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

[Rugal 3:16]

I prefer Higher power as well..

So that Supes wouldn't be stuck battling Giant Robots I mean COME ON he's supposed to be above those, he's in the planet level strength..

Marvel fans complain because supes is "too powerful"

but the funny thing is whenever a Superman vs "insert marvel character with great strength" argument comes up.. they all say that marvel character (Hulk, Thor, Juggernaught, Drax, even Sentry) are way above supes BUT they don't complain about those aforementioned being "too powerful"

If that's the case..

LET'S GIVE EM' SOMETHING TO WHINE ABOUT!!!!

Make supes uber powerful!!!

But truth be told The only REASONABLE challenges to supes would be Zod and Luthor..

I can think of ways supes can beat Metallo, Bizzaro, Titano, Parasite , plus three giant robots, within a few seconds in almost EVERY situation..

The Key factors for being a superman threat

1. World threat
2. Has Super strength
3. Has Super speed
4. CAN fly

it doesn't matter how many Kruptonite or Magic any rogue has at their disposal, if they lack even one of the following they aren't considered a superman threat.

[Uncle Mxy]

Random stuff:

- Yes, I prefer higher-powered.  Superman should not be a wimp.  He shouldn't need a breathing mask to survive in space.  Electric manhole covers should not incapacitate him.  Mind control shouldn't generally work.  
For really high-powered stuff (e.g. igniting distant stars with heat vision), I like the post-Crisis idea of throwing himself into the heart of the sun to supercharge his powers, with some variable temporary side-effects (losing control, weaker afterwards, a super-tan, etc.).  Make it a big deal and not something you'll see in every issue.

- I like new powers and weaknesses being extensions or rationalizations of his current powers.  If he can generate heat (infrared and microwave -- it's been written both ways), visible light (what makes those beams red), and X-rays, can he emit other bands within the EM spectrum with practice?  Is his freeze breath about him being able to emit something through his lungs that stop time and subatomic motion, with the freezing being a side effect?  His invulnerability could be like an immune response, so lots of things hit him harder the first time than successive times.  Thus, writers could attack him with some sort of unusual radiation and it'd do something bad to him for one storyline, but not over successive oens.  

- I'd like to see him have lesser powers under hours of the light of a red sun, back down to the "leap 1/8th of a mile" 1940s era, but not have them  gone altogether because someone shines a flashlight of red sun on him and instantly he crumbles into wimpoid man.  

- Timm admits that he got Superman wrong for the 1st season of S:TAS and JL, and did worse by trying to overcompensate in the 2nd season of JL.  He admits that Batman is his favorite character to write for, and B:TAS is simply awesome in my book.  

- I never much cared for excessive time travel.  Superboy didn't need to be in the LSH, and I never quite understood why he just didn't go off and live in the 30th century or whatever century he wanted.  It'd have been cooler to have Superboy be a descendant, with the notion that somewhere along the way, some Kryptonian or other in the past gets to procreating, and have that be "in continuity".  If Brainiac could do it...

- I like the idea that Supes can extend some sort of "bio-aura" to whatever solid his flesh touches, and within said bio-aura, he can perform things that defy the laws of physics, and said things are somewhat invulnerable and whatnot.  Call it TK or gravity control if you prefer, but I'd like it to be more than that.  If you touch Superman, he can fly you into outer space and you can survive the trip.  It'd make for some great art.

[Rugal 3:16]

HAH.. for me the sun SHOULD NOT even be a "recharger".. supes shouldn't be a living Battery..

The Yellow sun should simply be the "switch on" to his powers which remains on when out of a yellow sun contact.. and that the red sun is a "switch off"

[Uncle Mxy]

HAH.. for me the sun SHOULD NOT even be a "recharger".. supes shouldn't be a living Battery..

The Yellow sun should simply be the "switch on" to his powers which remains on when out of a yellow sun contact.. and that the red sun is a "switch off"

The part that always bothered me, well before the post-Crisis era, was where gravity fit in.  When the plot or quip called for it, Krypton would be depicted as having insane amounts of gravity relative to Earth.  So why would his strength vanish totally when some Earthman shined a red sun flashlight at him?  The sun has nada to do with intense gravity, and giving Superman some level of Doc Savage-y powers (and being able to tell Doc Savage-y "Superman under a red sun" tales) due to the gravity difference between Krypton and Earth makes sense to me, with the energizing rays of the yellow sun making the rest of the difference.  

I don't think of Superman as so much a "solar battery", but "some other kind of battery (extradimensional?) where particular wavelengths of solar radiation are a catalyst".  The sun reacts with his "bio-aura" or whatever to  flood Superman with energy from some unknown source.  He has to be a battery (or open vortex of extradimensional power) of some flavor, inasmuch as he is still "super" when it is dark out, or when he's halfway between our solar system and another and there's only ambient starlight fueling him (which would be the same ambient starlight he might have on Krypton, so why not powers on Krypton ).  His vulnerability to "magic" could be explained as magic interfering with Supes' "portal" to whatever that extradimensional power source is.  It could be even Fifth Dimensional which explains Mxy's interest in Supes.  

On that note, a high G makes Krypton make a lot more sense in some ways.  It could explain why sending a rocket to earth was a big deal (the escape velocity is staggering), why Krypton had limited direct contact with other races (they'd be smooshed), why Jor-El thought sending Kal-El to Earth would be a good idea (the gravity difference alone would make his son a "super" man, though he might not have had any idea of the effects of a yellow sun on a Kryptonian), etc.

[lonewolf23k]

I have to admit, one of the things I like about the Pre-Crisis Superman stories is how often the villains use some fancy new super-weapon to try and kill Superman, and just when they think it's going to work...

...He just smiles and shrugs it off, and proceeds with the butt-whooping.

I like it.  It was Superman's thing: just when the villain thinks he's won, Superman just knocks him down a peg.  

...But nowadays, sadly, Superman rarely gets such great moments.  All too often, he's actually matched in terms of power, if not surpassed.

I want more of those classic "Think you've won?  Think again" moments..

[TELLE]

Not sure if this has been referred to here but there is an excellent article on the "photonucleic effect" that gives Superman his powers on this very site:

http://superman.nu/a/Encyclopaedia/photonucleic.php

[Uncle Mxy]

Not sure if this has been referred to here but there is an excellent article on the "photonucleic effect" that gives Superman his powers on this very site:

http://superman.nu/a/Encyclopaedia/photonucleic.php

Yeah, seen it before.  There's some big problems with that theory:

- In the pre-Crisis universe, there were a ton of alien races that lived under a red sun besides Kryptonians and Daxamites, many with space travel capability, plus another ton who knew enough about Superman physiology to shine a red sun flashlight at him.  If such an effect had existed in any general way, it'd have been generally exploited.

- There's still the pesky "gravity" thing.  The theory is fine to explain why Superman can resist atomic bombs and ignite stars with a gaze.  But, there's no good reason that Superman wouldn't still be a little "super" on Earth solely due to the low-G conditions, never mind whatever impact the photonucleic effect would have on him.

[Captain Kal]

A couple of quick comments (atypical for me re: 'quick', I know) ...

The photonucleic effect, though written by Maggin, was not published by DC so it's not in canon.  It has less weight, IMHO, than the movies and TV shows.

The solar aspect was originally brought in the year after Kara appeared in the books.  It was a way to rationalize why she was still super on Earth even though that asteroid-sized chunk of Argo City couldn't possibly have the full super-gravity Krypton was supposed to have.

The first DC Who's Who edition's Krypton entry suggested that Kryptonians automatically adapted to any gravity under red sun radiation.  That would retroactively explain how they always moved 'normally' on Krypton, Daxam, Earth, the Moon, etc. when under red sun rays.  Their bodies just made the red sun automatic grav adaptation.  I don't like that one and it appears nowhere else in actual canon.

A couple of Pre Crisis tales do show Superman retaining some physical super-powers when under red solar influence but Earth grav conditions.

When I get back home, I'll post all the references to grav vs solar powers that indicate Kal did still have some powers due to purely grav influences.  The most glaring that comes to mind was Action Comics #500 when Luthor's red sun lamp neutralized the solar aspect but Superman was still fighting with his vestigial grav super-strength (switching off the lamp let Superman knock Luthor out with the slightest flick of his finger when the armed Luthor couldn't be taken down with full punches of grav strength indicating the ratio of grav to solar strength is on the order of 1:20 million).