# Random Superman flying technique question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 2, 2006, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927 "2006-07-02T11:05:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927/21 "2006-07-03T09:43:37Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#):
>
> Ah, indeed. Believe it or not, I’m old enough so that as a kid I well remember buying the very first Superman comic book and many after that.
>
> I liked it better than other comics of that time as it really was based on what would be possible for a being from a planet with stronger gravity to do. As he grew up, he was found to be very strong, of course, but also because of our lighter gravity, he could leap huge distances. **He never flew!**
>
> Sometime after I grew up, it obviously changed so he could fly, was impervious to everything from bullets to atomic bombs (but not Kryptonite, of course) and it became totally ridiculous.
>
> Incidentally, before I left home my mother made me throw out all those first editions of Superman and Batman comic books. I used every argument to keep them except the perfectly silly one that some day they’d be valuable. Damn!
A fan from the Golden Age! I doff my cap to you, **KlondikeGeoff**.
From the indispensable [Superman Through The Ages](http://theages.superman.ws/Encyclopaedia/powers.php) comes this lowdown on Supie’s gradual evolution to true flight:
"In the early years of his super-heroic career, Superman was not endowed with the power of flight. Although he possessed superhuman speed, he moved from place to place by running or by executing gigantic leaps. Month by month, however, Superman’s running speed increased, along with the length of his leaps and the complexity of the aerial maneuvers he was able to perform once he had left the ground. The transition from leaping to actual flying was extraordinarily gradual and was punctuated with a great deal of inconsistency. Not until May 1943 is Superman explicitly referred to as a “being who can fly like a bird” and not until later that same year can it be said, without qualification, that Superman actually possesses the power of flight.
By 1945, Superman is able to fly from Metropolis to Burma in the wink of an eye. “Light travels 186,000 miles a second, but has nothing on Superman,” notes the text, “who finds himself hovering over the jungles of Burma in the wink of an eye!”
In November 1946, Superman demonstrates the ability to stand invisibly on one spot by oscillating his body so fast that the human eye cannot see him. During this same period, Superman protects bystanders at a navy yard from the effects of a devastating explosion by spinning around the blast area at super-speed. With the speed of light, Superman makes a wall of his revolving body, through which the expanding gases of the explosive cannot penetrate. Then, funneling upward, Superman directs the blast toward the sky.
In August 1947, Superman successfully photographs a series of past events by flying into outer space faster than the speed of light and overtaking the light waves leaving Earth which contain the images of the events he wants to record on film.
Later in 1947, Superman single-handedly constructs an entire underground city in a matter of seconds. (Superman #48) During this same period, Superman uses his command of super-speed to travel through the time barrier into the past.
Virtually all texts agree that to penetrate the time barrier, Superman must move at a speed exceeding that of light."
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927/22 "2006-07-03T14:35:48Z")
[entirely tangental]Does anyone know if there is a picture on the net anywhere of Azuma Kiyohiko’s comic of Ryoko doing the Superman flying style?[/et] 🆒
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### Author:  [@First\_Amongst\_Daves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/First_Amongst_Daves)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927/23 "2006-07-03T15:29:33Z")
When Superman had Eradicator problems (a machine from Krypton which decided that Earth was Kal-El’s lebenstraum) and was mind-controlld, he zoomed about standing upright. Superman’s physical orientation apparently has little effect on his velocity.
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### Author:  [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927/24 "2006-07-03T21:52:15Z")
> [@Skald the Rhymer](#):
>
> Certainly by far the most beautiful. Every time I see her I am simply amazed by how stunning she was. Noel Neill I can see avoiding; but if Phyllis Coates circa 1950 expressed the tiniest bit of interest in me, I doubt I’d do anything other than say yes and silently thank whichever god was smiling on me.
I have had a crush on “Phyllis Coates as Panther Girl” ever since watching “Claw Monsters” – the 1955 serial “Panther Girl of the Kongo” edited down to a 90-minute TV-movie – right as I first hit puberty! I already had my “knocked-out superheroines” fetish to some degree already at this point (I had developed that as a prepubescent!), but seeing the miniskirted Coates as jungle heroine get KOed five times truly launched my raging hormones straight into orbit! I actually sometimes wonder if my knockout fetish would have persisted into adulthood if I had not viewed this movie with the sexy Coates right at this crucial time in my life! I know, I should probably start my own thread – “Confessions of a Paraphiliac” – but since someone mentioned the lovely Phyllis, I just had to share this information with you guys!
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927/25 "2006-07-03T23:16:55Z")
> [@ianzin](#):
>
> A little hijack… but I hope you Super-experts won’t mind, and it doesn’t really warrant its own thread. Question: in real life have you ever met a ‘Lois’ or heard of anyone with that name? I’m a Brit, and over here it’s an unheard of name.
:rolleyes: It’s a New Testament name. I have an aunt named Lois.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927/26 "2006-07-03T23:42:47Z")
I dated a Lois in college.
> [@DanBlather](#):
>
> If you take your glassses off do they still recognize you?
And quite a bit more off also. 🙂
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### Author:  [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2006, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-superman-flying-technique-question/362927/27 "2006-07-06T12:02:13Z")
> [@ianzin](#):
>
> A little hijack… but I hope you Super-experts won’t mind, and it doesn’t really warrant its own thread. Question: in real life have you ever met a ‘Lois’ or heard of anyone with that name? I’m a Brit, and over here it’s an unheard of name.
My mom’s name is Lois. God, does she detest it. She feels it’s an old lady name and ugly to boot. I figure she could’ve “owned” the name at least and made the best of (what she saw as) a bad situation, but oh well.
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