When people think of Superman, their thoughts go to his super-strength, speed, and laser vision. People forget that his powers are only part of who he is. Having the powers and using them are two different things. One of the reasons that he's among the greatest superheroes ever is down to how he uses them with near genius precision and skills.
James Gunn’s Superman displays this perfectly and here are five examples from throughout the film that truly bring it to life.
*** WARNING! THIS ARTICLE WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SUPERMAN! ***
Super breath
There is a moment in Superman in which the Man of Steel's strength and flight just weren’t going to get him out of a predicament. To make matters worse, he was weakened, holding a baby and being sucked in by a blackhole. So, what does the triumphant hero do? He uses his super breath to push himself in the opposite direction.
It may seem like a simple solution, but how many of us actually thought he was going to do that?
Getting the nanites off of himself
Lex and the Engineer’s plan to cover Clark’s body with nanites and fill his lungs with them was genius. Superman can hold his breath for over an hour, but he’d need to take a deep breath first. Since he was in the middle of a fight for his life, he didn’t have a chance to. Too bad for the villains, Supes is great at improvising.
Superman flew into the sky at a superspeed and used friction to get the nanites off his face. The Engineer and Ultraman tried to grab him on the way up, and ended up with him in space. After that, Clark fell back down to Earth. He knew he could survive the crash landing, but they couldn’t. Knowing this, Lex ordered the Engineer to let go. Unconscious, she couldn't maintain her grasp, and Supes coughed the nanites out of his lungs.
Adjusting his strength
People forget that just having super-strength isn’t always enough. You must use it intelligently. Otherwise, you can end up putting a hole through someone (or something) when you didn’t mean to. Throughout Superman, Clark shows an understanding of this by never overdoing it.
He knows where to fly to stop a building so it doesn’t topple over and how much power to use. He also knows how to shield a kid so he doesn’t crush them while trying to protect them. He even kept a squirrel safe while fighting a monster.
Using Luthor's arrogance
Lex Luthor is a genius, but, like most villains, his weakness is his arrogance. He can have a battle won, but the need to monologue about how great he is and why he’s doing what he’s doing is always his downfall.
The irony here is that Lex told Superman that "Brain beats brawn," only to be defeated because he wanted to brag about winning. Lex just had to yell out his moves to Clark. This let Clark know that Lex was controlling Ultraman. And with that, the Man of Steel called in Krypto to take his cameras away, thus leaving Lex without eyes on his enemy. And, just like in All-Star Superman, Supes repeated to Lex “Brain beats brawn every time.”
Defeating Ultraman
Superman still needed to defeat Ultraman, a villain with all of his strength and none of his restraint. To do that, Supes had to outsmart his opponent. In this case, he had to wait for the right moment, dislocate his own shoulder, and throw Ultraman into a blackhole.
Yet again, a moment where brute strength wasn’t going to cut it. He had to be cunning or die.
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