Sent to Earth as an infant from the dying planet Krypton, Kal-El was adopted by the loving Kent family and raised in America's heartland as Clark Kent. Using his immense solar-fueled powers, he became Superman to defend mankind against all manner of threats while championing truth, justice, and the American way!
@iLLituracy: We'll see. They haven't shown anything about the strength/indestructability of the new costume in the new Superman book, but wouldn't it feel kind of backwards if his cloth cape was indestructible but his Kryptonian suit of armor was not?
In Superman #1, he is stronger than in Action Comics #1 & #2, because of this I would assume that everything we see him do or withstand in AC has to do with his powers not at higher capacity yet.
2. By using his heat vision before, he emitted electromagnetic radiation at an specific wavelength. If such wavelength is varied, we get X-Rays, ultraviolet, infrared, microwave, gamma rays, etc. He has used a variation of some of these before, so I don't think this is a new power (like you mentioned), but to be honest when reading it I just thought it was a less powered "version" of his heat vision acting as microwaves, like in Smallville at the beginning where you could barely see it... I know they went through the glass though... (BTW, I don't think his X-Ray vision actually fires X-Rays as that can be bad for the ones receiving it, but rather maybe his eyes pick light (radiation) in a way where thing seem like an X-Ray).
3. Also, while reading about him healing fast, I just thought, OK so he's not as strong yet, so he can get hurt, but then heals. I think this was just like before, only that he was more powerful, so there was no healing needed or perceived by human eyes.
Additionally, was it me or did it look like he was absorbing the electric energy when he broke loose?
And finally the biggest change I noticed in the comic was not mentioned in the article... He did threaten Luthor with breaking his neck!!! This is the first time I've read Superman saying something like this without... say Lois trapped or hurt or dead. I don't know how I feel about it =) although it was probably angry talk from being fried in the chair.
Yeah the way in which Lois and a few other characters were drawn was horrible, especially compared to the great images in the last issues. You have to love how Morrison is making no qualms about showcasing Lex Luthor as a straight up bigot when it comes to non-human life. Its been a part of the character for some time now but its always been that secondary traits of Lex, not something that is expressed in the open too much. Here its right out in the front. Just wanted to comment on some of the "changes": 1. John Henry Irons worked for the government before. He was originally an Army weapons engineer. 2. Superman's eyes emitting microwaves is not new. During the Golden Age when Superman was being given more and more powers it was explained that all of his vision powers come from him emitting radiation but at different frequencies and levels. This technically meant there was no difference between his heat vision and x-ray vision except for the intensity of the "clean" radiation he was putting out. Throughout Superman's history he's also been able to see in almost every spectrum of light. So this isn't really a change. 3. Superman has always been written to heal very quickly even from injuries like dislocated shoulders and such. But it wasn't until the Smallville series that he was seen healing in a matter of seconds (though thankfully the comic book is not going with the flash of light closing the wound approach). I would say the difference in this Superman is not needing to be in direct sunlight to do so. 4. Corbin had about the same motivation for taking on Superman in Superman: Secret Origins as he does here. I don't really think it works though because unlike Secret Origins where Lois had been around Corbin alot we get the impression they haven't seen each other for years in this issue. So going to battle with Superman over the affection of someone you haven't seen for years is a little bit of a stretch especially when General Lane hadn't ordered him to do so yet. 5. His cape has been indestructible almost his entire publishing time. It was only for a few years following the 1986 reboot that it wasn't written as indestructible. Both Birthright and Secret Origins use the idea of the cape being his baby blanket. I'm just interested to see why the cape and ship are indestructible. Obviously its not based on his bio-electric aura as his clothes are seen torn and there have been times when it was stated Kryptonian materials absorb solar radiation as well. This, IMHO, has always been a bad explanation and hopefully they go more with the one used in Superman: Earth One in which Kryptonian metals and other materials are just amazingly well constructed to the point where only other similar metals and such could affect them. Really Superman hasn't changed that much. He's simply become an amalgram of his past incarnations. I'm interested to see if he still has a bio-electric field because that has been given as both a reason for his flight and why extremely heavy and large objects don't fall apart when he's holding them. For instance if a building is falling down and he's trying to push it back up with his hands on the glass, the glass doesn't break because its in contact with his bio-electric aura and sort of being "wrapped" by it. Of course this hasn't been a consistent explanation throughout the years (when he carries people in his arms for example he always has to be careful of his speed) but I think establishing it as the component of his ability to fly should be retained and the fact he doesn't have it yet is the reason he can't fly.
Agreed. I'm interested to see him go up against one of his old enemies and really push himself to the limits. I'm also hoping they'll finally settle on whether Kara's more powerful or not and why she had her powers from the start.
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