itchcrotch said:
Here's what I wanna know Bob, which way are they gonna go with the origin of his powers? I was always kinda confused about that. Are all Kyptonians supermen? Cuz in the carnations where that seems to be the case, what we see of Kryptonian society doesn't seem to reflect that?
Was he turned into a superman before being blasted off to Earth?
Or then there's that really dumb angle I remember from one of the comics, that Superman can fly because the gravity on Earth is less than Krypton...
They've changed the way Kryptonians "work" plenty over the last 75 years (multiple really, really old stories show Krypton as a planet where everyone had Superman's powers), but for the last several decades DC's go-to "canon" explanation is that it's about how their bodies react to and/or process solar radiation. Krypton was a much older planet with a red sun, and under long-term exposure to a red sun's light they are no different physiologically from humans. Earth's MUCH younger sun is yellow, and absorbing that kind of radiation "supercharges" Kryptonians' already-existing traits: Denser/stronger bones and muscles, improved healing, eyes so strong they can see through walls and focus energy into a destructive beam, superhuman senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing etc, a personal "energy field" that enables flight and (sometimes) mental strength to the point of psychic abilities.
From the mid-80s on, the "Superman is solar-powered" thing has been made more explicit and specific: He's been depicted bringing himself back from the brink of death by draining an entire rainforest's worth of plant life of it's stored photosynthetic sun-energy and spending long periods of time INSIDE the sun itself to become even stronger. This is also usually the handwave for how Kryptonite "works," i.e. it's pieces of the exploded Krypton that are A.) already charged with red-sun radiation that takes some (or all) the "super" out of super-human Kryptonians and B.) evidences other effects (like how the power-reduction also physically HARMS Superman most of the time) brought on by the mineral fragments travel through outer space.
