What became of Superman?

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Agent Richard07, Jan 19, 2009.

  1. Obi Wana Jones

    Obi Wana Jones Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    1. After he marries Lois, she nags him to death.

    2. He collapses from the big one after a marathon session with Wonder Woman :techman:

    3. Eco Nazis send the Earth into another Ice Age after scientists disclose the green house effect is hogwash design to make millions off fluorescent lights
     
  2. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    4. Superman is deported for not being a natural born citizen of Earth.
     
  3. Sketcher

    Sketcher Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    He trips over a brick
     
  4. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Uhh, what? Those are all the same thing. The peak wavelength of light given off by a star is inversely proportional to its energy output (i.e. the peak frequency is directly proportional to its energy), and a star's spectral type is defined by its peak wavelength. A blue star is hotter than a yellow star is hotter than a red star. The reason (post-Crisis) why Superman gets superpowers from a yellow star and not a red star is because a yellow star is more energetic and thus "supercharges" his cellular batteries.

    The comics and other fiction have been inconsistent about the effects of blue stars. Elliot S! Maggin's Superman novels said that blue starlight would give Superman diminished powers, somewhere between his yellow-star and red-star conditions, but I don't think the reason for this was explained. In some recent comics, it's been asserted that blue stars give Superman, not greater powers, but additional powers, specifically the ability to induce Kryptonian superpowers in others via a beam from his eyes. Don't ask me, I'm just the messenger.


    O-type stars do peak in the ultraviolet. But we're talking about a blackbody spectrum here, and the color of a star is its peak wavelength, not its only one. A hotter star would have its peak further toward the blue/violet end of the spectrum, but would still be even brighter in the red, orange, yellow, green, etc. bands. So while an O star's peak is in the UV, the starlight still appears blue to the observer.

    As for black holes, they're just plain black -- no energy output at all, by definition. As long as Superman's far enough away to be unaffected by its gravity (and despite sci-fi mythology, a black hole's gravity is no more "sucky" than that of a star of equivalent mass, and is only dangerous if you get really close), he'd get no energy from it at all and it would be no different from being exposed to empty space. Unless it has an accretion disk of infalling matter, in which case the inner portion of the disk would be so hot as to be giving off x-rays and gamma rays. However, in order for a black hole to have an accretion disk, it would pretty much have to be orbiting a star (another thing that mass-media depictions of black holes almost invariably get wrong), so Superman would be affected by that star's light in the usual way.
     
  5. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Superman?

    Well the original is...
    about to become a space zombie - Kal-L is going to be a member of the Black Lantern Corps.
     
  6. blaXXer

    blaXXer Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    WTF? I thought Bats was gonna be in it :(
     
  7. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^ That hasn't been confirmed about Batman yet. As for Superman's destiny in the Smallville universe yes an early first or second season episode had a meteor freak with the ability to show people's future upon touch. Clark touched and saw a yellow and red cape across a generic space backdrop indicating that he would leave the solar system. As the first poster who mentioned this episode stated the statement she made (I think it was an old woman) said that he would go on to live a long life...and must've been a reference to DC One Million. Also in Legion I think it was Garth who mentioned that Clark who influence entire solar systems across the galaxy...so he'll live a long time.
     
  8. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Couldn't it have been indicating that it was night?
     
  9. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Actually it wasn't an old woman it was a kid that had just joined the school and latched on to Clark because Clark's was the only death-future he saw that wasn't horrifyingly depressing to him.
     
  10. Dusty Ayres

    Dusty Ayres Commodore

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    That plot point is in the universe of the 12-issue mini-series All-Star Superman, not in the regular continuity of the standard monthly Superman title. :vulcan:

    Here's the summary of the story: All-Star Superman
     
  11. John Picard

    John Picard Vice Admiral Admiral

    Nice Doctor Who reference :lol:
     
  12. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    That would be the Earth 2 Superman, who's based on the earliest version of the character, but is not the "original". Superman has been in continuous publication since 1938 and is constantly evolving. The character appearing in comics today is an evolved version of the guy in Action Comics #1.
     
  13. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Just around the bend.
    The "core of the sun vacation" was also part of DC One Million which at the time WAS part of the current continuity.
     
  14. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Commodore Commodore

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    LOL! :guffaw:

    It never ceases to amaze me the huge assumptions Smallville fans are willing to make in order to see unlikely comic book connections. When, until recently, the showrunners never went out of their way to make the obvious connections.
     
  15. Supervisor 194

    Supervisor 194 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    If memory serves, it wasn't just a generic space background--the closest equivalent I can think of is sort of a "warp speed" background.
     
  16. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Commodore Commodore

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    It could just be Superman flying very fast. Which is one of his standard abilities.
     
  17. SalvorHardin

    SalvorHardin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    A question...
    Why does dear old Clark age like a normal human being up until his 20s-30s and then he goes into super-slow aging Kal-El ?
     
  18. Rowan Sjet

    Rowan Sjet Commodore Commodore

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    I think the old woman future-seer gave Clark a vision of himself in a cemetery, surrounded by the graves of all his family and friends, presumably having outlived them all.
     
  19. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I disagree but it's just nerdy a conversation for me to get worked up about.
     
  20. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    Smallville has taken a lot of flack for going its own way, but oddly enough the show is packed with material from the comics and movies.