Superman vs Captain Marvel's magic Lightning

You guys know the story. Whether it's Kingdom Come, Justice League, or some other comic when they appear together, Superman and Captain Marvel will have a punch up, and Cap will bust out his ultimate trick, The Magic Lightning.

In the very first meeting and throwdown between the too, Cap was going to try this trick against him, and seemed sure it would kill Superman. Since then, it's been employed by numerous stories, but will it hurts the hell out of Supes, even with his being as vunerable to magic as anyone else (as opposed to being weak against it), it never seems to flat out stop him.

So what do you guys think? Should it have more effect? Does it do just enough damage? Why doesn't it do more, and why should it do less? What is the exact nature of The Marvel familys Magic Lightning?

edited 25th Sep '10 8:43:56 PM by HandsomeRob

In the latter cases, does Captain Marvel truly intend to kill Superman? In Kingdom Come, he does but I can't say for sure for any other. Maybe Cap just doesn't want to kill him, but hurt him enough to weaken him those other times.

Yeah, the above post above me is probably the case.

But I think it would be awesome if Superman was beaten into a wheel chair, a coma or death and DC replaced his books with other people.

Well Captain Marvel usually isn't necessarily trying to kill Supes so maybe he weakens the effect of the lighting. I think lightning Sunperman is vulnerable to would work the same away lightning works on anyone. In reality that would be nerve disruptio in weak doses and extreme cases, death. But this is fiction which means it'll just hurt.

A lot.

A little hand waving is going on with the magic lightning at the best of times. Cap has transformed in all sorts of places where if the bolt packed the power of real lightning, it would have electrocuted people around him and destroyed all sorts of equipment.

The best explanation is that Cap acts like a lightning rod or grounding rod for the magic bolt, so even if you're holding onto him, you only get a tiny part of the power. That tiny part might still pack quite a punch.

I feel like asking for one of those legendary "no-prizes" for this answer. But that's probably dating myself as an older generation reader.

Huh. I wonder if The Marvels have some control over how damaging said lightning can be at all times (if this has been stated before then apologies). Or perhaps it was never meant to be a weapon despite being the physical embodiment of the power of Zeus. Cap's powers are still not well defined even now. I think there are still debates over what he gets from what, as well as his actual strength level.

edited 27th Sep '10 2:08:26 PM by HandsomeRob

Perhaps the more magic-sensitive you are, the more the lightning hurts in proximity. Ordinary folks are magic-neutral, so unless it actually hits you they don't care. Supes is magic-vulnerable, so any proximity is too much.

Cap doesn't have control over how powerful the lightning is, all he can do is call it down. And I've seen nothing to suggest that Supes is any more vulnerable to magic than the average person, he just happens to be immune to nearly everything else. (Kryptonite Factor, etc. aside)

Me might have some control -in fact, he probably does. Batman once got hit with the lightning bolt and only got knocked out - awesome as Batsy is, if this was the same bolt powerful enough to harm Superman he'd probably be dead.

Well, he is Batman.

But yeah, it's either They can control it, or different writers interpretation.

Batman is Crazy Prepared, so he probably had an insulated suit with a grounding system that runs from the ears of his cowl to the bottom of his boots, just in case he runs into an electrical powered villian. That case, the suit would have passed a lot of electricity around him to ground. Still would have knocked him down, though, if just due to the concussion of the thunderclap.

See? If your superpower is Crazy Prepared, that trumps just about everything.