How powerful is Superman?Can he be beaten at full strenght?

Question

What is the most powerful he's ever been..Comic books etc...?

Answer 1

Okay, that’s three questions for your five points, but I’m going to answer them.

First, what’s the most powerful he’s ever been? In the old pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths days (up to the 1980’s) Superman was ridiculously powerful. He just kept getting stronger and stronger, to the point where they had to come up with more weaknesses for him. Not only was there magic, which he couldn’t resist, there was things from Krypton (like Virus X a deadly disease which could kill him if he got it, and Kryptonian rabies, and Kryptonian weapons), there was also SIX kinds of Kryptonite!

They used to show him regularly pushing planets around and blowing out supernovas with his super breath! They should have called him, Supernaturalman. Something had to be done.

(BTW, this is WHY they made Kryptonite so common that you could look out the window and see a K-meteor landing every other day of the week. They had to have SOMEthing that would slow him down…!)

[In the 70’s, they tried turning all the Kryptonite on Earth into iron, and cut Superman’s powers in half. But they didn’t define it carefully enough, What’s half of infinity? If only they had enforced the rul eon writers, it would have been a good approach. And, eventually, bad guys learned to make synthetic Kryptonite, and then more natural Kryptonite landed on Earth from space, and things were back to where they had been before.]

So, after Crisis on Infinite Earths, they rebooted the DC universe, and started over. [That is what I think Marvel will have to do, too, once they finish painting themselves into a corner with Civil War.] Now, Superman is a lot less powerful.

Next question: how powerful is he? In one of the earliest issues after the reboot, when Metallo was reintroduced, Superman wanted to hide the place where Metallo was built. Since Metallo was powered by Kryptonite, and he didn’t know what it was yet, he wanted to isolate the farm where the guy that built Metallo had lived. So, he dug round the entire farm, fusing the soil with his heat vision and super pressure, into a big dish (like a clay ashtray.) Figure it was several acres. He figured it was several hundred thousand tons.

He lifted it up and noticed that it seemed to be a lot easier to life once he was flying or once he got it off the ground. It hasn’t been emphasized much, but DC seems to have redefined a lot of Superman’s powers as psionic in nature. It isn’t that he can read mind or things like that. But part of his strength is telekinesis, the same way Superboy (the clone)’s strength is tactile telekinesis. THAT is how he can lift things that are so heavy and yet they seem lighter when he flies with them.

In an issue shortly after the reboot, where he was shown moving the Earth, he had to use a special harness so that it negated over 99 % of the Earth’s mass, but even so it was a strain for him. So he is WAY less strong than he ever was before

Similarly, his ‘invulnerability’ is not that he is so tough, but (as Martha Kent remarked) “I noticed when he was little that clothes next to his skin never seemed to get dirty or torn.” So his costume is not indestructible—it’s not from Krypton, anymore!-- it is that he has an invisible force field that protects him and his suit from harm. They capitalized on this, early on, when they showed him getting his cape torn to shreds all the time, because it wasn’t protected by his force field. He had to have a closet full of spare capes, and call home to ask Ma Kent to make him some more when he ran out! But they ran into continuity problems with that, like, at the end of one issue, his cape was torn to shreds, and he flew directly to the White House after that and in the next issue his cape was shown whole. So I think that since then they came up with something else to make his cape indestructible. Anyhow, so that’s how powerful he is NOW.

Can he be beaten at full strength? Yes, he has! Doomsday killed him when he was at full strength. Mongul is also as strong as Superman. In a classic story, For the Man who has Everything, Mongul attacked Superman at his arctic Fortress of Solitude while he, Batman and Robin and Wonder Woman were celebrating his birthday. Mongul wiped up the floor with Wonder Woman while Superman was temporarily out of commission (due to a psychic alien plant that Mongul used against him.) Now, don’t forget, this was the pre-Crisis Superman! And when Robin took the plant off Superman, he and Mongul were beating the living snot out of each other. They trashed the Fortress.

Luckily, Robin turned the tables by putting Mongul’s alien plant on him, so he was rendered helpless. That was the second Robin, Jason Todd, by the way. I still think that was his finest hour.

So, there are some that can beat Superman, even at full strength. I suspect that Darkseid might be another, but like Mongul he prefers to use weapons and traps and get others to do his dirty work for him. It was established in the 60’s or early 70’s (in a Justice League story, against the Key) that Superman could be held helpless by a combination of Wonder Woman’s magic lasso and energy bands from Green Lantern’s ring. And that was definitely the pre-Crisis superman. So there are some that can beat him.

I hope this tells you everything you wanted to know. If it doesn’t, add some additional details to your question, and I’ll add additional details to my answer.

30 DEC 06, 1716 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

Why, more powerful than a locomotive, of course! Sorry, you set that up. In actuallity, however, Superman's strength is very high. While t he previous answers to this question have been very accurate, let me see if I can put it in perspective.

The planet Krypton, which is in another galaxy many light years from Earth, is the closest planet to that solar system's sun. The sun that the solar system uses is a red dawrf sun (as oppossed to our yellow one), and thus, withought getting too scientific, afects the inhabitants of Krypton (Kryptonians) differently than our sun affects us. Also, being closer to the sun causes the planet to experience different gravity effects. Because of the planet's gravity and proximity to the sun, the tectoic plates became unstable, causing massive quakes and planetary siezures, which eventually led to it's destruction.

When Superman reached Earth, some of his powers manifested quickly, while he grew into others during his teenage years. His strength was put to use very quickly, because even a sheilded rocket can only protect an infant from entering the atmosphere so much. He could also lift the car when he was very young. As he grew, his strength did as well. There are images that show him tearing moons in half, and of tunneling through mountains. To give you the best approximation I can, there was an issue that he had lost his powers. He was still working out and lifting weights to stay in shape, and the panel shows him lifting about 200 pounds. And that is without any superpowers. He then says that it used to take that much effort to life a small mountain. That is the closest approximation of his strength that I have ever seen in the comic books. Needeless to say, he packs a punch, so dont get him angry. (Together now...) "You wouldn't like him when he's angry..."

Answer 3

Superman is... insanely, inhumanely powerful. But all this is due to being in a lower gravity environment than Krypton, his home planet. If he were on Krypton, he could be shot and he'd die. However, Earth's gravity is lower than Krypton's, granting him godlike powers. Also, Superman needs to be exposed to a yellow sun, which Krypton does not have.

In the right circumstances, Superman could be beaten. Anyone with a chunk of Kryptonite could kill Superman. Some superheroes/villains can kill Superman. Luckily, the superheroes are heroes, and as for the villains, they get outsmarted by Superman, so they fail.

Answer 4

In the presence of yellow sunlight, he's almost invincible. In Frank Miller's "Dark Knight Returns", Superman takes a direct hit from a nuke. It did slow him down temporarily, but he walked it off after a bit.

Still, ALMOST invincible means that he can still be beaten. Silver Surfer, who has almost limitless powers himself might be able to take Superman down. Certainly Galactus (who created Silver Surfer and eats planets for breakfast) could stomp him if he wanted to. Any of the Green Lanterns might beat him given the right circumstances. Professor X or Doctor Strange could trash his mind, rendering him helpless. The Watcher (another godlike pan-galactic being) could easily snuff him. Speaking of gods, Marvel has written Thor, Odin and other norse deities into their comic pantheon. I figure a bonafide god could probably beat Superman.

Fortunately for Superman, all of the above are good (or at least neutral) guys who don't have any cause to do the big S any harm. Silver Surfer's nemesis Mephisto is a powerful demon who might match up favorably against Superman. Doctor Doom, though thoroughly mortal, has at times concocted ways to drain superheroes of their powers (like Rogue from the X-Men). This might ruin Superman's day. And, of course, any twelve-year-old paperboy with a hunk of Kryptonite (which seems about as common as granite in the world of DC comics) could just walk right up to Superman and give him a sound thrashing.

Basically, as long as he avoids Kryptonite Superman is safe in the DC world. It's Marvel's parallel universe where he'd get himself into serious trouble.

Answer 5

Superman is generally acknowledged as the most powerful, in terms of straight strength. At full strength, in a strength alone fight, he has beaten both Doomsday and (in a crossover tale) the Hulk.

He can be defeated by magic, kryptonite, and outwitted. In Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", future Batman defeats him with kryptonite gloves.

Answer 6

Superman, if using his kryptonian powers to it's full extent, is pretty much the most powerful character in either the Marvel or DC universe ( and I'm a huge Spiderman fan) and I believe that in the comics that since he's been exposed to kryptonite so much that he is now impervious to it.

Answer 7

Wow.... cdf-rom does it again.... no way that guy shouldn't get the best answer.


I would just like to add that it will only be a matter of time before Supes is back up to planet moving and 2,000,000 ton lifting.... He is after all still DC's "flagship" Hero.

Answer 8

He Can Whip Anyone / Unless They Have cryptonite With Them

Answer 9

Just get gohan or goku to kick his ***, both have superspeed, bullet proofness when super, superhuman strength, can shoot ki blasts out of their hands, and have stages of strength which means they can get stronger, and have no weakness, such as ktyptonite, unless u call eating a crap load of food a weakness. o they can also fly at varying speeds, teleport, and know god.

Answer 10

Im not touchy this with a ten foot pole fan boys would freak out if i spoke my mind