What happens to Superman’s powers if he goes to a binary star system composed of a sun-like yellow star and a red dwarf? Does he lose them or not?
There’s a very old thread about Superman’s powers which this question is appropriate for, but it’s so old that Discourse has lost the names of the people posting. All the posts are creditied to @system. This particular post from Dr._Fidelius (he signed his post) has some relevance to my question:
A bit of googling indicates that this is a longstanding question. And the consensus seems to be that either the brighter yellow sunlight would overwhelm and cancel out the weaker red, or that he’d end up about half-power.
Superman’s powers seem to get retconned yearly. Yellow sun, mumble, mumble, solar battery, mumble mumble, alien DNA (aliens have DNA?). In the olden, olden days he used to lose his powers under a green sun, but he also flew from star to star through empty space. How could that work? Oh, right. It worked however the writer of the story wanted it to work. And always will.
In the really old days, he was just from a high-gravity planet, right?
Or, alternately, what if he were in deep space, far from all stars?
I think it’s only yellow sunlight, or its lack, that matters. Red suns are only relevant in as far as they’re not yellow: Under a red sun, he doesn’t gain any more power, but it doesn’t sap his power, either (though he has some reserves he can use to keep on super-ing for a while in such an environment). So a red sun would be the same as no sun, and a binary red-and-yellow would be the same as just yellow.
The Superman wiki says:
As presented in the original 1939 ongoing (last time co-creator Jerry Siegel ever wrote published origin of the character in comics), Superman’s powers were innate to all supermen (original name of the people of Krypton) whose “physical structure was millions of years advanced of [humanity’s] own.” Later on, supermen were shown using the same powers that Superman would have on Earth.
Superman’s powers were enhanced and added to from the 1940s until the mid-eighties. His powers were explained as a result of two factors: the comparatively weaker gravity of Earth, and the intensity of Earth’s yellow sun (Yellow Sun as a power source is first mentioned in Action Comics #262 1961, in a back-up story by Otto Binder and Jim Mooney). As such, Superman’s powers were negated if he entered an environment similar to that of Krypton, such as the bottle city of Kandor, or if he was exposed to the solar energy of a red sun …
From what that piece says, a red sun still negates his powers in all canon since.
In the really old days, he just had a physical structure millions of years in advance of our own. Here’s the first page of Action Comics #1, as old as the days get.
My head canon is that being exposed to the yellow sun through the entirety of childhood eventually made his powers permanent and portable.
I’m astounded that it was that recent. That seems like something I should have known.
Thanks guys!
And here’s the relevant section of that, a story where Supergirl is reminiscing about her arrival on Earth.
What happens if the planet is in the plane of the two stars’ orbit, such that the stars would eclipse each other every orbit. The stars’ orbit, that is, which could be multiple eclipses per day if they’re in a really tight orbit. Does Sup lose his powers every time the red sun is in front and get increased power when the yellow is in front?
That’s no fun for speculators.
That’s where the “solar battery” idea comes from: he stores up yellow sunlight on Earth, and burns through it gradually when he’s in space.
He already manages to sustain his superpowers overnight. A binary eclipse couldn’t last that long.
That depends on whether a red star is neutral or actively reducing his powers. If the binary is only giving him half power, then the red must somehow be reducing. In that case, when the red eclipses the yellow, he’d lose power altogether. Admittedly, an eclipse will only last a few minutes at most, so he’ll soon be getting the powers back.
If he is somewhere in space between two stars when his powers fade, that eclipse better be shorter than a few minutes.
Hmmm. If the planet is orbiting the yellow sun, and the red sun (also orbiting the yellow) is farther away, the yellow sun will be out every day, and the red sun will sometimes also be out in the day and sometimes be out at night. With both suns out in daytime, depending on relative distances the yellow one would have a greater (or even much greater) effect than the red one.
What colour sun gives humans super powers?
Durazno
That’s the peachy color of the sun in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. I hung out with surfers there in the '70s, and I’ve never felt stronger…
In the Bronze Age (1970-1985), any exposure to red solar radiation instantly robs Kryptonians of their powers, even if yellow sunlight is also present.
This was how Lex Luthor captured Superman in the Elliot S! Maggin novel Superman: Last Son of Krypton. (There, they also explained that blue solar radiation left all of Superman’s powers intact except for his super senses.)
I even have a “Supergirl and the TRS-80 Whiz Kids” comic from the time (an official DC product!), where Supergirl lost her powers while flying over a farmhouse – during broad daylight – because the solar panels on its roof “suddenly turned red”.
EDIT: And a Superboy cartoon from the 1960s (the Silver Age) shows Superboy being depowered by exposure to red sunlight, but getting his powers back when shadows blot out the red sun. Also, Krypto (Superboy’s pet superdog) was unaffected by the red solar radiation.