In 1943, when Superman acts to avert the collapse of a massive undersea cavern, his mighty shoulders bear the weight of thousands of tons of rock and the terrific pressure of the ocean above it. (Action Comics #62, "There'll Always Be a Superman!"😉 He also hits a baseball so hard that it circles the world.
In 1946, Superman uses his super-strength to mend a gaping hole in the hull of a sunken freighter, welding the torn steel plates into place by rubbing them with his hands until they're white hot. Later texts refer to this process as the application of "super-friction."
1947 brings us the first time that Superman transforms a lump of coal into a glittering diamond. In the words of the text, "Incalculable tons of pressure exerted by the Man of Steel's mighty fist duplicate the work of eons to fuse the opaque coal carbons into the translucent perfection of a glittering diamond!" (Action Comics #115)
In 1948 he uses the super-pressure of his thumbnail to cut sheet metal.
By 1949 he has single-handedly created a sun for the Planet Uuz by crashing together its two uninhabited moons and then fueling the resultant atomic blaze with drifting meteors.
In November 1953, when a great dark star that's rushing through the solar system begins causing the Earth to spin faster on its axis, Superman finds himself confronted by the greatest challenge of his career, that of devising a means of slowing down the Earth. After fashioning a gigantic metal drill from ore-bearing rock, Superman drills through the Earth to the red-hot rocks inside Earth's crust and then, using his own body as a high-speed chisel, gouges a canal from the sea to the hole he has drilled in the Earth. When the seawater rushing through Superman's man-made canal washes over the red-hot rocks at the Earth's core, the result is a continuous blast of steam that makes a great jet-blast, pushing against the rotating Earth to slow it down. When it's back to normal, Superman closes off the canal.
But by 1957, Superman is able to hurl an uninhabited Planet through space (Superman #110) and in 1958 can produce a small earthquake with a super-clap of his hands.
In March 1965 Superman seizes a spacecraft manned by members of the Superman Revenge Squad and hurls it into a far distant galaxy light-years away from Earth.
Invulnerability
Of all the awesome capabilities of Superman, one of the most important is his invulnerability. Fire can't burn him, knives can't cut him, bullets can't hurt him. In fact, there's nothing known to man that can harm even a hair of Superman's head.
In June 1938, a bullet ricochets off Superman's tough skin and a knife blade shatters when it strikes his body. Nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin. Subsequent texts describe Superman as possessing a skin impenetrable to even steel and as being impervious to bullets because of an unbelievably tough skin. A text dated January 1945 notes that "Unlike ordinary people, the Man of Steel can do without food if necessary," but a later text contradicts this, noting that Superman could indeed "starve to death."
In September 1945, Superman holds open an earthquake fissure with his bare hands until Lois Lane has had a chance to climb to safety. "The most powerful muscles on Earth," notes the text, "withstand the tremendous pressure of thousands of tons of rock!" "If the fissure had closed on me," remarks Superman, "the only damage would have been to the rock!"
In 1946, Superman flies onto an atomic-bomb test site and withstands the successive impact of two atomic bombs. He also withstands the intense heat of the Earth's molten core. (Superman #43)
In 1950, Superman swims underwater thousands of fathoms deep, down to the ocean bed itself, and suffers no ill effects from the crushing water pressure. He withstands the heat at the rim of the sun, estimated at a few billion degrees.
By 1951, Superman can withstand the heat at the core of the sun. (Action Comics #161) By this date, Superman's Herculean body has become immune to all ills and it's impossible for him to get sick. Superman is not immune, however, to certain extraterrestrial illnesses, such as the mysterious space virus that temporarily transforms his X-ray vision into "deep-freeze" vision in November, 1957, and Virus X, native to the Planet Krypton.
In February 1954, Superman withstands the explosion of a hydrogen bomb, although it does leave him with a slight headache. (Superman #87)
A text dated April 1960 observes that the rifle-like non-super-ray weapon employed by the Bizarros of the Planet Htrae could permanently rob Superman of his super-powers. Another text for this period strongly implies that Superman is invulnerable to the aging process and therefore immortal (Superman #136, April 1960), but Superman #181 contradicts this, noting that "Though Superman is the mightiest man on Earth, even he cannot live forever!" (November, 1965, "The Superman of 2965!"😉
A text dated April 1965 notes that Superman is invulnerable to drowning, and can remain underwater as long as he wishes.
Because Superman is invulnerable, he cannot blush and because his skin is never affected by the sun, he is impervious to sunburn.
Superman's hair is indestructible and can neither be cut nor can it grow in Earth's atmosphere. (Superman #132, October 1959)
Any attempt to cut Superman's hair by ordinary means results only in the shattering of whatever scissors are being used, but Superman can cut his own hair when absolutely necessary by subjecting it to the concentrated power of his own X-ray vision. In a red-sun environment, however, where Superman has no super-powers, his hair loses its indestructibility and begins to grow. If Superman undertakes a mission to a red-sun Planet, it is best for him to shave and trim his hair before returning to the yellow-sun environment of Earth, where his hair will once again become indestructible.
Similarly, Superman's fingernails and toenails, which are indestructible and do not grow in the earthly environment, do grow and are destructible on Planets revolving about a red sun.
X-Ray Vision and the Other Optical Powers
With telescopic vision, he has spanned the solar system - his microscopic vision has seen the tiniest dust particle - while his X-ray vision has pierced every substance except lead.
Today's Superman possesses a wide range of optical super-powers, including X-ray vision, which enables him to see through all substances except lead; telescopic vision, which enables him to focus on objects millions of miles away; super-vision, a combination of X-ray vision and telescopic vision, which enables him to perform such optical feats as peering through the wall of a house thousands of miles away; microscopic vision, which enables him to examine the tiniest atomic particles; heat vision, which enables him to apply intense heat to any substance except lead; infrared vision, which enables him to see objects lying outside the visible spectrum at its red end; radar vision, a term denoting infrared vision used at low power, which enables him to see in pitch darkness; and photographic vision, which enables him to perform such feats as memorizing whole books at a single glance.
In Superman's earliest adventures, however, he exhibited no special optical powers, and the vision abilities he employs today are the products of a gradual evolution spanning many years of texts. Tracing the evolution of these abilities is difficult, for the terminology used to describe them is often haphazard and confusing. "Telescopic X-ray vision," for example, used as a general term in many early texts to denote Superman's ability both to see through objects and to see objects from far away, later comes to refer to the use of both of these visions simultaneously.
"Super-vision," however, both with and without the hyphen, has been employed at various times in the chronicles as a synonym for telescopic vision; as a means of describing Superman's ability to perform some complex optical feat, such as tracing television broadcast signals to their source; and as a term denoting a combination of X-ray vision and telescopic vision, the meaning it has today.
Similarly, Superman used his X-ray vision to analyze the chemical composition of substances, to melt solid objects, and to see in pitch darkness long before the more specialized terms microscopic vision, heat vision, and radar vision ever appeared in the chronicles.
Some terms, such as "super-sensory sight," "super-sensory-vision," and "supernormal vision" are used in the texts without ever being defined precisely.