User:Jaster1

SUPERMAN

The being called Superman is a highly advanced sentient life form from the planet Krypton. While possessing a human appearance, down to the cellular level, he is quite different than Humanity. Real Name: Clark Kent (Earth name); Kal-El (Kryptonian name) Occupation: Adventurer, newspaper reporter, columnist, novelist Known Relatives: Jor-El (father; deceased); Lara (mother; deceased); Jonathan Kent (adoptive father), Martha Clark Kent (adoptive mother); Harry Kent (adoptive uncle); Sarah Kent (adoptive aunt) Base of Operations: Metropolis, USA and the Fortress of Solitude, Arctic Costume: Superman wears a blue bodysuit complemented by red trunks, red boots, and a long, flowing red cape. A yellow belt encircles his waist, and there is a highly stylized Superman insignia - consisting of a large red letter "S" inscribed within a yellow shield, which is bordered in red - emblazoned on his chest. The back of Superman's cape bears a similar insignia, except that this one consists of a yellow letter "S" inscribed within a yellow shield bordered in yellow. The costume is made from normal Earth fibers. The body suit is protected by the Superman's own indestructible aura. The cape has no such protection and is often destroyed during the course of Superman's activities. History: Long ago, a planet named Krypton orbited the distant red dwarf star Rao. The Planetary mass closest to its sun, Krypton was once a modest-sized planet, roughly the mass and volume of Earth. Over the eons, plant and animal life evolved on Krypton, and a race of sentient humanoids virtually indistinguishable from Earth humans became the dominant life form. It is only at the cellular level that the real differences between the people of Earth and native Kryptonians could be determined. Evolving under the intense radiation of their red dwarf sun, Kryptonians developed a unique cellular structure that enabled them to absorb energy from their sun. Although they derived most of their nourishment from the consumption of animal and vegetable matter, solar energy supplemented their diets. They were, in effect, living solar batteries. It was on the planet Krypton that the scientist Jor-El, son of Seyg-El and his wife, Lara Lor-Van, decided to conceived a child. As was the Kryptonian way, their child was created in-vitro and gestated in an artificial womb called a birthing matrix. As a member of the Science Council, Krypton's ruling body, Jor-El discovered the Phantom Zone and many other worlds. He also found out something horrifying: Krypton was in great danger. He predicted that due to internal eruptions, Krypton would soon explode. When he produced his findings, however, he was laughed to scorn. Jor-El was determined to find a way off the planet, and he began to research ways of getting off Krypton. Jor-El had only one thing to do. He began work on a spacecraft that he hoped could carry his son, who was to be named Kal-El (which translates to "star child") through hyperspace to the planet Earth, which he had recently been observing. Jor-El had just enough time to build one small rocket. No sooner than he finished the ship, the time of Krypton's death came. The ground began to shake and Jor-El knew he had to act quickly. Lara and him placed their unborn son Kal-El, still within his birthing matrix, on the rocket and targeted it for Earth. Jor-El ordered them inside while he made the final calculations. There was room in the ship for both Lara and Kal-El. But Lara flatly refused. She told him that their son would have a better chance without her weight. Through his studies, Jor-El also knew that their son would grow strong and powerful on Earth as his cellular structure absorbed the solar radiation of Earth's sun. He told Lara that this would give their son the advantage he would need to survive on Earth. Jor-El then launched the rocked and Lara stepped into his arms. They embraced, watching the ship get smaller and smaller. Then, the world of Krypton exploded after the pressure grew to much for the planet's mantle to contain, transmuting the sum and substance of the dying world into kryptonite, the ore of kryptonium. The tiny spaceship took a hyper-light journey covering the fifty light-years that separated Krypton and Earth in just under twenty years. However due to time dilation effects Kal-El had only just reached the end of the gestation period when he exited hyperspace close to Earth. The ship landed in a wheat field in Smallville, a rural town in Kansas. While in their farmhouse, Jonathan and Martha Kent saw a brilliant light, as if from some sort of comet or meteor, shoot across the sky. Intrigued by the chance of being able to find an actual meteorite, the Kents jumped into their truck and drove out to the back field, where the object had seemed to hit. What they found was a shallow crater and an object that appeared to be a tiny spacecraft. Approaching the craft, Martha thought she saw something moving inside. When Jonathan gingerly reached out to the craft to touch the smooth, egg-like upper section of the craft, it seemed to melt away, revealing a newborn baby boy inside. At the time, the Kents had no way of knowing that they were witnessing a birth. Jonathan suspected, quite correctly, that the baby might be from another planet. But the child looked so completely human that Martha dismissed her husband's suspicion as fantasy. She concluded that he was the victim of a foreign rocketry experiment and vowed that no one would experiment on him ever again. On the ride back to the house, the childless couple discusses what to do with the baby. Martha argued that they should keep him, and Jonathan was hard pressed to think of a reason why they shouldn't. By the time they got home, they had already decided to name him Clark, Martha's maiden name, and raise him as their own son. As a young child, Clark Kent exhibited no extraordinary powers of abilities. When he turned 5, Clark was enrolled at Eisenhower Elementary School in Smallville, where he quickly made friends of classmates Lana Lang and Pete Ross. He picked up good values from his loving hard-working parents, learning responsibility in helping with chores around the farm. He also acquired the Kents' love of reading and often derived as much pleasure from sitting under a tree with a book as he did from a fast game of softball. For all intents and purposes, Clark appeared to be just another normal, healthy American boy. But he was not normal. Just as his genetic father, Jor-El, had calculated, Clark's Kryptonian cells began storing and processing the radiation of Earth's sun. As he grew older, Clark became increasingly stronger and more powerful. The first noticeable consequence of his power came when Clark was 8 years old. Taking a short cut across a pasture, he was trampled by an angry bull, but he sustained no injuries. A few months later, Martha Kent was astounded to see her son casually lift the back end of their pick-up truck to retrieve a ball that had rolled out of reach. As he entered puberty, Clark discovered that he could see farther and in increasingly greater detail than any of his friends and that he could see through solid objects if he concentrated and he also developed the ability to emit heat from his eyes. At the age of 13 Clark began wearing glasses to help control his vision powers, so he didn't accidentally look somewhere he shouldn't or set something on fire. In the summer of his seventeenth year, Clark found that he could step off into the air and fly. His joy at the discovery of his power was boundless, as was his parent's astonishment. Throughout their son's adolescence, Martha and Jonathan kept his incredible abilities secret and always stressed the importance of this secrecy to Clark. The Kents feared that if knowledge of Clark's powers became public and the truth of his birth were known, he might be taken away from them. They suspected that some people would be afraid of him or consider him a monster and that unscrupulous people would try to exploit his powers. They knew that at the very least, the inevitable publicity would disrupt their lives for all time. Moreover, the Kents cautioned Clark that while his powers were a great gift, they didn't necessarily make him a better person. Martha and Jonathan impressed on the boy the responsibilities that power entails. They also taught him that each individual should strive to leave the world a better place than they found it. As firm believers in the Golden Rule, they told Clark that he should never use his special powers to set himself up as better than anyone else or to make other people feel useless. But youthful exuberance often overcomes the best intentions. During his senior year at Smallville High School, Clark began to utilize his strength and speed on the footfall field, becoming the star of the team. After winning the final game of the season almost single-handedly. Clark found his stern-faced father waiting on the sidelines. Jonathan took his son to the site where the spacecraft still lay hidden and revealed how they had found him. Jonathan admitted that his great powers needed a nobler purpose than winning sporting events. Stunned by these revelations, Clark shamefacedly agreed with his father. He realized that the time had come to shoulder his responsibilities. Months later, in the summer, Clark was awakened by a high-pitched noise coming from the nearby barn. There, he discovered a crystal Jor-El sent with him. He realized it was time for him to leave. Clark said an emotional goodbye to Jonathan and Martha. Weeks pass, and Clark made a journey to the Arctic region of the North Pole with the green crystal. Upon arrival, he was compelled to throw it into the ice where it created his Fortress of Solitude. Inside, Clark saw an electro-psionic manifestation of his biological father, Jor-El, and there he learned that he is the only survivor of the doomed planet Krypton. For about a year, he was instructed about his origins, everything there is to learn, and his intended role as his new home's champion by way of extensive recordings made by Jor-El and Lara. Then, for the next four years, he wandered the Earth, mastering his amazing powers and employing them - always in secret - to help other people, to save lives, and to prevent disasters. He traveled, observed, and learned much about the ways of the world, but finally he concluded that he needed a more formal education. He moved to the city of Metropolis and enrolled at the renowned University of Metropolis. Clark threw himself into his studies. He decided to major in journalism, but he eagerly took as many additional courses as he could, obtaining a board base of knowledge in both the sciences and humanities. He also found that he could apply many of his travel experiences for additional credit. Much to his surprise, Clark earned his degree in just two years. He also acquired an abiding love for Metropolis and its people. It was in that city, not long after graduation, that circumstances forced Clark to use his powers in public for the first time. The Constitution, NASA's experimental space plane, was ending its maiden flight with a landing at Metropolis International Airport to cap off a month of celebrations for the city's 250th anniversary. Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane was one of the crewmembers aboard the space plane as part of NASA's Journalists-in-Space program. She had been submitting daily reports on the Constitution's flight to the nation's media, and an enormous crowd had congregated at the airport for the historic landing. All was going according to plan until a small civilian plan slipped into the secured airspace and collided with the space plan. Fused together by the impact, the airplanes plummeted earthwards, out of control. Clark Kent, watching the landing in the midst of the gathered crowd, realized that he had only moments to prevent a crash and leapt skyward. Grabbing the Constitution, he put all of his strength and his astounding power of flight into righting the crafts and bringing them in for a landing. Once the ships were safe on the ground, Lois immediately disembarked to question him. Their eyes met, and for a moment, neither of them could say a word. Then the crowd surged past security barricades, surrounding the hero-of-the-day. Clark was mobbed by people clutching and pulling at him. They all wanted to touch him. Their voices rose in a roar of offers and demands. To Clark's mind, it was as if they all wanted a piece of him. Appalled by the crowd's reaction, Clark fled the scene before he could be identified, flying to think at the Fortress of Solitude. Lois Lane, meanwhile, filled her story of the rescue, describing as best she could the unknown "Superman" who had saved the planes and the crew's lives. Unsure what to do, Clark returned to Smallville, seeking guidance from his parents. Jonathan Kent suggested that Clark adopt a costumed secret identity, in which he could publicly use his powers for good. Clark and his parents devised his new identity as Superman, taking the name that the Daily Planet reporter had given her mysterious rescuer. Martha Kent created Superman's first uniform, employing Clark's suggestions. She remembered how the only items of clothing that had survived her son's developing powers were those that fit most snugly, so she designed the uniform to be skin-tight. Clark and Jonathan together designed the distinctive S emblem for the chest and cape of his uniform. Working with his parents, Clark devised subtle tricks of appearance by which he could divert any attention from his resemblance to Superman. His glasses changed the shape of his face when he wore them and the slightly tinted lenses darkened his bright blue eyes. Clark would adjust his style of dress, wearing looser clothing to mask his very muscular physique. He would also adjust his posture by slouching to appear a little shorter and soften his voice. He also tidied up his seemingly naturally messy hair. Clark reasoned that by appearing unmasked as Superman, he would distract most people from even considering that he might spend part of his time as someone else. Returning to Metropolis, Superman quickly made his presence known. Nothing escaped his attention, from simple purse snatchings to three-alarm fires to attempted bank robberies. Exhilarated by the opportunity to operate openly, Superman seemed to be everywhere at once in the days that followed. The effect of Superman's actions against the criminal element caused a major down turn in crime, but neither the police nor Lois Lane could get any firm details on their city‘s new hero. Threatened by Superman the Metropolis crime syndicates formed a single organization under the leadership of Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim. Mannheim had been trained on the extradimensional world of Apokolips and reported directly to Darkseid, that world's leader. He unified the cartels into Intergang and hit back at Superman with Darkseid's son Kalibak. The police responded to the incident by forming the Special Crimes Unit (SCU). Closer ties between Superman and the police were fostered when Clark used a carefully managed "interview" to scoop a job at the Daily Planet and to explain Superman's agenda. His sudden appearance with the scoop of the decade earned him Lois's enmity. She had delivered a similar story onto Perry's desk, which she had obtained by deliberately putting herself in danger to lure Superman to her rescue. When Superman first appeared in Metropolis it was a city controlled by one man, Lex Luthor. Luthor had pulled himself out of the Hob's Bay slums and had built a multinational empire called Lex Corp, with holdings in almost every major industry. He directly or indirectly employed nearly two thirds of the people in Metropolis. That power base made Luthor the most powerful man in Metropolis and he did not let people forget it. He used carefully arranged charitable donations and civic schemes to create an image of a benevolent businessman, yet behind the scenes Luthor controlled the Mayors Office and often used his own security force to strong arm opponents into shady and illegal deals. Of course carefully faked documents and a legal web made sure no evidence could ever be pinned on Luthor. He was never arrested until he tried to ensnare Superman in his web. Seeing that he had been eclipsed by Superman, Luthor was determined to bring this intriguing outsider on to his team. He staged a high society party on his private yacht knowing that it was going to be targeted by a terrorist faction. When the terrorists attacked Luthor deliberately held his personal security force back to draw Superman into the open. Afterwards Superman found himself on the receiving end of a twenty-five thousand-dollar check from Luthor. The outraged Mayor deputized Superman and ordered him to arrest Luthor on charges of reckless endangerment. Lex Luthor was booked and charged like any common criminal, but his lawyers had the charges thrown own and it never came to court. It was the start of a bitter war between Superman and Luthor. The two would come into conflict repeatedly, each despising the other immensely. Superman has since established himself as the greatest champion of justice in Metropolis, and, indeed, the world. Though his heritage is that of a dead planet, 50 light-years away, Superman remains very much the son of Jonathan and Martha Kent.

Height: 6'3" Weight: 225 Hair: Black Eyes: Blue

Powers: The cellular structure of a Kryptonian is similar to that of humans. However, a certain chemical makeup in the ribosomes (organelles responsible for protein synthesis) is capable of absorbing solar energy and storing it. Once the ribosomes achieve saturation levels of this radiation, they begin to re-radiate the energy in the form of a bioelectric forcefield. Each individual cell within the field's radius becomes reinforced in such a way that the cells are not only protected from external harm, but internal forces as well. It is this last which is key to Superman's great powers. Since the individual cells are wholly invulnerable, they are capable of operating at levels of efficiency that would destroy normal humanoid cells. These "super-cells" lend an enhancing effect to all bodily systems...muscular, metabolic, nervous, and so forth. The continual absorption of solar energy provides a constant power source for these enhanced systems. Thus, Superman is capable of incredible feats.

Naturally, the basic forcefield effect renders him invulnerable to large amounts of damage. Unlike a human, Superman's body has more than simple cohesion and adhesion holding his tissues together. The bioelectric forcefield has a set tolerance for how much stress occurs before it reacts energetically in opposition to the external force. The tolerance for how much stress occurs before Superman's tissues counteract it varies according to tissue type. His bones allow virtually no compressional or tensional strain (deformation in shape) and his fleshy tissues remain supple under soft pressure, but under stress react to restrict any further deformation in shape. Since the strength of Superman's cellular forcefields greatly exceeds the cohesive force of any substance, no ordinary object can puncture his skin.

Superman can withstand a 1-megaton nuclear explosion without ill effect, and has been able to tolerate the molten conditions in the Earth's core with only discomfort. A 40-Megaton nuclear explosion knocked him unconscious for over an hour. He could not, however, survive the conditions inside a star, but can safely approach to within several miles of Earth's Sun, probably due to a feedback loop of solar energy powering his bioelectric field. Superman can easily survive conditions in deep space, but he does need to breathe, eat, sleep, and excrete. Superman can hold his breath for a maximum of twelve hours, and requires two hours of sleep a night to function at peak mental efficiency, as well needing to dream at least half an hour a night, or experience the psychological effects of sleep deprivation as would any other person who missed a night of sleep. When his solar energy is depleted, his resistance to physical punishment drops to approximately one-quarter the normal amount. Withstanding large amounts of damage continuously over time will rapidly deplete his solar reserves.

Superman's cells provoke one another into releasing their respective energy when one begins to threaten the integrity of the other. Because of a certain degree of constant pressure, there is a continuously emitted radiance of the bioelectric field reaching slightly beyond his body, a sort of aura that protects items near his skin e.g. his costume. The aura also protects Superman's teeth, however his hair and nails are only partially protected due to certain cellular properties they possess. They are invulnerable to fire, however they can still be cut.

Due to the highly charged nature of his solar storage systems, his immune system deals with most normal poisons and diseases quickly and with no ill effect. With the exception of kryptonite emissions, radiation and similar harmful energies are similarly neutralized.

His physical strength is greatly magnified by the combination of his more-efficient muscular system and the enhancement of his skeletal system's structural integrity, but is primarily augmented by the sheer force of his solar forcefield. When Superman appears to be lifting a weight, he is actually holding and pushing it with the bioelectric field. His energy stores push not from himself, but from the shielding that surrounds him. So the shielding is controlled on the highest level and simulates strength. He can lift 100,000 tons with serious effort. The conjectured upper limit of his physical strength has been determined to be approximately 250,000 tons with great effort, and causing strain damage to himself equivalent to an average adult human male lifting 500 pounds. Continual exertion will deplete his solar energy, and greatly exceeding his normal lift will drain him more rapidly. At the level of complete solar depletion, Superman can lift/exert no more than 100 tons of weight or force.

Similarly, Superman's enhanced metabolic rate, muscular speed, and nervous system grant him incredible speed. His Kryptonian structure and the solar energy paths that course along his neurophysical structure allow him to react at many times normal human speed. He can read a complete encyclopedia set in seconds, wash a sink full of dishes in the blink of an eye, or run from New York City to Paris in a matter of minutes. He can move faster than the human eye can perceive if necessary, but this requires extra effort. His reflexes are quick enough to allow him to dodge incoming automatic laser fire.

Superman's perceptions are similarly rapid, allowing him to see individual bullets fired from high-speed automatic weaponry in flight and outrace them easily. Moving at extreme speeds for extended periods of time rapidly drains his solar reserves. In a full drained state, his reflexes are only sufficient enough to dodge semi-automatic projectile weapons and read the encyclopedia set in under 10 minutes.

The enhanced structure of Superman's sensory organs combined with the increased capacity of his nervous system provides for the greatly enhanced senses. His range of hearing extends from the subsonic through to the point where signal modulation in broadcast communications can be sensed and demodulated into "sounds" if he concentrates. He can distinctly hear soft sounds anywhere on Earth if he is listening for them. He has perfect pitch. He has, on occasion, sat and perceived every sound on Earth as a symphony of a living planet.

His visual reception range covers the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum. The difference between human and Superman's vision is that Superman has the capability to see a much wider band of the electromagnetic spectrum; while humans only sense a very narrow band of the spectrum we call visible light. Superman can change the spectrum he perceives at any given time, by changing the chemical receptors in the rods and cones of his retinas. He can adjust his photovoltaic detection as an act of will to sense longer wavelengths down to the infrared, and higher energy light, up to X-ray and gamma radiation.

Kryptonian muscle tissue when super-charged with solar-energy, can generate a powerful gravitational field. These fields in combination with Superman's personal bioelectric field give him the ability to negate gravity, allowing him to fly. When in flight, he's fully suspended by this energy, almost completely repelling Earth's gravimetric influence over him. He becomes his own center of gravity, and no longer has to physically leverage against the gravity of whatever planetary body he's on, or any object. By instinctively controlling an output of his energy from his aura, he is able to mentally push himself to a direction and speed of his own liking through sheer force of will. Controlling his motion, Superman is capable of Mach speeds in excess of Mach 10 in atmosphere. He can fly to the Moon in minutes, but faster than that outside of atmospheric interference. His control of his flight is perfect and he can perform aerobatic feats such as hovering, flying backwards and even lifting great weights while flying.

Superman can use the gravitational fields generated by the muscles in his eyes to produce a gravity lens, allowing him to focus far beyond the range of the human eye. Combined with Superman's sensitivity to light, he can magnify an image a virtually countless number of times. Superman can see through solids objects by using a combination of these telescopic and microscopic visual abilities to see through the atomic structure of an object and focus past it, as a camera focuses beyond the dust on a lens. Certain dense materials, notably lead, obstruct this ability.

Superman has the ability to expel stored (solar/electromagnetic) internal energy in the form of focused beams of radiation from his eyes. He emits light along various frequencies in high energy bursts that flash-melts materials in seconds, weaken structural integrity over a smaller area, such as melting the barrel of a gun but leaving the handle untouched. Superman can control his heat vision and direct it wherever he wants to. He directs it with his eyes.

In actuality, Superman could not emit the beams directly from his eyes. The energy is actually built up on the surface of the bio-energetic field surrounding his body and emitted from there. This allows his body to be protected from the energy and absorbing stray electromagnetic energy back into his body. Superman's energy reclamation aura is so efficient that any radiation, even those emitted from him, once in the environment are able to be reabsorbed.

The heat beams are psionically controlled and that control is reflexive, so he can shut it off without accidentally damaging anything that he does not want to. He can emit the radiation visibly or invisibly at lower settings. His energy has a high visibility profile if emitted at higher levels.

Superman has the power to release gale-force winds from his lungs. He can create ice blocks from his breath, as well as freeze objects and opponents. The psionic portion of his powers are made evident by these depictions. The only way for objects to freeze is if their molecular composition slows down in motion at an incredible rate. The application of intense winds from Superman's breath is actually not sufficient to freeze things. Since Superman can agitate molecules to increase in motion, he can do the reverse. He is using the same effect that amplifies converted solar energy in reverse. He is using it as a catalyst to access higher-order energies through an unknown physical mechanism. That same amplification mechanism is reversed to dampen or neutralize energies in the environment to produce freeze breath. Additionally, his vast lung capacity is not physically possible given the dimensions of the humanoid physique. However, his super-breath includes tesseract-type properties.

Both Superman's Kryptonian physiology and the fact that his engrams are stabilized by a solar-frequency hologram reinforcing his neural matrix allow him near-perfect recall of events he pays specific attention to or that have emotional significance or are particularly striking.

Superman is a talented mimic, and can reproduce most sounds that he can hear. He can modulate his voice to transmit on radio or microwave/radar frequencies, and can expel a minute amount of air in space at a warm enough temperature and speed to carry sub-vocalized sound directly to one or more targets.

Source of Powers: Superman requires solar energy to function at peak capacity, or his powers fade to greatly reduced levels, some disappearing entirely if his solar reserves are empty. Superman cannot absorb energy from the lower frequency orange O-class stars and cannot process the higher-frequency White K or blue F classes. Blue B and yellow G type stars are ideal.

Superman's body stores and processes solar energy at a rapid rate and for a variety of effects, which are explained in his other powers. His storage capacity is sufficient to let him function at full capacity for up to 14 days depending on his physical condition and state of rest. While under a star of the right class (G-type dwarfs in the blue-white through yellow spectrum are ideal) and within a planetary atmosphere, he replenishes energy at a constant rate.

If forced to expend large amounts of energy over a relatively short time, or to maintain constant exertion over longer periods of time, he tires and his power begins to diminish. Constant exertion will revert him to normal humanoid levels after 14 days without rest. The power recovers at the rate of normal rest, and a full recharge can be accomplished with two days of no more than moderate, normal-level exertion. A process of solar recharge is also known, but requires massive amounts of fusion energy of solar/light-based superpowers.

Weaknesses: The fatal flaw in Kryptonian cellular physiology is the unique radiation given off by kryptonite. In the most minute amounts, the radiation waveforms and high-energy particles emitted by kryptonite can react catastrophically with the very ribosomal chemical that grant a Kryptonian powers. The briefest contact can strip these powers, and further begin a fatal poisoning that totally shuts down cellular activity in the affected areas.

As kryptonite radiation makes its way through the bloodstream, a Kryptonian becomes instantly weak and ill in its unshielded presence, and prolonged exposure will render him or her unconscious (after 30 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the sample, and the current state of his solar reserves), and will eventually (after two to four hours) reach all parts of his body and bring death, usually as the body's immune system attempts to expel the deadly toxin. However, the rate of recovery once removed from the emissions is as rapid as the rate of damage, and the Kryptonian will be back to normal in under an hour after exposure in optimal conditions. Kryptonite emissions can be blocked by lead and other super-dense materials.

Further, the radiation signature of the red sun of the Krypton system (and similar M-class stars) instantly causes the ribosomal structures to lose their stored energy, reducing a Kryptonian to normal humanoid levels.