That has been one of the most controversial thing about Superman ....his weight. Kal-El (and company) should have dense cellular structures due to their unique kryptonian physiology, and consequently his mass (and thus weight) should be considerably higher than normal.
While a good measure of his invulnerability stems from his bio-field, Kal-El still has extreme resilience to harm without it (I think a good analogy would be how our M1A2 Abrams tans have extremely robust chobham armor, but then over that armor ....especially when they are facing a real threat ....is placed a layer Explosive Reactive Armor that actually explodes when an anti-tank weapon hits it. The reason it explodes is to negate the effect of modern anti-tank weapons, many of which cause a thin hyper-hot stream of molten copper created when the warhead detonates to make its way inside the tank, basically killing anyone in there in a rather gruesome manner. Now, when the ERArmor explodes it messes up with the creation of the molten jet).
Anyways, the M1A2 is still one of the very best in the world (arguably the best, although the German Leopard 2, Israeli Merkava 4 and British Challenger 2 would argue) .....and it is the best EVEN WITHOUT ERA PACKS. The Chobham itself is enough for virtually anything out there BUT the most modern anti-tank weapons.
Same thing with Superman.
Consider his bio-field as some sort of ERA pack, and his normal skin as chobham armor. And just like with a tank, the thing that makes them heavy is not the ERA packs but the armor.
Superman is super-dense, and to do some of the things he does he needs to be.
225 pounds is too light for him. I'd expect someone like Batman to be around that weight (all of it honed muscle), but even AQUAMAN should be far heavier than 225p. And if Aquaman SHOULD be heavier than that Superman should definitely break any scales.
In my opinion Supes (and company, i.e Kara ....even Krypto) should be so heavy that if they did not consciously use their flight powers to limit the stress they put in the ground while they walk/sleep/stand/etc , then they should cause serious damage. Meaning that Superman should have to be constantly using his powers ....eg when he is sleeping his flight powers should be taking away 99.9% of his weight off the bed, and so on for other things.
That may seem a stretch, but it makes more sense (to me) that him weighing 225 pounds.
Goodness, even WonderWoman (super-dense clay brought to life), Aquaman (Atlantean whose body has to adapt to the crushing depths under the sea), and Jjon should all be extremely heavy, with Aquaman likely being the lightest (based on what they say he can do, and where he is written as coming from, he should be around three-quarters of a ton TO a ton-and-a-half for a deep-sea dwelling creature HIS SIZE). WonderWoman should be more than a ton, easy, for a densely-packed living statue of clay .....I'd actually put her weight in the 6-10 ton range, even more.
Why?
Well, the terra-cotta statues of warriors (the statues are human-sized) that were found buried in some emperor's tomb, weigh between 110 - 300 pounds. These statues are not densely packed or anything, and were actually made of smoothed coils of clay, but they can go up to 300 pounds.
Now imagine what a super-dense clay statue would weigh .....which has to be dense enough to have one of the greatest measures of invulnerability and strength in the JLA? My estimate of even 10 tons MIGHT be low-balling it.
Here is a link of the Chinese statues: (actually the link is too long ....just google 'Chinese terra cotta statues' and go to the images part)
And that brings me to Superman.
How much do I think he should weigh?
Hmmmm ....I'd rather not put the figure here or else some of you might think I am insane, but to give a hint consider that I said that for him not to damage his surroundings he would have to use his flight powers to keep 99.9% of his weight off the ground.
I said 99.9%.
Thus you can tell I am talking FAR MORE than 225.
However if DC says he is that ....well ...that he is.
Last edited by spetznaz on Nov 20th, 2005 at 04:35 AM
Alright alright ...in one sentence: Even though DC may say Superman is around 225, he should definitely weight more (as should Aquaman and Wonderwoman) based on physiology.
But take into account, Superman has both lost and gained his powers several times, often instantly. Are you sugesting his desity would instantly decrese to a normal human level whenever that happened?
Obviously there are huge problems with the 'Superman as a heavyweight' theory I brought up. Immense problems. For example what you put forth .....what happens when say mr mxyzptlk turns Supes into a mortal.
I'd say that his density and mass get turned into normal human, but obviously that brings its own series of problems (although they can be easily explained by saying that mr mxyzptlk is magic and can thus do that).
The problem with having Supes at 225 pounds is that there is a disconnect with his abilities, and particularly his heritage. Same thing for WonderWoman and Aquaman.
All of these characters are basically monsters that merely look human.
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Nov 20th, 2005 01:19 AM
