10 Ways To Beat Superman

8. Sensory Overload

Superman Skull
DC Comics

Part of what makes Clark Kent so gosh darn super is that his senses have been pushed to far beyond those of an ordinary mortal. He can literally see through walls, smell out crime faster than Scruff McGruff and his ears are so amazing the he can even hear the one or two people who still try to insist that Batman v Superman was a good film (come on now, you had to know that a joke like that was coming at some point).

The downside to these super-senses though is that they're very... well sensitive. Superman has to constantly filter out all the sights and sounds of the world so that he can focus on the task at hand. If something disrupts his concentration, it is very easy for the Man of Steel to be completely overwhelmed by his surroundings.

A more specific example occurred in the Injustice comics. Black Canary fought against that reality's evil version of Superman by hitting him with a blast of high-frequency sound. A normal human wouldn't have even heard anything, but to Clark and his heightened senses it was excruciatingly painful and he was temporarily crippled as his eardrums burst.

In this post: 
Superman
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

I was just a mild-mannered NCTJ accredited journalist until one day I found out the truth... that I could share my nerdy ramblings with people on the internet! It's just like mumbling to myself on the train, but without all the strange looks.