Why does the knife/sword shatter and the metal pick crumple when clark/superman is hit?

Question

In Smallville, why does the knife/sword shatter into pieces when it hits Clark. And the metal pick crumple when he is stabbed?

I understand it obviously isn't meant to be real, its a superhero show of course, but it seems pretty blatant to miss a detail and I was thinking the producers must have an explanation.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to google the right terms to find my answer.

It just doesn't make sense that when human-strength characters hit solid-steel (aka superman); it wouldn't cause that effect.

Answer 1

I have an explanation for you, although even this explanation requires a bit of suspension of disbelief... I agree with you that if a normal human swung a sword (or pick) at a piece of steel that the weapons wouldn't shatter/crumble. But some of that comes from the expectation that the sword weilder has. They know that the sword isn't going to break the steel, so the energy from their swing is going to rebound back at them and hurt their hands. Therefore they take it a little easy on the swing. But in a fit of anger (as Lex was in when he swung a sword at Clark) if a person swung a sword at another person with the intention to kill, they wouldn't need to hold back because they'd expect that the sword would go through flesh and therefore most of the energy wouldn't rebound back at the weilder. So if Lex swung at Clark, expecting to cut flesh but instead hitting steel, he may have swung hard enough to shatter the sword.

...That said, the even more accurate answer to your question is that a shattering sword/crumbling pick adds drama to the scene, which is the writer's main intention.

Answer 2

If you're referencing Crimson and Hourglass
in Crimson Lex stabbed wildly at Clark out of fear, and self preservation, so its possible that it hit him at an odd angle, and then bent.

In Hourglass when 'Young Harry' stabbed CK with the knife, it shattered because he was driving the entire force of his body through the knife intending to kill him putting all of that energy into the tip of the blade(Why do knife tips break off in victims, I think every 'Crime show' has done the 'ID/match the knife from a broken tip' episiode)

I forget the ep. where Clark dreamt that Lex attacked him with the 'mythic sword'. In reality it was actually a prop sword from Lex's favorite film. So the shattering sword slash was a dream sequence.

Answer 3

Well if we look at John Byrne's take on Superman, his skin itself is not invulnerable and has a force field around it. Then impact of the forementioned knife and pick may cause it to react that way.

Take two for the old school super-fans.

Superman is so solid that a pick is in comparision like a piece of tin foil and folds, knives would shatter due to his hardness.

Take three (and final)

Superman is showing off. He zaps the knives with a bit of that superbreath to make them brittle and hits the metal head of the pick with some heat vision so it folds then he zaps it real quick with superbreath so it is room temperature. Why? To have fun and to humilate the criminal.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Modern swords have a tendency to totally break if they are swung, mostly because swords don't see combat anymore and because the general populace doesn't know what their looking for when they buy a decent sword, therefor 90% of the sword market isn't of high quality.

Picks on the other hand are usually well made because they are still used and need to be able to take a hammer, and will bend when they hit something to hard.

Answer 5

It's like throwing a glass bottle at a brick wall. And while I admit it should not have shattered, the knife/sword should have been thoroughly unusable. Superman/Clark Kent's invulnerability provides him with enough protection to survive a nuclear bomb going off.

Answer 6

probably it's because his skin is alledgedly much stronger than the hardness of those materials

Answer 7

here's some links ....