones who never had that technology. I think that's easy enough to justify by saying different civilizations develop different technologies. So one may super-advanced (relative to other species) in one field, but not at all in another. Also, if they did indeed have free/cheap energy and matter synthesis (indicated by Kara's original story, as I recall), they they didn't have the same need to go leave their planet for resources/riches, either.

[achilles]

If they are gonna use solar battery as his power source then they need to treat it more like a switch thst makes his body go through a chemical reaction that makes every cell in his body constantly burn like a sun,not actually supply the entirety of his energy

Just dump the solar thing, and make them powered by dark energy. We don't know what that is, so they can be as vague as possible, and just leave it there. That fixes the red sun vs yellow sun thing, and lets you ignore the details, which don't actually work.

[SuperX]

Just dump the solar thing, and make them powered by dark energy. We don't know what that is, so they can be as vague as possible, and just leave it there. That fixes the red sun vs yellow sun thing, and lets you ignore the details, which don't actually work.

It would, but for the fact that the explanation is already there and a big part of his character. Easier to just "tweak" what we have to make more sense and go from there

[manwhohaseverything]

The original superman's power explanation

Don't overcomplicate things that don't need to.

[Incognito]

I don't mind the solar empowerment/ higher gravity / intrinsic field for the explanation of Kryptonians abilities. I would like to see Superman's source of power instead of just being just sunlight it will be cosmic energy and it will be an application of that empowerment it could give him access to new abilities such as manipulating the EM field like Lana Lang when she was Superwoman.

Since Superman has been living on Earth and being empowered /adapted by the energy of yellow sunlight for more than two decades, his physical and mental capabilities have been immensely increased but lack other psionic and energy-based abilities such as manipulating the electromagnetic field, telepathy or solar energy generation due to not metabolizing an adapting to other celestial bodies such as quasars, nebula, pulsars, etc.

I remember reading someone's theory on Comic Vine about sunlight being a catalyst for another process similar to Cyclops and recently the Hulk and other gamma mutates where he is tapping into an energy field.

[Alpha]

I don't mind the solar empowerment/ higher gravity / intrinsic field for the explanation of Kryptonians abilities. I would like to see Superman's source of power instead of just being just sunlight it will be cosmic energy and it will be an application of that empowerment it could give him access to new abilities such as manipulating the EM field like Lana Lang when she was Superwoman.

Since Superman has been living on Earth and being empowered /adapted by the energy of yellow sunlight for more than two decades, his physical and mental capabilities have been immensely increased but lack other psionic and energy-based abilities such as manipulating the electromagnetic field, telepathy or solar energy generation due to not metabolizing an adapting to other celestial bodies such as quasars, nebula, pulsars, etc.

I remember reading someone's theory on Comic Vine about sunlight being a catalyst for another process similar to Cyclops and recently the Hulk and other gamma mutates where he is tapping into an energy field.

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?

[NaVi]

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.