Has Superman ever used his optical powers to project some sort of light (akin to a flashlight) in order to illuminate a dark area/location/surrounding?

Not that he would need to in order to see in the dark.

No because of that.

But it is known his eyes can project and absorb the electromagnetic spectrum, so he can do it.

@squalleon:

If he can see our electromagnetic spectrum and others then why can't he see through led? Is there an actual scientific reason or is it "because comics".

Lead is very dense. So even the higher frequency rays like Gamma and X-ray have trouble passing through. Of course it also depends on the thickness of the material too.

@squalleon:

Does that mean that he can't see through materials like mercury and gold (since they are denser)?

If so, then this should be explored in the comics more.

No, it mostly has to do with charged particles. When I said dense I meant Lead has a high atomic number, so more particles.

Its really complicated. And just a reminder than not even Lead can completely stop Gamma rays. You need a really thick wall to do it. And lead is cheaper than let's say bismuth.

@squalleon:

Comics everybody.

Led is well known for its ability to block radiation and technically all of Superman's optical abilities are radiation based.

@joshmightbe:

Okay. That answer pleases my intellect.

In this case, comics are extraordinarily accurate. Especially considering Superman's X-ray vision was introduced in the 40s.

Nice to know your time wasn't completely wasted.

@squalleon:

The issue was that there were other substances on Earth which could block Superman's vision and that it was never explored.

Let's just say that to block radiation of that caliber you need some very specific properties and quantities and lead is the most accessible one.

@squalleon:

It would be cool to see other supervillains use real life science to figure out that lead is not the only one and exploit it.

It won't change much and in the eyes of Supes it will be exactly the same. Writers sometimes don't even use lead, they say it is just "shielded".

@squalleon:

I don't know. I just like the little things in comics when they are accurate. Like when the sun was drawn in All Star Superman in a way that it would actually look like instead of just a big ball of fire.

@mysticmedivh:

Yes he projected a flash of light in "Superman: the man of steel # 123" (2002) in order to wake up Jonny Iron who was passed out. That's probably the first and last time he used his eyes like an electric torch.

He can see perfectly in the dark. He doesn't need to project any visible light, although in theory he can do it.

Presumably radiation based.

Because lets face it. If he really used X-rays to see through things, he'd cause death in everyone that was in the path of said x-rays. Wouldn't you agree? It's logic and science after all.

Also led doesn't block radiation entirely. If that was so, things like Chernobyl would never have happened. And space travel would be walk in the park. No my friend. Taking into consideration Superman power levels, he should be able to see through everything.

So if we go by the radiation theory, things don't make sense, do they? It's likely he can only use his different abilities to certain, but definitely different, power levels. Like in Unchained when he used his gamma vision.

Actually it would be better to remove the not see through led nonsense, and make villains have to work hard to block Superman powers.

I'm tired of his heat vision being blocked by mirrors with advance reflective capabilities, and led blocking his "x-rays" vision.

@hound_of_war said:

@squalleon:

I don't know. I just like the little things in comics when they are accurate. Like when the sun was drawn in All Star Superman in a way that it would actually look like instead of just a big ball of fire.

Me too.

One such example of things being wrongly depicted was in Red Hood and The Outlaws, when Superman went looking for Starfire, they said they were in the orbit of Pluto, but they clearly weren't, because the sun that shouldn't have been any bigger than a bright dot of light, was much bigger in size. The size it would be if they were instead in the orbit of Venus.

@heavenlydarkdragon: He emits very low level radiation, its not a high enough concentration to cause harm. This has been stated a few hundred times so I find it hard to believe an actual DC fan would have trouble with this. Off the top of my head is the scene in Kingdom Come where Green Arrow makes a crack about Superman giving him cancer so Ted Kord explains why its unlikely. And I didn't say lead can block all radiation, but it can block enough to render x-rays ineffective on it.

@joshmightbe:

But how much low is low. Have you ever wonder about that?

A normal x-ray machine in a hospital emits radiation in the order of milisieverts, which would only kill a human if you got around +100 doses in a row. 100 doses would kill you in around 60 to 90 days, depending on physiological factors.

To see through a normal cement wall you'd need around 3 to 5 sieverts of x-ray radiation to look perfectly through it, and the machine would need to be like 1 to 2 centimeters from the wall, for you to get a perfect image.

Now, were does it lie the problem you may ask. Well, 5 sieverts would kill you. Period! Not instantly, but it would surely kill you either way.

So comic science aside. Tell me again how Superman uses low level radiation to see through things.

@heavenlydarkdragon: It doesn't matter how it would work in the real world, its a well established fact in the DC universe that Superman's X-ray vision works safely.

@joshmightbe:

But that was point of all of this.

Saying it is so doesn't make it so.

At least the psionic nature of the Plutonian, that basically has all the same powers as Superman and more, are well explained, and when he sees through things he's not using science to explain how he sees through solid objects. It's all purely psionic in nature. Period!

Now if you or anyone else goes around saying, that it's low level radiation, then you're using real world science and methods of measuring things. And by doing so I can call you out on real world facts to prove that real world science, or definitions for that matter, can't or shouldn't be used.

That's also another problem with Superman. Is that when people think about his powers, most will think they're stupid, because they make no sense.

And from a total logical point of view, they don't make any sense whatsoever.

Because for Superman to see jow he usually sees from far away, or even from space, he'd havw to use x-rays in a order of magnitude that would make Chernobyl look like a joke.

Maybe if DC stopped for a minute and did a little upgrade on kryptonian powerset explanation, people that are new or outside of the comic book world, would find it more easy to believe in the character or at least easier to make believe.

Heck! I bet that in less than 10 minutes you can come up with an idea on how to make "x-ray" vision work without causing any harm whatsoever, independent of the intensity of it.

@heavenlydarkdragon: It has been explained, but it doesn't apply to real world science. Literally nothing about Superman's powers would work under the real laws of physics.

@joshmightbe:

Okay let me approach this in a different way.

One of the things I've seen that drive people away from Superman has a character, is that they look at the explanation for his powers and most of them call it BS.

But if I talk to them about Martian Manhunter, Shazam, Plutonian, or Captain Atom. Here's their reactions.

Captain Atom: They like the pre-Flasbpoint version, but call the New 52 version nothing more than a Dr Manhattan rip-off.

Martian Manhunter: Only question I see asked the most, is how the Martian race became extinct, if they had such powers. Has for the powers, most attribute it (like the Plutonian) to psionic nature.

Shazam: There's no questions there. Only a single feeling. Magic rip-off of Superman.

But still there's no questions on how their powers work, they just go with the flow.

But if we shift to Superman, then things get much more complicated. I hear questions like these "How can they get so much power from the sun if they're only solar batteries?" "Why does he only emits his heat beams from his eyes, and not his hands? How doesn't his x-rays give people cancer, given the levels of energy he'd have to use to see things from high in the sky? How does his lungs freeze air to extreme levels? How can he store so much air and so fast? How can he control his flight power? How does it even work?"

And why do people have so many questions!? Because of the solar battery nonsense. Through the golden age to the mordern age, people didn't have so much information available, and it was easy to sell the solar battery nonsense has making sense. The same way that it was easy to say that the difference in the type of stars could give them powers, because of the difference in the frequency of the stars, when we now know the difference in frequency is so little that it can't explain anything.

And saying that his powers are the release of said energy.

People aren't stupid. Or at least they no longer have such ignorance about scientific facts. And of course people call the BS for what it is.

Just like they called it out in the MoS movie, when they saw the difference in atmosphere causing all those shifts in power levels.

When I was seeing the movie, people in the same movie theater were already calling it out has nonsense. I personally thought to myself "Maybe Krypton's atmosphere had a more deluted gas form of kryptonite. And that's the said element that's deadly to humans. Atmospheric pressure would've killed Lois, breathing mask or not, and doesn't make any sense. But the atmospheric composition... Now that makes sense."

Of course that same logic would now make a solidified form of kryptonite, that we've seen it's gonna be used in Batman V Superman movie, even more deadly to humans. While the gas form would not kill kryptonians, but would kill humans. It stands to reason that a concentrated, solid form of kryptonite, might be deadly to kryptonians in long exposures, but to humans it would be instantly deadly if the human didn't shield himself from it. But somehow we're gonna see that to humans it will no longer have any effects and will only affect Superman.

But getting back on track... If DC updated the kryptonian source of power and how the powers work, it would make Superman easier to accept and believe has a character.

And they could do something along the line of Cyclops from Marvel. Where they changed his absorption of sunlight and the release of said energy, by saying that sunlight is not what fuels his powers but what allows his powers to work. That his body takes in sunlight, uses it to access a extradimensional energy, and it is that energy that Cyclops emits through his eyes.

Something like that could be done to kryptonians. That they take in sunlight, that enables their bodies to access another more abundant source of energy, that energy creates a physical and mental enhancement, and their powers are nothing more than a psionic control/manipulation of said energy. That way heat vision would be something like the release of said energy in the form of highly concentrated and accelerated energy particles. That "x-ray" vision was another different release of said energy, but in a form resembling neutrinos. It wouldn't be x-ray radiation per say, but something that enable him to see through things. So the name was simply an allusion to what the power enable him to do, and not what it really was. The same way it could be said that flying and freeze breath, were both powers due to telekinetic or energy manipulation.

By reducing the source of said powers to either purely psionic or psionic manipulation of the energy of the body, it would greatly simplify the how and why of Superman.

At least this is my view and opinion. That this would remove most of the questions, and need for question, but it would also greatly reduce explaining said powers to anyone that wants to know more about the character.

Can you imagine the trouble it takes, to explain said powers one by one to people wanting to know more about the character or that don't exactly understand how they work or could ever work. Because when you say heat, x-rays, freeze and flying powers, and for each power there's a different explanation given by DC. Most people want a easy in your face explanation.

The Flash: Speed Force

Green Lantern: Emotional Spectrum+advanced tech

Wonder Woman: Demi-god, or godly power

Shazam: Magic

Aquaman: Genetics derived from Atlantean magic

Cyborg: Nanotech

Captain Atom: Quantum energy

Martian Manhunter: Psionics

The "X-Ray" eye beams being how he sees through things always kinda bothered me. Does he just emit X-Rays and bam, that's it? I was under the impression that X-Ray imaging is somewhat more complex than just bombarding an object with X-Rays and wham, you get a see-through image. Also, you have the whole shebang with how his eyes in general work, since normal eyes see by taking in sunlight reflected from objects...

I could just settle with him seeing through walls just because. It's no stupider than Martian Manhunter being a shapeshifter than can fire eye-beams because psionic power or something.

His vision powers cause a lot of scientific inconsistencies, yes. But the real WTF power is his super hearing. How the hell did he hear Jimmy's watch signal almost concurrently from a distance of some gazillion lightyears away from earth?