While I am all for the godlike Superman common in books like All Star Superman and Kingdom Come, which manage to be masterpieces because of how they explore the implications of that sort of power, I recall the good old days when Spiderman was my favorite superhero and enjoyed him for how complex his powers were. Since the New 52 relaunch, Superman got downgraded considerably and now has more weaknesses. Of course, it won't change much about objections people have to him, since he's evolved to an idea in American culture, and that idea can't be shaken off. Even if he's presented differently, he still has that symbol on his chest, and he stands for that idea, so his fanbase won't necessarily change.

I don't mind the power level of the New 52 Superman. It works for the type of stories that they want to tell, which are action stories, and they remind me of the pulp serials that not only inspired him ut heroes like Indiana Jones, and here's nothing to dislike there. That's what I would expect from a series called "Action Comics." He's flexible, has to use his powers creatively, and there's a lot of give-and-take, and downsides to some of his powers.

In fact, science fiction is why my first superhero fandom belonged to Spiderman. I began thinking over and over again how his powers would work, and how they could work, and that was almost as fun to me as seeing him in action. So here's what I'm going to do: I am going to detail both weaknesses Superman already has and potential new weaknesses once your consider the source of his powers to make a more dynamic character that has more diverse physical challenges and feels far less than invincible.

With that in mind, let me address Superman's most infamous weakness, kryptonite. I know the typical response: "His only weakness is a green rock. How lame is that?" I don't see it as that lame, though. Werewolves are often only hurt by silver, and vampires by sunlight. All sorts of mythological beings have that one serious Achilles Heel, something that isn't just a downside to their powers but a crutch that affects them like...well, kryptonite. I never had that much of an objection to it, though, so long as it is used tastefully, which it can be.

First of all, I don't look at kryptonite as just a green rock. From the perspective of a geologist or a chemist, this is really fascinating stuff. Scientifically speaking, what is kryptonite? Why does it exist? It sounds as if it formed because of the destruction of Krypton. When I think about that, that's actually a pretty cool backstory. It took a supernova or some other cosmic event to form this stuff. It doesn't come from just anywhere, but only that particular part of the universe, and apparently it doesn't really obey our laws of physics.

You know what that makes this stuff? The Eldrich Abomination of the Periodic Table. So when Superman fears that cosmic green fragment from the great beyond, I understand.

I also personally really like the depiction in Smallville where it has interesting effects on humans, though I would have liked it if the effects were more uniform. Remember, I'm a sucker for science. If all the scientific properties and uses of kryptonite could be formalized, and if it can have some really cool uses beyond just weakening Superman, then I believe that it would be a very interesting substance. One comic that really got this right was Superman: Birthright. I'm not going to spoil it for people who haven't read it, though.

Likewise, I really liked Smallville's red kryptonite. I personally think that Superman's heart of gold is just as important as him being the man of steel. He maintains that amazing conduct. Full stop. I know that people think he's too good, but I actually think that his sense of duty, and that he can act out said duty without compromising with his values, is realistic, and it really doesn't seem right to me to write him like any other hero, because he's supposed to represent all that's good about humanity. However, I will make an exception for when he's under the influence of red kryptonite. When he turned into a badboy in Smallville and lost all of his inhibitions, starting to do the things that he was always tempted to do and stand up for himself, I have to admit that he was actually real likable and charismatic. I could relate to that guy, too. Then he became a little scary, and that was just as cool. It reminded me of Peter Parker struggling with venom (in the comics, not in that letdown of a movie that was Spiderman 3). I always have found the idea of a superhero struggling with some sort of substance or presence that threatens to corrupt them and turn them to the dark side to be an engaging story, especially if there's a good solid story arch.

So go ahead and throw red kryptonite at Superman. I actually think that's very interesting, since it adds a lot of depth to the character, so we can see everything he's holding back. It's actually a way of being true to the character, while also being a great way of creating new conflicts, whether by turning him into a villain or by giving him internal conflicts, which I admit I enjoy seeing. Superman definitely needs more storylines with red kryptonite.

The other weakness that's becoming the new kryptonite these days is magic. That makes sense. He's incredibly strong, but he can be cursed just like anyone else. That being said, some people think that just because something's magic that it would automatically hurt him. I don't subscribe to that. For example, Thor's hammer is magic, but that mainly affects how it moves through space. So Thor can lift it and swing it around, and it automatically follows the trajectory of his hand. Mjolnir can also summon heat and electricity. However, judging by observations from The Avengers, where his hammer has minimal influence on the Hulk and Captain America's shield, it looks like the hammer magically summons energy (much like the tesseract), but the energy itself is not magical. Therefore, the actual damage that this hammer does is kinetic.

So if we're discussing magic affecting Superman, I'm a little picky. I think that the magic has to be directly applied to him, such as through a curse or hex. I can see a witch or wizard turning him into a normal human (or Circe turning him into a mindless animal minion). I can see someone forging a sword that has the specific magical property of being able to slay Superman, or Dean Winchester using the Colt that could kill anything to kill Superman. The magic would have to damage Superman directly and not just be an aid to another weapon.

It has been brought up a few times now, especially in this latest film, that Superman can be hurt by sound. "But he has indestructible eardrums," I've heard people say. To counter that, let me point out that if you get his eardrums to vibrate at their resonant frequency, they'll break like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Or perhaps his ears have to be vulnerable in order to be extra-sensitive. In any case, I can see sensory overstimulation being a problem, as was hinted at in Man of Steel.

People are also now coming to realize that since he gets his powers from the sun, he would be weaker at night. I wholly subscribe to that belief. He's definitely a daytime hero, the Apollo of the superhero pantheon (And the Zeus as the same time, sort of. It's not a direct parallel. Just switch lightning with sunshine.). It fits the whole dynamic of Metropolis being New York during the day and Gotham being New York at night, and adds contrast between him and Batman. It gives him a reason to not do a lot of crime fighting at night and an excuse to pursue his own personal life at the end of the day. I mean, he would still be pretty powerful. It's just that he would actually wear himself down if he tried going all-out like he did during the day.

So basically, even though he's still bullet-proof and strong and can fly at night, he would lose in a prolonged fight against the Hulk or Thor or Goku or Makuta or any particular heavy hitter that comes to mind. A nuclear bomb could potentially kill him, depending on where he was at in his life.

Which bring me to my next point: Superman does not start off all that powerful and must grow over time. Meaning that when he's young, he doesn't have the power to fly. Of course, most of us already knew that. The moment he first flies is usually the moment he really discovers himself as a hero or puts on the suit for the first time. It usually happens at some major landmark in his personal development. Usually, it's the rite of passage that makes him Superman in the first place and not just Superboy.

Still, it isn't just his individual powers that he has to discover. I don't think he should necessarily start out fully bullet-proof. I can see his strength, speed, senses, and healing factor being significantly weaker in his youth, closer to the Golden Age Superman in the original comics. As in, he can lift cars and bench a couple of tons when he's in high school, which is impressive but far from legendary. I can see bullets being nonlethal against him, but they would still bruise him. As a kid, they might even stick in his skin a little ways. I can see these injuries lasting for more than just a fraction of a second, sticking around for the rest of the day. I can see him running faster than a race car as a preteen, but not necessarily faster than a speeding bullet, let alone any significant fraction of the speed of light.

In other words, his level of power wouldn't be quite so explosive. He's be superhuman, but not godlike.

Therefore, for an origin story, starting at around the time he starts flying, he's still vulnerable to a good old-fashioned beating. This is what they did in the New 52 relaunch, where the military managed to take him out simply by forcing him to get in-between a train going at bullet-speed and a wall in order to save people. The impact knocked him out. He could continue to operate at this level of power for a while, increasing only slightly as his challenges got bigger and bigger. That makes complete sense to me, since when you're working with a younger character who's in either in his 20's or 30's, it's fun to see him have to shrug off pain and be tough, to be a regular Indiana Jones who has to risk getting bruised to save the day.

Once he gets older and becomes more of a leader, however, and a guiding symbol for a new generation, I like to see him as a far more powerful figure, more along the lines of the godlike Superman that many are familiar with. I take my queue from Kingdom Come, where he grew so powerful that not even kryptonite could hurt him anymore. He had lived on Earth for so long. And actually, I had no problem with that. By that time, he had seniority over all of the other superheroes, and he was kind of a godfather to them all, the macdaddy beyond dispute. He had earned it by that point.

There was also The Dark Knight Returns. I said that Superman probably couldn't survive a nuclear bomb at night, though he did in this particular book. It weakened him somewhat, and Batman could hold his own against Superman during a fight later that night (though the things Batman survived were ridiculous and I was also strongly under the impression that Superman was holding back the whole time), but ultimately he survived. I could buy that, because he was a much older Superman.

Perhaps what I like best about the "Superman growing stronger over time" approach is that allows the character to evolve and to go through change. It's a character who's really different at various points throughout his life.

This concludes my cursory look at Superman's weaknesses, and hopefully his popularly known weaknesses seem better justified. In my next entry, I will detail the various technicalities to his powers and some of his overlooked weaknesses.