Question about superman.

I was debating with someone and he claimed that superman took a nuke while being weakened. He told me that superman gets more powerful because his source is the sun. I know that but if he had been absorbing sunlight for 33 years and gets koed by a oil rig explosion and then his durability gets amped up to withstand heat 5 times an oil rig in just two years?

@darkthunder: I’m confused.

@darkthunder: Superman was KO,d by the oil rig explosion due to sensory overload.

Also, we know from Jor El that Clarke is growing more powerful than he imagined. He literally drinks the suns radiation. So its likely that he could grow exponentially in power in a couple of months, let alone years.

@darkthunder: you know the answer. The plot. Zod and company had all of Superman’s powers within minutes of being exposed to the sun when it took clark years to develop them. There is no cannon explanation. You just have to accept it.

@rijehu: no it wasn't the sensory overload. He had countered that. And he lived there for 33 years and yet gets koed by oil rig and in two years time he could grow as powerful to withstand heat 5 times that?

@christianrapper: zod and others were trained to hone is his senses or something like he said in the third act. Superman wasn't like that. And he had developed powers ages ago. Look at the bus, or the metal pole,or help s heat vision

@darkthunder: Sensory overload has nothing to do with him being adapted though. People often misunderstand that. If Clarke had never experienced such a release of force and sound before that, it was still new to him. Him having extremely enhanced senses would have made it that much more of a shock.

Even humans can be crippled and flinched by sudden explosions or bursts of loud sounds and we're all adapted. A prime example is when Batman hit him with those sonic pulses in BvS. He clearly was adapted then but still showed some slight discomfort and annoyance with these sound waves.

@rijehu: is it confirmed officially that supes got koed by sensory overload?

@darkthunder: No. But we've seen similar examples with other Kryptonians that were confirmed. In a tie in comic, Faora was confirmed to have been KO'd by the missile because it overloaded her senses, not the actual force. In the same scene, they spoke of Kryptonians in general so Superman was under that category. Due to their physiology, no earthly weapons or force could harm them, only overwhelm their senses.

For Superman to have been KO,d by heat or force, there would have to be some indication of damage he took. Since we literally see his skin burning and him not being even remotely scathed by that or the smoke, it's unlikely that it would have just suddenly damaged him out of the blue. He showed no signs trauma or singe.

@darkthunder: he didn’t develop heat vision until he was on earth for years. Zod developed it immediately. Superman also didn’t develop super hearing , x ray vision , and super hearing until later.

@rijehu: actually physically hurting superman is more difficult than KO ING or killing him.

Anyway thanks for the answer

In Shazam it's said superpower powers are dependent on belief.

Seems like Clark was holding back his whole life, but finally started to believe in his power when he learned to fly. Zod and his soldiers didn't have any confidence issues, so belief wasn't really much of an issue for them.

..why would you even use a much weaker Superman in the first place? He became far more durable, and more powerful in the subsequent events (referring to Zod's invasion). That's like using depowered Thor getting K.O'ed by a taser to downplay his overall durability.

then his durability gets amped up to withstand heat 5 times an oil rig in just two years?

The longer he stays on Earth the more powerful he gets due to sunlight absorption. This has always been the case with Superman even in the comics. It's how his physiology/powers works.

@mrtrey: Are you gyirin form Spacebattles?

"Koed by a oil rig explosion" part is debatable.

From MoS' novelization:

Countless tons of steel and concrete drove him into the water, through thousands of gallons of burning oil. The flames licking his body, however, were doused as the sea swallowed him.

He sank beneath the waves. Compared to the fiery pandemonium above, it was surprisingly cool and tranquil down below. The curtain of flames spreading across the surface felt very remote and far away, almost as though they belonged to a different universe. Stunned, Clark basked for a moment in the peace and quiet. He found it tempting to just stop fighting, stop searching, and vanish into the endless depths.

Then a whalesong broke the silence of the deep. Complex vocalizations, punctuated by clicks, echoed beneath the sea. Three humpback whales, their sleek bodies gliding gracefully through the water, converged on him. The whales circled him in fascination, as though sensing something different about him.

The largest one nudged Clark with his snout and began pushing him toward the surface. He floated among the gigantic mammals, even as his mind drifted backward…

Scene break (memories of school)

Clark awoke underwater, surrounded by whales. He found himself drifting naked beneath the sea, his clothes having been burned away by the inferno. The humpbacks nudged him toward the surface, their lilting songs echoing in his ears. They, at least, seemed to want him to keep going.

Fair enough, he thought.

Was he koed or just decided to have serious flashback, kinda difficult to tell.)

Speaking of other Kryptonians - yes, they seemed to be somewhat on his power level after several minutes. Still, Cav-El took their combined assault and kept going without any combat training. I think it's fair to assume that he is stronger by not so small margin.

"his durability gets amped up in just two years" - he learned how to fly, he's got access to unfiltrated solar radiation in space. And why is that even needs an explanation? Cap and Thor also improved their respective feats with new movies.

@sanohibiki:

Was he koed or just decided to have serious flashback, kinda difficult to tell.)

Based on the narration, I'm guessing the latter. I thought this thread was about Rebirth Superman.

@norsewinter: Nah, although we apparently have the same avatar.

oh sorry

@darkthunder:

@darkthunder:

He was never knocked out, during that incident. The structure collapsed and Clark laid in the water contemplating. He's clearly listening to the animals in the water and reminiscing on when he learned to control his hearing.

No this is false.

the sun releases energy by nuclear fusion, while nuke releases energy from nuclear fission. Completely opposite things.

Also Superman literaly absorbs the photons and energy from the sun not the radiation.

To debunk this even further, nuclear reaction is extremely destructive in the proccess as it releases extremely hot plasma and literaly causes a havoc to the particles around them.

Looking at the comics Superman has never shown the ability to absorb energy from nukes, nor did he in the live action. In bvs when he was hit by the nuke, he absorbed sunlight afterwards and heald the damage.

As for the oilrig moment. He was not damaged by the oil rig and he did not have the full potential of his powers clearly since he could not fly etc.

What says he was depowered? If anything, he was just... demjolnired.

@adamtrmm: That was a bad phrasing on my part, admittedly. What I meant is "human Thor" from his very first solo movie, y'know when Odin depowered him and then banished his ass into Earth.

@thebestofthebest:

Well, then you're actually correct. He was depowered. I thought you're talking about a different instance. My bad.

This is more about the time to recovery as well as what others are saying about shock of impact. If I clock you as hard as possible on the chin youre going down. If you drop from a second story building you're going down and surviving. I know typically you guys see superheroes in this (they took x damage so y damage is irrelevant) but thats not how this works.

So it comes to healing factor. The oil rig explosion "hurt" him and so did the nuke(much more so)