Analyzing the Super Solar Flare

This thread is dedicated towards deconstructing and understanding Superman's new power. Here's what we know:

1. Heat vision is the pre-cursor to the power.

2. It's an all out desperation attack that releases all the stored solar energy in his body to create a "Super Solar Flare". To put it in gaming terms, it nukes the field.

3. The ability seems similar to something Supergirl has been capable of for awhile. There are two differences though. First is that Superman's version seems a lot more powerful, capable of putting down Ulysses, who as far as we know is around Superman's level. Second, unlike Kara who is only weakened by the effect, the Super Solar Flare completely drains Superman of his solar energy to the point of unconsciousness. It takes him at least 24 hours to fully recharge.

Am I missing anything?

Yeah Vegeta did it better

You forgot #4 - Plot Device.

@l3g3ndarypheonix: ROFL LMAO

its a bit confusing, as a solar flare releases energy equivalent to millions of 100 megaton hydrogen bombs exploding simultaneously according to NASA. However, this "Super" Flare managed to affect only a quarter mile radius.

Didn't Supergirl originally have this power in the new 52? I don't know why this is such a big deal. Whoopty doo I guess male krptonians can do what was implied a female only ability. Well I guess if guys suddenly had periods it would be pretty big.

@cloudzackvincent: I think the short range was due to Ulysses absorbing most of it.

Those are actual solar flares which are much bigger than even the earth, however it was still pissing off because Superman has stores of energy which enable his muscles to literally move planets and when fully discharged, it only affected a half mile radius whereas IMO it should've wiped out like half of north america.(For obvious reasons that didn't happen, could've in that barren 4th dimension though)

Ya, it was supposed to be a distinguishing power for female kryptonians and i even liked that about it(sad that Michael Green couldn't delve more into that aspect in his SG run), but now we can just treat it as girls maturing faster than boys.

That's comforting, though it means Ulysses absorbed a $#!% ton of power.

Since Captain Atom's self-explosion was 12x more massive than a nuclear blast, Superman's gotta be 5 hundred million times bigger than that. He could've powered Ulysses' planet for another 5 million cycles

Maybe I'm reading too much between lines, but existence of this ability might have been hinted on previously. Superman’s appearance in RHATO – he was able to rise his body temperature to several hundred degrees; also during “Throne of Atlantice” storyline.

Perhaps it’s only heat vision, but watch lines on his costume – they’re also emanating energy, only in red instead of yellow; looks to me like early stage of this “solar flare”. Then again, Johns said that before starting his New-52 Superman’ run he read all his comics and maybe just decided to simply build on it.

For supposedly most destructive Superman’ ability, it is surely underwhelming (like many people already noted). Perhaps that was solar flare of already tired and depleted Superman; perhaps Ulysses was draining most of released energy (though certainly doesn’t seem like that) or nod to Superman’s powers working outside of the law of conservation of energy. Most likely though, author simply didn’t live up to our expectations.

Plus I smell massive PIS how New-52 kryptonian suit were destroyed.

It's a big deal cause Johns wants more people to start reading the main Sups title.

Tho the only thing this did is get the ignorant mainstream people to think he is even more boring & over powered.

Hopefully Johns knows better this time around...

@sanohibiki: He was also able to casually increase his body temperature in Red Hood. ( which makes me wonder why haven't we seen him do it in a fight yet )

@2cool4fun said:

Yeah, I mentioned that in my previous post as well. As to why he doesn’t use it in fights, well, authors usually just have him to use more traditional brute force and heat vision.

Hopefully Johns knows better this time around...

I’m not so sure, considering that next issue will be written by Romita Jr :P, but hope dies the last, right…

Totally disappointing. Dropping this book.

@sanohibiki: According to DC JRJR is writting #40 which should mean that Johns is still there for the next one.

@2cool4fun said:

Unless Johns wouldn’t be too busy writing Darkseid War or something. Hopefully not.

P.S. Is that … Aizen with Superman’s logo?

Considering to do that as well – first time since the beginning of New-52.

ummm...you are so concentrated on hating the character that you didn't notice how incredibly vain and weak this new power is.

Honestly I think that this is the part that really shouldn't be skipped if infect Johns continues writing Sups ( which we should find out soon ).

Because this arc seems like he just put superman & his friends where he wants them to be.

Clark is working for Daily Planet again, Jimmy is no longer pointlessly rich & Superman has a new interesting enemy as well as someone he can talk to about his superhero stuff. ( Basically he changed everything he didn't like about Lobdlel's run )

So this is the part where things should start getting interesting...at least that's what I think >_>

Yes, yes it is ^_^

Makes sense considering he was capable of absorbing most of the energy of the core of his planet to the degree that he claimed to be able to destroy the earth

@2cool4fun:

I'm going to read next 2-3 issues; if around that time I won’t like what Johns is doing, then I’ll drop it (or at least wait until it would be released in volume).

Yes, yes it is ^_^

Lol thanks a lot :-) I’ll take that into my collection.

P.S. Considering that Aizen was self-proclaimed preparation master, Bat’ symbol will be even more appropriate imo.

With Romita's issue ( or 2 ) or skipping his?

Maybe, but he is the 2nd Clark Kent.

@2cool4fun:

With Romita's issue ( or 2 ) or skipping his?

Well, solicit says the story of the testing of Superman’s new power against the Justice League!, which actually implies multiple use of this “flare”-ability. So I’m too curios to skip this issue.

Maybe, but he is the 2nd Clark Kent.

O_0 Totally forgot that Aizen clarkkented for quite some time. You convinced me, S suits him more.

How does this new Super Flare power leave Superman weak as a human? I thought Superman came from Krypton where the gravity was much stronger or has it always been that he gets all his strength from the sun.

@l3g3ndarypheonix: Well, they gotta be better atleast at something

The 24 hour think is garbage. Superman has been down before and just a touch of Sunlight and he was back on his feet. It has happen twice in the new 52. I have to agree the plot device in this is stupid.

@tensor: Superman has been drained many times before, but this seems more like his cells temporarily burned themselves out. Think of it as the difference between your muscles being sore from work, and getting torn. One you can recover from in a few hours and a good night's sleep, the other might take a few days.

@mossuperman: Originally he got it from the gravity thing. But that has been changed. Also he hasn't lived on krypton long enough to be affected much by the atmosphere/gravity change.

True.

Earth 2 did it too in his first death i am not impressed. As someone already said vegeta did it better.

i get what u r saying, however the thing is that, Superman's heat vision at its highest intensity is said to be as hot as the core of the sun, so by my assumption this ultimate attack Super Flare should be at least as powerful as an actual solar flare. Also unlike Heat vision, this attack cannot be of varying intensities because it did leave him depowered for a day at least, which would mean it was at its maximum intensity.

okay, that could be it..

@l3g3ndarypheonix: Vegeta died and Superman did not. Safe to say Superman in fact did it better. Lol

@cloudzackvincent: Ever think that the blast was contained by Superman? I think superman has subconscious control of its radius even in events where it seems he has no control of it. Ulysses was within a short range so this attack being focused on Ulysses from the start via heat vision says to me that the radius was extended far enough to fully engulf Ulysses while also minimizing collateral damage. After all he is superman and even when he "losses control" he is usually still some what in control and limiting unnecessary harm to the earth.

that's pure speculation, also it pretty much looked like he had no control over it. in fact the whole action looked involuntary. Also he released the entire amount of solar energy stored in his body and regardless of the area of effect, the impact should have been lot more catastrophic,

@jodin20723: well to be honest he was controlling it and Ulysses was trying to absorb it,so thinking about it it isn't strange that the radious was so short,i mean Ulysses was able to absorb all the energy of his own planet but he still couldn't take that blast...which was capable to destroy even the Superman's armor that is almost indestructible and more than capable to survive a nuke without a scratch.

Has how this new power works, they pretty much explained all the points.

Everyone has pointed out very interesting points, but to me the most troubling part of this Solar Flare power is that it basicaly goes against a lot of stuff already said by other writers. In Lobdell run we got to see that Superman had enough energy to move the mass of the Earth for five straight days without stopping. But now its like saying "Well, you see. Actually he's much more weaker than that".

And I say this because what this new power shows is that Superman power levels aren't that high. After all, if he had enough energy to bench press the mass of the Earth for five straight days, without any sunlight, and he still wasn't nearly depleated. But now he uses this power that totally depleats him and the planet is still in one piece, it's contradictory at best.

If only we'd seen a huge beam of energy exploding into outerspace, then I wouldn't even mention any of this.

But here we're, presented with a power that if used totally drains him of his powers but at the same time isn't that powerful to begin with. Even with H'el his punches were able to shake the entire planet, this solar flare blew up a few miles of landscape but other than that, its pretty much a one-time-one-usage power. And I can't even begin to specify how lame all of this is.

Yes one can say that Superman wasn't at full power seeing he had survived a planet exploding, and had already taken quite some damage from Ulysses, but still... I was expecting more.

And to be honest, Superman didn't need another ofensive energy based attack, that instead of just being fired from his eyes, it's fired from his whole body. Superman needed something way more effective, useful, and not so costly.

I only hope this Solar Flare has more useful uses or it will be very, very short lived.

@zandalf: exactly. The scan proves he was still controlling the blast but barely. So much for "speculation" the scan offers proof.

@zandalf:

Yes... I'd forgotten about that part.

Hmm... So maybe we haven't really seen the solar flare true potential, and maybe the fact the Superman got completely drained had something to do with the fact that Ulysses was trying to absorve Superman energy to fuel his own powers and destroy the Earth.

I guess in the long run, we'll see how useful this new power gonna be.

@heavenlydarkdragon: I think you are looking into superman's energy production and output the wrong way. Think of superman absorbing sunlight and using it as something similar to how we eat and break down food for calories to complete basic physical movements. Just because he has the physical strength to bench a planet doesn't mean the energy in his cells has to be absurdly high. After all the energy needed to complete any number of superman's godly feats he has accomplished like benching earth for 5 days would mean that the sunlight he would need to absorb would be at a far higher and more concentrated rate then the sun actually produces. Instead I think it's how his body processes the energy in his cells. I think superman hyper metabolizes the sunlight that feeds him allowing him to accomplish crazy feats physically while only holding a specific limited amount of raw energy within his cells. After all we have seen on numerous accounts superman getting weak after a big and powerful blast of heat vision or now the super flare. Superman's heat vision/ super flare is the raw form of energy superman is storing before it's metabolized into physical energy.

@jodin20723:

His energy absorption/processing capacity is one of the less explained thing's that gives headaches to both fans and writers alike.

Either way, after reviewing the comic it became quite clear that he being left depleted was a result of Ulysses trying to absorb his power, plus the fact that at that moment he used his powers to such extremes.

Either way I'm hoping this Solar Flare thing proves more useful and less exhaustive in the future.

@jodin20723: the only plausible explanation that holds some water is that Ulysses absorbed most of it. U seem to be going on about control, but my point is, he may have tried to but he failed as all the energy in his cells were released. The blast should have burnt to the core of the planet.

I know this is probably never going to happen but if Superman's Super Flare is here to stay, it would be so cool if this was the maximum power of the Super Flare.

As of now, I think we shouldn't jump to any conclusions.

However, my guess is that the attack' potency is very high, but the area of effect is quite low (it was stated to be a quarter of a mile). I have a feeling that the writers didn't want Superman to have a long range destructive attack, so they deliberately made it a small range attack, so as to be counted as a melee ability instead of a ranged one. That makes it an even more interesting challenge to use this power effectively, since if the target moves/teleports out of the range, Superman is essentially a sitting duck.

All in all, I love the Super Flare. The power itself has good synergy with Superman's current abilities (absorbing yellow solar radiation means expelling it is also possible right?), which makes readers accept it without too much fuss for an explanation. It's finally an OHKO ability in Superman's arsenal, but it also has an equally steep price which prevents it from being spammable (truly, an all-or-nothing move). It also provides writers with a valid means of depowering Superman, which can be a great literary device in future Superman comics.

Personally, I want this new power to stay instead of vanishing into obscurity like dozens of other powers (super ventriloquism, anyone?).

@cloudzackvincent: that's because solar flares are quite common to be larger than the earth itself lol Superman isn't nearly as big... Had enough solar energy to do what a quarter mile radius of damage? So a half mile across. That's a big ass destructive blast coming from a person

@lord_kavpeny: I like the solar flare as well. His 24 hour vulnerability makes it that much better as a definite last resort type of thing that I feel will make for some awesome stories in the future. I would like to add that the solar flare had a quarter mile radius, therefore being a half mile across. For a person standing on the ground that is a massive area to completely decimate.

Both of the atomic bombs dropped in Japan in WW2 were only about double in size each. For both Little Boy(Hiroshima) and Fat Man(Nagasaki) total destruction ranged at one mile in diameter and severe blast damage carried as far as two miles in diameter. Now I don't have the comic in front of me so correct me if I'm wrong but there was a quarter mile radius(half mile diameter) of total destruction from Superman's solar flare. And I'm sure there would be severe blast damage beyond that had they not been in the middle of nowhere.

Superman's super solar flare was about half the size of the nukes used in Japan people!!!! That's nuts

What's the point?

The power is a hindrance to Superman as a whole. There is no pro that balances it's cons.

@jogga:

Exactly. If Superman later on learns how to use it in a more focused and less depleting way, then it could have it's uses. But if it stays has a one time usage for every 24h then we'll rarely see him use it. Seeing that the power itself will have a lot of drawbacks.

If Superman were to miss the target, or the target simply manages to avoid it, then Superman will be left completely vulnerable and would be killed easily.

Honestly this super-flare power does have potential but only if it's more adaptable and has more uses than just blowing stuff up.

If it stays the same, then it would've been preferable to have taken a few lessons from Wraith, and instead of super-flare, they should have added Wraith sonic scream and EM spectrum manipulation.

Questions

Why does Supermans solar flare drain him completely,while supergirls does not?

Why would a kryptonian be as weak as a human when they are built better than us on the genetic level?

And shouldn't he be at action comics #1 levels instead of human?

Why wouldn't he be able to learn to control this,he learned to control all his other powers?

Shouldn't he be able to destroy the entire planet with the amount of energy his body has stored inside?

Like above wouldn't a sonic scream,EM spectrum manipulation,extension of bio field,or blunt psionic attack be better new abilities,and more useful?

Supergirl never used that power in full force, but it is a possibility seeing as every showing had her kinda weakened after she used that power.

Yes exactly, this is a logical conclusion and really irritating for me the way it's disregarded or not thought out. Superman's sun exposure would prevent any kinda atrophy to his body's natural physiology, so if his solar energies were suddenly exhausted( i.e- the current scenario) or negated, his body for a time should be as strong as a normal kryptonian adult on earth and as krypton's gravity is like 5 times stronger than that of earth technically he should be 5 times stronger. But this is totally ignored.

It's reasonable to assume he'll gain control over this power eventually.

Pfft i know right :( the entire planet or at least wipe out one hemisphere which is logical given what his vast energy store enable him to do otherwise, i was disappointed by this fact as well.

Yup i'm not a fan of this particular new power either. That's why in my head the entire solar flare was just a weird bodily reaction from fighting a being like Ulysses with his particular energy power set that made supes' cells go crazy and empty out like they did :P