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    Superman

    Character » Superman appears in 18886 issues.

    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!

    MOS Durability

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    W3BST3R

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    #1  Edited By W3BST3R

    Did anyone else note the sharp head movement and yelp of pain when Clark took a bullet to the forehead? He can get thrown through buildings and satellites, but a high caliber round to the face hurts?

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    SaintWildcard

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    I think he still didnt know how much he could take. And slowly he started growing in power. Plus in the midst of battle, anger and adrenaline lower the amount paint felt.

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    Wardemon32

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    @w3bst3r:

    He "yelped in pain" right before he was shot in the forehead. And either way, its a natural instinct to say "ow" to something even though it doesn't hurt at all.

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    SanoHibiki

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    It was first time when military were shooting at him; I think it was more yelp of surprise than of pain.

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    W3BST3R

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    #6  Edited By W3BST3R

    I guess I can get behind all that, but even so, why did his head whip back? It should've been something to the same effect as the trucker trying to push him.

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    SanoHibiki

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    #7  Edited By SanoHibiki

    Well, few shots threw fully armored giant Nam-Ek across the street – Super’s head whip isn’t big deal after that.

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    OrangeBat

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    Man Of Steel's Superman was really all over the place in terms of power and abilities.

    For one, they never properly even explained his powers. They just seemed to work and not work according to the whims of the plot.

    For example, the dude has super-reflexes and super-speed, yet can't dodge a punch from Nam-Ek that an ordinary soldier saw coming from a mile away.

    Later, he sees a train flying at him from quite a large distance away and does not move to avoid collision.

    Ordinary bullets, even fired from a chaingun, being able to knock him and Nam-Ek off balance, and hurting his face is bullshit. Even in the Golden Age, Superman's weakest incarnation, he was BULLETPROOF. I don't care if they are fired from a pistol or a sub-machine gun, bullets should be no more an annoyance to Superman then pollen.

    Later, during the fight in Metropolis, General Zod whacks him in the face with a metal bar, yet instead of said metal bar breaking on impact, it knocks him away. What? This is a guy that survives high-impact explosions without a scratch.

    But then, Man Of Steel's Superman really was kind of weak and not too bright to begin with...

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    SanoHibiki

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    @orangebat:

    For example, the dude has super-reflexes and super-speed, yet can't dodge a punch from Nam-Ek that an ordinary soldier saw coming from a mile away.

    There nothing new here.

    In movies, TV and comics in 9 times out of 10 Superman use his speed only for fast travel on some distance, usually to arrive to some disaster/fight and when he arrives, he automatically assumes normal humans’ speed and reaction time.

    General Zod whacks him in the face with a metal bar, yet instead of said metal bar breaking on impact, it knocks him away. What? This is a guy that survives high-impact explosions without a scratch.

    1. This isn’t Smallville where everything broke upon contact with Clark’s head. Metal usually doesn’t break, it bends.

    2. Clark being invulnerable doesn’t mean that he is also immovable.

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    deactivated-5edd330f57b65

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    Well his powers were really weird in that movie and they fluctuated, and like others said maybe he was just surprised. His speed was really inconsistent too though as well as his strength

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    OrangeBat

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    #11  Edited By OrangeBat

    @sanohibiki: 1) And it annoys me in those situations too. It doesn't make sense, and feels like stupid plot contrivance, and makes Superman look like an idiot.

    2) What difference does it make whether it's Smallville or Metropolis? Also, correct about not breaking but bending, misuse of word on my part. Doesn't change the fact that the metal bar doesn't really change in shape, or bend, despite hitting someone as physically durable as Superman with massive force.

    3) That would tend to require the metal to be even more durable than Superman to move him. Otherwise, Zod hitting him with it, is like me whacking you with a piece of plasticine.

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    CelticJedi

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    Trying to evaluate how a superhuman would react and deal with any number of abuses is difficult. But I would assume one could compare being shot with a bullet to say getting flicked or poked with something sharp. Does it hurt in the sense that it will cause any damage? No. Do people still wince, yell "ouch", or occasionally raise a fit over it? Yes. While Superman might be able to be hurled through buildings, mountains, and be beaten with any number of materials and objects it might be comparable to a pencil poking your neck, your friend swatting your ear, or somebody cracking you with a ball in the back of the head. No damage but it still might hurt.

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    MetalJimmor

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    #13  Edited By MetalJimmor

    @orangebat:

    Hardness and toughness have nothing to do with an object moving another object. Superman is strong, but he still weighs about as much as a normal human. He also wasn't gripping anything to keep his balance. Thus his inertia wasn't sufficient to avoid getting smacked away by the much heavier metal bar.

    The bar also didn't bend because Clark's body, while hard, wasn't rooted in place and so didn't offer the necessary resistance to force the bar to bend around him on contact. Clark's body ended up moving rather than the bar absorbing the full impact.

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    youmessinwithme

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    Loud noises and fast moving objects he should still be instinctually afraid of from millions of years of evolution on krypton where their just as squishy as normal people. he would have instincts very much like a humans since his people haven't been living like gods for thousands of years.

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    youmessinwithme

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    @orangebat:

    Hardness and toughness have nothing to do with an object moving another object. Superman is strong, but he still weighs about as much as a normal human. He also wasn't gripping anything to keep his balance. Thus his inertia wasn't sufficient to avoid getting smacked away by the much heavier metal bar.

    The bar also didn't bend because Clark's body, while hard, wasn't rooted in place and so didn't offer the necessary resistance to force the bar to bend around him on contact. Clark's body ended up moving rather than the bar absorbing the full impact.

    the same reason A baseball bat doesn't break in half when hitting a fastball and the ball isn't destroyed. it's hard enough to take the hit without being damaged but light enough to be knocked out of the park/ it's not rooted to the ground so it can be knocked out of the park.

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    SanoHibiki

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    @orangebat:

    And it annoys me in those situations too. It doesn't make sense, and feels like stupid plot contrivance, and makes Superman look like an idiot.

    I can let it go in MOS, because, well, that was his first ever all-out serious fight and all that…

    In comics – not all authors have enough talent to portray powerful and smart Superman and give him a real challenge. Usually it’s going to be either powerful Superman easily defeats his opponents (readers like “That wasn’t even a matter of life or death, Superman is overpowered, of course he gonna win, that’s boring”), so writer starts using big enemies like Zod, Doomsday, Brainiac and others non-stop. Or author dumbs Superman into a flying space brute (which is also not very attractive). This is really matter of “necessary evil”, but as Super’s fan I agree with you, that’s becomes annoying rather quickly.

    What difference does it make whether it's Smallville or Metropolis?

    Sorry, I didn’t make myself clear. I meant Smallville as in TV-show Smallville. There, on the top of overwhelming amounts of teenage drama and equal amount of Kryptonite, was the faulty physics to boot. People constantly broke everything they threw at Clark upon contact with his body (usually his head). I was like “Come on, common people don’t have strength enough to break baseball bats in a single blow – or what are you doing with knives? Why they break into pieces? They are made from metal, not from glass”. In comparison with Smallville, MOS is embodiment of physics done right.

    That would tend to require the metal to be even more durable than Superman to move him. Otherwise, Zod hitting him with it, is like me whacking you with a piece of plasticine.

    @metaljimmor said:

    Hardness and toughness have nothing to do with an object moving another object. Superman is strong, but he still weighs about as much as a normal human. He also wasn't gripping anything to keep his balance. Thus his inertia wasn't sufficient to avoid getting smacked away by the much heavier metal bar.

    The bar also didn't bend because Clark's body, while hard, wasn't rooted in place and so didn't offer the necessary resistance to force the bar to bend around him on contact. Clark's body ended up moving rather than the bar absorbing the full impact.

    the same reason A baseball bat doesn't break in half when hitting a fastball and the ball isn't destroyed. it's hard enough to take the hit without being damaged but light enough to be knocked out of the park/ it's not rooted to the ground so it can be knocked out of the park.

    Guys explained it perfectly.

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    SandMan_

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    Pretty invulnerable.

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    z3ro180

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    @orangebat: You are highly uninformed. Go back and watch the movie.

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    Transformaa

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    #19  Edited By Transformaa

    Sups was able to tank everything in the movie from fire, trains, energy blasts to chest, explosions..insane gravity..All that being done he seems to have slight pain..but nothing to talk about

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    W3BST3R

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    deaditegonzo

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    Tanking the gravity beam that was crushing everything around it for a few kilometers in a weakened state was a really impressive feat of durability.

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