The Superman problem

[zslane]

I don't think the clandestine activities of heroes would be impossible at all.  Bruce Wayne is mega-rich, and his company builds half the surveillance tech out there.  It's not like Batman has a Twitter account.

Wayne Enterprises doesn't control the DCU equivalent of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or TMZ. We live in a surveillance state in the sense that we are constantly watching and recording each other in a voyeuristic orgy that would make any costumed vigilante think twice before going out to fight crime clandestinely.

[Enforcer84]

I don't think the clandestine activities of heroes would be impossible at all.  Bruce Wayne is mega-rich, and his company builds half the surveillance tech out there.  It's not like Batman has a Twitter account.  Other than having a few people question "why can't Homeland Security find the Batman?", it really shouldn't ever be mentioned.

 

In 10 years, social media will probably be unrecognizable to what we know today.  Making a hero that is too "current" is just going to make them look really dated in the future.  Go ahead and hold up that cynical, snarky mirror, but don't make that too big a part of who the character is.  If a hero can't survive a few fads, then they aren't classic.

odds are highly unlikely that DC has chosen "Right now" to be their be all end all time period. And the comics always look dated in hindsight. Just look for any seventies slang references or fad characters. 

 

in 10 years, it doesn't matter if they left it to...well...our sensibilities or if they clung tightly to youth culture, the big Intellectual properties will be thrust into whatever the current sociological situations are there just like now.

[massey]

Wayne Enterprises doesn't control the DCU equivalent of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or TMZ. We live in a surveillance state in the sense that we are constantly watching and recording each other in a voyeuristic orgy that would make any costumed vigilante think twice before going out to fight crime clandestinely.

 

Oh?  Why?

 

In a world with crazy technology like Boom Tubes, you think Batman can't make something to shut off cell phones?

[wick]

^{Where do you figure this guy is going to get Superman's DNA?}

 

 

^{Well that depends on the nature of the Agent. But seriously, people shed DNA ( I can only extrapolate that to Kryptonian physiology, but it is probably a bit harder to get).   If I were an Agent , I would check his house/apartment when he is at work. Prime places to check would be the shower drain or bathroom sink.  Kent/superman is well groomed ( of course Kryptonians may have hair that grows to a specific length or grow no facial hair, IDK. He could be as hairless as a ken doll for all that I know).  Check his hair brush.}

 

^{At work you could shake out his keyboard (you would be amazed what is found there), but work would probably not be as good of a place to check.}

 

 

^Massey:  

^{-I do not take my pants off in public, because even if I look around carefully first, there may be a camera or observer that  do not detect.  Superman has been shown on many occasions to change in public}

^{-What is the benefit of a villain connecting Clark to Superman? The same benefits any villains would get from exposing or hunting any hero.  There are attacks on DNPCS and disrupting theirs lives for one. More importantly it gives you initiative, how about attacking him when he is most vulnerable.  It may not matter too much with superman, since attacking his house when he is taking a super dump is only going to buy you so much unless that surprise can be successful and is devastating.  ( does supes even sleep and poo?)}

^{-Why would Lex bother?  Well, he is obsessed with Superman ( at least in the media I have seen) and learning the patterns and habits of your enemy is a pretty smart move.} 

^{-Are you serious about traveling even close to light speed in atmosphere?  He would be releasing Gamma rays from air particles colliding with him as well as generating an expanding sphere of  plasma that too is moving at near light speed. And this assumes that he is not going FTL but a significant percentage of the speed of light. FTL  or near FTL in wide open space is way different. For an example of a baseball being thrown at 90% of the speed of light;    https://fathomingthestars.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/speed-of-light-in-atmo/  I do realize that this is comics, but really.} 

^{-Going real fast makes you invisible?   As long as he is going sub light he can be seen, since light is still reflected from him. The human mind processing the image is another issue, think how an object looks under a strobe light. Cameras could still capture the image and be watched in reduced speed. . Note Fast moving objects, such as airplane turbo props or helicopter rotors can be difficult to see particularly in poor lighting but they are still visible. Also they are loud, much of the associated noise does not come from the roar of the engine but from the leading edge of the prop breaking the sound barrier as the rotor slices through the  air.}

^{-The optics of satellite cameras and long distance. At such a long distance the camera would only need to shift its lens slightly (it is not a whole camera device swiveling into place or the entire spacecraft maneuvering). Think about holding broomstick by one end, a small movement on the held end produces a large movement on the other. Now imagine the broomstick being miles long. If superman has telescopic, as well as x-ray vision (not sure if satellite/spacecraft radiation shielding would block that or not) he may be able to look up and notice through just vision.} 

^{-Hyper vigilance/complete situation awareness: I am not really that convinced he has shown that level of paranoia or situation awareness ( processing everything around him instantaneously).  A good way to disprove the complete situation awareness idea is to demonstrate that superman can be surprised under normal circumstances .i.e. he is not drugged, concussed, or concentrating on multiple tasks.  If in the literature or film he has arrived on scene and was surprised or perhaps overloaded with so much data that he does not immediately become aware of something,  then you may say that he is not always hyper vigiliant, From my limited experience, Superman has always actively had to activate his x-ray vision, it was never on passively all the time.  I find it unlikely that someone has never surprised him.}

[Hugh Neilson]

May as well end the charade because no one is going to believe he can maintain his identity.

 

So, that's the one unbelievable aspect that breaks a character rocketed to earth as an infant (completely undetected in his landing) from an exploding planet that ended up with billions of radioactive parts landing on one little, distant planet, which character then grows up gaining massive strength, speed, flight,physical invulnerability and a dizzying array of other powers, because the gravity and solar radiation is different from his home planet, with these powers never being detected as he grows up gradually acquiring and learning to use them?

 

Funny... back in the '70's the hard part was believing a man could fly.

 

Are you serious about traveling even close to light speed in atmosphere?  He would be releasing Gamma rays from air particles colliding with him as well as generating an expanding sphere of  plasma that too is moving at near light speed. And this assumes that he is not going FTL but a significant percentage of the speed of light. FTL  or near FTL in wide open space is way different. For an example of a baseball being thrown at 90% of the speed of light;    https://fathomingthestars.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/speed-of-light-in-atmo/  I do realize that this is comics, but really.

The fact he can use his powers in an atmosphere is less believable than that dizzying array of powers in the first place? How does he fly to begin with? How does he turn on a dime, accelerate and decelerate? How do his eyes emit "heat vision" and X-Rays? What muscle mass does he have to be able to get to that level of strength? What makes his skin that hard without also making it distinguishable from normal human flesh by casual touch, like a handshake or a pat on the back, or without any visual difference? An armadillo or a turtle is way less tough, and obviously armored up.

 

We should just write him into a medieval setting - then we could say "it's magic" and not have to explain it. Guess what? At their core, superpowers are just "it's magic" obfuscated with pseudoscientific bafflegab. Why doesn't Lex Luthor demand Supes' birth certificate? He's an illegal alien! We accept a lot of suspension of disbelief in a lot of fiction. "He can keep his identity a secret" is a lot more believable than a lot of other Supes Tropes. Especially given how much of his publishing history has revolved around stories of his secret ID being jeopardized.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I agree so completely I feel like yelling it.  Its fun to examine things and how they work (we're Hero players after all) but there comes a point at which you accept genre conventions and just say "well that's how it is."  How can Superman keep his secret identity?  Because that's how comic books work.  Who cares?  Its about the fun and the fantasy, and when you lose that, you lose the heart and soul of comic books.

[Clonus]

Well, we live in a self-imposed surveillance state at this point, and most clandestine activities of classic superheroes would be nearly impossible. I agree that the ability of costumed vigilantes to conduct their activities in secret is part of the traditional charm and fun of the genre, but we are increasingly losing our cultural connection to those traditions. Kids today want realism (and cynicism wrapped up in snark), not charming fun. If Bats isn't using social media to track down villains, he isn't "relevant" anymore. If Supes isn't being confronted with intense media scrutiny (like all American celebrities and athletes are today), then he might as well live in Cindarella's fantay world, not the "realistic" DCU that is being held up as a mirror to present society.

 

<bleah>  The truth is, the key to keeping a secret identity is the same as it always was.  Don't change clothes in front of a witness.  That the witness might have a camera phone now to instantly upload it to youtube just makes it harder to shut him up by murdering him and really you shouldn't be doing that anyway.  And the truth is it doesn't matter that much if a supervillain or a dodgy government agency knows which rich idiot with no day job or clutzy reporter That Man or Whattaguy is.  Superman doesn't maintain a secret identity to protect his friends and family because you don't NEED to know his secret identity to figure out that kidnapping or killing Lois Lane is an excellent way to get his attention. The real reason why he maintains a secret identity is so he can have a part of his life not tainted by being more famous than the Kardashians and nobody knows where to send the summons for the lawsuits after he breaks every window in downtown Metropolis with a sneeze.  

[massey]

^{Well that depends on the nature of the Agent. But seriously, people shed DNA ( I can only extrapolate that to Kryptonian physiology, but it is probably a bit harder to get).   If I were an Agent , I would check his house/apartment when he is at work. Prime places to check would be the shower drain or bathroom sink.  Kent/superman is well groomed ( of course Kryptonians may have hair that grows to a specific length or grow no facial hair, IDK. He could be as hairless as a ken doll for all that I know).  Check his hair brush.}

 

^{At work you could shake out his keyboard (you would be amazed what is found there), but work would probably not be as good of a place to check.}

 

 

^Massey:  

^{-I do not take my pants off in public, because even if I look around carefully first, there may be a camera or observer that  do not detect.  Superman has been shown on many occasions to change in public}

^{-What is the benefit of a villain connecting Clark to Superman? The same benefits any villains would get from exposing or hunting any hero.  There are attacks on DNPCS and disrupting theirs lives for one. More importantly it gives you initiative, how about attacking him when he is most vulnerable.  It may not matter too much with superman, since attacking his house when he is taking a super dump is only going to buy you so much unless that surprise can be successful and is devastating.  ( does supes even sleep and poo?)}

^{-Why would Lex bother?  Well, he is obsessed with Superman ( at least in the media I have seen) and learning the patterns and habits of your enemy is a pretty smart move.} 

^{-Are you serious about traveling even close to light speed in atmosphere?  He would be releasing Gamma rays from air particles colliding with him as well as generating an expanding sphere of  plasma that too is moving at near light speed. And this assumes that he is not going FTL but a significant percentage of the speed of light. FTL  or near FTL in wide open space is way different. For an example of a baseball being thrown at 90% of the speed of light;    https://fathomingthestars.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/speed-of-light-in-atmo/  I do realize that this is comics, but really.} 

^{-Going real fast makes you invisible?   As long as he is going sub light he can be seen, since light is still reflected from him. The human mind processing the image is another issue, think how an object looks under a strobe light. Cameras could still capture the image and be watched in reduced speed. . Note Fast moving objects, such as airplane turbo props or helicopter rotors can be difficult to see particularly in poor lighting but they are still visible. Also they are loud, much of the associated noise does not come from the roar of the engine but from the leading edge of the prop breaking the sound barrier as the rotor slices through the  air.}

^{-The optics of satellite cameras and long distance. At such a long distance the camera would only need to shift its lens slightly (it is not a whole camera device swiveling into place or the entire spacecraft maneuvering). Think about holding broomstick by one end, a small movement on the held end produces a large movement on the other. Now imagine the broomstick being miles long. If superman has telescopic, as well as x-ray vision (not sure if satellite/spacecraft radiation shielding would block that or not) he may be able to look up and notice through just vision.} 

^{-Hyper vigilance/complete situation awareness: I am not really that convinced he has shown that level of paranoia or situation awareness ( processing everything around him instantaneously).  A good way to disprove the complete situation awareness idea is to demonstrate that superman can be surprised under normal circumstances .i.e. he is not drugged, concussed, or concentrating on multiple tasks.  If in the literature or film he has arrived on scene and was surprised or perhaps overloaded with so much data that he does not immediately become aware of something,  then you may say that he is not always hyper vigiliant, From my limited experience, Superman has always actively had to activate his x-ray vision, it was never on passively all the time.  I find it unlikely that someone has never surprised him.}

 

First, Superman operates with comic book physics.  And the fact is, he has been shown to move so fast that you can't really measure it, in atmosphere.  Exactly how fast he can move depends on what version of Superman, what writer, what era.  

 

I don't know of any security cameras that are HD quality.  Mostly they take rather grainy photos, often at very low frames per second rates.  In fact I've seen a lot of those videos that appear as if they're operating at about 2 frames per second.  It's very jerky video.  Sure, there are some that go at normal video speed, but most don't.  Even the ones that operate at normal speed don't have great picture quality.  And the big problem is, none of this is networked together.  So say Superman lands at the corner of 5th St and Washington Ave, on camera, and then walks into an alleyway that leads to 6th St and Washington, and when he comes out as Clark.  And that's on camera too.  The fact is, the first camera is likely to be owned by a different company than the second.  They don't all link together in some big database.  Superman just has to be smart enough to 1) not change directly on camera or in front of someone (I think he's smart enough for that), and 2) make sure that he leaves his "changing room" a different way than he entered, so he isn't caught on video walking both in and out.  I think he can do that too.

 

Now, does that mean that someone couldn't theoretically figure it out?  Of course not.  But it certainly won't be easy.

 

Satellites are useless for this, honestly.  You're talking about a guy who can cross the country in seconds.  Satellites can't really track him in real time.  The guy can make a perfect 90 degree turn at mach 6.  You never know exactly when or where he's going to show up.  And once he changes back into regular clothes, he's just a normal guy in a suit with a hat (apparently fedoras never went out of style on DC Earth).  What do you do if he gets on the subway?  Yeah we've got a lot of surveillance stuff today, but it's not all linked together so you can watch it from some control room somewhere.

 

Superman's paranoia about his secret ID should be directly related to the amount of surveillance tech in the world.  Is military radar a concern?  Then he won't fly directly back and forth from Smallville to Metropolis.  Fly to Chicago at 10,000 feet at mach 2, then drop down to 50 foot elevation and streak south over farmland at mach 5 until you're near the Kent farm, then you slow down and enjoy the scenery.  You'll completely disappear from radar, they won't have any idea where you went.  The next week when he goes to visit his folks, he'll fly down to Florida, down past Cuba, then hook around and head back up through the Gulf and fly low over east Texas woodlands, over Oklahoma prairie, up to Smallville.  The whole time, he plots his route so he doesn't come within 100 miles of a city or military base.  The week after that, it's out over the Atlantic, across Europe, then up over the North Pole, and then down through Canada, through the Rocky Mountains and Colorado, and then down to Kansas.  The next week, high speed orbital flight.  Straight up into outer space from Metropolis, then straight back down at mach 10 to Smallville.  Nobody will have any idea where he's going.  Now, none of that is necessary in the regular DC universe.  I don't think standard Superman does all that.  I don't think he has to.  But it is easily within his ability to do it.

[Enforcer84]

Oh?  Why?

 

In a world with crazy technology like Boom Tubes, you think Batman can't make something to shut off cell phones?

This would have been my answer too  

I have no problem with superhero tropes and inconsistencies because I'm reading superhero stories. 

I'd be less forgiving with the glasses disguise in a spy drama...but hey it happens there too.

[massey]

Superman also has a lot of "unknown" powers and abilities.  What I mean is, he's got resources that the general public is either not aware of, or do not understand the full ramifications thereof.

 

--Superman has robot duplicates that look just like him, and have powers similar to his.  His robot duplicates can fake being either Superman or Clark when needed. (unknown to public)

--Superman is friends with the Martian Manhunter, a shapeshifter who can and has filled in for Superman before. (public knows of his existence, doesn't know that he has moonlighted as Supes before)

--Superman has Kryptonian technology, including strength amplifiers, force field generators, holographic image projectors, etc.  These can be used to make anybody look like Superman. (public has no idea)

--Superman has access to the JLA teleporter, allowing him to teleport from anywhere on Earth/specially prepared locations (depending on which version of the teleporter).  (unknown to general public)

 

All these things can make it really difficult to figure out Superman's secret ID, particularly because they're all secret.  They really throw off any kind of dedicated investigation into who he "really" is because 1) it creates all these false sightings of Superman (that you don't know are false), and 2) will lead you to eliminate the wrong people from consideration.  That time Clark Kent conducted a live television interview with Superman (which was really Clark interviewing a shapeshifted Martian Manhunter) basically puts any questions of them being the same person to rest.  Yeah, Clark kinda looks like him, in a Saturday Night Live Tina Fey/Sarah Palin kinda way.  But you see them on TV together and it's clearly not the same person.

 

Now, will Lex question this?  In some of his crazier moments, probably.  But if you go down that rabbit hole, what else do you question?  How do you know Superman is a man?  Wouldn't that be the perfect cover?  What if he's really black, and he just uses a hologram to make himself look white?  Or what if he's a green tentacle monster, and he only takes this form...  And from there you just go to crazy town.  You have to start eliminating people somewhere.

[TheDarkness]

Going back a bit, but the idea that Superman needing to be able to deal with not being able to save someone because doctors do it totally misses that fact that doctors face a huge hurdle in this regard, many throughout their careers. There is a reason doctors have a reputation among nurses for being inhuman: to deal with the stresses, many people leave the profession, and detachment is often an advantage to the job, but a disadvantage personally among doctors.

 

And in the seventies, we were already commenting on the ridiculousness of Superman's disguise. It was never believable, only when the comics fans reached adulthood and represented a fair share of the market did it become an issue, but that was decades ago. One can suspend disbelief for heat vision, because one has no frame of reference, but glasses and not having a spit curl is not cutting the mustard.

[bubba smith]

I thlnk the robots were deactivated[so to speak] by the writers the cause was  earths pollution

[zslane]

We should just write him into a medieval setting - then we could say "it's magic" and not have to explain it. Guess what? At their core, superpowers are just "it's magic" obfuscated with pseudoscientific bafflegab.

 

Sure, but superpowers shouldn't be getting a free pass any more, at least not in settings that in all other respects try to operate within a gritty, realistic, scientifically-grounded universe. Aside from characters of clear supernatural orientation (Zatana, Dr. Strange, etc.), superheroes shouldn't be given powers that only work by the principles of medieval fantasy. You could get away with that back in the 40s and 50s when the public in general, and comic book readers in particular, lacked a strong understanding of science and simply didn't know any better.

 

Today, however, we as a society are much more scientifically savvy (rampant belief in paranormal phenomena, cryptids, and extra-terrestrial visitation notwithstanding). Today, I feel that writers of superhero stories have two honest choices: either keep their settings in a scientifically "retarded" mode, where real-world science completely takes a back seat to pulp-era rubber science, or don't handwave your superpowers away with pseudo-scientific gobbledygook that tries to obfuscate the fact that they are no different than medieval magic.

 

I kind of feel that the MCU treads that very fine line precariously and has managed to get away with it, especially with Iron Man, because the storytelling as a whole has been so entertaining. However, I don't feel that Snyder's DCU is navigating that boundary as successfully. If his Superman exists in an equivalent of Nolan's Batverse, well, I think the DCU is in deep trouble conceptually.

[massey]

I disagree entirely.  If you aren't willing to suspend your disbelief, then don't watch a Superman movie.

 

I also don't think that people today have a better understanding of science.  People in the 40s knew that you couldn't fly like that.  Today we just use different gobbledy-gook.

[Hugh Neilson]

Today, however, we as a society are much more scientifically savvy (rampant belief in paranormal phenomena, cryptids, and extra-terrestrial visitation notwithstanding). Today, I feel that writers of superhero stories have two honest choices: either keep their settings in a scientifically "retarded" mode, where real-world science completely takes a back seat to pulp-era rubber science, or don't handwave your superpowers away with pseudo-scientific gobbledygook that tries to obfuscate the fact that they are no different than medieval magic.

 

I kind of feel that the MCU treads that very fine line precariously and has managed to get away with it, especially with Iron Man, because the storytelling as a whole has been so entertaining. However, I don't feel that Snyder's DCU is navigating that boundary as successfully. If his Superman exists in an equivalent of Nolan's Batverse, well, I think the DCU is in deep trouble conceptually.

Especially with Iron Man. So you can buy into, say, the many individuals exposed to radiation who manifest superpowers rather than carcinogenic growths (Hulk, Daredevil, Spiderman, Fantastic Four), then.

[bubba smith]

Sure, but superpowers shouldn't be getting a free pass any more, at least not in settings that in all other respects try to operate within a gritty, realistic, scientifically-grounded universe. Aside from characters of clear supernatural orientation (Zatana, Dr. Strange, etc.), superheroes shouldn't be given powers that only work by the principles of medieval fantasy. You could get away with that back in the 40s and 50s when the public in general, and comic book readers in particular, lacked a strong understanding of science and simply didn't know any better.

 

Today, however, we as a society are much more scientifically savvy (rampant belief in paranormal phenomena, cryptids, and extra-terrestrial visitation notwithstanding). Today, I feel that writers of superhero stories have two honest choices: either keep their settings in a scientifically "retarded" mode, where real-world science completely takes a back seat to pulp-era rubber science, or don't handwave your superpowers away with pseudo-scientific gobbledygook that tries to obfuscate the fact that they are no different than medieval magic.

 

I kind of feel that the MCU treads that very fine line precariously and has managed to get away with it, especially with Iron Man, because the storytelling as a whole has been so entertaining. However, I don't feel that Snyder's DCU is navigating that boundary as successfully. If his Superman exists in an equivalent of Nolan's Batverse, well, I think the DCU is in deep trouble conceptually.

I think he DOES exist more or less in mr Nolan 's bat verse as that was mr Snyder's template for man of steel

[bigbywolfe]

His secret ID is safe...

[bigbywolfe]

I know it doesn't account for modern things like facial recognition software, but I always liked this particular illustration of why people don't recognize Clark as Superman:

There's also minor things a lot of people forget about like his glasses changing his eye color (and at one point hypnotizing people, ah the Silver Age) and the times that they have been seen together.

[Hyper-Man]

I will be interested to see how they pull it off in the next movie with the Daily Planet staff other than Lois (who will likely be helping in this version).

[starblaze]

Another explanation is that most people don't think that Superman has a secret ID.  He has made it clear that he is Kal-el from Krypton and that he has a fortress of solitude in the North Pole.  So many think that since he doesn't wear a mask that he is who he says he is, which he is sort of, and that their is no SI to reveal.  He is basically hiding in plain sight.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I still say that the 70's Superman movie did the best job of showing how it could actually work, particularly when combined with starblaze's thoughts on Superman's hiding in plain sight.  Why would he have a secret identity?  Why would anyone assume he hides out as a normal person, ever?  He always seems to be everywhere, busy at all times, when does he have time to be a normal person, and most people wouldn't even want to do that.

 

For Superman, it keeps him connected to human beings and humbles him, very important in his mythology to make him someone you can connect to.

[sinanju]

If you are Lex Luthor, what do you gain if you figure out Superman is Clark Kent?  He's a public figure.  He is not hard to find.  You can go to the roof and shout out "hey Superman, you suck!" and he'll hear you.  He isn't any less powerful when he's wearing different clothes.

 

In his two (excellent) Superman novels from the 70s*, Elliott S! Maggin addressed this exact point. Lex Luthor has countless false identities. He creates them, uses them, and discards them whenever it's convenient. He hires actors to play the parts of various identities on occasion, just to keep the illusion going. Luthor has always assumed that Superman does the same thing, that he has numerous false identities and, even if one identity were exposed, he'd simply discard it and create another. Thus, Luthor has never put much effort into figuring who Superman's alter ego is, because it would be pointless. He has no idea how attached to being Clark Kent Superman is, and how devastating it would be to have that identity revealed.

 

*Miracle Monday and Last Son of Krypton, both novels in which Superman is at the height of his Silver Age powers and yet he makes them work. (And Luthor is as super-intelligent as Superman is super-everything else. He casually invents Extra-Dimensional Movement with no need for tools from personal observations and first principles, as a means of escaping jail. He builds one-man FTL-drive starships, which he places on public display as a piece of "modern art" by one of his artistic identities until he needs it, and on and on and on. He once figured out how to build a bomb powerful enough to blast him out of prison from the legal pad and pen they let him keep in his cell...but doesn't do it, because next time they wouldn't let him have them, and he wants to be able to jot down the ideas that come to him in the middle of the night.)

[Clonus]

Always my problem with Superman.  My sympathies were with Luthor as the underdog in that fight.  

[phydaux]

So I built him on a series of tiers.  They range from Golden Age/Animated Series level, where he's got like a 70 Str and appropriate levels of Def and other powers, all the way up to a Pre-Crisis monstrosity.  The idea is to use it to explain certain inconsistencies in his power level in the comics.  To explain why he acts the way he does.  Why does he sometimes fight Kalibak or Lobo to a draw, and sometimes he slaps them unconscious with a casual gesture?  This is why.

 

Generally Supes will operate on the lowest power level available.  He's got 70 Str and like 30 Def, resistant.  He's got a 25 Dex and 6 Spd, which puts him in the "heroic human martial artist" level.  Superman, left to his own devices, will stay at this level of power forever.  He wants to be as close to humanity as possible.  He'll fly around Metropolis with like 25" of Flight, rescue cats out of trees, stop bank robberies, things like that.  If a supervillain appears, Superman will stay at this level of power if he can.  So anytime you see Superman fighting some big robot the Toyman made, or something like that, this is what he's doing.  Superman has a tremendous amount of Stun and End, even at this level.  It is really hard to knock him out.  In a 12D6 game, this is probably a good place for Superman.  He can be "super", yet still affected by the majority of opponents.  This is the version of Superman that Batman can do a ninja move on and fling him into a wall.

 

If Superman encounters an opponent he can't beat at that level, or he is in a situation where a lot of people will die if he doesn't use more power, then he'll go up to one of the higher tiers.  This isn't like using a Multiform or something like that, it doesn't take an action -- he's just suddenly got more power.  Doctor Destroyer shows up and starts blasting people with a 10D6 RKA?  Supes blinks and he's now got 130 Str, 60 Def and a 10 Spd.  But when Dr D is defeated, Superman willingly lowers his power level back down to where it was before.  I've got versions of him going all the way up to 250 Str, 150 Def.

 

Why does he do this?  Because Superman is really really nice.  He doesn't want other heroes to feel outclassed.  So he holds back a lot.  A LOT.  He doesn't even want villains to feel that bad.  He fights Durak or something.  "Ow, that was a really good punch!  I don't know if I could take too much more of that.  You're probably one of the strongest opponents I've ever fought!"  Then his supersenses pick up the fact that a dam is about to burst in Guatemala or something, and the next panel has Superman backhanding Durak without even looking at him.  The other guy goes flying into the distance and Supes vanishes in a streak of red to go save a lot of people.

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[Mister E]

Superman fights like a butler.