More akin to Darkseid.
IIRC Doomsday shrugged off Darkseid’s Omega Beams(?..whatever it was he shot from his eyes that couldn’t miss and annihilated whatever they hit).
Actually, as an example of it being how the if writers want it to happen enough, the DC heroes in the original Death of Superman fought with the stupidity of a thousand imploding Trumps. Literally, on page 118 of the Death of Superman complete edition, Superman (after tons of the aforementioned punching) reaches the brilliant idea (that I’d have had about 100 pages earlier) of just tossing Doomsday into space!
And it’s working! But Doomsday is too slippery and kicks Supes, who drops him. And never tries again. Despite Superspeed, and all those other abilities. Or you know, could just hit him in the air again and literally THROW shit at him until he reaches escape velocity.
I’ll point out that after Doomsday is eventually defeated, Cyborg Superman ties him to asteroid (from which he’ll eventually escape of course) and pushes it on a deep space trajectory. Which works outside of “writers need Doomsday back, but better stupidity”.
Any smart DC hero with half a brain could have done this, but their all went for the big punch fest. It’s the whole Batman v Superman thing - sure, Batman can win, if he prepares for weeks/months/years and fights with his life on the line. And Superman fights like he’s been recently lobotomized and forgot 80% of his powers.
Same thing when fighting Superboy Prime except they at least tried being more clever…but its just beyond stupid for people like Nightwing and Black Canary to go up against him.
“Look! There’s an adamantium plated rhinoceros high on angel dust! You hit him high, I’ll hit him low and we’ll take him by surprise!”
This is why I posted “on short notice” instead of “if he’s prepared”.
I don’t think you can ever say that something is obviously not a Superman power.
Yeah, if it hadn’t been before, that Rubicon was crossed when it turned out that Superman’s chest symbol was actually magical saran wrap.
Magical. Amnesia. Kiss.
You’ve, obviously, never been kissed by Christopher Reeve.
Not knowing you have been kissed by Christopher Reeve is a sign that you’ve been kissed by Christopher Reeve.
It was magical, I think.
WHICH HAS NO PLACE IN A SCIENCE-BASED MOVIE!
Even a Sci-Fi/Comic/Superhero one. Supes is from Krypton, a larger world under a red sun, and he should have a set set of powers predicated on that.
Sure, the old comics were full of weird powers, made up willy-nilly (especially under Julius Schwartz’s editorship).
But, NO.
No “Super-Ventriloquism”, no “Super-Hypnosis”… and NO “Super-Weaving”.
I rewatched that “Saran Wrap S Logo” clip, and it’s stupider than i remembered.
He doesn’t tear his shield off, he’s holding it with the S on his uniform intact.
And it doesn’t do much good; it wraps up Non and he falls down. Ooh…
If you’re going to invent a new power, make sure it’s not inferior to just punching the guy.
As an aside…it annoys me in superhero stories when the superhero doesn’t lead with their most powerful attack. Just end the thing in the first 10 seconds. Nope. Must faff about for five minutes punching each other and THEN hit them with laser beam eyes (or whatever).
I get the Hulk powers up as he fights.
Apparently Superman can shoot a small Supeman out of his hand.
But I mainly posted the link for the panel of the alien narrating to himself as he sets an object on a table, as humans and aliens are wont to do.
That was always my headcanon for Voltron; it takes time to build up the “sword that kills anything in one hit” move.
I also imagine taking Voltron apart again is an hours-long process and the pilots are stuck in there, so they only do it as a last resort.
With a hero like Superman, it’s not that difficult to explain why he doesn’t hit everything with heat vision immediately or just punch its head off. The same reason a cop doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) pull out a gun and start shooting a suspect. It’s a last resort. He wants to catch villains and save people, not murder everyone.
It’s like, let’s talk this guy down, oh he isn’t going to negotiate. All right, let’s intimidate him… Now his hands are glowing, he’s clearly dangerous and has powers, let’s try a gust of wind… Sheesh he’s strong, maybe a slight tap… Also nearly invulnerable, okay time to take the gloves off (not literally, I don’t wear them, I compensate with an extra pair of underwear).
Granted, writers aren’t necessarily that nuanced in comics, and they’re just trying to make a scene exciting without bothering with plausibility or reasoning. But a well-written story would also not be “one punch and done” either.
I one of the justice league cartoons that was doing a “Superman goes full totalitarian” arc, Doomsday shows up and, to everyone’s horror, Supes immediately lobotomizes him with a concentrated heat ray.
That same series also had my favorite Superman monologue: the world of cardboard speech. It starts around 2:45 in this clip.
I remember thinking something similar when watching “Pacific Rim” except there was no reason to think anything needed to “power-up.” They mess around for a while punching things and then break-out the cut-anything sword.
Doesn’t he give the same (or similar) speech in one of the movies?