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Is Superman the most powerful superhero in the comic?
Superman He is the oldest superhero in existence. His powers, which are diverse, incredible and original, make him a living battery with fascinating abilities, not only because of his super strength but because of the rest of his powers: flight, endurance, speed or the vision of laser beams (and many more) , make him a machine to generate great adventures and ways to save the world or the universe.
Since his creation in 1938, the Man of Steel has developed 50 incredible superpowers that, during the Golden (1938-1950) and Silver (1956-1970) Ages, have been the most extravagant. That is why we will know the scope of the powers of the current version of Superman (post-crisis and New 52, from Tierra Prima), but we will also discover the extravagant powers that the Man of Tomorrow had in the 40s, 50s and 60s.
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CURRENT POWERS OF SUPERMAN
1 – SUPERFORCE:
Superman’s brute force has varied over the years and depending on the stories. During the Golden Age he was able to move the Sun (200,000 quintillion kg) to defeat a villain who wanted to create a new ice age on Earth. On the other hand, during the New 52, he was training to get more strength (because he believed he needed more …) and was able to achieve a power capable of supporting a weight equivalent to the mass of the Earth, for 5 seconds (6,000 trillion tons).
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| Superman was able to move the Sun |
In the All-Star Superman story, it was capable of supporting 200 trillion tons. In that story, he had been disproportionately exposed to solar energy, increasing his strength by more than three times. In fact, the height of his strength was seen in Superboy # 140, where he was able to displace an entire galaxy of planets. The Silver Age showed a superman with a power that was incapable of being equaled by any other character. He also managed to destroy a galaxy – uninhabited – with a sneeze. In addition, he managed to destroy and build suns. It has also moved Earth’s continents and even changed the place of the planet. Currently, in comics or cinema it would be impossible.
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| Superman, when he was Superboy, managed to drag several planets from a galaxy |
2- SPEED:
Superman flies from Vega to Earth in a matter of minutes. Vega is a star 25 light years from Earth. This places Superman thousands of times faster than light. It also flew from Earth to Saturn in 4 minutes. During the New 52 Superman, while weakened and without sunlight, flew from the edge of the Universe to Earth in 60 days.
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| Superman’s speed rivals the Flash |
In fact, it is so fast that it is able to break the time barrier and move to the past or the future. This is an ability that appeared in the Silver Age but has had its way to this day. He is able to run almost at the speed of Flash !! Its flight speed reaches about 70,000,000 kilometers per second, that is, faster than the speed of light.
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| Superman can travel through time thanks to his speed! |
3- FLIGHT:
Because the Earth and the Sun have less gravitational force than that of Krypton, and because his body benefits and feeds from solar energy, Superman can also alter his personal monodirectional field of gravity to propel himself by the air at will. It can reach stratospheric speeds.
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| Superman’s best known power, being able to fly |
4- ENDURANCE:
Has the ability to maintain continuous physical actions for an indefinite period. In fact, it has unlimited stamina if it is constantly exposed to sunlight from Earth. Among his many exploits, he was able to hold a singularity, a black hole, in his hand, for a time …
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| Superman can hold black holes in his hand |
5- IMMORTALITY:
Superman is immortal. And even if he dies, he rises again. It happened in The Death of Superman. He was defeated by Final Judgment, which killed him, but managed to escape the jaws of death of his own accord (In ‘Superman’s Funeral’). And it does not age. Your cells do not get worse with duplication, but remain without failure over time. Anyway, the topic is a bit ambiguous and depends on the versions. The Superman from Earth-2 or Kingdom Come did show cellular aging, with the character showing gray hair and wrinkles. But in All-Star Superman we see a Superman who is in the Sun for thousands of years. In fact, there is a Superman, the Superman One Million (One Million), who is a million years old.
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| Superman / Kal El, is immortal. Does not get old |
6th – HEAT VISION:
Superman’s heat vision is one of his most extraordinary powers. It is the ability to emit solar energy through your eyes. Typically with laser-like bright red or orange beams ejected from their eyes, which can vary and be invisible at low temperatures and extremely bright at high temperatures. The range of your heat vision is many, many meters (even kilometers). And it can be hundreds of kilometers wide !! In addition to varying the width, height and intensity of the beam, Superman has demonstrated a high degree of skill and precision in manipulating his beam, being able to use this power with surgical precision and at microscopic levels.
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| Heat vision is one of his greatest powers (here against Doosmday) |
His heat vision attack is tremendously powerful and can be used to break steel plates, pulverize rock and Superman can do this with great skill and precision, manipulating the explosions to attack multiple targets in rapid succession, or for more mundane targets such as remove your beard. In the new stories, Superman has the ability to destroy entire planets with his heat vision with minimal effort.
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| Superman shaves with his heat vision |
7- X-RAY VISION:
the ability to see through anything except lead. Since it is passive, this ability would not generate harmful radiation in the same way as a focused projection of hard X-rays. It’s funny how he can see through flesh, human internal organs, and everything he looks for.
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| Superman can see through any material except lead |
8- ENERGY ABSORPTION:
Superman’s powers depend on the ability of his cells to absorb and metabolize solar energy from yellow stars like Earth’s own Sun. His Kryptonian body is that of a living being / “solar battery” that absorbs solar energy and turns it into fuel for great superhuman abilities that in other contexts, such as under Rao, the red star of Krypton, would be impossible. Your cells also store yellow solar energy so you can use your powers at night, in dark places, and in space. This storage lasts for a long time. In fact, it possesses remarkable powers of recovery that allow it to heal quickly from wounds and makes it immune to all forms of human or earthly diseases, illnesses, viruses, and toxins.
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| The heat of the Sun and its light rays give Superman power |
9 – TRAVEL IN TIME:
Due to Superman’s enormous speed, he is even capable of breaking the time barrier and moving at will through the temporal stream, both past and future.
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| Superman travels through time at will |
10º – SUPERHEARING: Another of his great abilities is that he is capable of listening at superhuman levels. It has the ability to expand your hearing range, allowing you to hear sounds before the sound waves actually reach you. This also gives you incredible hearing with extreme variations in sound and pitch frequency, allowing you to pick up noise from around the world. Also, you can focus your ear to hear what you want to hear.
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| It is not easy for Clark Kent to hear everything |
11th – SUPERHUMAN BREATH: The ability to inhale and exhale large volumes of air with great force, makes it capable of extinguishing fires and moving very heavy objects. It also allows Superman to hold his breath for prolonged periods in airless environments, being able to travel through space or sea uninterruptedly. In fact, thanks to the strength and capacity of his lungs, he saved a city from a tornado by inhaling the entire tornado into his lungs. He was also able to help the Earth rotate again:
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| Superman can move the planet with his breath |
You can also perform another series of cold-based attacks: Breathing highly compressed air through your lips causes the temperature to radically drop. This is known as icy breath, and it is capable of cooling its enemies to sub-zero temperatures and creating ice:
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| Superman’s dangerous icy breath |
12º – INTELLIGENCE:
Superman is a genius. On an intellectual level, he can learn everything and can understand concepts of all kinds thanks to his great level, which makes him one of the most intelligent beings in the DC universe. In addition, he can read at superhuman speed, which means that, for example, he can acquire all the human or Kryptonian knowledge that has ever been written. In the New 52, he read all the existing literature on medical knowledge in the world so he could operate on a friend.
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| Superman can read at hyperluminal speed, learning at high speed |
13th – OMNILINGUAL:
Kal-El is capable of understanding all the languages of the planet, as well as different species, beings and even aliens. He is an expert polygot, capable of perfectly understanding a mermaid, a German, Chinese or Japanese, or even aliens.
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| Superman can speak any language |
14º – TELESCOPIC AND MICROSCOPIC VISION: His vision is superhuman and allows him to focus at a great distance or objects of microscopic size, even at a subatomic level.
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| Superman has microscopic vision |
15th – INVULNERABILITY: Your body is almost invulnerable due to its extremely dense cellular and anatomical structure, as well as the radiant bioelectric aura that completely covers you. At many times, it resists different forms and levels of laceration, trauma due to sudden force, energy-based assaults, falls from great heights, explosions, and all known diseases on Earth. In addition, it is immune to the vacuum of space, it is not affected by the low temperature.
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| Superman is invulnerable to bullets and bombs |
Its bioelectric aura radiates it within a few millimeters of its skin and acts as an impenetrable force field, and it can even use it voluntarily to provide additional defense against certain types of physical or energy attacks for a fairly short period of time.
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| Superman has an aura that protects him from radiation |
It can resist invulnerably to different attacks. For example, it has been attacked with an explosion equivalent to 50 supernovae, or inside the Sun. Also nuclear attacks and atomic bombs. And what to say bullets and sword attacks or any knife … Anyway, Superman’s invulnerability has changed depending on the stories. In fact, in All-Star Superman suffered a terminal illness from having been too close and too long by the Sun’s side.
16th – PHASE CHANGE: Superman can alter his state of density, changing phase and being able to pass through solid bodies. In fact, this power has been around for a long time and we last saw it in 2001, in Superman # 175 in an epic match against Doosmday. But it seems that he prefers to break walls than go through them … The first time this power appeared was in an episode of the Adventures of Superman series, in 1958.
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| Phase shift is a power rarely seen in Superman |
17th – BRAIN SURGERY: Used only once, Superman became a kind of surgeon in Action Comics # 775 and removed a part of Manchester Black’s brain, just the part that gave him his powers. He did it with his heat vision.
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| Brain surgery, a great power of Superman |
18th – SUPER SMELL:
You can smell different smells all over the planet. Also, even though he’s at the Justice League base on the Moon, he can smell things from Earth.
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| ´Of course, there is also the super smell |
19º – SUPERLLAMARADA:
Of the last powers that Superman has acquired. He did it in the New 52, shortly before that version died. Anyway, that version came back and merged with the Post-Crisis era (1986-present) version of Superman, so he possibly continues to have this ability.
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| One of Superman’s newest powers |
20th – KINETIC PUNCH: During the New 52, Superman lost much of his strength – later regained it – and had to modify his punching style. He did this by adding kinetic energy to his blow, which caused an explosion on impact. Although you don’t need it now, you can always turn to it.
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| In the New 52, for a time he created the kinetic punch |
21º – UNFOLDING:
Superman has seen himself duplicated on several occasions. It first happened in the bizarre 1958 series Adventures of Superman, and we saw it for the second time in the ’90s, when Superman lost his usual powers and went electric. Then it would unfold into two beings, the blue Superman and the red Superman. These two beings would have to share their lives, replacing themselves even as Clark Kent. Years later, in Rebirth, two Supermen coexisted, the one from the New 52 and the one from the post-Crisis era, and according to Mister Mxyzptlk, both were two sides of the same coin.
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| Superman split into two individuals, the Red Superman and the Blue Superman. |
22nd – FUSION:
The power to unfold is accompanied by the power to rejoin. External forces may intervene, but there are many times that it has been folded in two, the most representative in blue and red Superman, and the New 52 and Post-Crisis versions. In the end they came together again for various reasons.
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| Superman has merged twice, during the 90s and in DC Rebirth |
23- TELEPATHY:
Telepathy is another of Superman’s powers, which he has not used much either, and although the full extent of this power is not known, it gives him a quite important ability at specific moments.
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| He has also occasionally displayed telepathic abilities. |
24- SENSITIVITY TO RADIO WAVES: I
n the New 52 he gained a skill that can be linked to his great hearing and that is that he is capable of feeling radio waves.
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| Superman feels the radio waves |
25- BREAKING REALITY:
One of the versions of Superman, Super boy-Prime, managed to break reality with his fists. It is true that it is not the canon version, but it could possibly do it considering all the power it treasures.
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| A version of Superman (Prime) broke reality |
26º – YOU DO NOT NEED TO EAT, DRINK OR BREATHE:
This will depend on the version in question. The most classic interpretation of the character, the Silver Age Superman, was completely powered by solar energy. He neither needed to eat nor needed to breathe. On the other hand, the most current Superman does breathe, although he may not breathe for days. In fact, he spent months traveling through space, without breathing or eating. On this issue there is no consistency among the scriptwriters.
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| Superman can go months without eating or breathing, wandering through space |
27- HEALING FACTOR:
When wounded he heals at a great speed. It has to do with its Kryptonian physiology, since it has much more advanced tissues than humans. It also heals much faster when it absorbs solar energy, like a walking battery.
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| No matter how shattered it is, it can regenerate |
28º – SUPERMEMORY:
He is able to memorize any information in a photographic way, which helps him to acquire complex knowledge about anything and apply them: build spaceships, perform surgery, learn languages …
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| Superman’s memory is prodigious and limitless |
POWERS IN THE AGE OF GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE
Below, you can learn about the 20 discontinued powers of Superman from the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages … some of them outrageous !:
