History Headscratchers / Superman

*** SpecialEffectsFailure.

*** Plenty. Read up on the [[http://www.kancoll.org/books/harris/sod_chap12.htm Kansas Jewish Colonies]]. Also, "[[http://web.ku.edu/~ksreligion/docs/history/judaism.pdf Jews in Kansas: Strangers in a Strange Land.]]"

** To answer the original question, some continuities, including the Byrne one, portray him as not getting his powers until adolesence, not infancy. He would've still been weak enough in infancy for that procedure, especially since he hadn't been under the sun for that long by that point.

*** [[http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Superman.html The Kents are methodists]].

*** The Phantom Zone was used in lieu of a death penalty for Krypton, they considered it AFateWorseThanDeath. Makes sense they wouldn't see it as a viable survival option.

** In ''Film/SupermanReturns'', Lara asks, "Why Earth? They are primitives. Thousands of years behind us." Jor-El replies, "He will need that advantage. To survive he will need that and more. He will be odd. Different. [[{{Understatement}} But he will be]] [[SuperSpeed fast]]. [[NighInvulnerable Virtually invulnerable.]]"

** He calls him that in the same vein of respect he views Batman. He calls Batman "Detective" since Batman is one of the world's greatest detectives and views him as a worthy individual. One can take a similar route with Superman. At its definition, icon means "a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol of something." He views Superman as a paragon; an icon of virtue and such. Despite his plans against the world, he does respect the power and strong morals of the Man of Steel. The superhero known as Icon was from a different comicbook-verse before it was assiilated into DC.

* In Action Comics 176, it becomes apparent that Superman has started charging money for catching criminals and doing good deeds (like seeding farmers' fields). He earns so much money that he hoards over a million dollars in a massive vault he carves into the side of a mountain. Later it is revealed that he was just hoarding the money publicly so he could lure some famous criminals out into the open. My question is: Once the criminals are caught, what happens to the money that Superman has earned during all this? It is his now. Does he give it back to all the people who were happy to pay him? Does he give it to charity? Is it still in the vault gathering dust? The comic ends without addressing this.

*** Its actually worse for Superman- if Batman kills the Joker, then he goes from a crimefighter to a vigilante killer; if Superman kills Luthor, then he goes from a superhero to a god smiting a puny impudent mortal. In other words the temptation might be much worse for him, not to mention that since Lex is generally seen as a VillainWithGoodPublicity and, at the very least, less hated and feared than ComicBook/TheJoker, Superman might have to either cover the crime up (which wouldn't be hard but could fall into CrimeAfterCrime territory) ''or'' try and explain to the public that this supposed HonestCorporateExecutive is actually an evil, mass-murdering sociopath. Like the Joker too, Lex mocks Superman for not killing him because he knows damn well that Superman would see that as a moral victory for evil, and that destroying anyone in his way is exactly the sort of thing Lex himself would do if ''he'' had Superman's powers, which is one of the main reasons Lex feels Superman doesn't deserve them- because he is too "weak" or "alien" to have such "human" responses.

* In 1985, DC Comics created a storyline known as Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following this, many superheroes got overhauls in their backstories and Superman was such an example, although most of his reboot took place years earlier, so he’d been around a while before his regular series’ resumed. Problem is, there were still many stories with Superman that were important for other heroes, but not so consistent for Superman. More importantly, Crisis on Infinite Earths failed to explain how Superman’s backstory changed, and by the end of the story, there’s no indication that it had.

** Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} dies in Crisis on Infinite Earths and it’s a momentous-enough event inasmuch the villain’s armor is destroyed in the battle. In the ComicBook/PostCrisis continuity, it’s established that she never existed, so if she never existed, who fulfilled her function in the story?

* As there were many ContinuitySnarls with ‘’Crisis’’, DC put a similar story into motion with ‘’Zero Hour’’ in 1994. The changes it made were intended to help, but they seemed to confuse people even more. Anyway, for once, it didn’t effect Superman too drastically.

** As with the 1986 reboot, Superman’s origin is set in the past (as are many if not most) but aside from the comics doing a poor job of establishing that, there are few continuity snarls so far, except that the PowersThatBe inform us that the famous 1992 death of Superman “still happened.” But of course, ComicBook/{{Steel}} and ComicBook/{{Superboy|1994}} were introduced in the aftermath of this story, and yet they’re re-introduced as fully different characters, so the particulars of the story must be very different like in so many post-Crisis stories.

* Why do writers think that Superman can't have kids with Lois? I'm not talking about the physical methods [[DestructoNookie that would be an inconvenience]], considering red sunlight would solve this. I mean why do writers think they're genetically incompatible? Superman is a HumanAlien, and there have been examples of HumanAlien/human [[HalfHumanHybrid hybrids]] in the DC Universe ([[ComicBook/KingdomCome Nightstar, anyone?]]). The existence of the Daxamites show that Kryptonians can interbreed with other species. And most importantly, the current Superboy is half-human. Yes, he's a clone, but if they can make a stable hybrid of both human and Kryptonian DNA, it stands to reason Clark can make one naturally.
** None of that logic holds up. Daxamites don't show that Kryptonians can interbreed with every other species. They show that Kryptonians can interbreed with Daxamites. It's like saying that you should be able to make a poodle-sunflower hybrid naturally because sunflowers can also mate with roses. And no, spending billions of dollars on comic-book-superscience to make a clone does not in any way at all come close to implying that the same kind of hybrid could be made naturally. Or does the existence of automobile manufacturers mean it "stands to reason" that Volkeswagons can be made naturally, too?

* If the Ultra Humanite is the first super villain Superman faced, then why isn't he in many cartoons and games? You would think he would be popular as the first super villain(possibly the first DC super criminal).
** As he started out Humanite was a bit too similar to ComicBook/LexLuthor (balding MadScientist bent on [[TakeOverTheWorld world domination]]) except that he was an EvilCripple; by the time he became his more famous Man-Ape incarnation, he had underwent a RoguesGalleryTransplant to the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica; in fact originally he seemingly died two issues before Luthor appeared, back in ''1940'', and his subsequent [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] fights with Superman were set on Earth-2 and, thus, not the then-mainstream Superman. Basically he's no longer considered a Superman villain and you can do little with him that ComicBook/LexLuthor can't do better anyway, so there is little point. He's just not that famous. Granted, he still deserves better than supporting / minor appearances in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', but since the Justice Society are his arch-enemies now and ''they'' don't get much media showings, what chance does he have?

** Also, we're not necessarily supposed to assume the character in question is literally choking. *CHOKE!*, in this case, is just a shorthand for something along the lines of "I am so amazed/horrified/aghast at the events I am witnessing that I am momentarily unable to fully process them!", or a synomym for *GASP!* that sounds a bit more dramatic.

* Why do some human villains think threatening to kill Superman's friends and family is a bright idea? Let's say a mob boss kill Lois Lane, Martha Kent and Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} right in front of him, how does he know Superman won't crush his skull in a fit of rage? Okay, making a god-like man obey you by threatening his love ones is not a bad idea, but the villain would be screwed if he decides to pull the trigger.

* Putting aside the possible Doylist explanation that doing so would make him too much like [[ComicBook/DoctorDoom a certain villainous Doctor]] over at Marvel, magic is one of Superman's few actual known weaknesses, so it seems odd that his greatest enemy always relies on the other two, kryptonite and red solar radiation, and completely neglects the third. Has Lex Luthor ever tried learning magic, or given a reason why he doesn't or can't?

** Little known fact: In the very first Superman comic baby Supes wasn't actually adopted by the Kents. He was [[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/yeung/actioncomics/page1.html found on the side of a road by a passing motorist who took him to an orphanage]]. Under federal immigration law, that makes him an American citizen. Incidentally, the comic you're thinking of where Superman has an honorary US citizenship is ''probably'' World Without A Superman. Short Version: After Doomsday "kills" Superman Cadmus tries to take possession of his body since studying alien lifeforms is their mandate. But a bureaucrat from Washington shows up and gives the Cadmus director a major dressing down, saying something to the effect of "Superman may be an alien, but as far as the President is concerned ''he's an American!''"

** Not necessarily. Your eyes don’t sit rigidly still when you look at something, instead making minor involuntary adjustments that could easily through off the aim of Supe’s heat vision (see the Analysis page of RequiredSecondaryPowers for a more detailed explanation.)

** In total fairness to them, they know kryptonite weakens and poisons him, and may possible kill him, and it's not like there's a heck of a lot else that does. They can't be totally faulted for at least giving it the old college try.

** Invert the situation. The sound is not travelling to his ears, his 'ears' are travelling to the ''sound''. In essence, Superman is hearing the bridge collapse at the same time it is collapsing because his ears are powerful enough to hear sounds at an incredibly wide distance and radius, not because the sound is travelling quicker to reach him.

** Yes he'd still vote. Being a "lawful good type" doesn't mean he has to strictly adhere to every letter of the law Or Else. He is not (repeat: '''Not''') a [=DnD=] style Paladin, or a [=DnD=] character at all. Ergo, '''''CharacterAlignment means exactly nothing'''''.

*** Furthermore, thanks to federal laws about castaways, they could even admit that they found Clark in a space capsule and ''still'' not imperil his American citizenship. An infant found on a boat already within American territorial waters at the time it was found, whose exact time and place of birth or country of origin couldn't be verified, would also be granted American citizenship by default.