Is Superman weakened?....

[DR.MID-NITE]

One thing I have noticed in the show is seems that Supes is a little weaker. In the show whenever Supes gets hit by a laser beam he cries out and gets knocked back. Now before everyone jumps at me. I understand that some of the weapons were powerful enough to disintergrate a regular person, but not all. One glaring thing was that Supers was knocked unconscience by a depth charge in last nights episode. I understand that they may have to lower his powers to make better story lines. But, I think they might have gone to much.

ps- I still love the show. :D

[The Flash]

Well, he was under water at the time; no sun light.

[Maxie Zeus]

"No sunlight" seems to be turning into a catch-all excuse. He seems to be turning into Birdman (in his pre-lawyer days. :D )

Yeah, it's obviously very hard to strike a balance: You don't want Superman to be so strong that all the other JL members just look like danglers. But you don't want him so depowered that he just looks like "Stronger-than-Normal" man.

[BeastBoyWonder]

I admit i haven't seen it yet, but we can't have supes do everything, it makes for weak storylines.

[MattL.]

The animated series has always taken the smartest approach with Supermans powers.

In TAS Supermans powers are played a bit more adrenalin based and dependant on the yellow sunlight. If taken away from it for even so much as half a day he starts to weaken.
He could be getting knocked around really bad, but when he gets angry or there is a life in danger, then its on! :)

He's still the most powerful super-being alive but in this version of DCU nobody is a god.

While I have no problem with the omni powered versions of Superman (dispite what Byrne fanatics will say, it *is* a valid approach to the character), I think everyone is just as powerful as they need to be. Even the magic based characters like Demon and Dr. Fate are on a lower scale.

[The Guard]

The sunlight thing is getting to me. Superman, as seen in STAS, functions as a solar battery. He ABSORBS sunlight and almost stores it. I can understand him drained off in space, but underwater?

[MattL.]

I dont think they're denying that he stores in like a battery. I think they are just saying that its more of a biological thing like needing food. He stores the energy, but he can't just go without sunlight for days and days.

I think its an intresting take.

[The Green Hornet]

in STAS when the collector imprisoned supes in that cell with the Red Sun light, he was powerless in a short time, and within a minute or two of getting into the yellow sun room he was back at full strength

i read somewhere that they made him a LOT less invulnerable in STAS for character development (ie electricity hurt him, as did EXTREME heat like the radioactive stuff in Apokalyps NOW!) also explosions and what not could knock him out (and at one point he thought that one might even be able to kill him-- the first bizzaro ep i think)


in the comics he stores sunlight-- in KC they took this to a very cool level of him not needing to breathe, eat, drink, or have protection in vacuum (Space). Living so long on Earth under the yellow sun even made him practically IMMUNE TO GREEN K

how cool is that? =)


my take is this

they weakened supes to put him on a level with the rest of the crew-- in a superman focused episode (maybe just him +another hero or two instead of 4 or 5) i bet they beef up his powers to levels we would like to see (use of superspeed and flight at the same time, more power usage etc)

[MattL.]

I think adds a little bit of something to him to make his powers more dependant on the presence of sunlight itself.

It has a certain...mythical metaphor to it.

Hell, maybe he experiences a very slight dip in his power levels when its cloudy.

Besides, its not like it really takes that much away from him. For crissakes all he'd have to do is get outside or near a window and he'll kick your ass all over the place. ;)

[Kal-el]

THe sunlight issue is, for me, getting old. True, the yellow sun is his best friend, but the energy he has stored in his body would carry him through a good amount of time. When he was killed in the comics, it was only after an extremely long, prolonged battle with Doomsday. I guess I just don't like him being de-powered so much. I've watched JL with people that aren't huge fans but know of Superman. After watching JL, they didn't like it. They felt Superman was a wuss. In a way, I agree. Even the Lois and Clark version of Superman was more "super."
I feel that with the talented writers working on JL, a Superman that is not depowered and very 'super' can be done without detracting from the other members or the story. Remember, every member brings their own unique talents and abilities to the JL. Superman brings, well, his super abilities. Super is a strong adjective. He's not "Pretty good man" or "super guy during the day and wuss at night or on cloudy, overcast day or during a solar eclipse" man. As Maxie Zeus put it, you don't want a "Stronger-than-Normal" man.

[MattL.]

Well I think if you watch the shows he's far beyond just being "stronger than normal" man.

Esepcially the battle scenes in the recent ep where he takes a rock and uses it to gut the bottom of the Atlantean sub.

Seems pretty Super to me.

I have no problems with the Superman as a god on Earth approach. I love it in the films and the Elliot S. Maggin stories.

I think with the animated series though, he's only weak by the standards that we know from the comics. In context, he's still the most powerful of all the heroes, but none of the others have extremely over the top power levels either.

Also, I think alot of it has to do with fight choreography. Even by the standards of Post-Crisis DCU alot of these characters would just be standing there shrugging off this stuff. While that may be fun once or twice, it'd make the fight sequences pretty boring.

Honestly, a fight is just more intresting when the hero is getting his fare share of getting knocked around and getting hurt to.

Granted the power levels are considerably subdued, but I think its palyed to extremely intresting effect.

I like that in this the ring creates sheilds and lazer beams instead of boxing gloves and/or anime characters.

Hell, I think its pretty damn super that Clark could take something like massive electrical shocks and have it not burn his guts out and eventually get up from it.

A different approach certainally, but there is still plenty of Super Powers in Justice League (yeah I know, bad pun.) :p

[Mr. Obsession]

Well as far as the depth charge goes, it could be explained that since he was under water and the depth charge went off right next to him, and there were a bunch of them, the resulting sound could have overloaded his hearing, resulting in knocking him out. Water caries sound fairly well, and they are coming out with studies on whales and dolphins and other marine mammals that have suffered hearing damage from man made under water explosions that were miles away from the animals. :(

Now here's Superman with his super-hearing, under water (which carries sound waves extremely well) surrounded by about two dozen exploding depth charges. That just had to hurt.

[The Guard]

That's what I thought. He did grab his head...

[The Green Hornet]

thats exactly what i took that one as

for all we know they were modified depth charges to emit a low level sound to drive away sea life and, as a matter of good luck, almost blew out supes super hearing

[metaphysician]

Those depth charges were big. It has been shown that Superman, in the cartoon, can be at least stunned by explosives of that quantity.

Here, not only were quite a few detonated, but, being underwater, the shockwave was transmitted very well, making it roughly the equivalent of if those all got attached to his body and detonated.

Of course, this begs the question of why the others could survive such a blast, but. . .

[Mr. Obsession]

Originally posted by metaphysician
Of course, this begs the question of why the others could survive such a blast, but. . .
Well the others (JJ, WW, and GL) are almost as durable as Supes, the thing is Superman has much better hearing than the others, and as such can most likely hear things in ranges outside of the others.

So while the others were dealing with just a physical explosions. Superman was also dealing with an assault on his senses.

[metaphysician]

Sensory overload has always been a favorite of my tactics. If you can't think of anything else to do to someone, blind and deafen them.