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This is final third part of a series where we cover those abilities, traits, and powers that set Superman part in the Man of Steel. In this episode, we cover:
- Speed
- Flight
- Telescopic Vision
- Aging
- Telekinesis
While covering our topics, we will discuss and answer the following questions:
- What distinguishes The Flash’s speed?
- Why you can’t muscle super speed.
- How did Superman’s space craft get to NORTHCOM?
- How far can Superman see?
- How do Kryptonians age?
- What makes it likely Superman has TK?
…and more!
Web: ManOfSteelAnswers.com
Twitter: @mosanswers
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Proud member of the Superman Podcast Network!
Software Generated Transcript
I agree on the super speed not being used in the tornado scene because Clark might not have had it at the time.
When we see Clark as a child, getting his super hearing, he runs out of the classroom and into the closet to hide, but runs at a normal pace. From that, we can assume that he didn’t have super speed there.
We also don’t seem Clark using super speed when he saves the bus full of his classmates nor in the scene when he is bullied so I think we can also assume he didn’t have super speed at that age, either.
I do think Clark has super speed by the time he is bearded and on the fishing boat because he is able to swim to the oil rig in time to save all of the workers. So, he must’ve came into that power sometime because high school or college (whatever age he is at the time of Jonathan’s death) and then.
Great point about the difference between Superman’s super speed and The Flash’s, given the Speed Force!
I hadn’t even considered that Superman had not flown with heavy objects in “Man Of Steel”. I think he could do it, though, given that he CAN hold very heavy objects such as the oil rig’s structure. Hope we can see some of that in future films!
I also hadn’t really thought about Telekinesis in the movie so I like your thoughts on that.
Thanks for sharing your insights!
Thanks for listening and your feedback!
I’m still skeptical about Clark having super speed on the oil rig because of how he handles things afterwards without super speed (stealing a disguise, hitch hiking to Ellesmere, being disguised on Ellesmere, etc). However, I may be splitting hairs. I don’t doubt that Clark moved quickly to get to the oil rig, but I think he did it by muscle (super-strength) rather than supernatural speed / flight. A multistory oil-rig derrick weights several hundred thousand tons with the mast being several hundred to thousand tons itself. I’m not well versed enough in the physics of fluid dynamics, but I’m pretty sure putting that much strength / energy into a breast stroke or dolphin kick is going to propel you magnitudes faster than Michael Phelps. If Phelps tops out at 7 mph at his peak burst and Clark can achieve strokes that drive him 100 times faster, he’ll be at the oil rig in under 30 seconds which is an acceptable response time. But I distinguish between this kind of speed-as-a-result-of-strength vs. physics-defying-super-speed. For example, I don’t doubt that Clark could use his giant leaps to outrace land animals, but when we think or imagine super-speed, we’re thinking about something more like The Flash rather than The Hulk.
But the time from the boat to the rig is definitely a good point and something I should raise at some point.
Regarding heavy objects, I’ve come to believe that at least as far Man of Steel is concerned, it’s something he’ll have to learn to do… that is, to combine strength WITH flight. I’ve noticed that Superman gets knocked out of the air fairly easily in Man of Steel. The flightless Nam-Ek tackles him to the ground, when Zod brings down the building with heat vision… getting knocked by the building completely disrupts Superman’s flight path, and when fighting Zod getting knocked about. We know that he can brace himself against impacts and once he combines that ability with flight, he would be able to lift things while flying, brace against or hold up a collapsing building, etc.
I hope we see it too, because without it, he’s more like Iron Man than a traditional Superman.
Another thing I’ve been is, how far DCCU Superman can hear?
Good question. We don’t know yet. The furthest we’ve actually observed him hear is from the escape pod crash site to the Kent Farm, but that distance is fuzzy. As a child, Clark says, “the world” but we have no way of knowing if he literally means the entire world and when we experienced the sounds he was hearing it wasn’t literally the entire world.
We’ll have to wait and see.