Superman Through the Ages! Forum

We all know that the Earth-2 Superman didn't receive his powers from a yellow sun, but instead had them due to his species being far more evolved than our own. Originally, he could only leap and not fly, and he didn't have the vision and hearing powers. His invulnerability was also limited. My question is as follows: What was the in-story reason for Superman's new powers and the increase of his existing ones? Was this ever explained in a story? I don't recall it ever being mentioned.

Any help on this matter would be appreciated.

I could be wrong, but I believe the original story was what you wrote, along with the sidebar about many earth species (like ants) having these powers (nothing else at the time?)...I'm not sure when the gravitation of the earth was officially introduced or hinted at...

The Earth-2 Superman isn't quite the same as the Golden Age (i.e. original Siegel-Shuster) one. See here. (http://superman.nu/a/History/Intro.php)

I think my question is being misunderstood.

I'm asking how the Earth-2 (not the Golden Age) Superman gained his additional powers in the context of the story. I'm not asking why the writers had him gain different abilities, I'm asking how the new abilities were justified in the story.

To explain further: The Earth-2 Superman could originally only leap rather than fly and had no vision or hearing powers. However, in the later stories, it was stated and shown that Superman's powers had been increased and he'd gained some new ones as well. How did this happen?

I wonder if the point in the stories where the new powers begin to be defined (late-40s?) is also the point where we would say the Earth-2 adventures end (ie, the Silver-Age, Earth-1 Superman is the only Superman who's Yellow-Sun-based powers are ever explained).

End, that is, until the 1960s JLA/JSA and 1970s Superman Family stories.

To my understanding, no attempt was ever made to explain the increase in powers in the Golden Age.  Lois never asked, "Hey, how come you're flying now when you used to leap?" and Superman never thought to himself, "Since Luthor exposed me to that rare metal, I find I can see through walls..."

The truth is, the writers were making it up as they went along.  When Superman started it was enough to be able to lift a car over his head.  A year later, with hundreds of Superman wannabes on the newsstands, they had to up the ante to keep Supes a step ahead.

Don't forget some powers actually disappeared after the earliest stories; originally Superman could mold his face to assume the features of other people!

It took a few years for things to settle down.  Mort Weisinger practically invented the concept of continuity in comics, and once the letter columns showed up, editors really started minding their P's and Q's lest they get called out by nit-picky fans.

I'm not even sure an explanation is needed; it could just be that Supes learned his limits the moment we did.  For example, they may have started out saying "Nothing less than a bursting shell can penetrate his skin" because that's the worst that had been launched at him up to that point.  Then one day he actually got hit with a bursting shell and realized, "Hey, that doesn't hurt, either!"  Similarly, maybe he just jumped until one day he had to do a REALLY BIG jump and realized he didn't have to come down at all, unless he wanted to.  Or "gosh, I wish I could see through that wall...hey wait!  I CAN!!" And so on.  In other words, maybe his power levels weren't that different, they just hadn't been fully tested at the beginning.

Incidentally, the real reason he started to fly was because the cartoon makers thought he looked dumb leaping around like a jackrabbit.

But I'm not talking about the Golden Age Superman. I'm talking about the Earth-2 Superman. He gained powers as he got older and was nearly as powerful as the Earth-1 Superman during the Crisis. Did DC ever explain why his powers increased?

It was explained but not in a story.  Editor Julius Schwartz had stated in some lettercol or other how it worked.

The key event that kept everybody stumbling around was how the two Supermen came up absolutely even and knocked each other out in the JLA/JSA crossover "Negative Crisis on Earths One/Two".  E-2 Kal even staggered the powerful Aquarius on his home Earth-2.  It's very clear in that story that the two Supermen were equals.

How did they reconcile this with the earliest E-2 lower powers?

Easy.

Kal-El was two years old before coming to Earth.  He'd already learned to walk and adapt to Krypton's environment.  Thus, he rapidly discovered his powers and the extent of them.

Kal-L was a babe in arms when he was sent to Earth.  Thus, he learned to walk and grew up in our environment.  Thus, he discovered his powers far more gradually than the E-1 model had.  He hadn't even discovered all of them or their full extent by the time he started his costumed career.  He didn't fly because he never tried before.  He was never injured by anything less than a bursting shell but he got hit by many of them in WW2 and they did no damage.

I hope that answers your question.

BTW, I've always held that Byrne kept to the above tradition in his reboot.  His Kal never even experienced Krypton at all having been born on Earth so he'd be even less likely to discover the full extent of his powers.  IMHO

Thanks for the explanation, Captain Kal.

Don't forget the Big Red Cheese influence.  Not too long after Superman was introduced, DC/National found itself lagging behind Fawcett's Captain Marvel, and other competitors trying to nip at the heels.  Captain Marvel's stories and abilities were more "out there" and Superman's stories and abilities became more "out there" as a reaction.  And of course, by WWII, a lot of kids wanted more escapism in their comics, not less.  By the end of WWII, the power of science was affirmed.

Uncle Mxy, power creep is a given for nearly every character regardless of the circumstances.

NotSuper's question was if this was explained within the context of the fictional universe itself.

The legendary Julius Schwartz did just that.  As per anything involving Schwartz, it had both appeal and fit the logic of the actual books.

I believe in the later Mr. & Mrs. Superman stories of Earth-2, the E-2 Metalo (a villain with a super-strength serum and a near-indestructible suit of armour) used a red ray to reduce Superman's powers to his original levels of Action Comics #1.  Lois had to help Superman train himself back into peak form to recover his later power-levels.  That story stated his increased powers were due to his working out and building up his body.  It had nothing to say about new powers like super-vision.  Somehow, increased strength let him fly when he trained.  IMHO, it was a flawed story on so many levels.

I prefer Schwartz's original explanation above.

Where can one find the Mr. and Mrs. Superman stories? I'd be interested in reading them.

They're not online on the internet to my knowledge.

They were published in the old Superman Family books.

Superman Family #186-187
Superman Family #195-199 - 1940-50's
Superman Family #201-222 - 1940-50's

I believe that's the complete run if you can find them.  I don't think they were reprinted in any collector editions.

Someone should really scan them.

At least one, the wedding of Mr and Mrs Superman, is online here at the fortress.

Capt. Kal --thanks for referenceing that Metallo story --I will have to look it up!

You're quite welcome, guys. :)

My problems with that Metalo story re: E-2 Kal-L power increase ...

1) Training to go from strong enough to wrestle tanks to shoving planets around is like one of us working out enough to be able to lift nearly the Moon.  It just doesn't track.  It makes more sense that he just didn't know the full extent of his strength before.

2) No amount of super-strength increase is going to result in true flight power which E-2 Superman had.  Heck, he even flew/levitated a car in the Mr. and Mrs. Superman series itself while he was ostensibly 'driving' it.  It makes more sense that he always could fly but just didn't realize it before.

3) One cannot train to develop whole new powers like X-Ray vision.  It makes more sense that he always had these other powers only he didn't know about it.

4) No amount of training would increase one's ability to take a mere punch up to the level to take a bomb blast.  And that's the kind of transition this story expects us to accept with Superman going from bursting shell levels to nuke level invulnerability and beyond.   The only thing that makes sense here is he was that invulnerable all along only he never knew it.

Schwartz's explanation still is the best and covers all the above bases nicely.  I'd stick to that one.

IMHO

I really wanted to scan some for the site, until I actually read a couple of them.  They weren't as good as I was hoping.  I think I've asked this before, but if anyone can suggest any that are any good, I'll add them.  The consensus was that the one I've got (the wedding) is the best of the lot.

:s:

I am still waiting for a Super Monkey story to make it on this site.  :shock:  :mrgreen:

I liked the other Colonel Future story enough to create an entry at the Supermanica.  He is one of those great "loser" villains like the Circus of Crime over at Marvel.

Heh...  I don't even know what I was replying to initially.  It made sense when I wrote it, but I think I must've misread something since I'm more or less repeating what someone else said for no good reason and missing the point.  

And power creep is only as inevitable as bad writing...  :)

No problem, Uncle Mxy.  I goofed myself earlier on the clones of Superman thread.  We're all friends here. :)

I just remembered something else that bugged me about that Mr. and Mrs. Superman story.

Superman took Lois to his Secret Citadel outside Metropolis (E-2 Superman had his in a mountain outside the city).  She helped him train himself back into peak form basically overnight so Kal-L could whup Metalo (not a misspelling for this character, BTW) the next day.

I mean, all of his equipment were oversized, overheavy versions of normal gym equipment and weights, that's all.  We're supposed to believe he could improve overnight like that?  We're supposed to believe he could suddenly fly again after a night of working out?

We'd have to buy into E-2 Superman having a power of super-development/adaptation worthy of his E-1 counterpart for this to work.

Again, I don't buy into that story.  I agree that the Mr. and Mrs. Superman stories were generally not that good.  The only good one in the bunch was the marriage story.  That was handled with respect and dignity.  The others were just plain silly.