@jakai:
Good work. You really sumed up pretty much everything that as been theorized the most, inside and outside comics.
Problem is that it doesn't answer any real questions.
First of all. The power level. A kryptonian power level is simply too high to be explained as simply being solar energy absorption. Let's face it, there's simply not enough of it arriving on Earth to explain it. In one issue in Superman Unchained, Bruce Wayne tells Clark that he absorbs at any given moment, around 140 gigawatts of solar energy. Now, anyone that knows anything about astronomy and astrophysics, knows that isn't possible.
We also see a very interesting thing. Regardless of a kryptonian being underground or simply without any direct contact with sunlight, their power still works and recharges all the same. In the New 52, Superman bench pressed the entire mass of the Earth in a machine able to simulate it, for five days straight, without any sunlight. How could he, if he was in facility close to the center of the Earth. No sunlight there, that's for sure. In the crossover between Justice League and Suicide Squad in Rebirth, they had Zod in a underground prison, in a room emitting red solar energy. The moment the emitters went offline, they started to freak out because Zod was starting to gain his power back. Again with no sunlight available.
And then there's the inconsistencies. In the Godslayer arc, when Superman tries to save Lex Luthor, and their Boom Tube is hacked and sends them to a planet orbiting a red star, Superman immediately starts to lose his powers. So much so, that seconds after he arrives there, he could only fly for less than a minute and that was it, no more flying. But more recently, in the Justice League comic, while trying to stop this Tempus guy or whatever, the being he was trying to stop says he had started to flood the room with red solar energy, to which Superman then says that he might have prevented his powers from recharging but that he'd still keep fighting till the very end.
So, as you can see. A lot of inconsistencies. Mainly because DC doesn't create a unified theory for Superman. Each writer has the freedom to do what he wants and so no real explanation is actually valid seeing the writers themselves never come to terms. And also all of their theories suck. Mainly because none of them accounts for everything that Superman or any other kryptonian has in terms of power.
Now. It leaves the fans to come up with anything remotely resembling a good theory. And in this case I already said my piece in great detail more than once. So I won't be doing that again. Just focus on the main points.
POWER AND POWER LEVEL:
The solar absorption theory sucks. Mainly because it can be debunked quite easily. So if fans still want it to be about solar connection then another theory as to be created. One that fits all the bills.
A good way to explain a kryptonian power and still linked it the Sun, would be to say that kryptonians have exotic elements that make up their bodies atomic constitution. It could even be sayed or hinted that they seem to be non radioactive isotopes of kryptonite. Elements that existed naturally in Krypton's geological composition and thus in all kryptonian lifeforms. And that these elements in organic beings, it creates a form of Quantum Entanglement to the star closest to them. Meaning that it wouldn't be sunlight that fueled their powers but the star itself. That they were able to harness and process energy directly from that star, by means of a form of a biological Quantum Entanglement.
Now, this could be used in two ways. Once exposed to red solar energy, the connection would break and thus the body would be unable to recharge. Or, once the link is broken, then all the energy goes with it, and kryptonians are left powerless. One or the other, not both. And not how the writer decided.
As for how Superman would recharge his powers if he was outside our solar system. It could be either explain that the link worked regardless of distance, like with âKimiyo Hoshi (in the pre-Flashpoint her powers were said to be connected to the star Vega, that was several light years away), or that kryptonian physiology harnessed the part of the Cosmic Radiation necessary to keep the powers active.
As for how Krypton came to possess such exotic element. You can use your imagination. Either it could be explained that the kryptonian deity Rao, was actually a member of a Galactus type of beings, and that they had all ascended to a high plane of existence, and that Rao, being the last one of his kind left to ascend, he chooses a planet where he infuses some of his energy on the planet itself. Or that some cosmic event like a hypernova blast, hit Krypton when it was still forming. Adding to its atomic composition the necessary energy and particles to create said exotic matter.
This basically covers all basis. Even the vulnerability to kryptonite.
Because as you might kow, things like the photonucleic effect are completely unreal. Also the basis for its explanation is also completely wrong. Ask any nuclear physicist. Atoms don't become more energetic as their subatomic parts (proton and electron) become further apart. It's actually the opposite. They become more energetic when they become closer to each other. Also the biological process you're describing isn't anywhere similar to plants. Because plants don't create energy. They store energy. And Superman body clearly creates energy because there's no way he could get the energy needed to fuel his power from sunlight. Bio-electric aura or no aura. That process simply defies the laws of conservation of energy. Placing Superman power process as unnatural and thus they might as well say that kryptonians get their powers because each star emits a different kind of magical energy.
POWERS:
A kryptonian power set is simply too complex to be delegated to multiple processes. So the best way give some sense to it, is to introduce what should be a natural thing in powered kryptonians.
When we look at the power set, no matter how powerful Superman brain is, it couldn't account for feats like, being able to single out a unique sound in the entire world and be able hear it. How many times have we seen Superman being able to hear a specific sound from basically across the globe. Such a thing should be impossible. It doesn't matter how sensible one's ears are.
The way he uses his "X-Ray" vision. First of all if it really were X-Rays then Superman would be mass murdering people simply by using said power, if it really was X-Rays. The other thing would be that Superman could not really use said energy to see through walls, seeing that X-Rays don't really bounce back from objects as optic radiation does.
Heat Vision. How is it that he's seens controlling such a power with such efficiency. He can make the beam as wide as a nuclear explosion, or as small as a laser pen. He can control its intensity to what can only be described as a nano-level of control. So. How can he know exactly how much energy he's releasing, and further more, how can he control how much energy he releases. It certainly isn't a biological trigger/process.
And the same goes for basically all of his powers. How does he determine how much he sees, how much energy he releases, how he even flies. Especially the flying power. We know it can't be gravity control and we know it can't be because his body generates its own gravitational field. Superman body simply doesn't posses the mass to have such a thing. And even if he did, if I was able to generate a gravitational field around myself that gravitational field would not allow me to fly, if anything it would increase my own gravity/weight. Because gravity is attracted to gravity. How is it that when he's sleeping next to Lois he doesn't simply kill her! His physical strength is on basically godlike level. So even if he could control his physical strength while he's awake, how can he control it when he's asleep. Or better yet, when he shakes someone's hand or types on his computer how can he so effectively control his level of strength.
But the answer here agains seems quite simple. To explain how all of his powers work. Psionic Energy Manipulation!
Because without the psionic element, all of Superman powers would need to have special triggers in the form of organs that gave him the necessary sensory input to use them as he does. Meaning that exposure to the yellow sun would have to create new organs. Specific organs for specific tasks. Which is of course ridiculous.
As you said so yourself. The energy Superman gets enhances his physical aspects. And thus all of them should be enhanced. Including his brain.
Now. Although things like perfect memory recall and thought processing speed, are both part of Superman abilities, it still doesn't seem we're looking at the entire picture. We've had cases where we saw Superman process in a matter of seconds what the most powerful supercomputer on the planet would take years to do. So a kryptonian brain is also enhanced. And thus the use of Psionic energy. And Psionic isn't psychic. Psychic referrers to specific ability, a psychic power like, telepathy or telekinesis. Psionic referrers to the energy the mind possesses. And we've seen other characters which powers are explained as being psionic in natre and that can do many things. Three simple examples being Martian Manhunter in DC Comics, Thanos and Monet in Marvel. Monet power is described as being of psionic nature but here's her powerset... Super-strength/speed/resistance/stamina, telepathy, telekinesis (which she uses to fly of course), and genius level intellect. Reminds you of someone?
So we could simply explain that kryptonian powers are a result of the physical and mental enhancement created by the energy their bodies possess, having a psionic element controlling that same energy. Of course with kryptonians because they are never showned training their minds or exploring what their brains can do, we could simply say that their powers are a result of using the psionic element at a very low level. Near subconscious. This in turn would explain why Superman can only do a certain amount of things like firing energy beams through his eyes and not for example his hands. Because he sees with his eyes then mental conditioning only enables him to release the energies he uses for heat and x-ray vision in a specific way, in this case his eyes. It also explains why he can only freeze things with his breath. And how he can control the energy he applies to anything, at such a level of control.
Powers like Heat and X-Ray visions could simply be explained as psionic mimicking of what he sees. Superman can see in the EM Spectrum from Microwaves to Gamma Radiation, but because his brain is never trained and thus uses what is natural to it, then his mind through psionic means, shapes the energy inside his body to mimic some of the energies he's able to see.
As for how he flies one can call it a form of tactile telekinesis or the enhanced used of one of his senses. Human beings and thus most likely kryptonians, possess not 5 senses, but 9. Our ability to feel heat or cold and its different levels is called thermoception. So the enhanced use of this sense could explain the freeze breath. We also got another sense that allows us to simply know where our body is in relation to what's around us. So a enhanced use of that sense, could also explain the ability to fly. Even our ability to feel disconfort or pain is also a sense.
So this is my interpretation and my theory of how Kryptonian powers should be explained.
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