Defining Superman's powers for reboot!

Here's how I believe they should define Superman's abilities in the upcoming reboot... They should take a page book from "The Man Of Steel" comic mini series & "Superman: The Animated Series" or better yet the Max Fleischer's "Superman" cartoons, just make him formidable but not all powerful!

Here's what I propose on how Superman's abilities should be estimated to...

Have Superman's strength level be up to 60 Tons.
Since it's been said that Superman is more powerful than a locomotive I figure he should just be as powerful as a locomotive and have him be able to be strong enough to pull aleast three passenger rail cars since each of those weigh about 20 tons.


Have Superman's speed level be up to 682 MPH.
Since it's been said that Superman is faster than a speeding bullet I figure he should just as fast as a speeding bullet and from what I heard a bullet can go 1000 FPS but in mileage it's 682 MPH.

Have Superman given three stages of his X-Ray vision.
I figured Superman's X-Ray vision should have a rate that go from lowest to highest. First stage is being able to see through walls while still be visable, second stage is be able to see through walls but less visable and being able to see someone's muscular sysyem, and finally the third stage is being able to see everything compeletely and fully X-Ray (Similar as it was in "Smallvile").

Have Superman given three stages of his Heat vision.
Same story with his X-Ray vision, have his Heat vision have a rate that go from lowest to highest. First stage is being able to produce mild heat on anything that he stares at, second stage is being able to produce above mild heat in the form of visable helium from the eyes (Also similar as it was in "Smallville"), and finally the third stage is being able to produce intense heat in the form of laser like beams from the eyes.

Have Superman given two versions of his Super breath.
Since Superman can produce one breath that can blow things like strong winds can and produce another that can freezes things (Only enough to create frost bites in this version) I figured he can do that depending on the control of his lungs and even his lips.

Other abilites that Superman should retain are...

Flight
Duh!!! He just wouldn't be Superman without it!

Invulnerability
This depends upon his strength level.

Telescopic vision
Should be portrayed as if his eyes were like organic binoculars.

Super hearing
Should be portrayed as if he was hearing one party clearly and the other party in a more alternate tone.

And as a added bonus...

Temporary power charge: I think Superman could have this ability which will inable him to gain extra power just by obsorbing alot more sunlight thus increasing his strength & speed up to two-folds. In other words, his strength level is no more than 120 Tons and his speed level is no more than 1364 MPH but all of this is only temporary for aleast several minutes before reducing back to his standard level.

Now for his limitations...

I figured Superman should have limitations to his abilities pretty much the same reason why John Byrne limited Superman's abilities in "The Man Of Steel" mini series and Bruce Timm who also fellow the idea when he did "Superman: The Animated Series", and is to have Superman being actully challenged as well as being able to struggle, worn himself down and even having going through some differculties that proves that his powers may not be enough to overcome the odds. Aside from being weakend from Kryptonite, unable to see through lead and being vulnerable to magic they are other kinds of limitations that he could have such as... Unable to lift anything over 60 Tons unless he aleast struggles, unable to go faster than 682 MPH, his Heat vision reflects from mirrors, unable to breath underwater let alone in orbit/space unless has an oxygen mask & gear and even 50 Cailber bullets & missiles is enough to knock him off balance but still dosen't endore any serious physical damage.

Of course, these are all from my prospectives!

What do you guys think?

I respectfully disagree so please don't take that the wrong way. To me, what you're describing is a GREATLY depowered Superman. John Byrne 'depowered' Superman with HIS version but not THAT drastically. I don't know how much comics knowledge you have but the 'pre-Crisis' Superman had almost UNLIMITED strength! AKA the 'planet-juggling Superman'. You know, sneeze & blow out a STAR, crazy stuff! I think what Byrne meant to do was make Superman more REALISTIC but not be a wuss either. I recall later info I read on Byrne's Superman is that it was theorized that his strength level was such that he could lift that great pyramid in Egypt over his head, that is, IF it were possible to do such a thing without it crumbling under its' own weight. That's CONSIDERABLY more than 60 tons! However, it's still weaker than 'juggling planets'. However, it IS more reasonable than that. 60 tons is LOT to you & me but for Superman it should be a piece of cake. Please, let's NOT make him the equivalent of the TV Hulk. Even the comics Hulk is far more powerful than that.

I'd probably have to disagree with the other power levels also. I mean, this AIN'T 1938. I don't mind the character being LIKE the Golden Age version in temperament but let's NOT go back to those power levels. By the same token, we don't need 'SUPERBOY-PRIME' either, which is like the evil equivalent of the pre-Crisis Superman, only he's bent on destroying reality, punching walls & such crap.

For this NEW film, let's NOT have contradictions like in SINGERMAN SUCKS. When 'Singerman' struggled to even stop a plane crash, he barely did it! So much so that even ROGER EBERT questioned that scene, like saying, isn't he supposed to be Superman?! Why did he struggle then?! But then when directly exposed to a CONTINENT of Kryptonite, he lifts it into space. WTF?! And he did that after being 'given the shaft' by Kevin Spacey & ordinary goons!

To be fair, let's not go with Donner's version either. Turning back time at a whim & other such nonsense shouldn't be in this film either.

No, for the reboot, let's have a PROPERLY powered Superman!

I don't think Superman's powers need to be "defined" in the reboot. Superman is Superman, and everyone knows it.

Just let him be who he is supposed to be without resorting to cheap soap opera garbage or a certain person's "lifestyle choices".

I look at it like my favorite example of the cinematic realisation of his powers....Superman chasing the missiles. We know that Superman can fly faster than a missile, we even see him doing so a short time later, but Donner and Reeve imbue the scene with good old fashioned ACTING. Reeve is literally busting a gut to catch that missle, on film it makes for an exciting sequence unlike anything similar seen in Singerman.

Then again, the term acting and Ruth just don't go together anyway......

I do hope they show him at a good top power levels for his powers. Then have some good sfx for heat/superbreath and speed/flying.

Just to make this abit understandable, you do realize that Superman never started off being all powerful infact, when he made his comic book dubut in "Action Comics" #1 in 1938 he was less powerful than what he became later in decades to come! Even in the Max Fleischer's cartoons they display Superman's abilities pretty much in the same similar fashion as they were in the comics within those times the only difference is that he gain a couple of more powers such as Flight and X-Ray version.

Decades later thats when his powers increase over time, aleast in the comics anyways! So much to the point that he INDEED was able to move planets, which is painfully ridiculous especially for today standards!

As a result, when John Byrne rebooted the franchise through his "The Man Of Steel" mini series he didn't necessarily depowered Superman all he did was revert him back to the level that he use to be in. Even Bruce Timm follow this when he did "Superman: The Animated Series" and it was exactly how Superman was portrayed then and what he was meant to be!

Now for the reboot, it should do what Max Fleischer, John Bryne & Bruce Timm did with Superman and his abilities and that is make him more challengable cause lets face it... How could you challenge someone who is all powerful let alone god-like? How can they even consider doing a future "Justice League" movie if they have an all powerful Superman?

Think about that for a moment!!!

Comicbookfan-V2 wrote:Just to make this abit understandable, you do realize that Superman never started off being all powerful infact, when he made his comic book dubut in "Action Comics" #1 in 1938 he was less powerful than what he became later in decades to come! Even in the Max Fleischer's cartoons they display Superman's abilities pretty much in the same similar fashion as they were in the comics within those times the only difference is that he gain a couple of more powers such as Flight and X-Ray version.

Decades later thats when his powers increase over time, aleast in the comics anyways! So much to the put that he INDEED was able to move planets, which is painfully ridiculous especially for today standards!

As a result, when John Byrne rebooted the franchise through his "The Man Of Steel" mini series he didn't necessarily depowered Superman all he did was revert him back to the level that he use to be in. Even Bruce Timm follow this when he did "Superman: The Animated Series" and it was exactly how Superman was portrayed then and what he was meant to be!

Now for the reboot, it should do what Max Fleischer, John Bryne & Bruce Timm did with Superman and his abilities and that is make him more challengable cause lets face it... How could you challenge someone who is all powerful let alone god-like? How can they even consider doing a future "Justice League" movie if they have an all powerful Superman?

Thank about that for a moment!!!

Maybe by giving him a threat that he NEEDS to be powerful against? How about they start thinking on a grand scale for Superman, and the things he needs to do to win? No more missile chasing. No more fighting a computer. No more lifting things. No more fighting a piece of dirt.

The only people who have a problem writing for Superman are limited by their OWN imagination and abilities. Not by the character.

Yep. The other thing? For some reason in the Reeve franchise, the minute Superman took to the skies, they had him fly out into the MF'ing middle of nowhere. In STM, it was the desert during the missile chase. In S2, it was in the opening when he flew to Paris or when the villains flew to the FOS. In S3, it was when he flew to Gorman's supercomputer. One thing Supergirl got right was the awesomeness of flying over the city, between buildings, etc. There were a lot of those kinds of moneyshots in there, the wonder of flying around. People need to find the visuals awe-inspiring and sending Superman out into the desert in every friggin movie ain't the way to do it.

That's always bugged the hell out of me.

totally i hope flying scenes are done much better this time, and dont rely on cgi models and all that. Have the actor on sets/real city locations with wire rigs. Then some cgi/green screen stuff. STM made flying look really real for 70s but SR having the modern tech of today looked liked crap with flying. As for powers i want them to look visually good(i am sure snyder will do good there). And i want him to be powerful but not to powerful but not to weak either.

You're right about the desert scenes. Even in Superman 2 Zod & crew ended up in the desert as well as flying over it. They also have a habit of focusing on nuclear weapons, e.g. films 1,2, & 4. SINGERMAN 'tried' to have more city scenes I believe but the color scheme for THAT film was so drab it was like BLECK! And just recently they were talking about having Zod again.

I have no REAL idea what the NEW team have in store but I DO hope they think at least a little 'out of the box'. DO something different & original. No nukes. No deserts. NO LAND! And puh-leazzzeee, NO CRYSTALS! Want a TRUE reboot? Then COMPLETELY break from the past. As much as we ALL love the Reeve films, I think that we'll be equally as grateful to have something NEW.

And let Superman PUNCH something!

well i wouldnt mind if the look of the fos stays, and crystals are just a data storage device. But everything else i do want a clean break.

Yeah, the criminals in S2 really were a missed opportunity. You don't want them to wreak so much havoc that the showdown in Metropolis gets overshadowed but I think there was a lot of mileage to be had from a montage of them taking down Army and police personnel, taking over each continent, destroying stuff, etc.

As for the FOS, enough with the crystals. It's only been recently they've had anything to do with the comics (and that only because Geoff Johns can't take his mouth off of Donner's pucker; he's worse about that than Singer, if you ask me). I want to see the real FOS, the one from the Pre-Crisis era or even the one from the Byrne Age. The crystal thing has got to go.

ok what if they took pre crisis look but kept crystals are data storage materials the fos use like how we use cds and all that in pcs.

webhead2006 wrote:ok what if they took pre crisis look but kept crystals are data storage materials the fos use like how we use cds and all that in pcs.

How about we just get rid of the fucking crystals entirely?

really i dont see problem with crystals as data/memory storage devices. It works as a science.

Even IF it works as a science, the problem is that if we see the FIRST crystal, we're gonna expect Christopher Reeve to come flying around the corner backed up by the John Williams theme music. I'd prefer that maybe Krypton had some more advanced science that we couldn't even comprehend at this time. They'd have to to have sent Kal-El to another galaxy in a short amount of time. And the whole crystal thing will be too nostalgic, what duh apologists at duh Homopage refer to as 'nudge nudge, wink wink'. "HEY! See Blandon 'BJ' Routhman APE Reeve!" BJ replies, "SWELL!" Been there, done that. No MORE homages please.

well i didnt mean to have krypton be ice/crystal world. i def want to see a different look for krypton if we see it at all. i want to see a high tech city. Only thing when i say crystals is for it be be like how we use a cd rom today. Plus it doesnt have to look like crystal of reeve movie or smallville. but a crystal like device to put in machines and all that.

It doest need to look like like this:


But maybe something like this:

(minus english writing/maybe have kryptonian text on it)

Why not use what's already in the comics instead of sifting through Donner's 30 year old leftovers? The FOS wasn't originally intended to be a Kryptonian museum, it was supposed to be a store house for dangerous technology and also a place for Superman to get away from it all for a while. It took on a nigh religious significance in the Donner films and that entire influence is tired. Let's see something new or, lacking that, something from the comics (a novel idea for a Superman film, I know, but let's give it a shot).

Sure I want it to be a storage and what not for him to. Like how it was in stas. But I was just saying I still have nothing againt the crystal look for it. If that was done again. But I do agree like how I want a clean break from every else a new look is probably good to go too. I just thing just using crystals for data stoage/holographic tech would be cool.

webhead2006 wrote:Sure I want it to be a storage and what not for him to. Like how it was in stas. But I was just saying I still have nothing againt the crystal look for it. If that was done again. But I do agree like how I want a clean break from every else a new look is probably good to go too. I just thing just using crystals for data stoage/holographic tech would be cool.

Sorry, I'm with everyone else. A clean break means just that. A CLEAN BREAK.

No crystals, no floating Brando Jor-El head, no real-estate asshole Luthor, no "swell". Nothing. Time to come up with something original, new and fresh.

Plus, something tells me there won't be a Fortress in this first film anyway.

Yea probably so. We will have to see.

Not that I want to bring this thread back up or anything but after giving it a long thought I realize that non_amos may be right about putting Supes in a class 60 is abit low, which is why I decided that Superman's strength level should be about 80 tons instead of 60 tons. I know this may still seem kind of low for some people but the idea is to have Superman being forminable but not all powerful!

Aleast with an 80 ton strength level Supes is strong enough to pull four passenger rail cars rather than three (Since each of those weigh 20 tons) and with a temporary power charge (Which is absorbing more sunlight) his stength level can increased to no more than 160 tons for aleast several minutes.

Hope this sounds better!

Comicbookfan-V2 wrote:Not that I want to bring this thread back up or anything but after giving it a long thought I realize that non_amos may be right about putting Supes in a class 60 is abit low, which is why I decided that Superman's strength level should be about 80 tons instead of 60 tons. I know this may still seem kind of low for some people but the idea is to have Superman being forminable but not all powerful!

Aleast with an 80 ton strength level Supes is strong enough to pull four passenger rail cars rather than three (Since each of those weigh 20 tons) and with a temporary power charge (Which is absorbing more sunlight) his stength level can increased to no more than 160 tons for aleast several minutes.

Hope this sounds better!

I have to disagree. That makes Superman far TOO much of a wimp! That might be fine for a MARVEL character who's in the '100-ton club' or less but NOT for Superman. I recall I used to read Marvel's descriptions & they had the HULK listed as being able to lift 90 tons at REST but when enraged, the madder Hulk gets, the STRONGER Hulk gets, so THEN he could lift significantly more. The ABOMINATION was ORIGINALLY at TWICE the resting Hulk's strength level, only he DIDN'T get stronger with anger. And I think we ALL know that DC decided to picture DOOMSDAY as a 'HULK RIP-OFF' who could mop the floor with Superman so I suppose he'd be even MORE powerful than those 2 characters? Yet Superman still managed to 'kill' Doomsday (yeah, right).

As for the railway cars, without having researched it mind you, but I believe that they weigh FAR more than 20 tons. My reasoning? There was an individual railway car on the tracks at this factory I worked at a few years ago. The weight on the side of the car was listed as 200,000 pounds, which is 100 tons. It had a capacity to HAUL an additional 175,000 pounds, i.e., almost 200 tons! And consider that's just ONE railway car! What about Superman stopping a train with his bare hands as I suggested as being a good save for the reboot? Well, at the strength level YOU suggested, the train would MOW Superman down! Consider, if ONE railway car has THAT kind of weight, what will an ENTIRE train weigh, with multiple cars that seem to stretch indefinitely? At least it SEEMS that way when you're stopped at the railroad tracks.

I'm NOT suggesting that Superman be 'planet-juggling' like DC recently pictured 'SUPERBOY-PRIME' as basically being, which, in a sense, is a type of the 'pre-Crisis' Superman, but Superman should be FAR more powerful than you suggested. Even John Byrne had his strength level as being able to lift that great pyramid in Egypt, IF it were possible to do so without it collapsing under its' own weight. It' something to think about. MY hope for the reboot is that they make Superman's feats of strength LOOK realistic & not hokey-looking, but I say let SNYDER handle this point. Nolan may 'godfather' this project but puh-leazzzeee, no rational 'real-world' Nolan explanations for Superman's abilities!

i would think with jonah and david knowing their comic stuff and snyder being well versed there too. They will have the power levels and usage of powers down good.

non_amos wrote:
As for the railway cars, without having researched it mind you, but I believe that they weigh FAR more than 20 tons. My reasoning? There was an individual railway car on the tracks at this factory I worked at a few years ago. The weight on the side of the car was listed as 200,000 pounds, which is 100 tons. It had a capacity to HAUL an additional 175,000 pounds, i.e., almost 200 tons! And consider that's just ONE railway car! What about Superman stopping a train with his bare hands as I suggested as being a good save for the reboot? Well, at the strength level YOU suggested, the train would MOW Superman down! Consider, if ONE railway car has THAT kind of weight, what will an ENTIRE train weigh, with multiple cars that seem to stretch indefinitely? At least it SEEMS that way when you're stopped at the railroad tracks.

Yeah, those are railway/freight cars you talking about but I was actually refering to PASSENGER rail cars! Also, I was only basing Superman's strength to the weight of a locomotive or more likely a particular one since there are locomotives that have different measures of weight. But we all know that locomotive are design to pull heavy cargo or in this case rail cars. The idea was to have Superman as powerful as a locomotive since one of his tag lines use to be "More powerful than a locomotive" so I also based his strength on how many rail cars (Passenger ones) he can pull!

And another thing... You can actually do quite alot with a 80 ton strength level infact, here's a list objects you can lift with it starting with objects that weighs slightly less than 80 tons...

A Luxury Yacht, a Military Tank and a 737 Boeing Airliner.

Now here's a list objects that do weigh 80 tons that can be lifted with a class 80...

A Locomotive (That weighs 80 tons), a Car Transporter (With eight cars) and a 757 Boeing Airliner.

non_amos wrote:I have to disagree. That makes Superman far TOO much of a wimp!

How does being under a class 100+ make you a wimp? Batman is a non-superpowered type, so would you consider him a wimp?