Kryptonian Power levels/Power sets

[Primal Slayer]

flight, superhuman strength, x-ray vision, heat vision, cold breath, super-speed, enhanced hearing, nigh-invulnerability

I dont think there is a semi-current thread for this (not to be confused with Source of powers)..

This seems to always be one of the more controversial things about Superman/Kryptonians. Do you have a preferred power level/set of powers when it comes to Superman/Kryptonians?

I have always been fine with him being the "strongest" in the world but have never been a fan of Supes having the ability to breathe in space or survive a long time up there.

[manwhohaseverything]

Power levels increase with each new obstacle a protagonist faces.It's useless to discuss them.Batman is now a god who beats up dr.manhattan with "planning".Powerset,power presentation and powersource is the only point of discussion that's worth anything regarding superman.Superman is a flying brick.That's a problem.He's bland.He's not entertaining in his strength as well.So,it doesn't matter if he is the strongest.

As for breathing in space,That depends on the type of story.I can't space odyssey with his powerset and him needing gas mask or something.He is a pulp action character like john carter.It would be a waste to let that potential go.Also,what's so great about earth?Superman is not in his goldenage powerlevel or powerset.He can't even do great street level stuff. I prefer superman being goldenage powerset when dealing with street level stories.bronzeage type powerset when he going up against galactus or something.Superman should be more like batman.A guy who gets beat by a street thug or bane and but,is able to fight toe to toe with darkseid.They should just give a mechanism to explain this,unlike batman(No.holding back business as explanation.eeesh!).I want superman to be punched to the moon and fight guys with shells that can penetrate his skin,equally.

[Jon Clark]

I'm kind of torn. I liked the Silver/Bronze Age where Superman could visit several alien worlds in a day and still be back to make his 6pm news broadcast. That type of thing is just second nature to my image of him- a hero known through out the "universe". You can't have that sort of adventure on a regular basis if Superman can't travel light-years in a blink and survive unaided in space.

On the other hand, while I can suspend my disbelief for any given story, it becomes a bit constraining for story purposes when Superman is so fast he can intercept a bullet fired across a small room in China when Superman is coming from Metropolis. As often comes up in discussions about Kryptonians (or the Flash) they have the ability to resolve most problems between the first two panels of any story. The writer has to ignore the power in order to have a story happen.

And then we get the fact he is in the DCU. I absolutely hated the fact Mon-El in the Legion Post-Crisis was still able to travel unaided through space at transluminal speed while Byrne had trimmed Superman back to more limited levels. It would have been like having Wally staying limited to the Mach-1 speeds he had Post-Crisis while Johnny Quick or Superman were regularly shown travelling around the world in a second. It just feels wrong for the johnny-come-latelys to so outclass the poster children.

So, in a perfect world, there would be some switch for me where on planet Superman's powers would be dialed back. An explosion that levels a few blocks might actually stun Superman for a minute or so. Using his powers near the upper (planetary) limit would also slowly weaken him. He can lift that sinking ocean liner, but after a minute or so he's sweating and if he carries it to shore he'll have trouble getting back into the air or lifting more than a few tons. Maybe not those exact limits but that's a rough idea/illustration. Now once he leaves Earth and our atmosphere his powers will expand and he'll be a guy who can fly unaided through space and shrug off attacks that would pulverize mountains.

But his basic powers would all have to have human analogs (flight being a cross between leaping and swimming). So no heat vision. Sorry since i don't buy the X-ray vision gives off heat (any more than my seeing heatwaves on a warm day does), I'd drop that power in the wast bin and never look back. Same with stuff like super-hypnosis or super-ventrioquism. He can learn a skill like hypnotism or ventriloquism, but they are just that skills with no more ability than if Batman or Mr. Terrific use them. And on the same note- none of those goofy Blue sun powers from the Loeb/Kelly years like "give someone else my powers vision" or "Bizarro spawning ability". Aside from flight all his abilities under ANY colored sun are human abilities with only the power level of those abilities changing.

[SuperX]

Power levels "could" be easy, if they wanted to go this route.
-dialed down on earth, in our armosphere(still the top guy in planet of course), then in space with nothing blocking the solar energy he grows in power to go like levels.
Simple really, you get him to struggle on earth, but travel to anywhere in space, same guy, different effect in his body depending on where he is.

[superduperman]

I think his power levels should be somewhere between TAS and the Silver Age. Those are the two "bars" in my mind. TAS being the weakest and SA obviously being the strongest. I wouldn't mind adult Superman being able to turn coal into diamonds but the super-baby crushing coal into diamonds thing seems a bit much. He needs to be the strongest on Earth. He doesn't necessarily need to be the fastest but if he isn't at least the strongest, then what makes him "super"?

[magha_regulus]

This will always and forever be my go-to list for his powerset. superman-1s-fp-b.jpg

[magha_regulus]

Power levels "could" be easy, if they wanted to go this route.
-dialed down on earth, in our armosphere(still the top guy in planet of course), then in space with nothing blocking the solar energy he grows in power to go like levels.
Simple really, you get him to struggle on earth, but travel to anywhere in space, same guy, different effect in his body depending on where he is.

That is an interesting idea. It wouldn't be my preference, but I could see something like that working out and creating some interesting stories. I think it'd be worth a try if anyone wanted to try it out in a story.

[Kuwagaton]

Any power level can work for me, be a part of a story I like. Power set? The more the merrier. I love them: strength, speed, vision based, breath based, ventriloquism...

My favorite was maybe the Byrne set: most of everything you'd imagine but with the bio aura. Vague levels very high but less than before with an emphasis on how he uses them over what they are

[SuperX]

That is an interesting idea. It wouldn't be my preference, but I could see something like that working out and creating some interesting stories. I think it'd be worth a try if anyone wanted to try it out in a story.

Yeah, it's so simple it's almost to easy to not use.... But won't ugh.


Btw I think kryptonians powers are always in 2 parts, 1 being the physical, which is usually golden age level, and 2nd part the God level energy enhanced powers(increased physicals, flight, flight, etc. This is also true for hybrid kryptonian /Humans, differences is how the energy works or how the energy manifests, like kons TTK or Jon's mental state, or Cir-Els red sun powers

[Stanlos]

flight, superhuman strength, x-ray vision, heat vision, cold breath, super-speed, enhanced hearing, nigh-invulnerability

I dont think there is a semi-current thread for this (not to be confused with Source of powers)..

This seems to always be one of the more controversial things about Superman/Kryptonians. Do you have a preferred power level/set of powers when it comes to Superman/Kryptonians?

I have always been fine with him being the "strongest" in the world but have never been a fan of Supes having the ability to breathe in space or survive a long time up there.

As I research the matter more and more I don't think the Universe should know Kryptonian get powers under a yellow sun; only readers. I think those powers should be the ones we know i.e. the most iconic ones. I think that if they were all under a yellow sun there would be diversity as far as specific measures go and I think there would be general benchmarks versus the average earth human.

[NaVi]

1: the base powers of the Kryptonians have to be superior physical abilities, the rest of their powers would be the result of the types of energy they have absorbed, that way each Kryptonian could have different powers.
2: Superman's powers have to have real consequences, a punch reduces Metropolis to dust etc, that's why on earth he is contained (not only in words, every x time he would lose control a little to show what happens) and in cases Extremes even look for a way to weaken, in this way any villain would become a threat, maybe not for Superman but for Metropolis.
3: since it cannot be at full power, it seeks other ways to help metropolis, give technology to the police, security systems in buildings, new ways of building, etc., in this way Metropolis would become the city of tomorrow.
4: in space he will no longer contain himself and show the full scope of his powers, also his physical abilities would be slightly strengthened (absorb more energy) but the rest of his abilities would reach new levels, he would fly much faster, his calorific vision would become into a deadly weapon etc.
5: the age difference (absorbed energy) of a Kryptonian would be very important, a 40-year-old Kryptonian would be slightly stronger than a 20 or 30-year-old Kryptonian, but the rest of their powers would be on completely different levels.

[SuperX]

Power levels "could" be easy, if they wanted to go this route.
-dialed down on earth, in our armosphere(still the top guy in planet of course), then in space with nothing blocking the solar energy he grows in power to go like levels.
Simple really, you get him to struggle on earth, but travel to anywhere in space, same guy, different effect in his body depending on where he is.

Yeah, it's so simple it's almost to easy to not use.... But won't ugh.


Btw I think kryptonians powers are always in 2 parts, 1 being the physical, which is usually golden age level, and 2nd part the God level energy enhanced powers(increased physicals, flight, flight, etc. This is also true for hybrid kryptonian /Humans, differences is how the energy works or how the energy manifests, like kons TTK or Jon's mental state, or Cir-Els red sun powers

So everyone agrees with these two suggestions for answers on this subject then?

[Alpha]

I mean it's interesting but I still have some doubts. I just think of what it would be like for him to fight Mongul on Earth, or in another planet. Acording to your idea he would be as strong as when he fights metallo right?

[SuperX]

I mean it's interesting but I still have some doubts. I just think of what it would be like for him to fight Mongul on Earth, or in another planet. Acording to your idea he would be as strong as when he fights metallo right?

Struggle has tons of story potential doesn't it?

[Alpha]

I mean, Mongul would wipe out Metallo. So if Metallo is a threat to Clark while he is on Earth (even without counting the kryptonite), then Clark absolutely cannot fight Mongul alone.