The bodies of superhe♉roes and superheroines for that matter are desired by all. Any time a superhero movie comes out you can look at tons of articles and magazine covers that promise to spill the secrets about how your favorite star got into such tremendous shape to look the part. But looking the part and actually having that body are two different matters entirely. Just for an example, let's take a look at Superman.
Yes, Henry Cavill might have the curl in his hair just 🃏right and is perfect chiseled physique needed to play the Man of Steel, but there is no chance in hell that push ups and sit ups are going to give him the body of Superman. Right from his hair all the way down to his toenails, Superman's body is full of secrets and superpowers that you can't even imagine. Oh, sure we might that we know the full gamut of Superman's powers. You know super strength, speed, intellect, stamina, heat vision, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Throughout his 80 years in fiction, Superman in his various iterations has been through stories where his body undergoes radical transformations only to turn back to his "normal" issues later. Other times his regular powers are boosted up to the point where he isn't just a god, he might as well be the deity. Let's just say that after doing the research for this list, I'm glad he is on our side... also tha༺t he's fictional. Well, enough waiting, let's get into the 20 weird facts only super fans know about Superman's body.
20 His Brain Can Control Others 🌺
Superman has influenced the minds of children, adults, and anybody in between for decades. His moralᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ righteousness, courage to stand up for what is right, and power has inspired generation upon generation. But for the most part, his influence is merely indirect. After all, Superman doesn't have telepathy right? Haha, oh, you child, of course he does.
Even this power can't convince us that Superman IV is a good movie.
Or at least he did at one point in time. Way back in Superman 🐟#45, Superman fought off a race of aliens who called themselves the Collectors. As far as I know, they have no relation Benicio del Toro's character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but who knows. Well, much like the MCU's Collector, these aliens collect anything they find interesting, including living beings. If Superman's physical powers were subdued, then the aliens would have won right? Yes, but they didn't count on Superman's out-of-nowhere telepathic brain! He takes control of his captor and convinces him to release him from his prison. Once free, he quickly rescues everyone else and defeats these creepy all-white alien abductors. This was the 40s, after all, plots didn't get more complex than this.
19 💖 He Can See Through Time ☂
Anyone remember the clip in The Simpsons where 𝓰Lisa Simps🅺on eats some spicy Indian food and then she mutters "I can see through time"? Now for most people that is just a funny line that they have no hope of actually accomplishing. But Superman isn't most people and you better darn well believe that his eyes are able to peer through the very fabric of time.
Superman better not look into the future and see just how dark comics get.
In the wonderfully bizarre world of Silver Age comics, Superman did battle with Titano The Super-Ape. Unlike future versions of the character, Titano wasn't so much a villain as he was a mindless monster who just needed to be taken care of by Superman. Instead of ending him, Superman merely spins him around so fast that he sends him back to the time 🃏of the dinosaurs. That would be crazy enough, but Superman can not only do that but also LOOK into the past so that us readers can see a giant ape falling on top of a T-Rex. This isn't with the help of some machine, this is just an extension of his telescopic vision power. Sure.
18 His Lips Cause Memory Loss 🍌
This is one of the Superman's ridiculous moments that more casual fans of Superman may remember. At the end of Superman II, Superman reಞgrets his decision to reveal his identity to Lois Lane and in one of the most bizarre endings to a comic book movie ไever, he kisses her... which somehow causes her to lose her memory of the past few days. Now, as ridiculous as this sounds, it actually sort of has a source from the original comics.
Back in 1963's Action Comics #306, Superman runs into Lois Lane at the Daily Planet's annual Christmas party. When he's there, he's pushed by his boss Perry White under the mistletoe and Lois Lane takes this opportunity to plant a kiss on Kent. Superman though decides that if he must kiss her, then hꩲe shall give a SUPER kiss! This kiss leaves her stumbling and confused, ensuring that any suspicion she might have had about Clark Kent being Superman was snuffed out under the mighty smooch of the Man of Steel. Let this be a warning to those who criticize when superhero movies don't 100 percent follow their comic roots; sometimes, it's honestly for the best.
17 ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ He Can Generate Walls?
The original Superman film series from 1975 to 1987 was chock full of bizarre moments and "science" that didn't make a lick of sense. The final film in this franchise Superman IV: The Quest For Peace contains what might be the biꦛggest "what in the name of Jo꧅e Shuster and Jerry Siegel was that" moment in superhero movies.
During his fight with the incredibly dumb villain Nuclear Man, the antagonist blasts a hole in the Great Wall of China in order to distract Superman. Theoretically, with his super speed, strength, and intellect, it should take merely a few seconds for Superman to get some brick and rebuild the wall. In fact, it does only take him a few seconds, but not in the way you think. Just by looking at the wall, Superman is able to rearrange all the bricks into place using his... wall-building vision? Just what on earth are Superman's 💯eyes made of!?
Of course, as most people know the budget for this film was incredibly low and all of the action in the movie looks awful as a result. Maybe the filmmakers wanted to 🌼fꦕollow my idea but when they saw they ran out of money they decided just to give Superman a new power. Well here's a hint for them; next time just cut the scene out. It'll save you a lot of ridicule.
16 🌳 His Body Is Made Of Clay ♈
Those familiar with Wonder Woman might know about her origin.ꦇ While the 2017 movie decided to just turn it into a legend that Wonder Woman's mom tells her as a bedtime story, Diana was actually made of clay and given life by Zeus in the comics. Why am I bringing up this in an article about Superman? Well, how else do y𓆉ou explain what the heck is going in the above panel?
In the story I mentioned above involving the Collectors, I said that Superman escapes his confinement and defeats the aliens but I didn't mention how exactly he did that. Well, that's where this slide comes in. Once he breaks out of his tube, he finds that whatever the gas was inside his tube weakened him so he "must use strategy!" Thankfully his strategy is using the power of plot convenience as💦 he unveils a never before or again seen power of contorting his face into a different shape. How was he able to do that? It's not explained, probably because the writers didn't want to bring that if Superman can do this, why not use it to protect his identity as Clark Kent further. Anyway, the aliens fall for his disguise, end up in the tubes they were using to keep people prisoners and Superman saves the day.
15 His Magical 💦Weakness Is Not A Weakness
There are three levels of Superman knowledge that one can have about his weaknesses. Of course, even the most casual of Superman fans will know that kryptonite can bring DC's mightiest hero to his knees. But then you have the other people who will chirp in from the peanut gallery to say "Superman is also weak to magic you♔, idiot!" Well, I'm part of that third level that would let you know this🌠 isn't exactly the case.
Captain Marvel above should really do his research before attacking the Man of Steel.
Saying the word "weakness" when it comes to Superman can be very misleading. While his body becomes absolutely pathetic in the presence of kryptonite, it doesn't work the same way with magic. So it's not like Doctor Strange can simply stand next to Superman and have Kal-El drop to his knees. All his "weakness" to magic means is that he has no special protection from magical attack✃s. So a spell from Doctor Strange would have the same effect on Superman as it would on any of us. It's good to know that in some way, Superman's body and our weak human bodies share at least one similarity. Now if only I can get his hair curl just right.
14 𓂃 His 🧜Body Was Once A Vessel
Some people might have heard about how ridiculous Silver Age comics were and how Superman's stories, in particular, would make the most out-there plot in Saturday morning cartoons look tame. The apex of this era for the character would likely have to be Superman 125 in ꩲ1958 where he gains the power to shoot a mini version of himself from his fingertips.
Maybe Superman didn't want to share royalty checks with his clone.
How does this happen? Well, and I'm quoting Superman here, he finds a "midget spaceship" that crashed into Earth. When it explodes, it covers Superman in something that makes him feel funny and strips him of all his powers except for durability. In his former powers' places is the ability to shoot a mini version of himself out of his fingertips. This... clone? I guess? Yeah, let's go with that, this clone has all of Superman's original powers and basically just chills in the original Superman's body until he is needed. Even if this seems pretty sweet for Superman, he is basically jealous of mini Superman's glory so he stages a stunt tha🌃t erases the mini-me from existence so he can get his powers back.
13 He C🦩an Withstand The Sun
Here is a fun scientific fact for you: can reach temperatures of 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, aka 15 million degress Celsius for yo𝕴u non-Americans. Just for reference, the highest recorded temperature on Earth was set on July 10th, 1913 in California at 134 degrees F (56.7 celsius). That would mean the center of the sun is about 264,550 times hotter than our hottest temperature. But for Superman? Eh, that's just the best tan of all time.
Superman is the most scalding being in the universe.
Even if Superman is fueled by solar power, it would be insane if his body were able to withstand such temperatures. So of course he can do it. In the DC Comics storyline DC 1,000,000, Superman goes into exile and spends 15,000 years inside of the sun. When he emerges he is essentially a deity, able to alter reality, achieve immortality and basically whatever he wants. Another time he did this, though൲, was in All-Star Superman where he did this since he was losing his life and because the Sun was perishing. He decided to become the new sun. For all the garbage people give him about being a boy scout, the DC universe truly needs Superman.
12 His Eyes Are His Most Draining Bod🌺y Part
When Superman was reinvented for a new generation after the iconic 1985 Crisis On Infinite Earths storyline, one of the main goals of DC was to rein the Man of Steel in a little bit. No longer would he be able to sneeze entire solar systems out of existence or pull planets out of their orbits on a giant chain. No, he would have limits on his powers to make tཧhe stories more manageable and dramatic.
Superman has used his heat vision to crank the temperature up on a planet.
Even if his powers had more limitations on them, the core powers from his toolbox were all still intact. He still has super strength, super speed, super durability, intelligence, and most important for this slide, heat vision. Though we did learn as the fan site tells us, "Heat vision does drain his solar power faster than any of his other abilities." This makes sense in the twisted logic of comic books. The energy needed not only to expel the solar power from his eyes but also to blast it as far as Superman does would take more energy than flying or punching something hard. Obviously, this drain isn't going to happen if he uses it to perform a lobotomy like he did in the movie Superman vs. The Elite.
11 He Originally Couldn't Fly
Moreso than his super strength and heat vision, Superman's most iconic ability has to be his power to fly. While now there are hundreds and hundreds of superheroes who are able to fly, Superman was one of the first heroes to pull it off and with style thanks to his iconic red cape. He didn't actually exhibit that power, though, in the first couple of years of his existence, only debuting it inside th꧋e comics in 1941. Prior to that, he was only flying in cartoons and radio serials.
So if Superman couldn't fly, how exactly did he get around? Well, by leaping, of course! Yup, Superman would jump from place to place like he had cheat codes enabled on Assassin's Creed or something. This is where the quote "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" comes from. The in-universe explanation as to why Superman's powers were growing was because since he had spent so much time on Earth, the continual absorption of yellow sunlight began to increase his powers. In reality, the Superman writers were likely running out of ideas on what to d𒐪o with his moveꦕ set so they decided to add some new tricks.