# What Could Superman Do to Fight Wildfires? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 16, 2020, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801 "2020-09-16T23:49:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/42 "2020-09-21T16:01:55Z")
My thought exactly. Stop the kids playing with matches. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/43 "2020-09-21T17:02:17Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Does Superman ever fight the hypothetical? Can he even fight it? What if the hypothetical is stronger than Supe? > [@RitterSport](#): > > Nothing is stronger than Supe! Supe is strongest there is! Puny hypothethical. Imagine that there was a hypothetical that was _weaker_ than Superman. He’d, by definition, be able to fight _that_ hypothetical. Which means that the hypothetical _wasn’t_ weaker than Superman, after all. Which means he shouldn’t have been able to fight it… ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/44 "2020-09-21T18:18:55Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > (In “real life,” he can’t suck in a huge lungful of compressed air, because his diaphragm doesn’t have that much room to move.) In “real life” Superman has loads of problems, to the degree that introducing “real life” fights the hypothetical by arguing that Superman doesn’t exist at all. Similarly, rejecting the evidence of the officially-licensed-by-DC LEGO video games also seems like fighting the hypothetical, unless you wish to argue that the character _isn’t Superman._ In any case, it seems quite clear to me that among the many laws of physics Superman breaks, he also messes around quite a bit with heat and energy exchanges. He can handle hot things without becoming so hot that he incinerates the ground upon coming home. He instantly can absorb enough energy from the sun to be able to issue unlimited heat beams from his eyes. And while he is canonically very capable of freezing things with his breath, he doesn’t _always_ exhale frozen breath. And that being the case it seems clear that when he uses frost breath, he is deliberately drawing the heat _out_ of the compressed air in his lungs, possibly transferring it to his infinite heat vision battery or something. So, yes. Superman can and does have frost breath - and he canonically uses it to put out fires, even. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/45 "2020-09-21T18:26:50Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Imagine that there was a hypothetical that was _weaker_ than Superman. He’d, by definition, be able to fight _that_ hypothetical. Which means that the hypothetical _wasn’t_ weaker than Superman, after all. Which means he shouldn’t have been able to fight it… Don’t hypothetical the fight… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/46 "2020-09-22T00:28:37Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > In any case, it seems quite clear to me that among the many laws of physics Superman breaks, he also messes around quite a bit with heat and energy exchanges. . . . True > [@](#): > > So, yes. Superman can and does have frost breath Nope. No more than he can split into two people or walk through walls. And Jimmy Olsen doesn’t turn into lobsters any more. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/47 "2020-09-22T00:39:11Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > That works…but slowly. Heat transfer in those amounts takes a lot of time. One of Superman’s superpowers is superconductivity. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/48 "2020-09-22T00:42:06Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > One of Superman’s superpowers is superconductivity. That actually kinda makes sense, given his other heat/energy dealies, heat-vision, etc. In fact, if he takes in a huge lungful of air, compressing it to high temperature, then he _must_ use his heat vision to shed that heat. It all comes together! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/49 "2020-09-22T12:06:12Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Nope. No more than he can split into two people or walk through walls. And Jimmy Olsen doesn’t turn into lobsters any more. I’ve never heard of the latter 3 occurring. I’m not even a big supes fan but even I’ve heard of the freeze breath. There’s no reason to privilege the current canon versus such a widely-accepted older canon that even I immediately thought of it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/50 "2020-09-22T16:56:01Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > There’s no reason to privilege the current canon Difference of opinion. I believe that the times have changed and Superman has been brought up to date. He also doesn’t sink Japanese ships. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/51 "2020-09-22T19:52:38Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Nope. No more than he can split into two people or walk through walls. And Jimmy Olsen doesn’t turn into lobsters any more. Hold on, wait. You’re basing your position here on picking a specific personal-choice incarnation of Superman that most people are unfamiliar with and then deliberately _denying_ eighty years of the character’s existence and the vast majority of his canonical appearances? That’s like arguing that Darth Vader has never killed anyone because you only consider the first thirty seconds of A New Hope canon. Hell, I think it would make more sense to argue that Superman _can’t fly_ because you only accept his _original_ incarnation as canon, back when he could only leap very high. At least that argument has a certain purism to it. ETA: And Superman has used frost breath _really recently._ It’s not some bygone oddity of the sixties comic weirdness; it’s part of his official powerset. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/52 "2020-09-22T20:08:27Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > he is deliberately drawing the heat _out_ of the compressed air in his lungs, possibly transferring it to his infinite heat vision battery or something. Supes is stronger than the second law of thermodynamics! Is there nothing he can’t do? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/53 "2020-09-22T20:12:56Z")
Superman is one of the few heroes I know whose powers are typically defined by his weaknesses. Superman is weak against kryptonite, magic, red sunlight, and Zack Snyder. Only after you get past that list do you start the tedious (and somewhat terrifying) listing of what he can _do_. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/54 "2020-09-22T20:22:54Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Hold on, wait. You’re basing your position here on picking a specific personal-choice incarnation of Superman that most people are unfamiliar with and then deliberately _denying_ eighty years of the character’s existence and the vast majority of his canonical appearances? I mean, he’s not doing anything that DC comics hasn’t done already. Most of the Silver Age hijinx Superman got into aren’t canon anymore. **Trinopus** is just mistaken in categorizing “freeze breath” as part of the abandoned Silver Age hokum, like Superman having the power to [make tiny duplicate Supermen](https://dailysuperheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/3808249-6679395697-Tiny.jpg), or [“Super-weaving” being an explicit part of his power set](https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2020/01/72b364f2879792ca-600x338.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![ZosterSandstorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ZosterSandstorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZosterSandstorm)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/55 "2020-09-22T20:28:36Z")
Superman can lift heavy objects and move at 7.2 million miles per hour. He could just ask all the firefighters in America to board their trucks and then place the trucks every 400 feet around the fire in a minute. Get the Flash to help and it goes even faster. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/56 "2020-09-22T20:37:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I mean, he’s not doing anything that DC comics hasn’t done already. Most of the Silver Age hijinx Superman got into aren’t canon anymore. **Trinopus** is just mistaken in categorizing “freeze breath” as part of the abandoned Silver Age hokum, like Superman having the power to [make tiny duplicate Supermen](https://dailysuperheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/3808249-6679395697-Tiny.jpg), or [“Super-weaving” being an explicit part of his power set](https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2020/01/72b364f2879792ca-600x338.jpg). I don’t know, has any modern Superman _tried_ making tiny superclones? You never know until you try. Maybe they all can. (And super-weaving is clearly just him using superspeed and being a dork about it.) It’s just strange to see somebody denying that Superman has freeze breath - it’s been a standard stock element of his powerset for generations, probably coming right after heat vision if you were listing them. (He also has the ability to exhale _way_ more air at once than he should be able to, somehow.) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/57 "2020-09-22T21:24:32Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > He also has the ability to exhale _way_ more air at once than he should be able to, somehow And that’s only PART of my objection! Anyway, let’s send this digression to the Phantom Zone. (In any discussion of theology, some jackanapes always says, “First, define ‘God.’” Let’s not be silly daft buggers, okay?) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/58 "2020-09-22T21:26:56Z")
> [@ZosterSandstorm](#): > > Superman can lift heavy objects and move at 7.2 million miles per hour. He could just ask all the firefighters in America to board their trucks and then place the trucks every 400 feet around the fire in a minute. Is Good! Of course, he’ll need to do a lot of rescuing, too, as this won’t always work. Some of the trucks will simply not be able to put out the fire in their zone. But, hey, super speed, super strength, he can get 'em out again as easily as put 'em in. Does Superman ever do the hand-clap shock-wave thing that The Hulk does so often and so well? I’m guessing he _can_ do this, but has it ever actually come up in the comics? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/59 "2020-09-22T21:33:17Z")
You know, if you’re going to insist on non-comic physics being a factor here, the firefighters sitting on fire trucks that are suddenly jerked from zero to 7,200,000mph and back to 0mph again will _surely_ die, quite messily. Unless we’re going to acknowledge that unstated ‘tactile telekinesis’ superpower that he sometimes has? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/60 "2020-09-22T21:36:01Z")
No one said he has to use his full acceleration. He can keep it down to 0.7 G and still get the job done. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801/61 "2020-09-22T21:36:46Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > ‘tactile telekinesis’ All comic book heroes have that. That’s why they can catch someone falling from any height right before they hit the ground. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-superman-do-to-fight-wildfires/920801.md?page=4)