Superman General

You know what's the dumbest thing to me? Superman keeps the wreck of the Titanic in the fortress. Like, shouldn't he give that to a museum or something? It's not a souvenir from one of his battles or a gift from someone he's saved or anything, it's not his and he's essentially stolen it.

Maybe it's a replica or it was too big for a museum so they ket him keep it? Have there been stories on how he got the stuff in the fotress?

If he pulled it out of the ocean, I'm pretty sure it's his. It qualified as legal salvage a long time ago.

There have, but the contents of the Fortress have never been particularly consistent. The Batcave always has a few things that are easy to fasten on (the giant penny, the dinosaur, the Robin costume in it's case), but pretty much the only thing that has consistently been in the fortress is the big statue of Jor-El and Lara holding up a globe of Krypton. When writing "For the Man Who Has Everything," Alan Moore apparently made use of a diagram of the Fortress that was in an old Silver Age Superman annual from Dave Gibbons' comics collection, so everything he mentions in that story was mentioned before at least once.

edited 16th Apr '16 9:30:39 AM by Robbery

I like that it now has statues of both parts of his family.

There still would be people who would like Clark to give the ship to them. Did they ever have a story explain when and how he salvaged the Titanic? Is Clark/Superman a nerd?

So, I thought someone in this thread might be able to answer this question for me—just how powerful is Steel's armour? I've always really liked the character, but I've only got a few comics that feature him, and I've been curious about whether the armour actually lets him play at a near-Superman level or if it is significantly below that.

He generally operates just below Superman level, I would say - so functionally he is at the same power.

So I'm reading Superman American Alien and loving every frame. Superman there is adorable, and sensible, and down-to-earth, and funny, and vulnerable, and just so very likeable. He's not a symbol, he's an actual person.

And his encounter with Deathstroke...

And Luthor keeps burning him so hard...

I read that issue. It was hilarious!

So Superman gets stronger the more yellow sun he absorbs. Assuming he doesn't get too much and overdose on it like he did in the All-Star comic, is there a peak for how much power he could get?

Also, from what I understand blue sunlight gives him a massive power boost. Has there ever been a rough estimate for blue sunlight efficiency vs yellow sun efficiency?

I'd say if so, it hasn't been determined. Other stuff that Morrison has written has seemed to indicate Superman's overdose of solar energy in All Star Superman was only because he absorbed a massive amount all at once. If he just kept absorbing it over time, I imagine he'd eventually become an energy being (which I think was Morrison's idea, when he showed the return of Superman Prime in the far future during DC One Million). It's all Depending on the Writer though. Same goes for how much of a boost, if any, he'd get from the energy of a blue star.

So they announced the trade volume for Superman: Lois and Clark yet?

Apparently, it will be out September 6.

Has anyone been keeping up with Neil Adam's Superman book? It has somehow surpassed Batman:Odyssey in insanity

I'm aware of Superman One Million. However he only spent time in the sun for 15,000 of the 83,000+ years he's been alive. The text states that a lot of his phenomenal cosmic power is actually stuff he gained during the over 68 millennia of travelling the universe. The solar energy alone didn't make him nigh-omnipotent, it only added to an immense amount of gained energy. Not saying he wouldn't be ludicrously OP with the sun alone, but its not the bulk of his might

Another thing; how immortal is Superman? Most work suggests he ages slowly and will live to be Really 700 Years Old. Others like Morrison state he'll be around in an insanely long time or is totally immortal if he manages it. Maybe they should retcon it so that he's long-lived, but has the chance to extend his lifespan. If he can live this long, it raises the question of where he was during the Legion of Superheroes. Pre-Crisis, he'd almost certainly be dead in 1000 years, due to how time travel worked.

Speaking of immortality; Wonder Woman is established to be The Ageless(she's one of the superheroes who's most consistenly shown as such, given she's an Amazon). As such, where is she in the Legion of Superheroes era? It's not like it'd spoil her fate; time's malleable in DC, otherwise no-one would take threats to the present universe seriously. But in those eras, she should still be around. Maybe they'll give her a kick-ass send off.

In general, DC could do a few one-offs about what life may be like for immortal/long-lived superheroes and supervillains in potential futures

Supes could be like the Asgardians?

How long Superman will live, again, depends upon the writer. I remember Elliot S! Maggin, one of the primary Superman writers immediately pre-Crisis, had a number of stories that seemed to indicate that Superman was functionally immortal. In Maggin's mythology, the Earth eventually reached a relatively stable state so that Superman felt comfortable leaving to wander the stars (with the King Arthur/ Messiah-esque caveat that he'd eventually return, possibly in Earth's hour of greatest need). There's a great story by Jim Steranko from Superman #400 (I want to say from 1983 or 84) about Superman's legacy and descendants and whatnot that's very nearly as wild as what Morrison came up with, and well worth checking out. Byrne's Superman had it that Kryptonians were extremely long lived to begin with, even without the addition of solar-generated superpowers. There are various times in the Legion of Super Heroes where characters mentioned something about Superman returning to Earth one day, which would indicate that he was still out there somewhere.

You seem to want definitive answers, and there really aren't any. It really all depends on the needs of the story. If for some reason a writer needs Superman to be alive 1000 years in the future, he or she will contrive a way to make it happen. I would say, though, that it's been pretty much canonical since even shortly before the Crisis that Superman, barring catastrophe, would be extremely long lived.

edited 3rd Jun '16 9:17:44 AM by Robbery

I've never liked that. I'm alright with him being very active well into old age (invulnerability has its advantages) but the idea he'll live for ever has never been one I've liked.

Anyone read Action Comics #957 yet? I did and it's hilariously great.

At first i was wondering why superman was so distrustful of luthor considering he couldnt find anything too bad and then remembered that the last ti.e he saw his luthor he gave up universal peace so he could kill superman

Is the New 52 Lex Luthor a better person than the last version? And why do even the supposedly super intelligent version of Superman still make dumb/naive choices? Especially when Batman is around.

He's not necessarily a better person in a moral sense, but his rapsheet is much shorter since he's been around for less time and has spent a lot of that playing hero.

One of Batman's super-powers is to make otherwise intelligent people behave like idiots when he's around. Not beneficial, really, in the long run, but it does help him look cool.

He's been played that way, too. We got to see a visibly older Superman often in imaginary stories from the Silver Age, and in Kingdom Come of course. Personally, I think it makes sense that he at least would age much slower than a human; past physical maturity, age is the result of pattern degradation among our cells as they reproduce. It seems reasonable(to me, anyhow) that Kryptonian cells would reproduce themselves much more efficiently, and thus that he'd age much slower.

edited 11th Jun '16 2:19:38 PM by Robbery

Making those around him hold the Idiot Ball is great when it comes to making bad guys underestimate him. Especially aliens. Aliens will think that Batman is just another one of those Puny Earthlings and thus not take him into account. Of course, if the evil aliens did catch on and try to attack Bruce, they'd end up with a kryptonian attacking them instead. Because how many stories have had Superman and Batman switch costumes. I've even seen old comics have Superman pull off the switch with other humans, so that the kryptonite gets used on the human and the machine gun/laser/heavy falling object/etc. gets used on Supes.

I'd say Superman jumped the gun violently in #957. His logic - that Luthor is always the same no matter which universe, and that the people need a real Superman - simply falls apart in light of him no-showing for the time when an evil alternate universe Superman attacked, only for Luthor to lead the counter-offensive. Not only should that have demonstrated that people aren't all the same throughout the multiverse, but the fact remains that he didn't even show up then - when again there was no Superman around, and people needed saving. Inevitable contrived moral victory in future issues notwithstanding, his current reappearance boils down to little more than an act of jealousy over not being in the spotlight (without doing anything to earn it, even), ironically mirroring what's usually considered the main motivation of Luthor himself.

edited 12th Jun '16 8:52:06 AM by indiana404