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So this answer mentions a material called "Supermanium", which is apparently the substance used to craft Superman's Supermobile aircraft.

a metal so strong that "only Superman's heat vision can soften the substance, and only his super-strength is mighty enough to mold it!" (Action Comics #481, DC Comics, March 1978, pg 13.)

Now, anyone with a half-decent high-school science education will tell you that in the real world, heat is just heat. There aren't different types of heat, and you can't really easily imagine a material that only yield to "certain types of heat". It might be extremely heat-resistant -- say up to thousands of degrees -- but if that were the case then you would superheat the surrounding atmosphere and that would be very bad. (I don't know, maybe that is the case, and Superman works the metal in space?)

So does that mean that in the DC Universe there is such a thing as a different type of heat (maybe "superheat") that can only be generated by Superman's heat vision and is not the same as just really really hot?

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  • Related: scifi.stackexchange.com/q/22729/4918 "How did Martha Kent modify the Kryptonian blanket that became Superman's costume?" (it's made of a super-strong thread only Superman's heat vision can cut); scifi.stackexchange.com/a/128594/4918 "How does Superman shave?" (depending on which canon, sometimes he has to use heat vision).
    – b_jonas
    Feb 14, 2017 at 16:39
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    Why the fork would Superman need a flying automobile?!!! Comics don't cease to surprise me.
    – Gallifreyan
    Feb 14, 2017 at 18:46
  • @Gallifreyan How else can he fly—or do anything else, for that matter—on those occasions when he loses his powers? The Supermobile (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermobile) is for those situations... and it's awesome.
    – Patrick Wynne
    Feb 14, 2017 at 19:38
  • @PatrickWynne according to wiki the Supermobile itself is powered by Superman. I guess that implies that when Supes loses his powers, so does the car. The Wiki says that the car protects Supes for red sun radiation, and that's it.
    – Gallifreyan
    Feb 14, 2017 at 19:41
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    @Gallifreyan He loses his powers (because of red sun exposure or some such), so he climbs aboard the Supermobile, which then shields him from whatever was causing the power loss. So he has his powers while he's inside it. That still means he needs it for the times when he loses his powers, it's just that he uses the Supermobile to circumvent the power loss in a limited manner. Losing his powers is a first step that ends with Supes wheeling out the Supermobile from the Fortress' garage.
    – Patrick Wynne
    Feb 14, 2017 at 22:44

1 Answer 1

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I think that Supermanium was forged out of the heart of a star by Superman himself. So it would seem that the temperature required to melt it would be at least the same temperature.

And I found this quote on Reddit:

"According to "The Might and the Power of a Punch" special feature available on iTunes, Vudu, or disc, when Superman destroys Batman's gun turrets, the narrator says, "The temperature of Superman's scorching heat vision can reach 10 thousand degrees Fahrenheit or fifty-five hundred degrees Celsius." Accompanied by "10,000° Fahrenheit" and "5,500° Celsius" appearing on screen."

So his heat vision is at least the temperature of the Sun's surface.

So it is not that his heat vision is superhot, it is just hotter that anything humans (and I guess the rest of the superheroes and villains) can do, thus making Superman the only person able to melt it.

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    Except that nuclear weapons are on the order of 1E8 kelvins. So humans would have no problem melting it.
    – Seeds
    Feb 14, 2017 at 18:30
  • I think that Supermen is so OP that writers made something that only he can cut.
    – Vanja Vasiljevic
    Feb 14, 2017 at 18:48
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    you said "...it is just hotter that anything humans (and I guess the rest of the superheroes and villains) can do, thus making Superman the only person able to melt it." I am pointing out that your statement is patently false. Welding equipment can get hotter than 10,000 degrees
    – Seeds
    Feb 14, 2017 at 21:44
  • @Seeds as i mentioned in a comment to the question, magical specific heat can neg 1E8 kelin
    – Andrey
    Nov 8, 2017 at 15:59

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