"High" Power Level vs. "Low" Power Level

[Captain Kal]

Never have I seen a bigger load of after-the-fact justification since the last time George Lucas ranted to Entertainment Weekly. Byrne, you stole that idea from Alan Moore and we both know it, now fess up!

Actually, the aura predates Moore back to the Silver Age Ultra Boy in the 1960s as I mentioned earlier on this thread.

Possibly, George Papp or Jerry Siegel himself came up with the aura for Ultra Boy as to why his costume remained intact when using super-speed or invulnerability.  (Jo was a Siegel creation, BTW.)

I'll see what I can find out but I know the aura way preceded both Moore and Byrne or any other contemporary writer.

[JulianPerez]

Actually, the aura predates Moore back to the Silver Age Ultra Boy in the 1960s as I mentioned earlier on this thread.

Possibly, George Papp or Jerry Siegel himself came up with the aura for Ultra Boy as to why his costume remained intact when using super-speed or invulnerability.  (Jo was a Siegel creation, BTW.)

I'll see what I can find out but I know the aura way preceded both Moore and Byrne or any other contemporary writer.

Hmmm, I can believe this.

Didn't the Silver Age Flash also have something to this effect - an antifriction aura that protected him from being damaged by heat when he was moving at superspeed?

[Captain Kal]

I stand corrected.  It was noted S.F. writer Edmond Hamilton that invented the aura for Ultra Boy, Jan. 1964.

http://members.shaw.ca/silver-age_chronology/legion/ad316.htm

Also see the entry:
http://members.shaw.ca/legion_roll_call/legionnaires/ultra_boy/

Look at the bottom of the powers section for the AD 316 reference above re: the aura.

Again, neither Moore nor Byrne had priority on the aura.  Hamilton gets kudos for this one.

[Captain Kal]

Both Barry-Flash and Wally-Flash had auras to protect them from the friction of super-speed.

Later, Post Crisis, this was extended to include any and all Speed Force empowered speedsters.  So, Jay-Flash, Johnny Quick, Impulse/Kid Flash, Max Mercury, etc. all have super-speed auras.

It just made sense.

The super-speed aura may predate Hamilton, now that you mention it.  But the invulnerability aura definitely was his and made perfect sense why our momentarily-invulnerable Ultra Boy's costume was also standing up to abuse.

[Captain Kal]

"The Case of the Real-Gone Flash" (The Flash #128, May 1962) by John Broome was the introduction of Barry Allen's super-speed aura.  The Flash was involved in a small outer space adventure where his newly introduced aura provided some protection from space conditions.  In its first inception, it not only protected him from super-speed friction but also the effects of outer space.

In terms of power-linked auras providing protection, Broome could be arguably the originator of the concept in the books.

In the same vein, Hamilton appears to have derived his Ultra Boy aura work from Broome's Flash aura.  The chief difference was an aura specifically designed to confer generic invulnerability protection on Jo Nah's clothing as opposed to it being incidental and limited to friction.

By no stretch of the imagination could John Byrne be credited with originating an invulnerability aura for Superman.  Ultra Boy had it first by 22 years in the same form that Byrned Superman manifested it.  The Flash had it first by 24 years if we take the very first version of a protective power aura into account.

[TELLE]

Excellent comics scholarship!  Way to dig, guys!

[SteamTeck]

Can't compete with that scholarship!! I will say however I liked Byrne's Superman in many ways and the more resonable power level was one of them. Silver age Supes super feats are sooo out there that they cease to be impressive. Tas Supes is more my power level cup of tea. JLU Supes personality worked for me also/ If present comics were as good I'd buy Modern Superman regularly. My favorite is still earth two Supes from  Roy Thomas all star squadron stuff.

[Super Monkey]

I loved all star squadron as a kid, I could just buy one book and get to read about 800,000,000,000,000 characters.

DC Really needs to collect that series as TPB, heck I'll buy them