Superman, like all Kryptonians, when irradiated by our yellow Sun, becomes a “living battery” and manifests various powers, including flight, super strength and super resistance, durability, among other skills we know well, right? Well, according to a new comic, the source of the Man of Steel’s superhuman abilities isn’t exactly what we’ve thought this whole time.’
Warning for spoilers for Superman: Lost #2!
Em Superman: Lost #2 by Christopher Priest and Carlo Pagulayan, released last week, Clark Kent returns to Earth after having spent 20 years in space in the quantum singularity, after being thrown to another part of the universe by a group of travelers. And when these antagonists reflect on the hero’s biology, the Man of Steel himself explains that Kryptonians manifest biochemical reactions to gravity when exposed to solar radiation.
The plot goes on, but more important is what Superman said about the biology of Kryptonians, as it is something that has never been detailed in comic books before. Clark’s explanation of the plot implies that solar radiation is important to the activation of his powers, but the source of these abilities is actually the gravity he experiences on each planet — a major departure from the concept of ” live battery”.
This gives rise to various projections, as a stronger or weaker gravity planet can affect your powers. And, to make things even more complex, Clark himself adds that “a thousand other variables” influence his superhuman abilities, in addition to solar radiation – be it yellow, red, white or any other color.
And by the end of the plot, more questions than answers arise about the source and true extent of Superman’s powers. This, in fact, is part of a redesign that the hero is currently undergoing. After returning from the saga of Warworld recently, Clark has shown some incredible abilities, such as teleportation and resistance to kryptonite — in the plot of the Lost arc itself, the Man of Steel, in a white uniform, has some gravitational control.
It’s DC making Superman even more powerful and leaving the explanations that dragged on from the 1970s onwards transiting between sci-fi and what we know about science, in a mysterious, dynamic, intriguing and fun way. And you can bet we’ll still see surprising extensions of these new Man of Steel abilities and status quo in the years to come.
