Live-Action Superman Mythology B%4ls$2!

[Admiral Buzzkill]

In Byrne's version the only Kryptonite on Earth was a meteor that embedded itself in the hull of Kal-El's "gestation pod" as it was launched via the star drive that Jor-El attached it to - Kal's escape was clearly a very, very last second kind of thing. Cutting it close.

There was some logic to that, though. As has been pointed out, over the decades so much Kryptonite has showed up here that it seems as if Krypton's explosion was somehow pointed straight at Earth and nowhere else.

[Argus Skyhawk]

Admiral M wrote:

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It starts with Superman altering the rotation of Earth to turn back time (one of the lamest methods of time travel ever depicted in fiction)

To be fair, I did not interpret that scene as Superman altering the rotation of the Earth, but rather that he was flying around the Earth faster than light. Relativity suggests that if one could travel faster than light, you would travel backward in time, so Earth's rotation would appear to be going backward.

Of course, Relativity also says that it is impossible to accelerate from slower-than-light to faster-than-light, so I'm not saying the movie was being realistic there. Just saying that he wasn't simply pushing the Earth backward.

[Donald Draper]

I agree. From Superman's point of view he is seeing time moving slowly backwards. Its basically the same experience as in George Pal's adaptation of The Time Machine.

[JarodRussell]

One problem with Superman, in general, not only the live-action stuff, is his strength of plot. A bit consistency would be nice. Does he get exhausted? What's his maximum flying speed? His maximum strength? Why does he have trouble catching up with a missile, but then he can go in lightspeed around the Earth? One moment he looks pretty exterted lifting a car, the other moment he lifts and entire continent/island.

[Mr Silver]

JarodRussell wrote:

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One problem with Superman, in general, not only the live-action stuff, is his strength of plot. A bit consistency would be nice. Does he get exhausted? What's his maximum flying speed? His maximum strength? Why does he have trouble catching up with a missile, but then he can go in lightspeed around the Earth? One moment he looks pretty exterted lifting a car, the other moment he lifts and entire continent/island.

He does need some strict limitations, if only to have more in the way of challenges for Superman.

Superman shouldn't be able to reach speeds close to, exactly or beyond the speed of light whilst on Earth. I never liked the concept introduced in Smallville where Clark/Superman was fast enough to save several people in different locations all around the world and return within a couple of seconds. Not only does this cheapen the DC universe (if Superman is so fast, what is the point in there being other superheroes?) but it defeats the object of what the character is all about - namely that Superman isn't there to assist with any and every little thing that goes wrong, he's the guy who answers the big threats and stops the evil super powered characters that threaten the Earth whilst serving as a symbol of justice and inspiration.

With that in mind, a limiter such as the Sun-Earth EM field should be written in, in order to prevent Superman from moving at the speed of light (or beyond) whilst he is in the vicinity of Earth (and definitely whilst he is within the atmosphere.)

[DWF]

JarodRussell wrote:

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One problem with Superman, in general, not only the live-action stuff, is his strength of plot. A bit consistency would be nice. Does he get exhausted? What's his maximum flying speed? His maximum strength? Why does he have trouble catching up with a missile, but then he can go in lightspeed around the Earth? One moment he looks pretty exterted lifting a car, the other moment he lifts and entire continent/island.

In the extended version of the first Superman movie it was said that the missiles had a new auto avoidance system and at one point he flew in front of the missile but went around him, so he had to fly in behind them and push tme into space. And yes post Crisis On Infinite Earths, John Byrne set up some limits to Superman's powers.