So basically Superman goes to LV-426 and for whatever reason passes out. A facehugger crawls out of nearby egg and facehugs him while he’s passed out with his mouth open.
Once the chestburster is inside, can it escape? And if it can’t escape how can Superman deal with it?
Superman’s immune system is also invulnerable. It would destroy the chestburster before it even got to his chest.
(Some may accuse me of fighting the hypothetical, but since Superman and the chestburster are BOTH hypotheticals, I’m comfortable with my logic.)
Straight from the horses mouth!
The most likely reason Superman is unconscious is because he’s been exposed to kryptonite. This gives the facehugger a window of vulnerability to begin gestation. By the time Superman wakes up, the larva has harvested some of his DNA and has inherited some of Superman’s powers. It’s not strong enough to burst out of his chest, but it’s strong enough to survive in there indefinitely.
Anyway, Superman can just flies into a sun and cooks it from the inside out. Then he coughs up the ashes. Gross.
This has actually happened -
But with certain provisos. Superman is far from Earth during the event, and substantially weakened due to lack of solar energy (similar to @Johnny_Bravo’s assumption). He is implanted by a facehugger, and barely manages to return to Earth-space as it’s trying to do a full-chestburster - (if it weren’t a comic and Superman, he’d have a massively splintered ribcage from the displacement) but he regains power sufficiently fast to survive and eventually pukes it out.
And now we know!
A followup question: if a facehugger was implanted AFTER he was depowered with Gold Kryptonite, would it get Kryptonian powers (minus eyebeams, obviously)?
I dunno, immune systems don’t fight things on that macro level. It would maybe stop an infection from bacteria on the alien egg/embryo but it wouldn’t kill the embryo any more than human immune systems kill botfly eggs or tapeworms.
I like this theory, but it has a big problem. AFAIK Kryptonian powers only come from yellow suns, and are only mutable via Kryptonite fragments, not mediated by DNA. One could argue that it’s Superman’s DNA that makes him convert yellow sunlight to his powers, and so an alien could indirectly catch powers that way, but if the alien is inside Superman, then I’d expect Superman’s body blocks all the activating solar radiation by absorption, so that the alien can never acquire superpowers.
In that case Superman’s super-immune system would probably convert the entire foreign organism into a few quarts of super-pus in mere seconds, which would then have to be vomited out.
There is the other possibility that if the alien absorbs some of Superman’s DNA, then Superman’s body no longer recognizes it as foreign. I don’t know whether facehuggers bring their own source of nutrients, like a yolk sac, or whether it parasitizes the host. So depending on that factor, the alien would either die when its own nutrients run out, or it would remain alive indefinitely, unable to grow larger because it’s constrained by the super-strong confines of Superman’s body.
Immune systems certainly do react to any foreign tissue, big or small. The reason parasites don’t get attacked is that their own physiology suppresses the host immune response.
So in the post #3 scenario, if the alien has absorbed some of Superman’s powers, then both Superman and alien super-immune systems will go to war against each other. With Superman being larger and presumably stronger, I assume he would win, but it would make him incredibly sick in the process.
As I said above, I think the likeliest case is that Superman’s own immune system would immediately liquefy the alien, and the remains would have to be coughed out or vomited out.
[quote=“HMS_Irruncible”] I’d expect Superman’s body blocks all the activating solar radiation by absorption, so that the alien can never acquire superpowers.
[/quote]
I actually realized that as a shower thought this morning and I agree with you.
So, the star that LV-426 supposedly orbits is Zeta Reticuli, both yellow dwarfs. I’m not huge on Superman cannon, but I think that means he should be getting his powers from the star…IIRC, there is only one type of star where he doesn’t get his powers from (and he gets super, superpowers from quasars and such).
I’d say that means the chest burst isn’t going to happen unless the Aliens have access to kryptonite in some way. Of course, without kryptonite I don’t see how he’d pass out, so I guess that means it’s in play. That’s really the key…is there kryptonite or not? If not, then I don’t see how even if the facehugger could implant it could get back out. If there is kryptonite then I guess he’s screwed if he’s sufficiently weak.
I just keep picturing it happening like the first scene here:
Based on situations in the Elseworlds series Superman & Batman: Generations, I suspect it would not. In said story, a child of Superman is depowered by Gold K - his child in turn has a child (so 1/4 Kryptonian) and has no powers until the effects of the Gold K are removed. Even though the Aliens of the franchise do draw upon the powers/characteristics of their host (presumably some sort of genetic transfer) creating powerhouses such as the Predalien, it would appear unlikely they would be more effective in overcoming the Gold K that inactivates the abilities over generations.
I guess he’d need a specialty anaesthetist trained to administer Kryptonite, both for purposes of sedation and to relax his body’s powers enough to permit a medical procedure. Which I guess would only be necessary for Kryptonite-related injuries.