WMG / Superman

Superman's "disguise" is fueled by Refuge in Audacity

Basically, to bystanders, Clark Kent is such a transparent disguise that people think it's more likely that he's just a guy who looks a lot like Superman rather than Superman in disguise. After all, a guy like Superman would probably wear a better disguise.

In the universe of the Movies there is air in space

• In "Superman 3" Superman suffocates even though he doesn't in space.
• In "Superman 4" People talk in space.
• In "Superman 4" People survive in space.

Superman is a scion of Dream.

This explains why no powerful magicians have managed to disintegrate him by now. After all, Truth, Justice, and the American Way are quite powerful dreams. It explains why he showed up at Morpheus's funeral as well.

• Of course, theoretically, every single person in the world was at that funeral.

Superman killed the original Despair by embodying hope.

• In Sandman: Endless Nights we see Despair talking to Rao (an Anthropomorphic Personification of the Kryptonian sun). She suggests:

Think about it, Rao. Wouldn't bringing life onto a planet that is inherently unstable add to the beauty of the life? If at any moment, it could explode...Truly it would only be perfectly beautiful, a perfect piece of art, if one single life-form escaped. To remember, to mourn, to despair.

• This experiment in total despair, of course, backfires spectacularly by leading to the creation of the greatest symbol of hope.
  • This method of an endless setting herself up for destruction is the only way it appears that they can in any way "die", and Despair is one of only two endless that are confirmed to have "died".

Son Goku is literally the Superman of his universe.

The world Dragonball takes place in is Earth-7 in the New Multiverse, if that number isn't taken yet. Mr. Mind's eating of the world's history lead to changes in nearly everything:

• Kryptonians now get powers from the moon rather than the sun.
• Green Martians now come from a planet called Namek that's not even close to Earth.
• The various talking animals of New Earth are far more prevalent on Earth-7.
• The God of Earth-7 is far less impressive than his New Earth counterpart, but is totally a happenin' dude. As damage control, sufficiently advanced martial artists have taken over God duties from him, becoming the Supreme Kais.
• Krypton is now Vegeta, as is Dru-Zod.
• Jor-El and Kal-El are now Bardock and Kakkarot respectively.
• The Waynes were never rich in this world, and Bruce was orphaned at a young age under the name Yamcha. Without the deep-seated urge for vengeance and justice as a driving force, Yamcha merely loafs around the world being a bandit, a baseball player, whatever comes up.
• Frieza is the Mongul.
• Cell is Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman.
• Buu is Doomsday.
  • Broly might be a better Doomsday
• The Spectre never Fell, and so rather than punishment as God's Vengeance, he has the much more relaxing job of watering His earth-based employee's flowers as Mr. Popo.
• Garrison Slate, founder of S.T.A.R. Labs is Dr. Briefs; he never married on New Earth and thus Bulma doesn't have a parallel
• Lex Luthor was born several years earlier than usual, and is Dr. Gero.
• Destruction of the Endless isn't retired, and is quite active, resulting in the massive casualties and planetbusting. He is, however, still a nice guy, which is why none of the massive damage is ever permanent.
• Etrigan got attached to someone from another world, rather than Jason Blood, and never became a rhyming demon. He now goes by the name Dabura.
• Turles is Bizarro.
• With no Speed Force to point him in the heroic direction, Wally West bulked up and became an immensely popular action movie star and tournament fighter. Having redubbed himself "Hercule"/"Mr. Satan", West would not discover his selfless streak until the world turned to him, of all people, to destroy the monster Majin Buu/Doomsday. Though grossly outmatched, his charm and charisma twice proved useful in the ensuing war.
  • Alternatively the speedforce is replaced by the "instant transmission dimension".
• The Deadzone is obviously the altered negative zone.
• "Earth-7" is already taken. Dragonball could take place in the Earth-7 of the Old Multiverse. All we know is that's where Dark Angel came from.
  • As of the New 52, it's back on the market.
• ...So Kryptonians have tails?
• That universe's Gorilla Grod was a monkey instead, and he went back in time and really screwed up a plan to turn everyone into monekys, and just made all the Kryptonians more monkey like. Also Mr Satan isn't the Flash, HE'S BATMAN, who without the whole traumatic parental death thing, grew up to be a rich idiot for real who only finds his inner hero when he really needs to.
• Originally, Lois was bossy, competitive, and demanding, and in this universe, as Chi-Chi, she never grew out of that.
• Jimmy Olsen is Krillin, the best pal who has random spurts of great power but never surpasses Goku/Superman.
• And Vegeta must be Zod, a man from the hero's homeworld who is considered his rival yet is defeated time and time again. In this universe, he eventually mellows and joins the heroes.
• After reading the Dragonball Frige page It occured to me Piccolo is Batman, After a traumatic incident he grew up and went around the world alone, he like Batman depending on the continuity is a loner and Team Dad, he started out as rivals but eventually became friends with Superman/Son Goku.
• Piccolo not Yamcha is Batman.
  • Ok if we are gonna use DC logic
• Goku: Superman
• Vegeta: General Zod
• Nappa: Non
• Piccolo: Lex Luthor (Unlike the Saiyans or Cell He wanted to rule the world rather than destroy it.)
• Gohan: Superboy/Connor Kent (or Jonathan Kent)
• Pan: Supergirl/Kara Zor-El
• Frieza: Darkseid
• Cell: Brainiac
• Bardock: Jor El
• Lord Slug: Mongul
• Bojack: Massacre
• Princess Snake: A depowered Maxima or Encantadora
• Hatchack: Brainiac
• Bio-Brolli: Doomsday
• Pilaf: The Golden Age Luthor or Pokolistan Zod
• Mai: Mercy Graves
• Shao: Either Otis or any one of Luthor's henchmen in Superman Returns
• Dr. Gero or Dr. Kochin: Cyborg-Superman
• Shula: Satanus

• Metal Cooler and Big Gete star: Brainiac and his chip. Me's a Crowd applies to both.
  • I always considered the kryptonians as descendants of the truffles.
  • All of this talk about mimickng kryptonian abilities has reminded me of a universal debate namely Superman Vs Goku. Since the 1930's Superman has set the tone for massively overpowered superhero's. Does anyone even know his complete catalog of powers? We're pretty sure at one time or another he's had every one listed in the Marvel Superheroes Ultimate Power Guide (TM). Seriously, how much kryptonite is there in the world? Apparently enough to give him a challenge for over half a century of cartoon and comic book appearances. Invulnerable, planet-crushing strength and faster than light with a few dozen odd powers thrown in, Superman is the one American Superhero every villain hates to have crash their party. Enter Goku. Japanese Anime's answer to the Man of Steel. Besides speed racer Dragon Ball Z is one of the first anime's watched by Americans thanks to Cartoon Network. Consider: a character built on the assumption that there is no upper power limit *Ever*. Each week they would feature a new mindbogglingly devastating attack from the hero in question. How to challenge such a character? In the show Dragon Ball Z, challenging Goku seems irrelevant compared to blowing up things in new and spectacular ways... but they try.
  • When you think about it this is the perfect match because saiyans (children of Adam) seem to be the direct opposite of Kryptonians. Kryptonians store solar energy actively within their bio-cellular matrix as an energy pattern that is linked to their body's electromagnetic field. This permanently opens their chakra centers granting them their abilities. However it also leaves them vulnerable to magic. Saiyans however naturally possess exceptional strength and are quintessentially built for fighting. They are capable of easily lifting hundreds of times their own weight (Goku, before receiving Master Roshi's training, was able to lift Bulma's car in the first episode of Dragon Ball at the mere age of twelve). The naturally high gravity of Planet Vegeta develops their strength further making them incredibly strong at young ages. Even weaker Saiyans are capable of conquering most planets alone. Through tough training, Saiyans are able to reach new levels of power, and the more intense training and fights they go through, the stronger they become. If a Saiyan survives a near-death experience through extreme injury to the body, then, when the body recuperates, the Saiyan grows much stronger than they were previously, their body adapting to compensate for the damage dealt. Saiyans also possess a natural affinity to the manipulation of ki energy ( but no real control or finesse) allowing them to utilize flying and energy-based attacks with incredible ease as well as unlock great depths of power when needed, or lending energy to others in battle when it is actually necessary. Lost energy is regained by the Saiyan in a very short span of time, regardless of the amount of energy lost. They also posses increased speed, senses, and appetites and while they don't have increased life spans they remain in their youth and prime much longer.
  • The greatest difference between kryptonians and saiyans is that kryptonians absorb solar energy and saiyans absorb energy emitted by large celestial bodies namely the moon. Since moon light is merely sunlight reflected off the moon you could say that saiyans can only absorb solar energy when it's filtered. While kryptonians permanently absorb energy saiyans can only absorb energy in special circumstances namely a full moon. Though both loose the abilities they gain from their energy source if it is removed.
  • Then you have the Super Saiyan, the first Super Saiyan transformation occurs when a Saiyan who has reached a very high level of power, has a calm, pure heart (good or evil), and loses himself in a fit of rage. However, the transformation must be triggered in response to a great need. While physical change is not too drastic, the power output increase is colossal; the form is said to originally multiply the Saiyan's power by fifty times its normal amount. The transformation has a noticeable effect on the Saiyan's personality. Any Saiyan that has turned to the side of good initially becomes ruthless and overcome with rage, and any Saiyan that was already ruthless to begin with has his ruthlessness amplified. The most noticeable change is that the Saiyan's hair becomes golden in color and seems to stand on end, giving it a rising, flame-like appearance. This applies to all of the Saiyan's hair, including scalp hair, eyebrows, and (as it was revealed in GT) the fur on their tails and as Golden Great Apes. Natural eye color temporarily changes to a greenish-blue, muscle tone becomes more defined, and the skin tone (and clothing) becomes lighter mainly due to the energy and light output of the golden aura.
    • However the initial Super Saiyan transformation is just the body's natural floodgates opening the changes to the body done so it doesn't rip itself apart, excess energy is radiated from the body in the form of a pulsing, flame-like aura. Ascended Super Saiyan and Ultra Super Saiyan are merely advanced stages of Super Saiyan, achieved through intense training in the Super Saiyan form. It is a forced increase in the power output of the initial transformation, and thus is not in itself an actual transformation. There are subtly differences however the flowing, golden hair becomes slightly more rigid and pales in color. Muscle mass also heavily increases (depending on how far the saiyan pushes they can greatly reduce reduce mobility). The Full-Power Super Saiyan can basically be considered the zen state of the super saiyan because it is a state of mental and physical perfection of the core Super Saiyan state itself.
    • In the real world, athletes who train in aerobics for extensive periods of time experience heightened states of rest: heart and respiratory rate are much lower than that of a normal person. The Super Saiyan form follows a similar fundamental concept: by remaining transformed for extended periods of time, the Super Saiyan can desensitize themselves to the negative effects of the transformation. Their wild emotions are kept in check, resulting in a more strategical fighting style, and ki consumption is reduced to negligible amounts. Energy radiation is reduced in tandem, and the aura takes on a smoother, flow-like appearance. By mastering the transformation, the Super Saiyan is able to retain transformation almost subconsciously. In requiring less ki to contribute to maintaining the transformation itself, the maximum amount of ki can thus be focused into the attacks giving the user access to power greater than that of even an Ascended Super Saiyan.
  • Vegeta notes the incredible side effects of the transformation by stating "They look like Super Saiyans... but I don't feel the energy...! It's like... it's their natural state...". The key to this state is energy conservation rather than boosted energy output. This results in a Saiyan who is able to fight longer and more efficiently than with the Ascended and Ultra stages of Super Saiyan, and can even remain transformed for days without powering down as long as they don't expend too much energy, essentially making the transformation the Saiyan's base form. Now that this has become the saiyan's base form super saiyan 2 is basically starting the process over again.
  • Basically the requirements to achieve super saiyan and super saiyan 2 are the same however the power output is far greater, as speed, strength, and energy output all drastically increase. Super saiyan 3 could probably be considered super saiyan 2's Ascended level.
  • Super saiyan 4 is the only level that actually requires an outside source of energy so it is most likely is what legend of the first super saiyan was talking about (especially considering old kai knew about it). Level for also requires that that saiyan absorbs solar energy reflected off an actual planetary body and not its satellite. Reflecting solar energy seems to change its frequency so the bigger the celestial body the bigger the change. Absorbing solar energy at this frequency fuses the humanoid Super Saiyan and the Great Ape. In this form, the Saiyan's hair color differs, the same goes for the tail and the body is covered in red fur. A Saiyan in this form also possesses a shadow trim around the eyes and over the eyelids that varies in color, such as crimson. The hair is lengthened, but not nearly as long as a Super Saiyan 3's. The aura in this form loses the arcs of electricity and replaces it with sparkles, and also becoming pure fire. Unlike the Super Saiyan 3's strain due to the utilization in ki, this form does not require as much energy consumption as Super Saiyan 3's, allowing the user to stay in the state at a much longer duration. It also appears that the form makes the individual larger in height and muscularity. The Super Saiyan 4 form even has enough power to break through a wish made with the Dragon Balls as it turned Kid Goku into an adult again.
    • True but when reflecting light you bend it and so the moonlight is not only less intense but perhaps a different wavelength than direct sunlight. Gives them a bit of 'juice' but not enough for miracles.
  • That takes us back to the Saiyan/Kryptonian ancestry discusion since moonlight is merely reflected sun light.
  • Since going Super Saiyan opens their bodies floodgates does this mean that they also have a weakness against magic.
• I suspect all three, humans Saiyan and Kryptonians, have a common ancestry.
  • DBZ might be for the current generation, but not to be technical but there was a generation of anime between Speed Racer and DBZ, even just counting what was popular here. Dragon Ball itself if nothing else. Highest on that list as far as popularity goes would be Voltron. but before that you had Giant Robo, Astro Boy, Macross, Capt. Harlock. Lupin III, Space Adventure Cobra... Unless you count the ones that got really changed like G-Force, ... I could go on with this list but that's just off the top of my head. and I didn't even mention girl's anime like Sailor Moon. I would go as far as each arc, but as for DBZ I would catch an ep a month (avj) and they would always be on the same fight, that's when cartoon network was playing an ep a day, every weekday. Unless you meant every day as in the story's days, that's different. ;) Otherwise I would say that's pretty accurate, both super strong, fast, can fly, shoot energy beams, etc. (both picked up a car as a child, of course Goku was 12 and picked up a car that turned into a pill, and Clark was 3 picking up a truck)... Also both are close to the last of their species.
  • The main difference is that Clark wouldn't have to spend 17 episodes to power up before he throws a punch. So while Goku is transforming and building up his levels clark has already knocked him off planet for all the destruction he caused. ;) possibly into the sun, something even Clark would have trouble surviving. (but then that's not his style) of course that's assuming that the chi blasts don't count as magic but as fire or solar radiation. and wow if it's like solar (due to them both being a battery) it could make Clark stronger getting hit by that, but if it counts as magic then he would have to do a lot of super dodging. with how long it takes them to build up one of those blasts it would be an easy dodge for him.
  • Another difference between the two is control, in DB they kill people off and destroy whole planets, and it's no biggie cause we can just wish everyone back. Where as Clark doesn't get that option so he must be much more careful. his attacks are usually far more controlled and precise. Just compare the laser fine point of the heat-vision combined with "microscopic vision" to the mountain leveling Kameha-meha wave.
  • In some ways Goku is like a cross between Clark and the Hulk. Hulk also has no upper limit (in his natural hulk state, not counting the merged forms) the madder he gets, the stronger and tougher he gets.
  • I make distinctions between differing forms of incredible power. Kryptonians are adapted to having powers and abilities beyond the threshold of ordinary Earthers. I reject as stupid beyond belief the Smallville portrayal of Kryptionian powers as being so simple you can flick them on and off like a light switch. The writers of that series never deal rationally with the implications of what it means to have thousands of times the strength and resiliance of ordinary people. You don't get that wiithout some physiological modifications to one's internal cell structure that would make taking the powers away a near fatal exiperience... But I also have a serious problem with DBZ and its notion of the Saiyans as having this unlimited capacity to generate vast amounts of energy that would be sufficient for destroying entire planets...

Martha Wayne and Martha Kent are the same person.

Thomas Wayne did die (so Batman's angst is valid), but Martha escaped and went into witness protection, moving out to Kansas and marrying Jonathan Kent. Martha doesn't know Batman's identity (as seen in Identity Crisis) and even Superman may not even realize it.

• This does raise the question of why Martha Wayne-Kent wouldn't take her grieving, shell-shocked ten year old son with her, though.
  • Amnesia! It solves so many inconvenient plot problems in comic books.
  • On the other hand, Clark and Bruce are around the same age, and Clark had been living with the Kents for a decade or so when Bruce's parents were killed...
  • She was leading a double life as both Kent and Wayne, 'visiting' relatives. The the Waynes got shot and she had to cover her tracks. Even worse, she might not have been innocent in the shooting.
  • Does that means that Pa Kent is sterile? Since Martha Wayne gave birth to Bruse, that means that both she and Thomas weren't. Oh and how do you explain that she looks nothing like other Martha? Bruse have her portrait in his mansion, what a detective is he if he can't see it? XD

The ancient Greek heroes were Kryptonians.

Hercules narrowed the Straits of Gibraltar to keep sea monsters out. Other Greek heroes had other improbable feats unless they were Kryptonian or half-Kryptonian.

• The Greek Gods are already real in the DCU, and explicitly supernatural in origin. But the Godwave that formed them (assuming it's still canon) could also have been responsible for giving the Kryptonians their powers.
• Oddly, however, this WMG is older than one might think. A Silver Age story involved Jimmy Olsen attempting to write a novel in which a time-traveling Superman actually was Hercules.

Kryptonians are actually genetically modified humans.

The people of Krypton are depicted as physiologically no different from humans on Earth, barring the fact that they gain super-powers under a yellow sun; this suggests a common ancestry. If we assume that humans were brought there Stargate SG-1-style, they were likely altered to survive living under a red star. They were deliberately made weak to kryptonite as a precaution if someone managed to escape off-world. This appears to be reinforced in stories were Clark and Lois successfully have offspring, such as in Superman Returns.

• This was actually semi-canon in the Silver Age, when Kryptonians were said to be the descendants of two stranded Human Alien space travelers named Kryp and Tonn. A classic Adam and Eve Plot. And all DC Universe humanoids, including Kryptonians and Earthlings, were once said to be the descendants of the Oans. In the Post-Crisis continuity, it's implied that the Kryptonians genetically modified themselves, which could concieveably include mingling the DNA of native solar-absorbing lifeforms with "alien" Earth-human genes to help them better adapt to their harsh new homeworld.
• The origin story of Doomsday is also consistent with this theory, as it too involved alien lifeforms being adapted to Krypton by a scientist with advanced knowledge of genetics. And they never did say what world the genetic material used to make Doomsday came from, just that it wasn't from Krypton... could it be Earth? And could other partly-modified clones have escaped into the wilderness to breed, becoming the ancestors of Superman?
• Supposedly, in an early draft, Jerry and Joe planned to have Kal-L come from the distant future, when the dying sun is about to engulf the Earth. Jor-L sent his progeny back in time millions of years, where he would thrive and live a full live among his distant ancestors. DC later used this as the twist ending of the Elseworld book, Red Son.
  • So Lex Luthor really WAS meant to be Superman's ancestor?!
• Let's reverse the theory: The Fourth Kryptonian told us about the existance of a Kryptonian Empire sometime before the end of Krypton. Kryptonians colonized many planets and killed many species off. In One Year Later, Lex used a Kryptonian ship that belonged to admiral Dru-Zod, Zod's descendant. Said ship was buried on earth. Alura Zor-El calls humans "Proto-Kryptonians" during New Krypton. Logical conclusion: Humans are actually genetically modified kryptonians. Earth is a lost kryptonian colony that gradually lost their super-powers and technology. Said colony eventually sucumbed and changed. The Bible's "antedelluvians" are actually mutant kryptonians who were still quite strong until the dinosaurs died. This forced them to change into smaller, weaker forms. Some time after, they started to evolve until they assumed the form of their kryptonian heritage again. Meta-Human powers come from genetic remants of their former kryptonian abilities that eventually evoluted to not require the sun's power. Optionally, Kryptonians lost their fabled powers due to outside interferance of the Guardians of the Universe. There are records that they did this before with another race, when they turned a race of cosmic horrors called "The Burning" into the Martian race.
  • Also, all characters from all mythologies and religions that shows powers similiar to Kryptonian (like Hercules, Samson, Thor, Goliath) or very long live span (Adam) are descedants of the Kryptonians, that for some reason has an acess to part of power hidden in their DNA. Same thing with all characters from Earth with Superman-like powers.
    • Already Jossed, see "Greek Gods" WMG above.
• Maybe it's the other way around— humans are actually descended from Kryptonians. Krypton is, after all, said to be a much older planet— maybe they terraformed kryptoformed Earth billions of years ago, and we're compatible because we come from their DNA. This is how the Wildstorm Universe's Kryptonian-equivalent Kherubim did it, and they are an Alternate Universe of the DCU...
• Alternately, Kryptonians are not related to humans, but one of Superman's undiscovered powers is genetic recombination— he unconsciously altered his own reproductive DNA to be human-compatible.
• This might explain why sometimes Earth Gods get upset/nervous when Superman or Supergirl mention Rao...

Bizarro World is the original planet, and Earth is the planet of imperfect duplicates.

Bizarro World is a Utopia.

• Everyone has superpowers.
• The supervillains only do good deeds, and the superheroes only punish the villains by taking them to amusement parks.
• Bizarro Batman is always cheerful.
• The whole planet has a childlike innocence.
• Bizarro Ambush Bug is intelligent and erudite.

Contrast with Humanity. Our memories of Earth being the original planet and Bizarro World being the duplicate are just a mixed-up version of the truth, caused by a flaw in the duplication process. They're not the Bizarro Universe, we are.

• That is massively depressing...
• On the upside (for us) the Bizarro Beetles SUCK, musically.
  • That's probably because they're literally beetles. The Bizarros built tiny instruments for them and everything.
  • That's adorable.
• Also consider that in one story, the Bizarros tried to maximize the casualties from a meteor strike.

• Wouldn't which one was the "Real" Universe be relative? As in, which ever one you're on, is the real one for you? Hence, to a person on Bizzaro!Earth, they'd be the real ones. Sure, maybe they might have been the ORIGINAL ones, but that's not the same as the "Real" one's right?

Superman's tendency towards dickishness is the result of a Stable Time Loop.

The most formative years of young Clark Kent's life were spent with the Legion of Super-Heroes - and check out the picture on that page. That's where he gets his famous dickishness, folks: his adolescent peers. But the Legion were inspired by the legend of Superman, which means that they learned their dickishness from Kal-El! It's a temporal loop of dickery, my friends.

• Oh god... That makes sense... But it doesn't explain why he lacks some of his dickishness in animated series.
  • He didn't spend time with them in S:TAS?

Daily Planet's reporter Clark Kent is Superman.

Think about it; he and Superman look suspiciously alike, have never seen together and a number of Superman's civilian friends are also friends of Clark Kent. Kent's nerdiness might be a case of Obfuscating Stupidity.

• Impossible. Clark Kent wears glasses. If Clark Kent took off his glasses, he couldn't see. Superman doesn't wear glasses. Superman can see. Therefore, Clark Kent is not Superman.
  • Maybe he wears contacts.
    • Or maybe they just happen to look alike. Clark maybe a bumbling oaf, but he is an investigative journalist. Superman is an alien from a hyper-advanced world. Give them some credit. The guise of WEARING GLASSES won't fool anyone, least of all these two.
    • If he wore contacts then he wouldn't be able to use his heat vision.
    • Unless he had some sort of heat-vision-proof glass/plastic. Maybe something leftover from Krypton?
    • In a story his glasses are made with kryptonian crystals. Not sure if it is still canon.
  • This is preposterous. Superman is, well, super. He is like some golden god made flesh. Not to mention all the messiah parallels. A serious Crystal Dragon Jesus. He doesn't even wear a mask! What does Clark Kent look like, anyway? I mean, I read his articles all the time but it is not like they include a photo.
• Also, Superman never lies. If he was pretending to be a mild-mannered reporter, he would all but have to lie. The guy was brutally honest enough to tell a fully clothed Lois Lane that he was using his x-ray vision to look at her underwear!
  • How do you know he's not lying about never lying? For all we know everything could be an intricate web of lies created by this possibly dangerous alien trying to made us trust him, and then destroy the world, or something.
    • ... That you Lex?
    • WROOOOONG!!
  • He doesn't lie! HE EVEN SAID SO!!!
• Next you'll all be saying that Bruce Wayne is the Batman...
• Now that you mention it...
  • No no no, see the Batman WMG page. Batman is everyone but Bruce Wayne.
• Riiiight. If Superman is Clark Kent and Batman is Bruce Wayne who is Robin? Dick Grayson? And Supergirl is brunette, mild-mannered Linda Danvers? And Batgirl is shy librarian Barbara Gordon? That is nonsense!
• Jossed. A few minutes ago, Stephen Colbert took off his glasses and gave himself a coif, and he looked exactly like Superman. (No, seriously, he does. It's uncanny.◊ Seen at 1:45.)
• This is insane. Why would Superman, who is nearly a god, spend 40 hours a week playing reporter when he could spend all that time catching bad guys, deposing evil dictators, etc.? The very idea that Superman has a secret identity is just ridiculous.
• Superman and Clark Kent have too been seen in the same place at the same time. Definitely not with the help of a certain shapeshifting Martian friend of his. Or some alien goo that happens to take the form of Supergirl. Now Clark Kent and Batman...
• And Bruce Wayne is Superman. I mean, if you had Superman's powers, and were making a secret identity for yourself, wouldn't you make yourself rich and powerful and live in a mansion and date tons of beautiful women?

Clark Kent is Superman.

• Jossed. I mean, look at those glasses! Superman doesn't wear glasses!
• A mild-mannered reporter who keeps losing interviews to that Lane girl... is Superman? He doesn't even have a coiff! My money's on Stephen Colbert. I have heard that Clark's been seen sneaking out at night in blue and red pajamas, but there hasn't been any picture evidence, and it's only hearsay that he caught a steel girder once with his bare hands. With that evidence, he sounds a lot like Spider-Man. Maybe he and Stephen just switch off patrol areas to have an alibi.
  • Nope, Colbert is in the Marvel Universe. He's appeared in their comics and has Captain America's shield, for Cthulhu's sake!
    • What better way for them to maintain alibi than to patrol in each others' universes?

Superman can't actually fly under his own power.

Martians can fly no matter what planet they're on. Tamarans can fly no matter where they are. But on Krypton, Kryptonians cannot. There is no real reason why solar charged cells could make somebody fly.

• There's no real reason it should make you bulletproof, either. Just go with it.
• Maybe Kryptonians have the same mechanism that allows those other species to fly, but it's less efficient and requires more energy. Thus, on sun-deprived Krypton, their "flying cells" were just too weak, they get supercharged under a brighter sun...
• Perhaps he pretends he can fly by jumping dramatically.
  • No, because he actually hovers, and accelerates.
    • He can stand on and jump on air.
• Maybe he stole an antigravity belt from Luthor?
• He's just always using his Legion of Super-Heroes Flight Ring.
• Psionic power. Self-telekinesis. The comics are starting to hint at this. Hey, it worked for Connor Kent! (RIP)
  • If by "starting" you mean "for the last two decades". Longer, if you count Gladiator, a Superman Captain Ersatz from the Marvel Universe.
• Since the Post-Crisis Superman can absorb virtually the entire EM spectrum (that's how his Super-Senses work) and convert it to other forms of energy such as heat vision and strength, he may also be able to convert it directly into kinetic energy (motion).
• Maybe his body is the biological version of one of these...
• In most continuities, Krypton has extremely high gravity, sometimes even described as having a core of degenerate matter, yet the inhabitants are human-shaped bipeds, an extremely inefficient form for an extreme high-G world. Perhaps, just as they adapted to the lack of energy by absorbing sunlight, they also adapted to the gravity by developing a means of manipulating graviton particles, this allowing them partial resistance to the crushing G. Deprived of this environmental stress, the Earth-raised Clark was able to learn to use this quality in different ways, such as creating an imbalance in the local gravitational field that makes him "fall" in directions other than straight down.
• He stays still, and moves the planet under him.
• He has the invisible Martian Manhunter carry him everywhere, the lazy oaf...
• Rocket farts.
  • Yes. If his supercharged cells fart in the same direction at the same time he can fly.

Superman is immune to Kryptonite.

Think about it. Jails are filled with people who almost killed Superman with Kryptonite. He could very well be faking the whole thing just to get people to use harmless green rocks on him instead of actual weapons. As for Red Kryptonite, he probably paid off some sorceress to fake the effects in exchange for watering her lawn.

• The implications this bears for pink kryptonite are... odd. And explain why exactly he's always palling around with Batman.
  • He's faking it with Lois, possibly because, being raised in a rural setting with possible memories of "perfect" Krypton, he's homophobic.
    • Or he's just Bi...
  • In fact, pink kryptonite was only shown in an alternate timeline, so we don't actually need to explain that at all. He's never been affected by it in continuity. Besides, it's always possible that he's only faking it with the green, and the other colors do really affect him.
• This would explain how he could survive being shot at point blank range in the back with two kryptonite bullets and survive.
  • It would also explain how no matter how much Kryptonite he's exposed to it always seems to have the same effects...but unfortunately, he's used it on other Kryptonians, who obviously wouldn't be in on the ruse.
• See "Repeated Exposure" WMG below.

Silver Age Superman is a rogue Q

Think about it. The only thing more infamous than the Earth-1 Superman's dickishness is his sheer overpoweredness, performing godlike feats ranging from moving planets out of orbit to blowing out stars to bending the very space-time continuum itself to his will. Combine that with his callous, mischievous personality (and ignoring the far-fetched "excuses" he makes up for his behavior), Superman clearly has more in common with Picard's Q, or even Trelane, the Squire of Gothos, than with any other version of the Man of Steel. The bizarre monsters and enemies fought by Superman were, of course, also the product of his warped imagination, and his "friends" never saw through his Paper-Thin Disguise simply because he didn't want them to.

Pre-Crisis Superman is Mr Mxyptlzk

He wasn't erased from history.Being utterly over-powered and having visited Earth-Prime,Supes was aware the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths would Ret-Gone him.Using his total overpoweredness,he punched through reality and fled.However the resulting continuity disturbances would cause him to become even more powerful, causing him to create the entire 5th Dimension by accident.Now an Un-person,Supes decided to pretend to be an inhabitant,later known as Mr Mxyptlzk,and mess around with other versions of himself.Bat-Mite was created based off Batman,who was just as powerful and created Larry and his dimension.Hence why he has Medium Awareness-he's visited our universe

Kryptonite isn't a weakness for Kryptonians, but rather a strength of humans.

The Green Blast was a way of keeping other species from using their big guns o' death to eradicate the surface of Krypton and move in. If anything bad happened (including a security system malfunction), the entire planet would be bathed in a form of radiation that most species in the galaxy were affected by. Humans are affected too, but it takes about thirty years of constant exposure, so other forms of radiation would be a lot quicker. The extraterrestrial species that have handled Kryptonite would be okay for a couple of days, but would otherwise have to keep it in a shielded container or suffer the same effects as Superman, albeit more slowly. The reason we don't see more species that are as weak to kryptonite as Kryptonians is that they all have a healthy fear of not dying in an easily avoided manner.

Repeated exposure to Kryptonite makes Kryptonians more powerful.

Kryptonite still hurts Kryptonians, overwhelming their metabolisms and disrupting their powers, and overexposure can be fatal — but when a Kryptonian survives exposure to K, he or she becomes more powerful, even gaining entirely new powers.

• When Superman first appeared in 1938, he was very strong, very durable, very fast, and had amazing sensory abilities, but couldn't fly or shoot Eye Beams. After the The K-Metal from Krypton was written but not published two years later, he gradually started becoming more powerful. Leaping tall buildings gave way to flight, keen senses became X-Ray vision, and his strength and durability slowly increased. After Kryptonite was officially introduced to the comics in 1949, his Power Creep accelerated. The more Kryptonite he encountered, the more powerful he became, eventually becoming able to fly faster than light, break the time barrier, and move planets around by brute force.
• In 1970, a storyline eliminated all Kryptonite on Earth. Superman's powers were reduced roughly by half, ostensibly because of an animated doppleganger — but really because the same explosion also purged much of the effects of K radiation from his cells. As Kryptonite continued to fall to Earth, his power levels recovered, and eventually surpassed their pre-'70 levels.
• After the Continuity Reboot caused by the Crisis on Infinite Earths, his power levels dropped again — but slowly climbed again as he continued to encounter Kryptonite.
• Both the 1959 and 2004 versions of Supergirl had considerable exposure to Kryptonite prior to arriving on Earth. Each arrived on Earth with her power level roughly commensurate with Kal-El's then-current abilities, despite not having had a lifetime of exposure to absorb "yellow sun radiation" like her cousin.
• Variation: Kryptonians don't gain their powers from Earth's yellow sun. They gain it from Kryptonite. Baby Kal-El caught enough radiation when his spaceship rocketed away from the exploding planet to give him the comparatively modest abilities of his early career.
  • That actually could work. Perhaps the reason Kryptonite hurts them is because it's over charging them, to the point where their energy absorbtion abilities have to kick into over drive, causing the effects of 'Kryptonite poisoning'. Like a 60W lightbulb in a 250W socket.
• This may actually be supported by the unpublished K Metal story by Jerry Siegel. Kryptonite is depicted as making humans temporarily stronger (reminiscent of the Green Rocks from Smallville), and Superman comments that he drew strength from the stuff until "the connection was broken" upon his leaving Krypton, and now it weakens him. Weird, but the argument could be made that K-Metal still strengthens expatriated Kryptonians, albeit after some sort of "allergic reaction" caused by prolonged lack of exposure.

Kryptonite posseses intelligence and is actively trying to murder Superman.

The Kryptonite meteor follows Superman to Earth. It always winds up in his enemies' hands. It multiplies and spawns new forms of itself. Kryptonite may be a nanotechnological agent designed to destroy Krypton, and when Kal-El escaped, it sent a piece of itself to hunt him down. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until Superman is dead.

• It sounds like a really good basis for a story. By the way, a version of this was used (metaphorically) in Superman Returns (more obvious in the book).

Pre-Crisis Kryptonians could project any form of electromagnetic radiation from their eyes.

The Pre-Crisis descriptions of X-Ray Vision made it clear that actual X-Rays were being projected (in at least one comic, Superman uses this to decontaminate a germ-ridden artifact). And we know that Kryptonians can project infrared radiation (heat vision). But there are some hints that the power goes beyond this. One old Silver Age cover showed Superman, underwater, using his eyes as headlights. In other words, he was projecting light in the visible spectrum. This implies that old-school Kryptonians may be able to project any kind of electromagnetic radiation they want. Superman restricts himself to "X-ray vision" and "heat vision" because that's how he conceptualizes his powers. But his biology probably isn't actually limited to that.

• And perhaps into other forms of energy such as kinetic. See the Flight WMG above.
  • The above explains his super breath; it's not physically possible to toss cars down the street with a mere two lungfulls of air no matter how forcefully exhaled. He's adding to the kinetic energy of the air to give it more "push". His super-cold breath works because he absorbs heat from the same air.

Superman's source of power is somehow related to the emotional spectrum.

The thing is, it doesn't really make sense that Superman gets powers from yellow sunlight. Why would a species that evolved under a red sun develop powers from a yellow one, and actually be weakened by their own sun? Makes no sense. But the thing is, these colours are connected. Kryptonians have no power under a red sun, some powers under an orange, are ludicrously powerful under a yellow, and gain even more powers under a blue one. This is obviously connected to the spectrum; given the emotional nature of the spectrum in the DC universe, it stands to reason this would all be connected somehow. Perhaps Superman draws power from emotions, the more pure the emotion the better. This would also explain how he is able to defeat things through the Power of Love so often.

• It logically follows that if someone were to synthesize violet sunlight, and expose a Kryptonian, Argonian, or Daxamite to it, they would become more powerful than Dream, capable of bending reality with mere thought.
  • Incidentally, how do green suns fit in? Like red ones, they do not provide superpowers.
    • They give him the power of positive thinking.
• The Post-Crisis Byrne reboot explanation was that red suns simply put out less energy than yellow ones— the red sunlight by itself didn't weaken him at all, it just wasn't enough to strengthen Kryptonians to Superman-levels (in fact one storyline of that era had him time-travel to Krypton and still had his powers). The recent "red sunlight weakness" is a Silver Age element that has crept back in thanks to those Running the Asylum, and Silver Age stuff doesn't have to make sense. But, if sense you must have, maybe the presence of the specific frequencies of light that Kryptonian bodies are evolved for "resets" the metabolism, including the solar energy absorbtion/conversion, to its basline levels. The body becomes keyed to Kryptonian conditions so as to better absorb the exact same type of energy present in the environment that it's best adapted to. In other words, it fools his body into "thinking" it's back on Krypton. Or maybe...

Superman's weaknesses are psychosomatic.

He isn't really physically harmed by Kryptonite, Red Sun radiation, or even magic. But due to his humble upbringing, he feels like he doesn't deserve the vast power he's been given, and sabotages himself by creating weaknesses that allow him the potential to be defeated or even killed. Even though he never is. (One necessary corollary of this has to be that his powers are far greater than he admits to himself— Red Kryptonite transformations mean he must have some degree of shapeshifting or illusion, splitting due to black/"tar" Kryptonite means he has self-duplication powers, etc.)

• In Lois & Clark, Superman's vulnerability to magic was depicted as susceptibility to hypnosis. Once he believed he could fight off the influence, he did so.

There is no Krypton.

Superman is from right here on Earth. He is an unconscious Reality Warper, and created all the "evidence" of his alien origin to explain away his other powers. One wonders just how much of the world he inhabits is of his own making...

• That's actually a plot point in the recent Superman arc "Superman and the Legion of Superheroes". Legion rejects from Earth get pissed off, claimed the Legion lied about Superman and had the Federation hunt the Legion down. Supes has to go to the future to help out.

Superman's only real power is telekinesis

He just can't think generally enough to use it as such. When he wants to lift an airplane, he puts his hands against it as a psychological prop, but pushes on every atom of it equally with his subconscious. This explains why he never leaves hand-shaped holes in things he lifts or needs solid ground to stand on.

• That's been canon at least twice, under the term "tactile telekinesis" (once as an explanation of Clark's powers and once as the only superpower of the 1990s Superboy, to differentiate him from Clark), and it never stuck.
  • If he can fly, he wouldn't need solid ground to stand on. Just increase his thrust to match the object's weight. And whether he leaves handprints or not varies greatly Depending on the Writer.

Superman's "x-ray vision" is really Kryptonite Ray Vision.

Since it's powered by Green Rocks, it can do stuff like see through brick walls but not clothing, and we know that lead is an effective block for kryptonite radiation. The reason he doesn't harm himself with it is that he is immune to the kryptonite radiation that he produces, like how the Summers brothers are immune to their own powerblasts, but not of others. (Prove me wrong.^note No, seriously, I'd like to know if it's not possibly by general canon.)

• Um, he can see though clothing. And lead is also an effective block for X-Rays. Besides, one or two of the recent canons had him not actually emitting anything at all to see through things, it was just called "x-ray" vision as a verbal shorthand or nickname given by Jimmy Olsen. No actual rays of any kind were produced. The speculation from a pre-insane Emil Hamilton was that Supes was sensitive to the weak electromagnetic emissions of cosmic radiation particles (or neutrinos, I forget which) passing through normal matter, and his brain simply interpreted that input visually.
  • I meant why it could be precise enough to not go through clothing at the same time as looking through a brick wall, and I don't consider "speculation by other characters" (emphasis mine) to be canon unless it's confirmed by a reliable source. The "not actually emitted anything at all" bit, though, Josses this acceptably.
    • The fact that he can use it selectively argues against it being either Kryptonite or X-Rays. And yes, lab tests done by Dr. Hamilton did confirm the no-emissions thing, so it's not just speculation. (Of course that was several Cosmic Retcons ago and the writers might have changed his powers yet again).

New Krypton is screwed.

Because you can't have an entire planet of Krypton and Superman around at the same time since that ruins the entire point. So the question is: how will it be destroyed?

• Explosion into a new batch of kryptonite, of course.
  • It's been done. Sucked into the Phantom Zone?
• Plus, New Krypton is in the unstable L3 point, so maybe it'll just fall into the sun.

  • ...If Superman can survive inside our yellow Sun, why would the New Kryptonians give a rip about it?

  • You do realize that it is unstable on an astronomic timescale. Waiting for something to happen would take hundreds of thousands to millions of years.
    • Unless one of their or Superman's many, many enemies speeds up that timetable.
    • Or maybe The Rocky Horror Picture Show becomes popular there, they all take up doing the Time Warp, the whole population jump to the left at the same time with Kryptonian strength, the planet's mass shifts sideways, and...
  • Well we know that come May, there will be a war between New Krypton and Earth. Presumably, much of the drama of this event will be Superman having to choose between his adopted home or his own people. Eventually he will choose Earth and rather than kill the Kryptonians he will simply shrink them and send them back to Kandor.
• Confirmed.

Superman: Birthright didn't go far enough with Superman's Secret-Identity Identity.

He's got a third one, which is "Dealing with Kryptonians Kal-El". You can tell because he slips into being Superman from this persona more easily than he reverts to Smallville Clark. He actually has to act Kryptonian (albeit an extremely human-affected Kryptonian, like Spock). It doesn't show up very often, though, because of (fewer and fewer of) all Kryptonians having died except him.

• This is hardly original with Birthright, it's an idea that's been explored since the early Bronze Age of comics (late 60s/early 70s at least)— that "Clark" and "Superman" are both aspects of "Kal-El", the "real" identity.

Lex Luthor and Superman's rivalry is a direct creation of Batman.

Sure, they started it on their own, but it would have died off. Batman exacerbated it, and why? To set it so they can never follow their true desires. We've seen that Superman has a tendency to be a dick, and in at least one alternative universe (Red Son), Clark has shown a tendency to take over the world. Bruce is a prudent man, he can't keep his eye on Clark all the time. So he decides that Superman needs a "distraction." Enter Lex, who could easily take over the world, so Superman's interest and desire to remove Lex as a threat for his own control of the world means he's wrecking Lex's plans as a matter of self-interest. Lex and Clark counter each other in a twisted checks and balances system created by Bruce.

Lex Luthor is Superman.

At some point in Kal-El's childhood, he manifested a power he's still unaware of— the ability to produce a non-powered avatar of his dark side, manifesting and expelling all his worst traits in bodily form. That's why Lex is so obsessed with Superman; he's unconsciously trying to get back home. Lex is literally Superman's evil.

• This also provides a nicely cynical explanation for how he can stay such a boyscout despite the universe continually going to hell. All the frustration is shunted into Lex and makes him evil enough to keep up with the general crapsackification of the DCU. Bravo.

all of the DCU is a video game series on krypton and Kal-El plays them with godmode turned on.

The game is a sim and the actual goal is to blend in with earthlings but he has used cheat codes to make it more interesting, it certainly explains why everyone takes superhero related events in stride so easily.

• This has to be the most awesome WMG I've ever heard.

Superman has no powers and is an ordinary human being.

One of The DCU's many Gods, godlike aliens, demons, wizards or five-dimensional imps actually causes the effects of all his "powers", and the "evidence" for his alien origin, as part of an elaborate practical joke for their own amusement.

Superman is the Emperor of Mankind.

It explains his vast powers, his charisma, and why the world turned GRIMDARK after he wasn't around anymore to be a bright symbol of hope.

• Objection. The God-Emperor's powers are known to be mostly psionic in nature, while Superman's powers are of a physical kind. If anything, the God-Emperor is Superman's father, Jor-El, and Superman is one of the lost Primarchs who were sent through the Warp lost in time and space he landed on Terra in the distant past with powers and abilities above mankind. As for his brother Primarches the same thing happened, except they landed on planets in the present.
  • Objection overruled. The Emperor can actually control the aging rate of his own cells, which is as physical as it gets. Telekinesis is a psionic power, after all. The Primarchs were also created from the Emperor's own DNA, so their powers all come from him anyway.

Superman's presence is actually increasing mankind's progress rather than decreasing it.

Sure, he's had his detractors who claim his presence causes people to become complacent. But on the other hand, there is a positive side effect: people are more likely to do something daring with an extra line of defense. Superman's presence causes people to be just that little bit more likely to climb the Everest or attempt a potentially dangerous science experiment. The reason The DCU has so many more astronauts seems to be that they know that even if everything goes wrong and the control center is powerless to help them, Superman might still save them.

• That makes perfect sense. Also, repeated, repeated (to the tune of dozens of times) evidence that actually, Superman can't be everywhere at once, no matter how many supervillains and alien overlords turn up in the solar system, would naturally spur people into having some defenses other than "let's wait for Superman". After all, the U.S. military has far more weapons than they would ever need to use — just in case. Also, this might be a radical idea, but — surprise! — This is not the Marvel Universe. Maybe the citizens of the DC earth might...*gasp*...feel obligated to help Superman out by discovering the means to take care of some of their problems by themselves?
  • This would be why Jor-El felt that sending his son to Earth would help humanity to be the great people they wished to be.

People commit crimes simply so they can meet Superman.

Seriously, if there were a real genuinely nice uber-god on the loose, why would anyone in their right minds try to commit a crime? I mean, I know criminals are stupid, but given people will act crazy to try to get celebrities' attention, it makes sense that at least some people will rob and commit violence simply so they can meet the Man of Steel.

• This actually is the motive for minor 1990s villains Obsession and Encantadora.
• I am pretty sure that this genuinely happened to Green Arrow or someone at his level recently.

Pink Kryptonite does nothing.

It was Jimmy Olsen's smashing bow tie. When he added it to the rest of his outfit at coincidentally the exact same time Superman was exposed to pink kryptonite, it turned all male kryptonians in the galaxy temporarily gay. All further uses of pink kryptonite were the Pavlov effect.

Superman can be killed without kryptonite, but it would take an extreme amount of force

We've seen superman get hurt & even injured without the aid of kryptonite, so surely he can be killed without it.

• Canon. See: Doomsday.
  • Did Doomsday actually kill him? I know he beat him quite close to it. I may be just misremembering, but how did he get into the regen-chamber they used to bring him back?
    • Wasn't his body stolen... a few times? It was stolen twice in animated movie. By Luthor and by Superman's robot.

The Science Council knew Krypton was doomed

It's been established that Jor-El knew. Brainiac knew, even if he lied to them about it. Why did the Science Council avoid doing anything? Because they knew what was going on, but couldn't take the guilt of having to choose who to save. That and they probably figured any efforts were doomed anyway, but what would happen is that much of the populace would take it as a chance to riot and otherwise ruin their last days. Why put them through that? Especially if the idea that Kryptonians die if they go offworld is in effect.

Mr. Mxyzptlk is Jesus.

In Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, he says he spent 2,000 years doing nothing, 2,000 being a saint, and 2,000 being a prankster. That'd place the end of his "saintly" phase roughly around... yeah. And that would explain why miracles seem to be concentrated in the so-called "Biblical times" (~4,000 BC - ~30 AD).

• Not quite since he spent the first 2000 years doing nothing, so then the Biblical miracles (the "good" phase) should start only by 2000 BC not 4000 BC as you imply. Other than the numbers, your interpretation of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? doesn't seem wrong at all.

During the Silver Age, Superman had a one night-stand with Optimus Prime.

We all know that the Silver Age was an age when anything could happen. This was an age where Super-ventriloquism could work in space. As such, one night, Superman got stupidly drunk and flew all the way to Cybertron where he hooked up with Optimus Prime for a one-night stand. They had kinky sex and then Superman flew back to Earth, waking up in the morning with a horrible headache and no memory of what happened. However, thanks to Superman's Super-Fertility, Optimus Prime became pregnant and gave birth to Superboy-Prime. The real reason Superboy-Prime is raging so much is all the missed alimony payments on Superman's behalf.

Superman can't be killed by Kryptonite unless it's used as a weapon, and not just a rock.

Think about it, how many times Superman was exposed to it? How many times he became weak, disoriented, depowered?But it didn't killed him. However, both Metallo, and Batman made a bullet out of it. Why? Because depowered Superman is a human, and humans can be killed by bullets - Duh. In Doomsday movie, Lex put a lead capsule (probably with explosives as well) with Kryptonite to blow it up if Supeman-two will rebel (overkill anyone?) because who know maybe his brain is also Invincible.

Reason for Superman's dickishness is lack of sex.

Build up of sexual energy, costume that constantly rubbing his body, X-ray vision, upskirts whenever Lois is in danger... That can cause a lot of problems.

• This Explains So Much

Superman would've to have sex with his cousin/female counterpart should the original idea were accepted.

You know, the whole his sperm make women explode like a projectile flying thru on high speed?

• What?
  • Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex!
• Where does that leave Wonder Woman then?

Cir-El really is Lois and Clark's time warped daughter.

And the reason she has a boy's name is that she's a MtF transsexual.This conveniently covers the plot hole of Brainiac being inexplicably unfamiliar with Kryptonian naming conventions.

• Or, it could be that Krypton was quite sexist, with men getting their own names (Jor-El, Zor-El, Kal-El) and women getting the full name of their fathers (Kara Zor-El) and then later their husbands (Lara Jor-El). Superman's always been a bit of a forward thinker so maybe he thought that Cir-El should have her own name.

Superman is attracted to Lex Luthor.

I am basing this solely on the fact that most if not all of Superman's love interests have the initials L.L. Lois Lane, Lana Lang, uh, that mermaid. But what are Lex Luthor's initals? (I'll let you figure that one out yourself) I don't really want to entertain the idea but come on. There has to be some explaination. And aside from extraodinarilly creative lazyness on behalf of the writers the only one I can think of is that Superman and Lex Luthor are or at least have been more than 'just enemies'.

• Ah, but you seem to be forgetting that "Lex" is short for "Alexander"! Thus making his initials AL and not LL!
  • Unless lois is short for aloysious....

Kryptonian superpowers are a gift from the Anthropomorphic Personification of Rao rather than something purely natural

Which is why they make no sense from a physics or biological standpoint; naturally, Kryptonians just have golden-age level strength from gravity differences and such, but Rao enhanced it. Why? Remember from the Sandman prequel that life formed on Krypton as part of a grand plan to have one Sole Survivor to suffer and mourn. However, Rao seemed like a pretty nice guy, all things considered. He must have realized at some point how incredibly cruel to that one survivor the plan was, and gave the Kryptonians enhanced superpowers triggered by sunlight other than his own so that the sole survivor would get something cool to compensate for the suffering.

The Loisbot was created by Brainiac

The Loisbot's creator has to be someone with access to alien robotics technology. Presumably her creator either wants revenge on Lex Luthor (such as for betraying him and destroying his skull-ship) or knowledge about the black spheres.

The Kryptonians were Celestial experiments

In the DCU, the Celestials carried out their experiments with much greater secrecy than in the MU. They created the Kryptonians, beings who had incredible power when under yellow sunlight. They also gave them weaknesses of red sunlight, kryptonite and magic to stop them from being completely unstoppable.

• I knew it - the Kryptonians are Eternals!

The souls of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, along with all other ruined Official Couples, are currently residing in Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

Think about it. Almost every single long-running couple in comics has been completely ruined, either by death, Character Derailment, or other Deus Angst Machina plot developments...except for these two. Since the odds of so many OOC, illogical, or otherwise stupidly contrived coincidences is nil, it stands to reason that the breakup of so many couples is the result of an Evil Plan by extra-multiversal omniscient beings to suck the life out of both the main DC universe and Marvel's 616.

However, Plot Immunity is an actual physical force that is the only thing that can stymie said beings, so someone with access to both the main DC universe and the Marvel 616 universe (possibly all the myriad Reed Richardses of the alternate Marvel universes?) has sprung an emergency plan to store the souls of all at-risk happy couples in the bodies of the one happy couple armed with eternally impenetrable Plot Immunity, in order to keep them intact while still fooling the omniscient beings into thinking their plans have succeeded by showing how miserable the Soulless Shells of all the couples other than Clark and Lois now are.

Naturally, everything will go back to normal after the omniscient beings lose interest in these universes and move on to other exploits.

• Taking this a little further: When the DCU relaunches in September, Clark and Lois will no longer be together, meaning all the couples will get another shot.

There will eventually be a storyline where Superman sues Lex Luthor for years of unpaid child support payments

Face it, Connor is as much Lex's kid as he is Superman's, and Superman and associates have borne the full costs of raising him without a dime from Lex. Sure, Clark makes a good salary now as a newspaper reporter, but the newspaper industry is going down the tubes fast, and in a few years living on a newspaper reporter's salary won't be plausible. When that happens, Clark/Superman will persue a source of income from a very wealthy man that has been just sitting there for years, and all Clark/Superman needs is DNA test records and a decent lawyer. Yes, this is incredibly implausible and out of character, but it is wild mass guessing, and is actually a lot more faithful to canon than a lot of the silver-age wackiness.

• I would love to see that.
• Sorry, "incredibly implausible and out of character"? I'd like to point out that Superman can be a giant dick when it doesn't kill anyone and is legal (see what happened to the Elite, for an example), and Lex clearly deserves this. And if he gets Superboy-Prime to help, they may even have She-Hulk to represent them in the court.

Superman is a giant chicken.

A giant CHICKEN, I tell ya!

• It is entirely plausible that the race of Kryptonians evolved from birds rather than apes. If this turns out to be true, then technically...

Superman is an Eldritch Abomination.

Krypton was a planet of incredibly ancient, incredibly powerful beings who, seing their impending extinction, sent one of their offspring to our Insignificant Blue Planet not as its savior, but to colonize it, getting rid of any intervening species if need be. In self-defense, the young Kryptonian took the shape of the first species it encountered - humans - but after that the plan went a little sideways. Without another elder Kryptonian there to educate it about the Way of Things (with Kryptonians at the top and all other species wayyyyyyyy below), it was instead raised by humans, and given a human perspective of things and ahuman morality. He is still infinitely more powerful than humans and could easily obliterate Earth (see also Superboy Prime), but he identifies with them and has made it his goal to protect them.

Superman Returns did not retcon Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace from continuity

Instead it only retconned one line—where Lana mentions Ma Kent's death in III. In reality, II and III take place possibly a day apart from each other, explaining why Lois still doesn't look pregnant. After the events of III, Superman goes on his five-year absense, and IV takes place after Returns. The reason why Lois is single in that movie is that her boyfriend left her and has custody of the kid during the events of the movie, and she has renewed her advances to Superman in earnest out of desperation.

• Also, Supergirl (1984) takes place during Superman's five-year absense. The reason why the radio reports Superman as on a "peace mission" is because they needed to come up with a plausible reason for his disappearance for fear of the public reaction. It's just that this story falls apart quickly when the officials are pressed for specifics, and this leads to events that allow Lois to write her Pulitzer-winning article.

Lois Lane has prosopagnosia.

This explains why she is unable to realize that Superman is Clark Kent.

• In fact, in the Silver Age, she was the only person who suspected he was Clark Kent, and no one believed her (okay, Lana Lang also suspected). So, no. It is everybody else who has prosopagnosia.

Superman is BLACK

Think about it.
He runs really fast.
He's been shot and still remains.
He jumps really high.
He kinda came here not of his own volition.
And just as a goofy slightly racist one. He get's messed up around dat Kryptonite

• Yeah, that's the only slightly racist part of all that.

For those who watch Transformers:Prime. Green Kryptonite is a variation of Dark Energon, therefore Unicron may be responsible for all human "copy-cat" alien life including Superman.

]]Think about it, Kryptonite looks almost exactly like Energon and Dark Energon (though more like the latter). Whose to say Krptonite and all its variations are a mutated form of Dark Energon? And it would make sense in the context of the latter part of the subject, Primus makes mechanical life and Unicron makes organic life.

• They are both bad for humans to be exposed to, Kryptonite just takes longer.

Lois Lane and Margo Lane are sisters.

Margo Lane, friend and companion to Lamont Cranston, is the only one who knows to whom the voice of the invisible Shadow belongs. Radio historian Jim Harmon once wrote, "The only other woman I can think of who has had to endure so much for a man is Lois Lane, perennial girlfriend of Superman. With such a similarity in name and character, can there be any doubt that these two girls, so attracted to men who wear capes and mistreat them so, are sisters?" Philip Jose Farmer thinks likewise, and entered them as such in the Wold-Newton family record.

'El' is Kryptonian for 'Hope'

• Supes shield symbol was established as a Kryptonian symbol a while ago, but it seems to go back and forth between meaning 'Hope', and being the El family crest. I propose that is in fact both: El is the Kryptonian word for Hope, and that symbol is the character used for it.
  • Nice try, but it is kryptonian for "star". Unless they retconned that away as well.
    • Their closest star, Rao, is considered a god. What does "El" mean?

Had Superboy-Prime not entered the paradise dimension, Superman: Secret Identity would be the result.

The Elseworlds "Superman: Secret Identity" was based off the origin story of Superboy-Prime, after all. The new 52 multiverse, while having a number of realities re-created, aren't perfect copies(ie how Power Girl discovered Earth-2 Power Girl, even though its a reborn version of the Earth-2 she hailed from. Had Superboy-Prime not joined Alex Luthor Jr in his pocket dimension, he would've been erased and we would have the events of Superman: Secret Identity. However Prime was outside of continuity, and as a result Earth-Prime 2.0 wasn't able to generate a new Kal-El, or even Krypton. Thus, the reborn Earth-Prime had no Krypton, and thus no super-powered beings. This is how Earth-Prime can be both Real Life and yet have Superboy-Prime: the original Earth-Prime did, but the current one we're in now doesn't. His parents and history still existing remains a Continuity Snarl though, albiet a pretty mild one compared to the rest of the 52.

• Prime DID enter the paradise dimension; that's how he kept his past, present and future intact.

Mr Mxyzptlk annoys Superman because he's trying to help out the series.

He appears to both add comedic elements and a challenge-back in the day, there were few who could hold up to Superman. Mxy thought that Supes winning fights all the time would end up turning fans off, and cancel the Superman series(effectively killing off the DC Universe). So he decided to appear as a power-based superior to Superman, making him use his brain instead of brawn. This would help with making Superman more interesting and battles more tense. Being sent back by saying his name is Myxzptlk not wanting the opposite problem. Mxyzptlk remains goofy and light-heated because he doesn't like the Darker and Edgier state of the DC Universe, and wants to remind the readers to have fun. Even his powers are a result of his No Fourth Wall-he can see and interact with the universe's narrative structure, manipulating it for good stories. The Joker could steal his powers because he has No Fourth Wall as well, and can also see the narrative structure.

Superboy-Prime is actually a well-adjusted individual since Infinite Crisis.

After Earth Prime was recreated in the event, he returned to our world and discovered that people called him a monster for what he did in the comics. Realizing they were right, he went to a therapist and returned sane. We see him as Emoboy-Prime because people at DC Comics think he's a fictional character and insist to write him as that, with him humouring them to prevent worse things from happening while he searches where they live... Too bad that Mr. Mxyzptlk is preventing him from succeeding.

• Superboy Prime, is that you?
  • No, but I think I've seen him at my therapist. I mean, this guy spoke with a Kansas accent and looked like Christopher Reeve with a ton of muscles...

The real reason Superboy-Prime is depressed

He knows that they're all fictional characters, and the only one else who knows it is The Joker. Pretty depressing, isn't it?

• What about Ambush Bug?

Superboy-Prime's apperance in Teen Titans #98-#100 was an assassination attempt by the DC writers.

During Adventure Comics #4 and #5, Superboy-Prime finally became likeable, in a crazy metafictional way with fighting off the Black Lanterns and calling out the writers. In the last pre-New 52 Titans story, he's back to his old Jerkass Straw Fan traits and slapped on the Source Wall. Why would they do this? As mentioned before, Prime had called out the writers, and tried to kill them. Fearing for their careers, lives and the horrific implications that what they're making is real, they chose to not just remove Superboy Prime once and for all, but to ensure that no-one would ever want him to return and that no-one would care for what he has to say-hence they removed the work they did in his Blackest Night appearance and made him a Jerkass Straw Fan again. Prime only got back to the DC Universe literally because the writers wanted him there. All his dialogue and thoughts in those issues weren't his own, but rather the writers altering his mind to fit their scheme. Slapping him on the Source Wall comes from how effective its been in the past, considering it worked for DARKSEID of all people. Superboy-Prime is trapped on the Source Wall, and unless another writer is unaware of the attack he made in their office, will likely never be trapped. And even if he does return, there's a good chance they'll continue this and the only way we know what Prime is truly thinking is when he's offscreen. Poor guy.

Kryptonians are [[Planimal planimals.

When you think about it, Superman's source of power is similar to that of photosynthesis: he absorbs sunlight and gains power from it. Perhaps primordial Kryptonian animal-like life developed a form of photosynthesis to survive on a world with a pitiful red dwarf sun. The superpowers were likely some sort of genetic augmentation to prevent the extra sunlight from roasting Supes alive

Rao is Barnad's Star.

I doubt Jor-El would have been able to make an FTL starship in time. Though Proxima Centauri is the closer star to us, Proxima Centauri is significantly closer to another yellow star. Said star, the Alpha Centaur system, already has a populace(it's where Rann and Adam Strange live), so I doubt Jor-El would target the father away Sol System.

Silver Age Superman literally had the power to gain New Powers as the Plot Demands

The more ridiculous the power, the more effective.

Lex Luthor really hates Superman so much because he has a Kryptonian fetish and it's a Guilty Pleasure

The Ho Yay between him and Superman, the fact that he created a son for them, the shapeshifting Supergirl alien he was sleeping with, it all fits. (Not that I can blame him for that last one...)

What makes Superman a weak character is what makes him an icon

What is consistent among every iteration of Superman? Every Elseworld and Imaginary Tale? The fact that he is a man apart, unique among the society, and willing to fight for the safety and values of his adopted home world. Yeah, he's been depowered in stories before, and has had stories where his powers are equal to his opponents, but name one story where it can be honestly called a Superman story but he is completely powerless and an ordinary, unheroic man. Take away his supporting cast, his Kryptonian Heritage, and the American setting, but you can't take away the fact that he is heroic not like those around him and still have him be Superman. In Red Son, he is not American but still fighting to protect his society. In Secret Identity he was human, but with superpowers and fighting to protect. In Last Son of Earth, he may be human but he is unique among the Kryptonians and through the power of the Green Lantern ring being a hero.

Superman is symbolic.

DC made him to get a point across that we have a never ending power source, one that can never betray us. One that we can harness easily, and make the rest of our lives easier.Superman represents solar power.He was made because we all knew that we would one day run out of oil and coals to gain power from. Superman was supposed to say, "We can't run off oil forever. We need to switch to solar."Doomsday represents he government officials, those who don't want to switch to solar power, who make it harder for us to get it. Those who wish to kill it. Doomsday because he's a bloodthirsty savage, but the officials because there's no money in solar.

Kryptonians are Fallen Angels

It explains why they have such powerful supernatural powers, and why they end their names in El. (Well, at least some of them).

The house of El are the ones who still yearn for redemption, and thus they kept the El (Meaning of God) in their name, over time the symbol for the house of El came to mean hope, because they were the only Kryptonians that hoped for redemption.

This is why superman is stronger than other Kyptonians, he is the culmination of the house of El, the one Kryptonian who was finally able to achieve redemption. and as a result of this he begins to regain his angelic powers. (Same goes for Kara).

Every supervillain that Superman fights is a challenge from god (Ala Job) to see if he will abandon his purpose, to see if he will give up, and decide that maybe human lives just aren't worth saving, but he never does, and every-time he shows this he gains a bit more of his angelic powers.

The solar system of Krypton is our solar system in the future.

Why else would Superman also be known as the Man 0f Tomorrow? That appellation is literal: the sun of Krypton, a red giant, is actually our own sun, in a far future, after it fused all of its hydrogen into helium and turned into a red giant. And here are some corollaries:

• Krypton is Earth. The process of nuclear fusion causes the sun to lose mass and cause the planets to orbit farther away, so it's not unreasonable to assume that, by the time it has turned into a red giant, Earth's atmospheric composition has changed, and its orbit has enlarged enough to be spared from destruction.
• Kryptonians are humans. Why else would they be physically indistinguishable from humans, as well as capable to generate fertile offspring when mating with humans?
• Superpowers are the result of genetic modification. Why would any organism have genes for dormant characteristics, that are not activated unless that organism is transferred to a planet with a different atmosphere, lit by a star of a different color? There is no possible mechanism for those genes to evolve naturally, because they would not offer any survival advantage. The answer is that those genes were inserted artificially, as a reward for reaching a specific level of technological development. "Here are some genes that will make you a physical god. But in order to activate them, you must find out how to travel to a place with this specific atmosphere, lit by a star of this specific color." Sounds like a pretty good incentive.

Three individuals in Superman's supporting cast are Time-Lord affected humans (ala River Song)

A variation on the classic "X is a Time Lord" WMG.

• It began when the Doctor rescued a couple from a Dalek by taking them aboard the TARDIS. However, he realized that they weren't suitable Companions (in fact, he learned, to his disgust, that the Dalek problem had started when the man had tried experimenting on the Dalek, trying to find the secret of its abilities) and summarily kicked them off the TARDIS. However, the TARDIS had had just enough effect on the woman's unborn child to give him some of the Doctor's characteristics. Like the Doctor, he is quite brilliant and has a talent for leadership and dealing with odd technology. However, he also shares the Doctor's megalomania (only turned up even higher).
  
• Moving on, the Doctor rescued a woman from Sontarans. While they were traveling over her home town, viewing the sights, the woman pointed out a soldier as her husband and asked to be put down. The Doctor, remembering the Brigadier, thought it might be amusing to drop in for a moment. However, the soldier proved hostile, making numerous accusations regarding the Doctor's being an alien and paying no attention to his wife's attempts to explain the situation. Some time after the Doctor left again, the woman gave birth to a girl. The girl, as she got older, exhibited the Doctor's curiosity and tendency to attract odd situations. She also tends to do a lot of running.
  
• Meanwhile, the Doctor had moved on, meeting an archaeologist and his bride as they dug up an alien artifact. The Doctor liked them enough that he took them on a number of adventures. However, a horrific incident occurred. The husband died and his wife was injured and traumatized enough that she lapsed into a Angst/physical coma just after giving birth. The Doctor, fearing for the safety of mother and child and experiencing the standard guilt, wiped her memories and replaced them with normal scenes, including her being informed that her husband had gone M.I.A. Her son grew into an adventurous young man sharing the Doctor's tendency to explore everything and to attract bizarre phenomena. He also has the Doctor's Charm Person tendencies, which means most non-villains like him or at least don't hate him. These experiences are also partly the reason why he wanted to regenerate as a ginger — the boy was born with a few wisps of red hair, and he wants a memento of him and his parents.
  
• At some point, the Doctor investigates a bizarre sequence of events in an Earth city called Metropolis and is startled to find out that all three ended up there.

In Earth-7642 Peter and MJ are married

Clearly, when Mephisto tried to screw with Peter's marriage, Earth-7642 Superman -who is an alternate Silver/Bronze Age Superman- punched him out. And when Mephisto's agents tried to change history, Supergirl travelled back in time and blasted them. Married Capes look after each other.

Superman is not an alien, but a REALLY good illusionist

His "powers" are all smoke, strings, and mirrors. All of Metropolis's super villains (except Lex Luthor) are also illusionists and actors. Clark Kent is doing all of this just for the fame, and to get laid by Lois Lane. Oh yeah, his cousin Supergirl is an illusionist/actor too.

Lana Lang IS Lois Lane

Both of their names sound similar, right? Maybe Clark's childhood friend Lana was so upset about him leaving Smallville, she followed him to Metropolis, created a new identity, and landed a job as a reporter to be with him. Clark is not the only one with a secret. Depending on the artist, their faces look identical.

Superman's vow is why he couldn't wield Mjolnir.

In JLA/Avengers, the reason Superman of all people isn't "worthy" to wield Thor's hammer without special permission from Odin is that one of Thor's duties is to be willing and able to wage war, and Superman will never kill. Captain America and Wonder Woman don't have this problem. It says something pretty nice about Supes, actually.

Kryptonian maiden names are different because Krypton wasn't an one-culture world

Kryptonian males get their father's surname (thus, Kal-El son of Jor-El) and females get their father's full name (thus, Kara Zor-El daughter of Zor-El). Also, most female first names end in an "a", whereas almost all male first names end in a consonant, and family house names tend to be one syllable. However, a number of Kryptonian names don't follow this convention: Mala, Kizo, Lesla-Lar, Lyla Lerrol... This is because there used to be multiple Kryptonian cultures, each with their own naming ceremony.
The "men have their father's surname; women have their father's name" rule was probably a custom typical of the continent of Lurvan, where Kryptonopolis (Superman's birthplace), Argo (Supergirl's birthplace), Kandor... were situated.

• Lyla is Lyla Ler-Rol. She's a film actress and uses her stage name.

Superboy-Prime still exists in the New 52 and DC Rebirth.

Multiversity still mentions Universe 15 being destroyed by him, and there's some Broad Strokes suggesting he's still around. Having already survived one Cosmic Retcon and been last seen embedded in the Source Wall, Superboy-Prime survived another, partly because the Source Wall protected him and partly because he's already broken with continuity. Unfortunately for him, he's still stuck, and never even existed in the new Earth-Prime(Earth 33), and those he hates and fears have forgotten who he is(again) except for Post-Crisis Superman and Lois Lane. Due to Black Hand reviving those in the Source Wall, it's possible that he may have been broken out, but for now is out of commission and even more insane(or not). Spending all that time in the Source Wall has likely mutated him into a Humanoid Abomination, like how messing with the Source Wall turned Black Hand into a walking Source Wall who King Midas'd planets.

• Sort of confirmed: With the break of the Source Wall he shows up in Shazam before playing a role in Dark Nights: Death Metal, though is in classic form.

Somewhere there is a parallel Earth where the Prankster was played by John Astin.

And it is awesome there.

The New 52 Lobo will return.

He will return as a bounty that someone hired Lobo to kill him. It will be explained that the New 52 Lobo is a clone created from a drop of Lobo's blood back when making Lobo bleed caused clones to be created from his blood. However when the New 52 clone was created a mysterious liquid was mixed in with the drop of blood producing a weaker clone. The story will end with Lobo killing the New 52 Lobo.

Superboy (Kon-El) became a hybrid clone of Superman and Lex Luthor when Superman changed history in Superman #200.

In 2003, in the milestone issue Superman (vol. 2) #200, Superman changed his own history through Hypertime shenanigans: this was an in-universe reason for why Superman’s backstory switched from Byrne’s Superman: The Man of Steel to Waid & Yu’s Superman: Birthright. But perhaps this Cosmic Retcon was also responsible for rewriting the character of Superboy. Before mid-2003, Kon-El had been firmly established as a genetically-altered human, cloned from the late director of Project Cadmus and modified to resemble Superman and approximate his powers. Then, from the beginning of the relaunched Teen Titans series, he was suddenly revealed to be a Kryptonian-human hybrid cloned from Superman and Lex Luthor’s DNA. (He also doubled in muscle mass and started wearing T-shirts and jeans.) This directly contradicted what we’d already seen of Superboy’s origin — but perhaps that very origin had been altered by the big Cosmic Retcon happening at the same time. For bonus points, Superman: Birthright significantly altered Lex Luthor’s backstory as well, restoring his pre-Crisis science background and his time in Smallville as a teenager — both things that could make him more likely to be involved in cloning his own Superboy.

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