# Question about Superman and his powers... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-superman-and-his-powers/360534 "2006-06-13T03:35:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-superman-and-his-powers/360534/21 "2006-06-13T17:56:17Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > So, can the comics Sup do things like fly around the Earth faster than light and reverse time? Pre-Crisis–and if you don’t know what that mean, read the Wikipedia article on _Crisis on Infinite Earths_–could do that, yes. He was basically a god, except that he wasn’t immortal. At least, he didn’t think he was; some imaginary stories showed him aging, but it was never stated for sure. He didn’t want to be immortal, in any case; in almost every incarnation, he’s preferred being Clark to being Superman, and is a super-hero because he feels ethically obligated, not because he especially likes it the way that, say, Flash does. > [@Loopydude](#): > > If that’s the case, his powers are essentially infinite. If he’s soaking up solar rays for juice to gain this ability, and he can loose it over time by simply moving away from the Sun, he must be an eclipse when he’s sunbathing, and he must radiate like a motherfuck even sitting around in the shade. To lose the kind of power needed for supraluminal flight and return to human strength in a finite period of time ought to put him the the ballpark of a man-sized quasar or something. “If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes, and other science facts / Just tell yourself, ‘It’s just a show,’ then sit back and relax.” ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-superman-and-his-powers/360534/22 "2006-06-13T18:32:30Z")
> [@Skald the Rhymer](#): > > Pre-Crisis–and if you don’t know what that mean, read the Wikipedia article on _Crisis on Infinite Earths_–could do that, yes. I don’t believe that any incarnation of Superman outside of the movies could reverse time. Pre-Crisis Superman could time travel under his own power but could not AFAIK reverse the flow of time. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-superman-and-his-powers/360534/23 "2006-06-13T18:39:32Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > I don’t believe that any incarnation of Superman outside of the movies could reverse time. Pre-Crisis Superman could time travel under his own power but could not AFAIK reverse the flow of time. What is time-travel but reversing one’s personal time flow? I always looked at the earth rotating backwards in the movie as representing Kal’s POV as he travelled backwards in time. That said, I concede that comic-book Superman was specifically unable to change history in his own lifetime, because in Pre-Crisis one of the rules of time travel was that if you travelled to a time where you already existed, you would become a phantom even less able to effect the material world that Zod & Faora in the Phantom Zone. Beyond his own lifetime, I think he was afraid of paradoxes and the logical consequences of changing history; he couldn’t have saved Krypton from destruction, f’instance (even assuming he had the tech) because that would mean Earth would be destroyed on on of the many occasions he saved it when he was the world’s only super-hero. (Which was a long stretch–at least ten years.) ---
**Author:** ![ululate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/59ef9b/32.png) [@ululate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ululate)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-superman-and-his-powers/360534/24 "2006-06-13T21:43:43Z")
> [@Skald the Rhymer](#): > > What is time-travel but reversing one’s personal time flow? He could travel back in time, but not alter history. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-superman-and-his-powers/360534/25 "2006-06-13T22:46:50Z")
> [@ululate](#): > > He could travel back in time, but not alter history. I’d say that every time-travel trip nby definition alters history, unless you beleive in predestination. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-superman-and-his-powers/360534/26 "2006-06-13T23:59:15Z")
> [@Skald the Rhymer](#): > > I’d say that every time-travel trip nby definition alters history, unless you beleive in predestination. On a real life level, I agree with this, and back in the 1960s, it was always a 😕 to me. But, we can put aside accepted theoretical physics here. We can just look at how the entire DC universe has ignored cause and effect within their own universe/theme. Don’t look for continuity. Don’t look for even reason here. Those comics are what they are, and don’t look at anything but today’s issue, sorry [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-superman-and-his-powers/360534.md?page=1)