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How Super is Superman?


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But can he take a pistol shot to the eyeball without harm like in Superman Returns?  There were a couple good scenes in the film, like him saving the car and posing like the Action Comics cover.

 

6 levels (6DC) of physical damage negation.  The gun can't hurt him, knock him back, do stun even on a called shot to the head - anything.

 

Of course then the 15DC 4d6 explosive mortar shell comes along and does 3d6 Killing (maybe 2.5)  and nearly kills him.

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I usually blend a couple different kinds of defenses to create really tough guys, focused on defense.  A bit of damage reduction, a bit of resistant defenses, a bit of Damage negation, etc.  Taking very small amounts of easily-recovered damage is functionally identical to taking no damage in Hero.

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I usually blend a couple different kinds of defenses to create really tough guys, focused on defense.  A bit of damage reduction, a bit of resistant defenses, a bit of Damage negation, etc.  Taking very small amounts of easily-recovered damage is functionally identical to taking no damage in Hero.

 

I do the same, though I don't mix Damage Reduction and Damage Negation.  Either one or the other for me. 

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I love using a blend of Resistant Protection and Damage Reduction. DR really takes the edge off those insanely powerful Attack Powers. Generally though I don't like to have too many different layers of defenses applied to the same attack, it clutters up the sheet and makes running the character harder.

 

I almost never use Damage Negation, there are too many common situations where it isn't properly explained how it is supposed to work. The thing I've decided that DN is best for is resisting G-Forces. Star Hero suggests using set amounts of rPD  (with a high value modifier) to resist given levels of G-Force damage, but the value given doesn't account for the STUN. So If I ever run a Star Hero campaign I'll be using Damage Negation instead (and giving it a high enough limitation value to keep the CP costs equal, so -4 I think).

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I do the same, though I don't mix Damage Reduction and Damage Negation.  Either one or the other for me. 

 

 

I would only do so for someone who is entirely built for defenses because I don't really like DN (for reasons Cantriped mentions, among others) but its good for making someone basically ignore little stuff and rely on damage reduction.  2-3 dice of DN, 25% damage reduction, and moderate rPD and you can be really hard to put down, taking minimal damage from even big attacks while shrugging off anything minor.  The trick is to keep total PD and total ED each under the campaign max active cost.

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So why did Superman always duck when the bad guys threw their apparently useless pistols at him in the old serials?

Because he has the instincts his ancestors evolved on Krypton, and a Kryptonian on Krypton can injure another Kryptonian with a thrown object. And even on Krypton, fire arms haven't existed long enough for dodging them to become instinctive.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary thinks it's that the actor and director were not as smart as we are.

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The palindromedary has a good point ... I wonder how long it DOES take the average bullet proof superhero to overcome their body's natural reflexes to avoid danger?

 

"Colossus ... why are you under the table?"

 

"Sorry, comrade - shooting started and I dove for cover."

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21479e7467362b5e1de259c7f2aee96e.jpg

On this day in history, 1938, Action Comics #1 was published, featuring Superman.  For more history, see our On This Day In History thread in Non-Gaming Discussions.

Sorry, the Cover Date of Action Comics #1 was June 1938... That's the month when the newstand vendors were supposed to replace that issue with the new one, if there was one.

 

Mike's Amazing World of Comics gives the Approximate Release Date of Action Comics #1 as 3 May 1938.  Hmm, that was a Tuesday.  But if you could hop in the old time machine and go back to Star Wars Day 1938, the Fourth may be with you.

 

  http://dcindexes.com/features/comic.php?comicid=5

 

Mike's site Is an amazing place to give yourself a massive dose of comic book nostalgia.  Unfortunately he stopped actively updating his data base about a year ago.

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The palindromedary has a good point ... I wonder how long it DOES take the average bullet proof superhero to overcome their body's natural reflexes to avoid danger?

 

"Colossus ... why are you under the table?"

 

"Sorry, comrade - shooting started and I dove for cover."

 

Colossus might be a bad example.  Didn't his powers first manifest when he ran in front of a tractor to save his sister?

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The Greatest American Hero. The suit makes Ralph completely bulletproof, but he never got over throwing his arms over his face when the shooting started.

 

Though it might just be that only the parts covered by the suit were bulletproof - making his head remain a target, so he needed to cover his face with his arms.  If I were him that's a theory I wouldn't be particularly eager to test.  Though I guess he could just look it up in the user manual...  oh, snap.

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like I said before pure instincts on the actor's part after all THEY are not invulnerable even though the CHARACTERS are.

 

Oh, I know this.  I was just being sarcastic with my original question.

 

To be honest, it wasn't even my original question.  Some comedian (I forget who) first mentioned it.  IIRC, the comedian commented about having a gun thrown at Superman, "Hey, watch it!  You could put an eye out with that thing!"

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Colossus might be a bad example.  Didn't his powers first manifest when he ran in front of a tractor to save his sister?

 

He was only a humorous example but yes they did. Though I suspect that may be different than not flinching when someone opens fire on you with a machine gun.

 

People flinch away from flies, mosquitos, and moths instictively - none of those things can (directly) hurt you, either - it's a reflex.  A beekeeper can learn to not even flinch when stung so instincts can be overcome but I think it would be fun to see them having to be every once in a while in a flashback or something.

 

 

The Greatest American Hero. The suit makes Ralph completely bulletproof, but he never got over throwing his arms over his face when the shooting started.

 

Nicely done.

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At the height of the silver age Superman could cross the universe in 10 seconds, juggle planets with his pinky, and had every power including superknitting. Of course he wasn't always like that. But even before the silver age power creep he was still Superman. We all know the saying. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Why they don't include bulletproof I don't know. Still how powerful does this make Superman? I don't know. Being vauge faster than and the like we can't be exact. But we can estimate.

 

 

Faster than a speeding bullet.

 

The fastest bullet is about 1,700 mph. If you want to try and dodge it, you have to be 500 feet away. Now here my research if a tad faulty because I couldn't find a date on this bullet. I'm guessing two things here. This is a modern bullet, and gun technology hasn't really sped up bullets since the 1930's. So going with this as Supes minimum sped. He's twice as fast as sound. By the time you hear the swoosh of his arrival, he's got you half way to jail.

 

More powerful than a locomotive.

 

One of the post powerful locomotives of the 1930's was the Union Pacific steam engine it had 97,664 pounds force or 434 kn.For those of you who don't know what that means it had 5000 horsepower. Or the ability to lift 165,000,000 pounds. that's 825,000 tons. Even golden age Supes had a str of over 100

 

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

 

Now here we can be more exact. Superman can leap tall buildings, not all buildings. So he can't clear the tallest. Which means if you can fortify yourself at the top of the newly built Empire State building he can't leap the 1,250 ft to get you. He'll just have to run up the stairs before you can hear him, and smash through the door. Uhm Yeaa!?

 

Now I'll admit math isn't my strongest subject and I didn't spend hours researching this. So anyone who can correct the above points please do so. But on behalf of the criminals of the universe. Please Krypton make more kryptonite.

How powerfull is Superman? Let us take a look:

 

As for Bulletproof: I never think he truly was bullet proof. They could still hurt him (same way they hurt someone with a bulletproof vest). But he could bounce them if he was prepared for them.

Do you known those action movies where this big, muskular guy (often a russian) just takes punches to the stomach without effect because he is prepared? I always asumed that can be done, just by contracting really strong stomach muscles.

I asumed superman was doing the same to bullets. He was "bouncing" the bullets by contracting his muscles at the point of impact.

 

I never took that scene as being the first manifestation of Colossus' powers - he seemed pretty confident in their usage. None of the other New X-Men had conveniently manifested their powers just in time for the original team to need a rescue.

I Sowjet Russia, you break tractor!

 

I think Daredevil got his powers/blindness from saving someone.

Ironman at least tried to save Jinzen (it was more of him getting a conscience, rather then a superpower - he always had that power).

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At the height of the silver age Superman could cross the universe in 10 seconds, juggle planets with his pinky, and had every power including superknitting. Of course he wasn't always like that. But even before the silver age power creep he was still Superman. We all know the saying. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Why they don't include bulletproof I don't know. Still how powerful does this make Superman? I don't know. Being vauge faster than and the like we can't be exact. But we can estimate.

 

 

Faster than a speeding bullet.

 

The fastest bullet is about 1,700 mph. If you want to try and dodge it, you have to be 500 feet away. Now here my research if a tad faulty because I couldn't find a date on this bullet. I'm guessing two things here. This is a modern bullet, and gun technology hasn't really sped up bullets since the 1930's. So going with this as Supes minimum sped. He's twice as fast as sound. By the time you hear the swoosh of his arrival, he's got you half way to jail.

 

More powerful than a locomotive.

 

One of the post powerful locomotives of the 1930's was the Union Pacific steam engine it had 97,664 pounds force or 434 kn.For those of you who don't know what that means it had 5000 horsepower. Or the ability to lift 165,000,000 pounds. that's 825,000 tons. Even golden age Supes had a str of over 100

 

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

 

Now here we can be more exact. Superman can leap tall buildings, not all buildings. So he can't clear the tallest. Which means if you can fortify yourself at the top of the newly built Empire State building he can't leap the 1,250 ft to get you. He'll just have to run up the stairs before you can hear him, and smash through the door. Uhm Yeaa!?

 

Now I'll admit math isn't my strongest subject and I didn't spend hours researching this. So anyone who can correct the above points please do so. But on behalf of the criminals of the universe. Please Krypton make more kryptonite.

 

So I sat down over the last few days and watched all the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons.  The ones from the 1940s.  Actually I've got like 3 left of the 17 original cartoon shorts, but I think I've got enough to give us a good idea of what he could do at that time.  I don't have any of the Superman comics from that era (who does?), but the radio program and the cartoons really helped to flesh out the character, with many of his well-known traits having first appeared in something other than the comic (kryptonite first appeared in the radio program).

 

I made notes about each episode to help establish benchmarks for his powers.  They are all available on youtube.  Note that there are some things he does that appear to me more of a genre-related ability rather than something that needs to be modeled with a power.  He often lifts things that should crumble if you were to actually pick them up the way he does in the cartoon.

 

Ep 1 - The Mad Scientist, 1941

 

An evil scientist creates a death ray cannon, that is mounted in a mountain fortress somewhere near Metropolis.  The ray unleashes a powerful blast that smashes through/melts whatever it hits, including "the famous tower bridge" and a skyscraper that looks suspiciously like the Chrysler Building.  About a 100' section of bridge is blasted apart in a few seconds, and the foundations of the skyscraper are taken out in another blast.  It's probably an 18d6 attack on the low end.  You might be able to do it at 13 or 14D6 if you gave it area of effect, only vs building or other multi-hex objects.

 

https://youtu.be/Aq8xt_wCl7k?t=5m49s

 

Superman takes a few hits from the death ray, the first one knocking him out of the air and leaving him apparently Stunned on the ground.  But after that first shot, additional hits just make him stumble and don't seem to do as much.  He quickly recovers (while getting continuously shot) and then is able to deflect the ray with his hands/fists.  So durability-wise, he's pretty sturdy.

 

Strength-wise, Superman bends the barrel of the giant death ray, and smashes through the wall of the scientist's lighthouse-looking lair.  But his biggest feat is grabbing the toppling Chrysler Building and catching it, then lifting it back into position so it doesn't fall over.  This is a big instance of "that building should collapse", not to mention the building Supes is standing on when he catches the tumbling tower.  But rather than giving Superman area of effect Strength, or no-range Telekinesis, or PD usable by other, only for objects he is carrying, I think chalking it up to genre is cleaner and easier.

 

He can clearly fly in this episode (turning around in mid-air), and he displays this ability through the rest of the series.  He's beyond the 'only superleap" that he started with.  Although in this episode, and many others in the series, Superman appears to need to leap from a solid object in order to begin his flight.  There are one or two instances where he doesn't do this, but all the others show him obviously jumping into the air, and then just sort of never landing.

 

needed abilities for this episode:

Str 110+

PD/ED is an estimate, but probably at least 30 or so

Flight 25"+, x8 or x16 noncombat (he covers the distance from the city to the scientist's lair very quickly)

Running 10" - 15" minimum, depending on Spd

 

 

Episode 2: The Mechanical Monsters

 

Another mad scientist builds a horde of 15 feet tall robots, who he uses as superpowered thieves.  The beginning narration states that Superman is "empowered with x-ray vision", and we see it here in the episode.  This is the only time in the series where we see something that can only be explained by having enhanced senses (the x-ray effect is pretty obvious to the viewer). Again, we see Superman flying, but he does appear to need a point to jump from.  When he lands on one of the robots as it is flying away (with Lois inside its cargo hold), it performs an evasive manuever, flipping over so that Supes falls off.  He falls straight to the ground, out of control.  This doesn't hurt him, of course, but it is the first of many examples we'll see in this series where Superman is delayed by a villain's actions so that the rest of the story has time to take place.  Superman spends a lot of time breaking through big metal or stone doors in this series while the villains try to make good their escape.

 

Superman lands on high voltage power lines, and becomes tangled up in them.  There's an animation of electricity zapping through him, but he doesn't actually appear hurt by this.  When we cut back to him (after seeing what the villain is doing with Lois), he is snapping the power lines with ease.  We see Supes smash through a giant door (there were a lot of giant stone doors in the 1940s, apparently), and then the villain unleashes his robot army to attack Superman.  They have big numbers written on them, the highest number we see being #27.  The surround Supes and advance as a group, each hitting him with flamethrowers.  Superman shields his face from the flames with his arms.  The robots pound him with their fists, knocking him down, but Supes is quickly on his feet again, and he's smashing these robots into pieces, usually with one punch.  Another giant door later, and Superman rescues Lois from being dropped into a vat of molten steel.  The villain then dumps the vat onto Superman, who shields Lois with his cape.  The molten steel doesn't seem to hurt Supes at all.

 

Here Superman displays some pretty high defenses.  While the first episode is one of the biggest examples of his strength, this is probably best example of his energy defense.  The robot army is clearly performing a coordinated attack with their flamethrowers, and Superman does seem to feel some pain from them.  We don't know how powerful the flamethrowers are, the only time we see them is when they shoot Supes.  Game-wise that might be best represented by giving him more moderate defenses, but giving him great Con and Stun, and maybe some damage reduction.  The vat of molten steel in probably 6D6 killing, if I remember my environment rules correctly, so Supes' energy defenses at least appear to be all or mostly resistant.  In 6th ed, 30 rED might be enough to cover it, given the lower stun multiple.  In 5th he might need a little higher.

 

 

needed abilities for this episode:

(presuming 10D6 EB flame throwers for the robots, we'll limit it to a dozen of them hitting him at once, rather than all 27)

30 rED

50% energy damage reduction

35 Con

 

 

Ep 3 - Billion Dollar Limited

 

Train robbers steal a billion dollars worth of gold from a government shipment to "Probably Fort Knox".  Superman appears fairly late in the episode, the first half focuses on Lois (who is on the train) and her attempts to stop the men.  Biggest feats for Superman here are strength and endurance.  When the robbers blow up a bridge, the train goes off the tracks and is moments away from crashing into the jagged rocks at the bottom of the ravine.  Superman flies down and grabs it at the last second (grabbing it by the engine) and carries the whole thing back up to the other side of the ravine, setting it back on the tracks, where it continues going as though nothing had happened.  Later on, after the engine is destroyed, Supes grabs the front train car and tows the whole thing cross-country, running with it all the way to what is Probably Fort Knox.

 

We also see Superman affected by tear gas in this episode.  The robbers throw about 3 cases worth of tear gas grenades as Supes is pulling the train along.  He coughs several times and stumbles, losing his footing.  He then stands back up and shrugs it off.  Appears to have a pretty high Stun score from that scene.

 

not many new necessary stats from this episode, the strength needed to catch the falling train is somewhere in the area of what he needed to stop the falling building in the first episode, but it does reinforce that level of power.  He's also going to have high End, Stun, and Rec to pull that train and shrug off all that tear gas.  His Running is probably higher, given that he's moving at freight train speed on the ground, that's maybe 20"x4 or so.

 

 

Ep 4 - The Arctic Giant

 

A giant Godzilla-sized "Tyrannosaurus Rex" (note: looks nothing like a T-Rex) is found frozen in the ice, is brought back to Metropolis, and thaws out.

 

In this episode, when the 200+ foot tall monster rampages throughout the city, Superman picks up a variety of fallen objects to rescue people.  There are 3 large slabs of rock from a damaged building, each roughly 20'x7'x7' (going off Supes' height next to them), which would be somewhere around 90 tons each.  Superman flips them over pretty easily, sending them offscreen, like an angry gamer flipping over a table.  He also lifts a collapsing suspension bridge back into place and re-ties the broken cables.  That's another 100+ Str feat.  Also after the monster breaks through a Hoover Dam stand in, Superman pushes over a giant rock ala Christopher Reeve and plugs the hole.  Except it's just one huge rock that seals it up and not an avalanche.

 

Interestingly, this is the first example of Supes using his leaping ability in place of flight.  When he's crossing the city quickly to catch up to the monster, he jumps from rooftop to rooftop (still huge bounding leaps) rather than fly straight there.  It appears that his leaping ability is actually faster than flying at this point in his career.  The actual monster is very little challenge for Supes, and is subdued easily once the Man of Steel gets there.

 

needed stats:

Leaping 35+" (to be faster than his flight)

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Ep 5 - The Bulleteers

 

Some terrorists have a "bullet car" and they use it to fly through various government buildings and factories, blowing up the targets.  The car is exceedingly tough, taking zero damage from the move-throughs it performs.  The car is striking with incredible power, 20+ D6 easily.  Anything the car hits explodes, including a massive building the size of a city block.   Superman manages to deflect the bullet car with a single punch, sending it careening through the city.  The bullet car seems a bit faster than Supes, flight-wise.  It moves around the city in a way we haven't seen Superman match, but he is able to catch up to it as the drivers try to regain control.

 

Here we see the first attack that really puts Superman down.  He arrives at a massive building (perhaps a skyscraper, we don't see all of it) just as the bullet car hits, and the rubble from the building buries Superman.  He's out of the picture for the next minute or so (which is a decent amount of time in a 7 or 8 minute cartoon), though we see part of his cape showing from underneath the fallen stone.  He seems at least Stunned, in not lightly unconscious.  Later episodes will have several instances of Superman buried under rubble. Again, it's one of the things used to delay Superman so that the plot can continue for a bit before he catches the bad guys.

 

Supes finally digs himself out and catches the bullet car, ripping off one of its extending wings and then tearing open the roof so he can grab the bad guys.

 

 

necessary stats for this episode:

 

nothing that we haven't seen so far, except we've got a glimpse of what may be the upper limits of his durability -- a 20+ D6 collapsing building is enough to take him out for a short time

 

we also see more examples of Supes needing to "kick off" of something to start his flight

 

 

 

Ep 6 - The Magnetic Telescope

 

Another mad scientist invents a machine that will attract comets and asteroids to Earth.  Things go wrong.  This is another episode where Supes doesn't appear until near the end.  A city-destroying comet is being drawn to Metropolis, and police break the giant machine thinking that will stop it.  Problem is, all they did is prevent the machine from being put in reverse, dooming the city.  Pieces of the comet hit, knocking out bridges and destroying cars.  Superman flies into the comet, but is knocked to the ground and Stunned.  He tries again, and this time he lands on his feet.  Superman then repairs the machine so it can be put in reverse, using his own body in place of the high voltage power cables that the cops tore up.  Huge amounts of electricity surge through Superman, with a bright "electricity" animation surrounding him, but other than gritting his teeth and flexing his muscles, Supes does not seem to be in pain.

 

needed stats:

Mechanics and Electronics skills

the high ED we've already seen before seems sufficient

perhaps some amount of enhanced senses so that he would know that machine even had a reverse option (he isn't around when the scientist describes how it works)

 

 

 

Ep 7 - Electric Earthquake

 

An angry Indian wants the island of Manhattan returned to his people, and wants all the white people to leave.  When they don't, he sets off an artificial earthquake.  Very few indications of Superman's power here, nothing that we haven't seen before.  The earthquake machine is underwater, and Superman detects the source of the earthquakes very quickly.  He can hold his breath for a long time, but we do see him return to the surface once to take a breath.  He appears to be able to "fly" underwater as well, but he is affected by currents (the underground base gets a hole in it and the water flows in, pulling Supes inside).  Metropolis is specifically stated to be on the island of Manhattan.

 

needed stats:

LS: Hold breath

Swimming 20" x 4

 

 

Ep 8 and 9 not reviewed

 

 

Ep 10 - Japoteurs

 

Japanese spies steal an experimental aircraft carrier-sized bomber.  The giant bomber actually carries its own planes (about a dozen fighters).  Superman displays the best control over his flight here, turning very quickly and not needing to jump for takeoff.  In one scene, he steps into a building to change, and we see his silhouette through the building's windows as he floats up past several sets of windows before stopping on a higher floor, fully in costume.  It's almost like he was riding on an elevator, except he didn't get on an elevator.  It's the first "levitation" flight we see.

 

We also see a low point for his strength, immediately followed by a high point.  Superman has to bust through the locked cabin door to get to the pilot, and it takes him several shoulder-bashes to get inside.  Another delaying tactic so the plot can happen.  Of course, the controls are then sabotaged and the plane starts to crash.  Supes flies around to the outside of the plane and catches the front of it, like Brandon Routh in Superman Returns.  Only this plane is much, much bigger, filling up Fake Times Square and appearing to be 1000'+ long.

 

needed stats:

Superman's strength and flight might need to be increased.  That's a big ass plane, and Superman can fly down to the ground, drop off Lois, and then fly back up to catch it as it falls out of the sky.

 

Flight 35" x 16

 

 

 

Ep 11 - Showdown

 

Superman fights a normal guy who wears a Superman costume to commit crimes.  Notable in that the guy shoots Superman several times, with the bullets bouncing off.  Then the guy throws the gun at Superman (possibly the first time this has happened).  Superman does NOT flinch, and the gun bounces off harmlessly.  There are like 3 or 4 different "Supes must bust down a door" scenes here, as the bad guys try to get away, including a pit trap in the floor, an electrified set of bars, and a vault door.  It takes Superman exactly as long to break through each barrier as it takes the bad guys to run to the next escape route.

 

no new stats needed here

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Great work, massey!

 

I've got a lot of those episodes too. My understanding is that the cartoons actually fed back into the comic - X-Ray vision is the best known example... it was invented for that episode. I've also heard that they changed leaping to flight in the cartoon because it was easier to animate, and this carried on to the comic. Worth noting that the first of them was 1941, when Superman had only been around for three years or so, so this effect of the cartoon leading the way was not trivial.

 

The episodes may not have been screened in the order they were written, too, so powers coming and going (i.e. flight) is not unexpected.

 

There's an almost shot-for-shot shout out to Mechanical Monsters in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (which should be compulsory viewing for Golden Age and Pulp fans :) )

 

If you want to get REALLY thorough, there's 2000+ episodes of the radio serial, which ran from 1940 until 1951. Kryptonite was a plot device invented for that version, by the way.

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Ep 12 - The Eleventh Hour

 

Clark and Lois are in Tokyo as war reporters.  At 11 pm each night, Clark sneaks out for some sabotage.  Pretty good episode, really, one of the best of the series.  Superman sinks several Japanese battleships, sometimes by simply pulling them underwater by using the anchor chain, or by ripping holes in the hull and then pushing them out of dry dock.  Lois is captured by the Japanese and they threaten to kill her if Superman conducts any more sabotage.  Supes doesn't see the warning until after he's done it again, so he has to rush to the rescue to save Lois.  Another instance of lots of falling debris landing on Supes and burying him, requiring time to dig his way out.  Also, he punches a few Japanese firing squad members, and sometimes he has to punch them twice.  He's definitely hitting with less Str than he displays earlier in the episode.

 

no new stat levels here

 

 

Ep 13 - Destruction Inc

 

Nazi saboteurs are planning to blow up the Metropolis Munitions Factory.  This is the weakest we see Superman in the whole series (or at least, the one with the weakest feats).  Clark is in disguise as a security guard, and one of the villains drops a huge pile of scrap metal on him with a magnetic crane.  Superman emerges a few minutes later, and we aren't sure if he's been waiting for the bad guys to leave the main warehouse or if he's unconscious.  Piles of rubble seem popular ways to trap Supes.  In a later fight with the thugs, one of them swings a huge sledgehammer at the back of Supes' head.  The animation isn't really clear (it happens fast) if Superman actually ducks under the attack or if the guy just misses.  He also punches a few of the goons two or even three times each.  At the end, a truck filled with explosives is headed for the plant, and Supes dashes over, gets in the truck, and drives it off a cliff.  There's an explosion just offscreen, and then Supes is seen flying backwards away from it before he lands next to Lois.

 

This episode could almost be John McClane and not Superman.  While he's clearly got some degree of superpowers, he fights more like an action movie hero and not somebody who is invulnerable and super-strong.

 

needed stats:

Dex 20, Spd 4 (Superman actually shows real fighting skills here, very quick reflexes and he uses a boxer's stance)

 

 

 

Ep 14 - The Mummy Strikes

 

Clark investigates a mysterious death in the Egyptian wing of the local museum.  Not a bad episode, but very little Super-Action.  He easily overpowers some 12' tall reanimated mummy guards, and shrugs off some stone columns that collapse on him.

 

no new stats

 

 

 

Ep 15 - Jungle Drums

 

Nazis have come to rule over an African tribe, and set up a secret base.  Very little display of high level Supes power here.  He gets shot in the back by an emplaced anti-aircraft gun, and it knocks him down but doesn't hurt him.  He then bends the barrel of the gun.

 

necessary stats:

This Superman definitely does not have knockback resistance.

 

 

Ep 16 - not reviewed

 

 

 

Ep 17 - Secret Agent

 

Last episode.  A US agent has infiltrated a group of Nazi spies.  They try to kill her, and Supes must save her.  Very little Superman action here as well.  Most of the episode Clark spends "captured" and tied up (happened offscreen).  Only when they move him to a broom closet does he break out.  He uses his strength to stop one of those motorized bridges that slowly move out of the way so ships can pass.  I have no idea how much strength that requires.  And despite being tied up all episode, when he finally arrives, Supes rushes immediately to the aid of the woman, when he shouldn't have known where she was.  Super-hearing maybe?  He also leaps/flies from Metropolis to Washington DC.

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