Super-Scholars: When has Superman moved planets?

[alschroeder]

Actually it was never stated what that last barrier was.  It was only stated that Kal crossing that barrier would cause the destruction of everything.  Or something to that effect.  It was safe for Kara to cross that barrier (according to the Spectre, anyway) because she was unconscious.  Even if that "string" of planets Superboy moved was made up of moon or mars size worlds, that would still add up to moving something bigger than earth. :wink:

Are you sure? If one could move the earth, one could move literally 81 Moons---and of course, we have no idea if the planets themselves might have had some partial propulsion system to aid Superman/Superboy.

We have SEEN Superman stop the Earth in its tracks, in its orbit, without any additional power---so we're pretty sure on that one. (It seemed to take all his strength, though.) The rest there could be a LOT of variables.---Al

[Super Monkey]

Blowing out a STAR with his Super Breath follow up.

More details:

Superman No. 91, August 1954: "The Superman Stamp!"

You can read a review of this story here:

http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/pre-crisis-reviews/pre-crisis-mmrs-intro.php?topic=c-review-pc-sup91

[alschroeder]

Something odd about that---simply blowing oxygen at a star shouldn't effect it, unless the speed of the expelled air is simply incredible---in whcih case it would literally disrupt the plasma the star is made from and blow it apart. Perhaps it was an almost dead-dwarf star with pockets of oxygen in it that literally caught afire before it's final collapse, and it was that which Superman blew out...

But I'll reserve judgement until I actually read that issue.---Al

[llozymandias]

Keep in mind that Kal is able to make his super-breath super-cold.  A star is basically a hot fusion reacter.  It needs pressure & heat to operate.  Kill the heat & its basically a dead star.  Imagine how the Phantom Zone Prisoners must have reacted when they watched Kal "blow out" a star for the first time.  Or make a star go super-nova.  Or move a "string" of planets accross Rao only knows how many light years.  I imagine them looking at each other all thinking the same thought.  We can do THAT?  Great Rao what limits do those powers have?  Kal mastered his powers as a child.  It probably never occured to him that many of the things he did were supposed to be impossible.  



      When Al said moon size worlds i was thinking of earth's moon.  He also mentioned Mars.  The moon & mars are smaller than earth.  But they are not miniscule in comparison to earth.  Moving 10-12 (or more) planets of those sizes would still add up to moving something bigger than earth.

[alschroeder]

Although from what I'm reading, Mars' mass is more or less one-tenth of Earth's, so moving ten Mars-sized worlds should be possible for Superman at his Silver AGe peak.

I go back and forth on this. I'm a big fan of the ORIGINAL Superman---Siegel and Shuster's original vision---but sometimes it's fun to play around with the mightiest version, and try to dream up things that would challenge even HIM.

By the way, I theorized that both heat vision and super-cold breath were heat regulators. Heat vision is a way of releasing excess energy when the internal "fires" are getting too great---super-cold breath could "leech" heat away from the enviornment to help Superman when his metabolism is running a little slow---

For him.---Al

[Validus]

Silver Age Superman's strength is many, many orders of magnitudes greater than Bronze Age Superman's strength.  

The most impressive showing of physical strength by the Silver Age Kal-El that I recall is when, as superboy, (in Superboy No. 172) he hurled a neutron star into another galaxy a billion light years away.   :shock: A neutron star is not only far more massive than any planet, it is more massive than our sun.  

The Bronze Age Superman moved Earth a few inches in DC Comics Presents #3.  It was pretty clear from the illustration of his face that he was pushing the limits of his strength to do so.

[llozymandias]

Superboy hurling a neutron star into another galaxy does imply a few things.  He can hurl massive objects through hyper-space.  He can do it in such a way that, they end up in a destination of kal's choosing.  Kal is (at least relatively) unaffected by the gravity of a neutron star.  The effort it takes for him to move earth, i attribute to his inhibitions.  The ones he built up over the years to prevent him from using too much of his power when he is on earth.