Reddit users have been speculating if the newly knitted DCU, masterminded by James Gunn and Peter Safran, will ever reveal Superman’s unexploited power of super-weaving!
Even if you know Big Blue’s powers, his eight-decade career may surprise you. The famous radio line that captured the imagination in the early 1940s radio show by describing his ability to “leap tall buildings at a single leap bound” seems a bit obvious for a superhero famous for flying. Until you remember that Big Blue first flew in the comics in Superman #10, three years after his debut. Before taking flight, he relied on super leaps.
Superman’s powers have expanded and shifted up and down ever since, but no ability has ever raised eyebrows more than the Big Blue unveiling the ability to weave together a wedding dress from silk strands at super speed.
The power turned up in February 1960, in the pages of Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #15, setting a simple question for the DCU to answer.
Once the loom started, other users got stuck in. Of course, it didn’t take long for the conversation to weft to the SynderVerse.
As one comment shows, it’s all about the villain who posed the right opposition to Supe’s weaving skill— even if this ability left them particularly raddled.
There’s some good news for Mr. Gunn, however. The truth behind the ability is even stranger than it appears, giving the co-Chair of DC Studios an out.
There’s a big clue in the name of the 1960 story that appeared in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #15: The Super-Family of Steel!
This issue introduced Van-Zee as Superman’s cousin, who had survived in the Bottle City of Kandor and was transported to Earth due to a freak accident when Supes looked into the city with X-Ray vision.
Van-Zee was the Superman of Kandor (or, more appropriately, a vigilante who later became the hero Nightwing). He dressed like his cousin and had a remarkable family resemblance.
Things got weirder when the newly released Kryptonian professed his love for Lois Lane, and even stranger when Van encounters Lois’s doppelgänger. It’s a convenient plot point for Supes and his girlfriend when the reporter turns Zee down. The new Lois has come up with her own secret identity, Jane Brown, as she seeks to avoid a marriage arranged by her father. Understandably, she thought the inevitable advances from Van-Zee, who she thought was Superman, were part of her father’s attempts to make the marriage happen. Sure enough, she asks the amorous Man of Steel to prove he’s Kryptonian.
Super-weaving is an ability never used by Superman but by his cousin and all part of writer Otto Binder’s tale of duplicates. Van’s abilities are undoubtedly the same as his cousin Kal’s, but we can’t put this down as an actual comic book-inspired superpower we can expect to see in movie theaters.
Gunn is fond of releasing snippets and clues about his new script for Superman Legacy, but we can’t see him stitching this superpower into the third act any time soon.
Published: Mar 6, 2023 09:05 am