MovieChat Forums > Superboy (1988) Discussion > Why is he Weak?

Why is he Weak?

posted 18 years ago by plan9leader
4 replies | jump to latest

I've seen many episodes of Superboy and I am curious of why he is weak in the ways that I have seen.

Like in the episode "Birdwoman of the Swamps": He went to reason with the Indian Lady and for some reason, her spells actually hurt him and I thought he was able to withstand spells.

In the same episode, a bull dozer was able to scoop him up and I expected it to crash into pieces right when it hit him.

In the first episode "The Jewel of Techacal", the jewel was able to suck the life out of him and I thought that only Kryptonite could hurt him.

In the last episode "Luthor Unleashed", I can understand that he has super hearing and loud noises could hurt him, but I thought that he was able to control his super hearing.

In "Young Dracula", the Vampire was able to cast a spell on him as well and of course like always, I thought he was able to fight spells.

Christopher Reeve I know would have fought it.

One of the episodes that I cannot understand most of all is "Nick Nack" with Gilbert Gottfried. He was able to capture Superboy with some kind of seat belt straps and he could not break free. The only excuse I can think of for that is Kryptonite, but I did not see any in sight.

I'm sure that there are many more that I can talk about, but for now I would like these weak questions to be answered if they could.

All I can say is that the Salkind's messed up the Superman/Superboy character good when they fired Richard Donner.

Thank god for the Director's Cut of Superman 2.

[–] cjcarter134 18 years ago

In the comics, Superman is vulnerable to magic. Another plot device besides Kryptonite...

[–] mriguana 18 years ago

Remember this is early on in his superheroic life. As such he hasn't absorbed as much sunlight as the grown up version, so his strength will be less and his limits higher. And he has been vulnerable to magic for a bit.

The only version of Superboy that was as strong/stronger than the adult Superman was Superboy-Prime, one of the main antagonists of the Crisis On Infinite Earths series. As he wasn't of the DC realm, but actually came from ours, he had none of the limits (kryptonite didn't exist in his world) and all of the strengths. He was weakened by red sun radiation though.

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[–] cTitus924 17 years ago

superman/boy is vulnerable to magic and it was kryptonite i think in the straps were some form of kryptonite plus his full powers probally didn't develop hence the name superboy.
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[–] eugene1001us 17 years ago

In addition to kryptonite, Superman/boy is only vulnerable to black magic (as are all mortals), or advanced science as Mr. Mxyzpltk posseses from the fifth dimension, which only appears as magic to third dimensional humans. These are already established facts in the "comic-book continuity"

Hope this is helpful.

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