Super-heroes and canon

[VoidWanderer]

So, I have been pondering current canons for heroes I find boring, or could use some tweaking.

I, like some people, find Superman boringly over-powered. From his plethora of abilities to his McWeaksauce weakness of Kryptonite (that's what I think of the kryptonite weakness, please don't get mad), to the added canon of being weak to Magic as well (Can't remember many Superman villains that could wield magic, but anywho).

Instead of him being solar-powered, I wonderd what if most of his powers had a different core.

What if his powers were '-kinetic'. His flight, invulnerability, super-speed and super-strength (which includes picking up trucks by the bumpers without them breaking off) can be telekinetic. His X-Ray vision is could be another form of telekinesis, by manipulating things so he can look under them.

Heat vision? Pyrokinesis. And that gets rid of my greatest irk 'X-Ray + Heat Vision'. It doesn't work that way people, by looking through something, you do not get rid of what you are looking through, the Heat Vision would blast through what he is looking though dammit!!!

Ahem, and his Frost Breath is Cryokinetic. Kryptonite could affect the 'brainwaves he uses for his powers', and Magic could affect Superman because it normally affects the kinetics based super-heroes.

It could also explain why other more powerful villains can beat him up, they affect his will-power through other means, weakening his effectiveness.

What do you guys think? Like or hate my 'alt-canon', or want to put forward your own?

 

[Little Woodsman]

That's actually pretty much the same as the way he was constructed in the reboot that DC let John Byrne handle.
It also made more sense of certain things he did while fighting super-villains--for example there was suddenly a reason for him to pick up a car and smash the villain with that, rather than just punching them. He could exert his telekinetic force through another object, but not directly through his fist.
(Please note that I didn't read the John Byrne reboot myself, but was forced to listen to pretty much a blow-by-blow account of each issue from a friend of mine who was fanatical about the big blue.)

 

[DoPo]

His X-Ray vision is could be another form of telekinesis, by manipulating things so he can look under them.

I don't think that makes much, if any, sense. How can he manipulate anything and look through it, without very, very, very fine manipulation, and even then, it could end up damaging what ever he's looking through. Also, if Superman can use telekinesis to see through objects, so does everybody else. I mean - Superman looking at some lady's boobs - everybody seeing her boobs. Or at least those who are vaguely at the same angle as Superman.

I think you're pushing it by trying to lump things into just one category of words - words, by the way, which only share a suffix, but have a variety of meanings and explanations (in whatever universe you choose) that make them distinct to one another. You may as well just call Supes magical, or psychic, if you wish. Clairvoyance (or just ESP) is way more in line with "seeing through objects" than telekinesis. Clairaudience (or just call it ESP again) would deal with his super hearing. Biocontrol might account for rapid regeneration and immortality (with heavy suspension of disbelief) that or psychic healing. And so on and so forth. I don't really know all his powers, not even close.

 

[WolfThomas]

It's pretty much been done before. I think that's Superboy's deal (or was I haven't kept up with Nu52).

In Mark Waid's Irredeemable that's the explanation for the Plutonians powers.

Edit: Also there's nothing wrong with Superman's powers. People just have to write him properly. Crazy threats to earth not just Lex Luther in a battle-suit again. The tone and personality of Superman too.

Some of the best superman stories of all time have no kryptonite and often he's more powerful than usual. All Star Superman. Kingdom Come. What Ever Happened to the Man of Tomorro.

 

[Vault101]

In Mark Waid's Irredeemable that's the explanation for the Plutonians powers.
.

been reading that one...in a way I now find it kind of understanble if superman were to just snap and say "fuck this" and go crazy