Superman is commonly known as one of the most powerful superheroes in comic book history.
He can carry skyscrapers with ease and, in some stories, even managed to move planets.
It’s also almost impossible to kill him in the absence of kryptonite.
As such, you may wonder if Superman is a god.
Here’s what you need to know about Superman and whether he qualifies as a god.
Is Superman A God?
No, Superman is not technically a god.
He’s an alien from the planet Krypton.
That said, he does possess powers that make him similar to a god.
Gods are invincible, however, and nothing, in theory, should be able to kill them.
Superman is extremely difficult to kill, but it is possible, particularly when he’s around kryptonite.
As such, Superman isn’t a god.
How Is Superman Like A God?
Although Superman isn’t technically a god, there are a few things about him and his powers that make him very close to being a god.
Here are some of the reasons why Superman is like a god.
1. He Created His Own Universe
Perhaps one of the most glaring reasons why Superman is similar to a god is the fact that he created his own world.
During the All-Star Superman story arc, Superman realizes that he’s beginning to die.
It occurs after he takes too much solar energy in the defense of Earth.
Knowing that he’s going to die, Superman worries that those on Earth won’t be able to live without him.
He worries that they’ll keep killing each other and be unable to unite against bigger threats.
To find out if humans are capable of surviving without him, Superman goes into space and uses the excess solar energy he has to create a world.
He doesn’t just create a world either.
He also creates life.
He watches as humans transition from primitive stages to more advanced societies.
He watches as empires rise and fall.
One of the interesting things that happen is that he also ends up creating Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
They’re the creators of Superman.
In this new world, they also end up drawing the famous superhero as a symbol for people to rally behind.
The fact that Superman can create a world, let alone life, shows that he has the same sort of power as a god.
After all, a god is often a god because they’re able to create life.
Granted, it’s only because Superman has excess solar energy running through his body during this moment in time that he’s able to create life.
That said, Superman is like a god because he was also able to create a world and life.
2. Superhuman Strength
Another reason Superman is similar to a god is because of his superhuman strength.
The reason that Superman has such incredible strength is because of his home planet.
Superman is from the planet Krypton.
Krypton has a much stronger gravitational pull than Earth’s atmosphere.
As such, the Kryptons had to evolve to be able to walk and survive living on a planet like that.
On Krypton, Superman would likely have the same strength as the rest of his people.
He wouldn’t be particularly special in that regard.
On Earth, however, where the gravitational pull is less than on Krypton, he’s a lot stronger.
His body doesn’t have to work as hard to resist gravity on Earth as it would on Krypton.
It’d be like if someone from Earth were to move to the Moon.
Because there’s less gravity, lifting heavy objects there is a lot easier.
This makes Superman similar to a god because gods also usually have superhuman strength.
At the very least, gods are stronger than humans.
Powerful gods can move planets and part oceans.
They can tear up continents with their bare hands and fold them in on themselves.
There’s nothing too heavy to lift for a god.
Superman has shown countless displays of superstrength.
He’s been able to move planets, lift skyscrapers, and perform several other feats of strength.
Most of the time, it doesn’t seem to cost him too much effort either.
Superman is similar to a god because he’s capable of lifting extremely heavy things without a problem.
3. Superman Can Fly
Another power that Superman has is his ability to fly.
He’s able to fly because of the conditions in his home world.
On Krypton, due to the intense gravity there, Kryptons have to have incredible strength to overcome it and move.
Since Earth has lower gravity than Krypton, Superman can jump and take flight.
He’s buoyant on Earth when he wouldn’t be on Krypton.
Gods are often depicted as being able to fly.
Hermes, a Greek God of traveling and messages, flies around to perform his duties.
Other gods, if they were unable to fly themselves, had some sort of enchanted vehicle or mount that was capable of flying.
They’d then ride that around and fly.
Zeus was able to transform himself into several different animals to take flight.
Some might also consider certain gods to fly if they’re omniscient.
Since they know everything, it stands to reason that they might be flying around invisible to witness everything.
Either way, many gods are capable of flight to get around the universe quickly.
Superman shares this trait with them.
As such, Superman is similar to a god because he’s capable of flying.
4. Indestructible
Outside of the forces of kryptonite, Superman is utterly indestructible.
Bullets won’t harm him.
They bounce right off of his body.
You can hit him, and if you’re lucky you might cause damage, but it won’t ever be enough to take him down.
He could get hit with a missile and still walk it off.
There are a few reasons why Superman is as tough as he is.
The first has to do with the cell structure of Kryptons.
Kryptons have a dense cell structure which essentially means their body is like Kevlar.
You can punch and stab as much as you want, but because of how dense their cells are, there’s very little that will penetrate through their skin.
Another reason has to do with Kryptons and their use of solar radiation.
The planet Krypton is near a red star.
It’s dying which is one of the reasons why the people had to flee their home planet.
When Superman comes to Earth, he finds that the planet orbits a yellow star.
It’s a young star.
This allows him to soak in solar radiation and essentially charge like a battery.
That solar radiation further allows him to heal and regenerate at a fast rate.
Even if he does take some damage, he only needs to spend some time under the sun to heal himself.
Gods are also virtually impossible to kill.
In myths, you might read a story about how a hero needed a special weapon to kill a god.
Others may say that the only thing to kill a god is to have everyone forget that they exist.
When it comes to a one-on-one fight, however, it’s highly unlikely that a mortal is going to kill a god.
Since Superman is as tough to kill as a god, he’s similar to one.
5. X-Ray Vision Is Omniscient
One of the powers that Superman has is X-Ray vision.
With his X-Ray vision, he’s able to see inside bags, clothes, and buildings to locate threats.
He can spot a gun inside of a pocket, determine if a hostile is holding a hostage inside of a building, or find the location of a bomb.
X-Ray vision, in the wrong hands, could be disastrous.
Superman, luckily, has a strong sense of morality.
He only uses his X-Ray vision to help him protect others.
One might argue that the ability to see through things is like being omniscient.
Gods are supposedly omniscient.
Granted, depending on the god in question, some are more omniscient than others.
For example, many ancient gods each had their own jurisdiction or realm that they governed.
They weren’t able to see what was going on in other gods’ realms without spying.
For example, a god of agriculture is solely focused on all things to do with agriculture.
They’d be aware of farmers praying to them for good harvests and have control over factors involved with agriculture.
They’re not the god of war, so they wouldn’t know or see anything related to troop movements or warfare.
It isn’t their realm.
It isn’t part of their powers.
As such, they’re omniscient but only in a particular area.
Other gods, like the Christian God, are supposedly completely omniscient.
They know everything and see everything.
This is similar to Superman because he can see almost everything, at least physically, with his X-Ray vision.
He doesn’t know what someone hundreds of miles from him is doing, but he can tell if the person in front of him has a weapon or not.
How Isn’t Superman Like A God?
While there are many reasons that Superman is like a god, there are a few that make it clear he isn’t a god.
1. Weakness To Kryptonite
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons Superman isn’t like a god is because he has a weakness.
His strongest weakness is the mineral known as kryptonite.
It’s a crystal that saps Superman’s powers and slowly kills him.
There are several different types of kryptonite and each one affects him differently.
Some kryptonite saps his powers forever, while others only weaken him temporarily.
A few others warp his mind while others don’t seem to have much of an effect on him at all.
Regardless, the fact that Superman is weak to anything shows why he isn’t a god.
In most traditional lore, a god isn’t weak to anything.
They wouldn’t be a god if they were.
In Hollywood and stories, that isn’t always the case.
There may be some sort of weakness the god has that the hero can use against them.
Traditionally, however, gods have no weaknesses.
Since Superman has a major one in kryptonite, it means he isn’t similar to a god.
2. He Gets Tired
Another reason Superman isn’t a god is that he can get tired.
Whether it’s in the movies or the comics, there are times when Superman exerts a lot of energy to do something.
He’ll sweat, show some signs of strain, and even need to rest.
The fact that he has to rest shows that he is not a god.
Superman is extremely close to a god in that he only needs to regenerate his energy from the sun.
He isn’t like a human who needs to eat food and sleep to regenerate energy.
He also isn’t like a human in that he doesn’t tire easily.
He could arguably fight for a long time before he finally collapses from exhaustion.
The fact is, however, that he will eventually become too tired to continue.
A god doesn’t ever tire.
They’re living energy.
They don’t need to eat, aside from out of pleasure to do so, and they don’t need to sleep.
Since they’re living energy, they’re able to keep fighting for as long as they want.
You won’t ever wear down a god.
Since Superman does get tired eventually, he is not similar to a god.
3. Weakness To Magic
It isn’t just kryptonite that can weaken Superman.
He’s also weak to magic.
If he encounters someone capable of performing spells, he isn’t able to defend against that as well.
Superman does great against attacks that rely on damage or brute strength.
Magic is an entirely different animal.
His body doesn’t have any natural defenses against something that can impair his mind or cause damage to his cells directly.
While it may still take a bit longer to bring him down with magic, he’s going to fall eventually.
Gods have no weaknesses.
Magic is something often innate to them.
What humans call magic, gods might call more advanced technology that humans haven’t developed yet.
Since gods are often weavers and wielders of magic, themselves, they’re not weak to it.
Conclusion
Superman isn’t a god, but he does share quite a few traits with mythological and fictional gods.
He’s almost indestructible, has created life before, and can easily lift planets and move them.
However, there are also traits about Superman that make it clear he’s not a god.
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