# Superman nitpic **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665 "2013-06-10T22:34:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/21 "2013-06-13T18:42:59Z")
Why does he have such powerful muscles when his strength isn’t due to resistance training? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/22 "2013-06-13T19:43:34Z")
Because nobody would buy his comic book if he looked like a wimp. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/23 "2013-06-13T19:44:38Z")
If you want to know where the original super powers came from, read **Gladiator** by Philip Wylie. A professor at a little college in Colorado does an experiment on his pregnant wife and she produces a child who is basically invulnerable, can see long distances, has super strength, has super stamina, can run very fast, and can leap amazingly high. And pretty smart too - he goes to college in what is clearly Princeton. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/24 "2013-06-13T20:23:31Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > So that’s the part you find implausible, is it?:dubious: Well, yeah, in a [Fridge Logic](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridgeLogic) kinda way. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/25 "2013-06-13T21:58:56Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > It fits with my notion that the Kryptonians couldn’t have evolved their yellow-sun-based powers under a red sun. The only natural explanation I have for it is that their sun was yellow for most of their evolutionary period, advancing to red late in their development. The problem with that is that such a change would probably have rendered Krypton uninhabitable, but you could handwave that Kryptonian life retained enough of its superpowers to survive the transition for long enough to adapt (or escape and settle on another planet, perhaps). I’ve seen someone point out that in evolutionary terms, the bit where Superman lets bullets bounce off his chest and ducks when the frustrated crook throws the gun at him actually makes sense. The former is something that one has to _learn_ to recognize as a threat (and which Supes would know is _not_ a threat to him); the latter is a reflexive action below the conscious-thought level (a reflex which Kryptonians in their native environment, being as vulnerable to heavy thrown objects as humans, would naturally develop – Supes _could_ consciously suppress the reflex, but since it makes little difference might not bother to do so). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/26 "2013-06-13T22:11:17Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > I’ve seen someone point out that in evolutionary terms, the bit where Superman lets bullets bounce off his chest and ducks when the frustrated crook throws the gun at him actually makes sense. The former is something that one has to _learn_ to recognize as a threat (and which Supes would know is _not_ a threat to him); the latter is a reflexive action below the conscious-thought level (a reflex which Kryptonians in their native environment, being as vulnerable to heavy thrown objects as humans, would naturally develop – Supes _could_ consciously suppress the reflex, but since it makes little difference might not bother to do so). The difference being that you can’t **see** bullets in flight. (Well, Superman can, but you know what I mean.) ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/27 "2013-06-14T02:53:47Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Spit-curl? Hell, where’s his red BVDs? This version has yet to fight Chuck Norris. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/28 "2013-06-14T17:05:25Z")
Here’s my question… What’s different about a red sun versus a yellow one? I mean, light is light, right? Color makes no difference; so his powers would be the same. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/29 "2013-06-14T17:11:48Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Here’s my question… > > What’s different about a red sun versus a yellow one? I mean, light is light, right? Color makes no difference; so his powers would be the same. See [astronomical spectroscopy.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_spectroscopy) Different classes of stars have different light-signatures. Apparently Kryptonians are somehow attuned to absorb the energy from a sun with a yellow-star signature but not one with a red-star signature. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/30 "2013-06-14T17:16:16Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Here’s my question… > > What’s different about a red sun versus a yellow one? I mean, light is light, right? Color makes no difference; so his powers would be the same. Well, we know which star now: LHS-2520 (aka Rao) > **[Neil DeGrasse Tyson Found Krypton in Comics and in Real Life | The Mary Sue](https://www.themarysue.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-found-krypton/)** > > Everybody loves Neil DeGrasse Tyson. So it's no surprise that when DC Comics decided that Superman would try to find Krypton in the night sky in an upcoming issue of ACTION COMICS, they thought Mr. Tyson should be the person to help the Man of Steel.... And there’s more than one difference between a medium-sized Class G star (the Sun) and a red dwarf Class M star (Rao). > **[Red dwarf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf)** > > A red dwarf is the smallest kind of star on the main sequence. Red dwarfs are by far the most common type of fusing star in the Milky Way, at least in the neighborhood of the Sun. However, due to their low luminosity, individual red dwarfs are not easily observed. From Earth, not one star that fits the stricter definitions of a red dwarf is visible to the naked eye. Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to the Sun, is a red dwarf, as are fifty of the sixty nearest stars. According to some estimat Th... ---
**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 14, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665/31 "2013-06-14T20:37:48Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Why does he have such powerful muscles when his strength isn’t due to resistance training? Post-Crisis, it was explicit that his Greek-god physique was due to his super-powers. The temporarily leggéd Lori Lemaris was in his apartment, working out (and thus showing off her gams) and she commented that, unlike Kal, she had to work out to look good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman-nitpic/660665.md?page=1)