The NOT So Familiar Abilities of SUPERMAN!
As you've seen in parts one and two, Superman has exhibited some odd new powers over the years. Some came completely out of left field, only to quickly disappear, while others were bizarre new applications of existing powers that confounded and perplexed. A perfect example of the latter category took place in Action Comics #269 (1960) as Superman (for the 5,763rd time) had to prevent Lois Lane from discovering his secret identity. Revealed to be Clark Kent by his reflection in a magical "truth mirror", Superman jumped into damage control mode by inscribing a disclaimer on the back of the ancient mirror with his fingernail.
But why would Lois believe the freshly-carved phrase was written centuries ago?
Answer: Super Antiquing-Breath!
One of the silliest of Superman's standard set of abilities, super-breath was usually employed for great, concussive blasts of air or to flash-freeze objects...but exactly how would a concentrated blast of air chemically age wood to look "centuries old"? Actually, from the picture above, it looks more like he's treating the wood with a super-acidic loogie than a blast of air. Yick!
Needless to say, Super-Antiquing Breath was never used by Superman again...unless you count his brief association with The Pottery Barn.
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At the end of the first Titano story, Superman
"projected his super-imagination" across time to see Titano fighting dinosaurs in the Jurassic age or wherever he'd managed to dump the big ape.
I'm not sure, though, whether "super-imagination" is a power, per se.
I mean, my imagination has been pretty super sometimes, especially about girls.
Posted by: greenblade | January 28, 2009 at 09:21 AM
Actually, when the story was first published, Superman used his super-vision to check on Titano through the time barrier. It's only when the story was reprinted that the editors decided Superman shouldn't have time-vision, so they changed the text to read "super-imagination" and whited out the beams coming from his eyes.
Posted by: Bob | June 08, 2011 at 12:48 PM