Although Superman's most distinctive features are:
the colorful caped costume with the "S" shield on the chest;
strength;
speed;
flight -
- when he began, he was just strong, fast and thick-skinned. Other powers, even flight, were added later. Thus:
Without Flight
Samson
Hercules
Hugo Danner
the earliest Superman
later versions of Superman
Captain Marvel
Mick Anglo's Marvelman
Alan Moore's Marvelman/Miracleman
The three "Marvel" characters are direct successors of Superman. Alan Moore's Miracleman, Book One, is A Dream Of Flying. Micky Moran has grown up, is married, lives in Margaret Thatcher's Britain, dreams of flying thanks to a magic word, remembers his word, transforms, remembers having been Mick Anglo's character, learns that that was a falsehood and changes the world.
Poul Anderson has human beings flying under their own power in "The Chapter Ends." See the image attached to Chronological Questions II, also the concluding paragraph of that post.
(This post was meant to go on Comics Appreciation with a link from Poul Anderson Appreciation but it has wound up here.)
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I can imagine intelligent beings of whatever race or species being able to fly using either machines/technology or wings gained thru time and evolution. Examples of the former, in the Technic Civilization stories being the Diomedeans or Ythrians. But, flying by an act of the will alone, as in "The Chapter Ends," is a serious strain on my ability to suspend disbelief. Even tho genetic manipulation, spread out over several generations, for imparting that ability was the hypothesis used in that tale. Not when artificial means of using flight, such as planes, are so much more convenient and quicker to use.
Certain saints, such as Padre Pio, are reported as having the ability to bilocate, or to appear in other places when reliably known to have been in yet another location. And that's about it.
Sean
Sean,
I think there was a monk who levitated?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I have heard of levitation being reported of several saints. Perhaps St. Philip Neri was one of them?
Sean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Cupertino
But see the "Skeptical Reception" in the Wiki article.
Kaor, Paul!
I wnill look up Joseph of Cupertino when I have more time. And I agree that not all miraculous events associated with the saints are likely to have occurred. But I believe that sometimes they have (as does the Church).
In the second sentence of my first comment I should have written "latter," not "former."
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I looked up your source for St. Joseph of Cupertino and then the note about him at a Catholic site. The first is skeptical about Joseph's levitation and the second was accepting. Whatever the truth about reports of levitation for particular persons, I still believe it is possible, if God is willing to impart such a sign.
Sean
Post a Comment