Superman Through the Ages! Forum

 Silver Age superman could flick planet's and withstand supernova's so how on earth, or Krypton literally, did he lose his powers only by having gravity four times harder!?

it never really made sense

in theory Superman's powers came from the lighter gravity of Earth and its Yellow Sun

so if he went to a planet with Krypton's gravity he would powerless (to an extent)

some times earthlings would have to wear glowing loafers so they could walk on high-g planets...some times not

ya...it wasn't consistent

Why did he lose all of his powers under red sunlight? Logically, he still should have an amount of his strength, speed, and durability thanks to Krypton's heavy gravity.

It's just one of the things that writers hardly ever pay attention to.

I think that over time, as superman's powers increased more and more from 1938 until it peaked in the early silver age, "yellow sun" was more and more the source of superman's powers, with earth's lesser gravity being considerably less so.  Back when superman could only leap tall buildings in a single bound, it made sense to say that earth's lighter gravity was a major source of his powers.  At writers made superman more and more powerful, though, I think it stands to reason that the yellow sun was mostly the source of his powers, with earth's lighter gravity only contributing a rather small amount. 

I would think that superman should be able to pull off some John Carter type jumps in earth's gravity though even under red solar radiation.  Does anyone ever recall superman doing anything like that?