Silver age Superman questions

[Tonyman1989]

I am new to reading silver age superman comics and I was wondering if someone could help me answer a few questions about his powers because Everyone says that he hag no limit to his powers.

I have a comic where Silver age Superman pushs the earth only a few inches and it takes everything he had. so is silver age Superman strength limit the ability to push the Earth (6.6 sextillion tons/ 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons).

Is his max fight speed light speed (186,282 mps) and is he can create a space warp and that is how he goes from planet to planet over many light years.

How durable is he i heard he can handle a blast that could destroy the earth (how powerful of a blast would that be).

Super Monkey edit: Fixed Spelling

[Maximara]

I am new to reading silver age superman comics and I was wondering if someone could help me answer a few questions about his powers because Everyone says that he hag no limit to his powers.

I have a comic where Silver age Superman pushs the earth only a few inches and it takes everything he had. so is silver age Superman strength limit the ability to push the Earth (6.6 sextillion tons/ 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons).

Is his max fight speed light speed (186,282 mps) and is he can create a space warp and that is how he goes from planet to planet over many light years.

How durable is he i heard he can handle a blast that could destroy the earth (how powerful of a blast would that be).

Super Monkey edit: Fixed Spelling

The Silver Age Superman was ridiculously powerful which is why near the end of the Silver age and for much of the Bronze Krytonite, super science, and magic showed up with annoying regularity. Also to make the story last more than two pages Superman was written as a Stupidman forgetting some of his powers or blundering along sans his Super intellegence.

[Klar Ken T5477]

I beg to differ - som of the best silver age yarns not only had Superman being super-powerful but more often than not with all his powers he saved the day by the super wits of he and the writer to get out of a jam!

Im sorry a lot of the modern day scribes dont have the depth and breadth of Hamilton, Siegel, Dorfman, Binder, Shooter, Bates and Maggin and other Silver bronzers.

It's called super-imagination and how to tell a tight tale in 8 pages!  That's genius!

[Gangbuster]

How powerful is Batman?

The truth is, we don't know...and that mystery makes the stories better. So it was with Superman.

I'm a new convert to the Silver/Bronze age Superman, since I wasn't alive during either of those ages. But if you're suggesting that John Byrne was a much wiser steward of Superman than Jerry Siegel or Elliot S Maggin, then I must simply point at you and laugh. Yes, mockery is good for the soul.

It's not that John Byrne was a bad writer; on the contrary, the Man of Steel miniseries was quite good. even if it seems dated and Reaganesque today. But the changes he made to the Superman mythos stifled the character for years to come.

In the previous eras, Superman was fast enough to travel to other planets. This meant that he could actually go to Oa or the Bizarro World, travel to the site of Krypton or Oric, or race the Flash. He was also able to travel to the past when he reached a certain speed, although he experienced the past as a person in the Phantom Zone would...he could see, but not touch or be seen. And he moved at variable speeds...when on Earth he was careful NOT to fly at the speed of light, especially if he was carrying someone.

So changes in Superman's speed significantly hindered the science fiction element in Superman comics. Now he could only go to Apokolips when he could find a boom tube. Bizarro World was eliminated because he simply couldn't get there. Oa was accessible only to Green Lanterns.

A reduction in strength might have been necessary if he did move the earth a few inches. But that happened once and wasn't exactly a standard-bearer. Reduction in invulnerability was unneccessary, though. When Superman can be hurt by a normal tank, I think that's too much. If a nuclear weapon can knock him out for 30 minutes, that means that a nuclear weapon can kill him.

People who complained that Superman doesn't bleed enough got what they wanted.

[Tonyman1989]

Is the limit to John Byrnes Supermans Durability a 40 megaton blast at ponitblank (and him being knocked out for an hour).

[Maximara]

It's not that John Byrne was a bad writer; on the contrary, the Man of Steel miniseries was quite good. even if it seems dated and Reaganesque today. But the changes he made to the Superman mythos stifled the character for years to come.

In the previous eras, Superman was fast enough to travel to other planets.

For the Golden age this was not true until after 1943 when Superman could fly and he did not get superspeed powerful enough to go to other worlds until 1947 by which timethe Golden age already in its decline.

Here are some examples of how SUperman suddenly became Stupidman in the Silver-Bronze ages. Luthor lost his hair after making an antidote to Kryptonite and yet when Superman fails to create an antidote he stupidly thinks that there is no antidote. Go back in time as a phantom and watch him make the formula. ARRGGH.

Another example, in one story Lois and Lana are exposed to the same disease that killed Superman's parents.  Superman runs all over space and time looking for a cure but fails.  He even excepts the BS
from his friends in the Legion  about how they cannot change history even though alterante future were well known to Superman. Finally Stupidman realized he was exposed as well and he has the antibodies in his blood; Well DUH! that is middle school biology you Supermoron.

To be fair to Superman the villians tended to get written as idiots as well with the Challange of the Superfriends cartoon being a prime example. The first story showed promice but the consept quickly spirialed down to pathetic writing and even poorer logic.

For example in "Superfriends Rest in Peace" the Superfirend instead of destroying this crystal that can kill aa ofthem bury it beheath the Hall of Justice. Where the Legion of Doom can get to it. fter the LoD get the box and Luthor fails to open with his gadgets Sinestro proclaims that is must be made of a weak Kryton steal that only Superman can open.  HELLO Legion of Idiots, you have a member just as strong as Superman - his name is Bizarro. When Luthor dresses up the box as a ray gun does Superman X-ray it to see what it really is?  No he does juat at in the comic and act firsts and reallizes he royally screwed up.  Then the LoD doesn't notice that in the battle with Sinestro Hal's green energy knocks Sinestro's beam away.  ARGH the real Hal'sring cannot effect yellow in any way.  Sinestro where is your brain? As a former GL you know this.  

Then to finished up the stupidity after all this hassle do the Superfriends finally get the message and destory this thing? NO instead they have Apache Chief go down in a radiations suit, find the crystal shove it into a high-tech bazooka and shoot the thing in space where any freaking two-bit space hood could get the thing forcing the Superfriends to go
through this loopy plan again.

After this episode one could almost envision the following scene at the Hall of Doom (The Legion has escaped AGAIN).

Bizarro: Me make horrific discovery.

Luthor (sounding bored): What is it, Bizarro?

Bizarro: Me discover that me bring back virus that turn people into idiots.  
Isn't it wonderful Legion of Doom now dumbest people on planet, BAWHAHA.

Luthor (putting head in hands): "Now its clear why we can't defeat the Superfirends. We even I the great Lex Luthor now have the collective IQ of a rock."

Bizarro: Me also have wonderous news.  Superfriends also infected with virus.  WAHAHA.  Why can't only Bizarro and Legion of Doom friends be dumbest people in world.

Luthor (looking at the wailing Bizarro starts looking for something in his
podium):  Here Bizarro I have a little something for you. (fires an energy
weapon).

Bizarro: "Luthor must really be Bizarro's friend, he try to kill me with blue
Kryptonite (falls over out cold)."

Luthor (throwing his ray gun over his shoulder):  Well that proves it. I'm so dumb right now I can't even kill this pathetic copy of Superman.

Solemon Grundy: Solemon Grundy not care how stupid he is. Solemon Grundy still crush Superfriends.

Luthor puts his heads in his hands and starts crying as the rest of the Legion make similarly stupid statements.

Yes the Golden through Bronze age produced some good stories but it could produce some really stupid ones.  The Hall of Shame in the Wizard Superman Tribute Edition went over some more examples of Superman being written really badly.

[Gangbuster]

It's not that John Byrne was a bad writer; on the contrary, the Man of Steel miniseries was quite good. even if it seems dated and Reaganesque today. But the changes he made to the Superman mythos stifled the character for years to come.

In the previous eras, Superman was fast enough to travel to other planets.

For the Golden age this was not true until after 1943 when Superman could fly and he did not get superspeed powerful enough to go to other worlds until 1947 by which timethe Golden age already in its decline.

By the previous eras, I meant Siegel's Silver Age and Maggin's Bronze Age. But if he traveled to other planets during the Golden Age too, (probably beginning with "Return to Krypton") that furthers my point.

As for the Superfriends cartoon...well, I liked it when I was in kindergarten. I haven't seen it since, but I assume that it is still an outside-of-canon kids' show.

[Maximara]

It's not that John Byrne was a bad writer; on the contrary, the Man of Steel miniseries was quite good. even if it seems dated and Reaganesque today. But the changes he made to the Superman mythos stifled the character for years to come.

In the previous eras, Superman was fast enough to travel to other planets.

For the Golden age this was not true until after 1943 when Superman could fly and he did not get superspeed powerful enough to go to other worlds until 1947 by which timethe Golden age already in its decline.

By the previous eras, I meant Siegel's Silver Age and Maggin's Bronze Age. But if he traveled to other planets during the Golden Age too, (probably beginning with "Return to Krypton") that furthers my point.

Return to Krypton was 1949 well after whent he Golden Age is though to have ended so it does not really prove anything.  Also in the Silver age imaginary Tale Superman Red and Superman Blue both supermen blow off the rest of universe because crime on Earth has been eliminated and retire.

As for the Superfriends cartoon...well, I liked it when I was in kindergarten. I haven't seen it since, but I assume that it is still an outside-of-canon kids' show.

Actually Superfriends had a .comic book tie in from the Marvin and Wendy days through the Wonder Twins with appearances by some Legion of Doom members like Bizarro, Grodd, and Scarecrow. So it is not like you can ignore the show's sometimes hokey writing.