DCAU

Up until the Crisis reset Superman was generally portrayed as having numerous intergalactic adventures, as being Superman means everything he does is spectacular and his exploits contribute to the Fortress of Solitude. The DCAU tried emulating that in a few episodes but it tended to feel really out of place given he was also established as the defender of Earth and Metropolis specifically. Having Brainiac, Darkseid, Lobo and Maxima show up on Earth brought plenty of alien encounters already.

It's just weird that it's a weakness, specifically.

Like, Superman being strong under a yellow sun and weak under a red sun isn't because red sun radiation weakens him, but because yellow sun radiation strengthens him. What should weaken him is being deprived of the yellow sun, not just being exposed to the radiation of a red sun.

Except then you'd have to clarify why he can remain powerful at night.

I'd say it's less red sun weakens him in that way and more that it purges any remains of yellow sun energy.

Generally speaking, it's explained that Superman draws power from the sun, and that develops his body so that he's stronger / has his abilities. He's not like, drinking sunlight and instantly turning it into power. He's stronger because he lives in a place with conditions that allow him to be stronger.

Not being around the sun for 8-12 hours isn't going to depower him. It's like how people need water to be healthy / live, but people don't dehydrate just because they don't drink during the hours while they're asleep.

Again, going back to what I think is the best use of the difference between Yellow & Red Sun: the Luminus episode of Superman The Animated Series does this well. Luminus uses mad sciency fuckery to make the Sun red over Metropolis, rather than Yellow. This depowers Superman, but does so over a matter of days, not instantly.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Mar 24th 2024 at 2:53:50 AM

I think the explanation is that Superman's body stores reserves of solar energy, and those reserves can last a long, long time - but when Superman's body absorbs power from the sun, it doesn't merely top off its energy reserves, but flushes the old energy out to make room for the new energy coming in. And if that new energy is the weaker and less efficient sort you get from a red sun ...

Think of it like an engine that can run on both gasoline and alcohol. If the tank is mostly full of gas, and you start pumping in alcohol, the tank will overflow, and the gasoline will come pouring out while you keep putting alcohol in, until very soon the alcohol has completely replaced the gas in the tank.

The reason red sunlight was a thing wasn't for the sake of Kryptonian physiology or anything like that. It's because Superman was so strong he needed multiple weaknesses to compensate.

Edited by kkhohoho on Mar 24th 2024 at 6:07:52 AM

Red sunlight in general I like for being more consistent in depiction than kryptonite, which has never fully shaken the abstract reasons it harms Superman, it just does. But the idea that you mitigate the source of his powers in the first place makes sense.

I actually had an idea to change Kryptonite into an artificial crystal created by Kryptonian scientists to stabilize their reactions to different radiation sources. When they are human level it's harmless, but when someone like Superman is supercharged with solar radiation it's a painful power drain. The crystal is thus found around lingering Kryptonian artifacts instead of the results of a meteor shower.

Red solar radiation works a bit differently than Kryptonite. The former only depowers Supes gradually. Kryptonite otoh immediately leaves him in agony.

Red Solar Energy works for me because 1) it explains why other Kryptonians weren't incredibly powerful all the time, and can limit the range of any of Superman's intergalactic adventures 2) It's neat xenobiology, and lends flavor to Kryptonite Radiation being extra harmful to Superman.

It being overused or improperly used is just par for the course with Superman. Happens with Kryptonite too.

And tbf in the DCAU it's only brought up in four episodes total.

• The two episodes with Lightler / Luminus. He first dons a suit that lets him channel red solar radiation to fight Supes. In the second episode he filters the sunlight to make it red.

• The episode where Supes is captured by Lobo and the Preserver. The cell the Preserver designed for Clark had a red solar lamp. Fortunately Clark found a cell with a dodo bird, which of course had a yellow solar lamp.

• The episode in JLU which pitted Captain Atom against Superman. As I said earlier, Captain Atom channeled red solar radiation in a similar manner to Luminus.

Edit:

So here's how the various weaknesses of Supes differ:

• Kryptonite is the most immediately harmful. It leaves him weak and in agony, utterly helpless. As the Birthright comic's narration from Clark's pov puts it when he's first exposed to Kryptonite, it's as if all of the pain his invulnerability had shielded him from throughout his life had been returned to him in that instant with interest.

• Red sunlight isn't immediately harmful. Quite the contrary. It's the natural sunlight his race evolved under. All it does is remove the unnatural effects of yellow sunlight — namely his super powers. The more he's exposed to red sunlight instead of yellow sunlight, the more he becomes a regular Kryptonian.

• Magic isn't any more or any less harmful to Superman than it is to any other mundane individual with no magical defenses of their own.

Fortunately for Supes he doesn't run into these too often in the DCAU.

• Kryptonite is almost exclusively used by Luthor and his cronies. This is because Luthor stockpiled every bit of it he could find the moment he discovered Supes was weak to it.

• Not many people in the DCAU know how to weaponize red solar radiation. Only Luminus and Captain Atom used it that way against Superman.

• Magic isn't particularly commonplace in the DCAU. Clark only runs into it once in his own series.

Edited by M84 on Mar 24th 2024 at 10:45:04 PM

Jeez, I'm gonna have to go back a lot to catch up on what I missed. But I just wanted to point out to Lalalei the "reverse the polarity" bit sounds very familiar...

I think the problem with Red sunlight being a weakness is that red sunlight is not the opposite of yellow sunlight. If yellow sunlight is more nutritious, then red sunlight might just be empty and have the same effect as darkness.

I guess it is interesting to have some weapons that hurt Superman and others that just nullify or abate his powers.

Plus Hereafter where no-one weaponises it but future Earth is under a Red Sun and Superman has to make his way to Watchtower powerless.

Edited by dcutter2 on Mar 25th 2024 at 9:42:58 AM

It's not that red or yellow sunlight is more or less nutritious. It's just the unique way Kryptonian physiology works due to evolving under a red sun.

It's entirely possible there are beings who gain powers from red sunlight in the DC verse. One comics Superman rogue, a Russian altered by prenatal exposure to Kryptonite radiation who took the name General Zod (no relation to the Kryptonian one), did in fact gain Supes' power-set when exposed to red solar radiation.

Right, forgot about that episode.

Edited by M84 on Mar 25th 2024 at 5:31:43 PM

Sometimes. I was saying that's the way it should be depicted, and the way the DCAU uses it has consistently been the right way imo, but a lot of writers just treat is as a different form of Kryptonite.

Some versions use red sunlight as a straight depowering ray, such as Superman II, which is similarly implausible as kryptonite. But the DCAU is pretty consistent in that it's a more passive effect on him, even "weaponized" like Captain Atom he still has enough reserves to power through it but it's more often him being neutralized by kryptonite or Lobo and then red sun lamps to prevent him from recharging.

I do find it funny that Red Kryptonite has absolutely nothing to do with Rao.

So I watched some clips that has Galatea. She's a badass villain and her fight with Supergirl was brutal.

She's not Power Girl but I'm convinced she looks like her for...reasons.

Did anyone else thought Galatea can potentially get a Heel–Face Turn? Or is it me because I felt a bit bad for her Clone Angst.

I feel Galatea probably should've been part of the future Justice League in Batman Beyond.

That episode was made years before Galatea was conceived as a character so that would have been pretty hard.

You mean if Supergirl hadn't killed her to death? I guess.

The Beyond era could have just had Supergirl grow up to be Power Girl's age (read: figure) for the Future league if they wanted. Obviously JLU went another way.

Which reminds me where was Supergirl when the Legion appeared for the Fatal Five movie?

Edited by dcutter2 on Apr 6th 2024 at 7:28:40 PM

TIL at one point Alan Burnett was working on an Aquaman spin-off for Kids' WB! that would have focused on the character's younger years. According to Burnett, he had worked on three or four different pitch bibles for the series before coming up with something that could cater to DC Comics demographic of mid-20's readers as well as a 6–11 year-old audience.

It didn't work out. :(

Edited by lalalei2001 on Apr 6th 2024 at 6:14:14 AM

This is so sad. I love Kids WB and that could have been great.

Is Kilg%re really a Joke Character? And why is his name spelled like that?

Probably just DC not wanting a reimagined hero into villain, so instead use the design and change the name.

Kind of like Hawkman planned as the big bad in Starcrossed renamed Hro Talek and Brave and the Bold (The Batman series) just having a Batwoman villain called Katrina Muldoff.