The Superman must NOT Kick

[SweetShark]

Yo, people. We're forgetting something important here.

What'd Supes play back in Smallville when he was just a student?

FOOTBALL.

Superman kicks.

/thread

I didn't knew at some point Superman fought a Alive Evil Football ball. It must had been very exciting to read back then.

 

[Saltyk]

I have seen and read a lot of stuff with superman in it and I can honestly say he really does not kick all that often. I can likely count on my hand the amount of times I have ever seen him kick and none of them even come to mind I think I would have to attempt to find examples.

For the life of me I don't know why he only ever punches but for some reason that is what he does. I always find it strange he doesn't use his eye lasers more too. I mean the amount of times he could have just shot the enemy with lazers and not gotten caught in some kryptonite trap I can't get count.

It's my understanding that Superman uses up his Solar energy as he fights. All his powers will slowly eat that energy, though at a slow rate, probably slower than it is replenished just flying in the sunlight. However, his heat vision can quickly use up that energy. Especially when he does crank it up to blasting everything he can see. And his recent Super Flare is an evolution of the heat vision that completely drains his power reserves and leaves him completely powerless for a day.

 

[RJ 17]

He doesn't kick because even Superman knows he'll never be able to out kick Chuck Norris.

Hey-ooohhhhhh!

 

[Pseudonym]

I'd put it along the whole "kick is far more powerful than a punch" and one of the emphasized aspects of Superman lately is how he has to handle everything like it's porcelain - even his opponents.

So...he can pull his punches, but not his kicks?

Or, he needs to keep his legs down because otherwise he loses his grounding and balance when he strikes. We're talking about someone who can punch so hard he'd send himself flying if he just stomps into the ground. The physics behind him only having one foot on the ground and kicking with the other raises a lot of questions.

But...he can fly. Surely he can account for that?

I think the answer to that is in here:

I think that with Superman there is this "clean-cut, all American, plays by the rules, and fights fair" image that that DC was trying to reclaim in the mid 90's. The idea of Superman throwing a kick isn't anything new, or controversial, but they were leaning back on Supes having that clean cut super boyscout image.

A kick of somebody holding back and a punch of somebody holding back may do approxemately the same damage to the person being kicked or punched but one looks far nastier. You can gauge attitudes towards different forms of violence by looking at what gets a game or a movie a high age rating. Being shot in the throat is every bit as lethal and unpleasant as being kicked in the throat and then some but a game featuring the shooting of people is often given a lower age rating than games featuring kurbstomping.

See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBCDY5XhZng

The clean-cut all american boyscout doesn't shoot a man in the dick. In his lungs maybe, but not in the dick. Likewise he punches somebody in the face like a man, he isn't kicking around like some criminal.

 

[aba1]

I have seen and read a lot of stuff with superman in it and I can honestly say he really does not kick all that often. I can likely count on my hand the amount of times I have ever seen him kick and none of them even come to mind I think I would have to attempt to find examples.

For the life of me I don't know why he only ever punches but for some reason that is what he does. I always find it strange he doesn't use his eye lasers more too. I mean the amount of times he could have just shot the enemy with lazers and not gotten caught in some kryptonite trap I can't get count.

It's my understanding that Superman uses up his Solar energy as he fights. All his powers will slowly eat that energy, though at a slow rate, probably slower than it is replenished just flying in the sunlight. However, his heat vision can quickly use up that energy. Especially when he does crank it up to blasting everything he can see. And his recent Super Flare is an evolution of the heat vision that completely drains his power reserves and leaves him completely powerless for a day.

I knew about his powers being derived from yellow sun radiation but I never thought about his powers using up his energy sorta like a battery and that his heat vision would eat that energy extremely fast. That is actually a fairly reasonable explanation good call!

 

[Silverbeard]

I read a very interesting interview in Videogame Magazine "Edge" about a Key Person of an old Fighting game "Justice League Task Force".
At some point the developers send the pixel art/animation of Superman to the offices of DC Comics to get their approval. Everything was ok unless sadly for one major thing: Superman must NOT kick!
The developer which worked in the making of the game asked why Superman doesn't kick and why it is important for him to kick. It was after all A FIGHTING GAME!
Sadly the only answer he recieved was "He just not kick. That all. He never needed to do so in the comics."

So after reading this I need to ask, is it true? Does Superman doesn't kicked at all in his whole carrier as a the most powerful superheroe in the whole universe?

I cannot help but imagine that the developer's animation file was intercepted by some cheeky intern at DC (as opposed to an actual writer/artist/Templar Loremaster) who decided to send the 'He Shalt Not Kick' command as a prank. One that got way out of hand and then stuck fast.
Well played, anonymous intern. Well played indeed.

 

[Lieju]

I'm not 100% sure how this stuff works at DC but there must be some editorial mandates and company guidelines on what every character will do and won't do. And while something like 'Superman won't kick' sounds pretty inconsequential, it's still something that helps different writers and artists to have some consistency and differentiate between different characters by giving them different and consistent fighting styles.

 

[SweetShark]

Wait, doesn't he kick now or he still doesn't like in Justice League: Gods Among Us or that DC Vs Mortal Kombat games? (I haven't played those games.)

He don't kick in Injustice, and I presume it's the same for Mortal Kombat.

So, he shoot like lasers from his eyes to hit below?

 

[Cicada 5]

Reminds me of how Spider-Man couldn't punch in the 90s Fox cartoon.

 

[Something Amyss]

Combining this with Elfgore's "Dos" it seems to me like Superman only really kicks when it's required for a pun.

It looks like everyone breaks their rules if the circumstances are dire enough

So it's the Roger Rabbit principle?

It's my understanding that Superman uses up his Solar energy as he fights. All his powers will slowly eat that energy, though at a slow rate, probably slower than it is replenished just flying in the sunlight. However, his heat vision can quickly use up that energy. Especially when he does crank it up to blasting everything he can see. And his recent Super Flare is an evolution of the heat vision that completely drains his power reserves and leaves him completely powerless for a day.

It's also been implied that he has a pretty large solar reserve from when he's not fighting. This is part of how he survived Doomsday, IIRC, basically using up all of his solar reserves to...not die. While he may not be in immediate danger any time he opens up with heat vision, it's quite possible that a man who has to do as much fantastic stuff as Superman is mindful of how he runs down his battery.

Agreeing, for the record, just adding something in the process. The fact that he apparently has massive reserves adds some significance to the Super Flare thing.

 

[SweetShark]

Reminds me of how Spider-Man couldn't punch in the 90s Fox cartoon.

Logical. Spiders have only legs. He is Spiderman. He should fight only with his legs.