Would Superman be as powerful as he is without (The Real) Captain Marvel?

[DrNewGod]

Kal-L started out with a pretty simple suite of abilities. Faster than a train, immensely strong, durable against anything short of high explosive military ordinance, and able to leap great distances. The text also implied his mental abilities were on par with his physical traits, but that was rarely shown, and he could reconfigure his face (although they dropped that one very early on). That, however, was it. By the mid-Silver Age, Kal-el was shoving planets around and immune to any harm other than kryptonite or magic.

Contrast that with Wonder Woman. Diana started out at roughly Kal-L's power level (although she relied on her bracelets rather than being invulnerable), and her abilities grew over the years, but not to the extent that Superman did.
One of the factors I can see contributing to the difference is that Wonder Woman wasn't competing with a feminine analog of Captain Marvel.

Yes, there were other strong guys out there in comics (one actually called Strong Man), but none that rivaled Superman at the cash register. Hard as it is for us to believe today, the Captain not only matched but surpassed the Man of Tomorrow's sales. Almost from CM's first appearance it seems like an arms-race began between National Periodicals and Fawcett Publications to make their hero the mightier of the two. There was no character out there to impose that threat on Wonder Woman, or Batman, or any of the other of (what would become) DC's stable of best sellers.

At the same time, there was power creep. Green Lantern gained a wider array of abilities as time passed, although it included a trade off with a few of the feats he showed early on. The Atom went from an uncommonly strong midget-wrestler to a guy able to stop trains and use bulldozer blades for a shovel with his bare hands. Still none of them were even close to what Superman experienced in change of ability, but none of them had a sales adversary threatening their place in the market.

So, if there had been no Captain Marvel, what would Superman look like today?

[DochaDocha]

Love the title of this thread. That's how I like to describe Billy Batson, and not ironically like The Real Ghostbusters.

Power creep was inevitable IMO, but having a competitor as popular and successful as the TRCM early on will accelerate power creep. "Arms race" is a good description.

I like to joke that pre-Crisis Superman is part of the reason Dragonball got revived in the last decade. Gotta keep up with the Joneses.

[Kuwagaton]

Siegel and others had way too much fun to imagine Superman sticking to a low level

[Stanlos]

Dude. It is delusional to think that there would be no need to top themselves even if no other minds gathered to pitch new characters. There are a multitude of reasons for that whether you look to patterns in fare consumed by humans in general or to the thing that his creators modernized with the advent of this distinctly American medium. Even in the original myths, there was always the need to thrill more (aka power creep). The creative processes of Captain Marvel and WW each showcase the manifestation of the phenomena within the industry. So no. With or without, he would still be doing more stuff than originall conceived by the two teens.

[manwhohaseverything]

Power creep was going to happen.Yet,it went naruto-ish for me. kurama and giant monsters put in first part as foreshadowing.But,it just lost charm of the first half.

My point of view,the writing declined.Superman's personality was also watered down,certain traits were Flanderized causing cap-ish character to emerge.If i had a way supes would have gone a different route than that.Anyways,i do think cap heavily influenced superman with his popularity.

[DrNewGod]

Dude. It is delusional to think that there would be no need to top themselves even if no other minds gathered to pitch new characters. There are a multitude of reasons for that whether you look to patterns in fare consumed by humans in general or to the thing that his creators modernized with the advent of this distinctly American medium. Even in the original myths, there was always the need to thrill more (aka power creep). The creative processes of Captain Marvel and WW each showcase the manifestation of the phenomena within the industry. So no. With or without, he would still be doing more stuff than originall conceived by the two teens.

Then going back to my OP, why didn't Wonder Woman elevate to the same level? Especially as she was outside of Superman's shadow from a publishing/editorial sense. For that matter, why didn't the Sub-Mariner learn to talk to fish in the mid-1940s?

Because, in the mid-1940s, Wonder Woman had no publishing space rival. Sub-Mariner's only rival was (back then) only a knock-off who couldn't carry his own title.

Add Batman to the mix. Starting with Robin, they kept innovating with him b/c there were so many like him, mainly in his own company (Sandman, Green Arrow, etc), but also The Phantom, The Fox and others, even Dick Tracy. It's rivals that drove them

[manwhohaseverything]

Then going back to my OP, why didn't Wonder Woman elevate to the same level? Especially as she was outside of Superman's shadow from a publishing/editorial sense. For that matter, why didn't the Sub-Mariner learn to talk to fish in the mid-1940s?

Because, in the mid-1940s, Wonder Woman had no publishing space rival. Sub-Mariner's only rival was (back then) only a knock-off who couldn't carry his own title.

Add Batman to the mix. Starting with Robin, they kept innovating with him b/c there were so many like him, mainly in his own company (Sandman, Green Arrow, etc), but also The Phantom, The Fox and others, even Dick Tracy. It's rivals that drove them

Umm..batman is like phantom.Not the other way around.