Sorry if this is long and confusing, but as the character is 80-plus years old, he's got a *lot* of different stories. I can recall at least five different major incarnations of Superman in the comics:
One: from creation in the 30s to the 50s. Later retconned as "Superman 2". The one who originally couldn't fly, had to jump everywhere, and whose powers were based on body density and inherit superpowers. Superman 1 originally was very weak compared to his successor and his own later powers. For example, this one could be hurt by something like an exploding weapon fired from a tank. Also called the "Golden Age" Superman, he was a member of the Justice Society. Clark Kent thought of himself as more the real person, and just wore the costume on the job. Two: the "Silver Age" Superman from the 60s to the 80s. Officially "Superman 1", the model for the movies. This one is the godlike Superman who could push Earth out of orbit, and whose powers were a strange mix of molecular density and yellow sunlight. This is the one who used a lot of Kryptonian tech. An interesting aside, this Superman thought of himself as Kal-El, who used Clark Kent as a mask to hide his identity. This is also the superman who had major powers as Superbaby and Superboy. Three: the post-Crisis Superman of John Byrne and the cartoon from the 80s. Often called the "weak" superman, this one originally was much weaker, powers back closer to Superman 2 at the beginning. He could fly, but couldn't reach light speed, could only hold his breath for a couple of hours, and could lift maybe a building, not the Earth. This Superman had no super dense muscles, owing all his power to absorption of yellow sunlight. Gone were a lot of the things from the Silver Age Superman: the androids, the super cats, monkeys, and horses, all colors of Kryptonite except green. Superbaby and Superboy never existed, this version's powers developing slowly over years, not reaching full potential until adulthood (the last power he developed was flight, when he was somewhere around 16 - 18). Byrne's take on this character was that he thought of himself as Clark Kent, who used the mask of Superman to hide his identity. Clark Kent was also a very confident, successful guy, not the nerdy wimp of the old days (think Clark on "Smallville"). My personal fave of all the incarnations, closely followed by Superman 2. Four: The post-Infinite Crisis Superman. I don't know much about this one, not having read the books for two years now (thanks to Civil War, House of M, Secret Invasion, Siege, etc.). It appears that the writers are moving him back closer to the Silver Age Superman. His powers are going way up again (which I don't like), the various colors of Kryptonite are back, a lot of Kryptonians are back (from kandor I believe?). Clark is back to being a nerdy, wimpy guy, and it appears Superman is closer to being the "real" person. Not my fave version... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <hellomahog...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 9:57:10 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] The Five Most Insane Celebrity Comic Book cameos Hmm that is interesting. Sounds like a good read. I remember seeing the leaping to the top of buildings in the first issue but not much of the details. I always wondered why they never gave superman psychic or other powers. Here is another question. Why didn't superman have more technology? Wouldn't he have been trained by the crystals with all of the knowledge of krypton? On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 6:42 PM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: Depends on what version and who's writing the origin story. In the original premiere way back in 1936 (?), *all* Kryptonians had powers, even on their home planet. They traveled by leaping up to 800 feet at a time. At that time, the basis of their powers was that they were genetically advanced and superior to humans, and had denser, stronger bodies because Kryptonian was larger and denser than Earth, with a higher gravity. That Superman was later retconed to be said to be the Superman of Earth 1. Th Superman we grew up reading about had an odd mix of powers, based on super dense body as well as absorption of yellow sunlight. This one, to my memory, came from a Krypton where no one had superpowers because the sun was red (they somehow never got it straight with the superdense molecules). So i don't think his dad knew he'd have powers. In the movies, Jor-El states that Earth's son and lighter gravity would give Kal an advantage over humans. In the post-Crisis Superman, i don't believe Jor-El knew that the yellow sun would give Kal-El powers. He chose Earth because he felt that, though primitive, humans still had the passion and emotions that Kryptonians had lost. In this telling, Kryptonians wore full body suits that monitored and cared for their bio functions, didn't touch each other, didn't have sex (babies were conceived in the lab and then grown in artificial wombs), and didn't express affection. Jor-El wanted Clark to grow up on a planet not so sterile. Now that we have yet another Superman another the second Crisis, I'm not sure what his origin story is... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" < hellomahog...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 9:28:33 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] The Five Most Insane Celebrity Comic Book cameos Here's a question. When Superman's dad sent him to earth, did he know that his son would have superpowers? On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 6:18 PM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: It's stuff like that that made me celebrate The Crisis on Infinite Earths, the aftermath of which saw John Byrne's revamping of Superman. Still some of the best Superman books of the last twenty years came in the couple of years after the Crisis. I especially loved it when Byrne had Superman kill for the first and only time (He killed Zod and his cohorts, who'd come to his Earth from an alternate reality Earth. They actually came from the universe of the pre-Crisis Superman, and were thus dozens of times stronger than Byrne's Superman. He had no choice but to kill them). That ultimately led to him exiling himself to outer space for a time to work on a mental issue (he developed a split personality due to the guilt). That's where he met Mongol and the device that became the Eradicator. It was also during that period that Krypton as a planet of cold, dispassionate people was revealed. Good mature stuff! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" < hellomahog...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 9:13:44 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] The Five Most Insane Celebrity Comic Book cameos I actually remember reading Ali vs Superman when I was a kid. That's how you know a book has jumped the shark. :) Almost as bad as the Harlem Globetrotters on Giligan's Island. On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 7:42 AM, Kelwyn < ravena...@yahoo.com > wrote: Every so often, famous folks appear in comic books to lend some real-world veracity to the spandex-clad antics. Sometimes the cameo works and everyone has clean, kitschy fun. Other times the cameo fucks up the plot beyond all comprehension. These are some of those "other times." http://www.cracked.com/article_16031_the-5-most-insane-celebrity-comic-book-cameos.html ------------------------------------ Post your SciFiNoir Profile at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo ! Groups Links (Yahoo! ID required) -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
