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If we were to take superman, and hide him from a yellow sun by any means (underground, too far, block the sun, perpetually staying in night regions), how long would it take for his powers to be lost?

I'm not looking for speculation, I am asking for comic or cartoon examples, hopefully with a given time frame. Considering the average day has between 8 to 16 hours of light, he can obviously recharge in at least that amount of time.

Of course, no red sun/lights/lamps involved, that's cheating.

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  • And hopefully something post crisis.
    – user16696
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 3:19
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    Does it need to be canon? Kingdom Come would imply that it would take longer based on his age (cumulative exposure to sunlight). He's effectively immune to Kryptonite by that time, so I would think a more aged Supes would take longer to drain his batteries.
    – user31178
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 6:27
  • @creation that is fairly good, should be added as an answer
    – user16696
    Commented Mar 22, 2015 at 0:13

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During the events of Final Night, when the sun's rays didn't reach the Earth, Superman was losing his powers by the fifth night. I'm still researching the exact timeline, but it looks like Superman spent a few days in that time in space, so he might have been regenerating energy there. Depending on the order of events, it looks to be somewhere between 24 hours and 120.

I have also found reference to a time when Superman was immediately losing his powers every time he changed into Clark Kent with the reveal being that an alien had treated his Kent clothing with something that blocks yellow sun radiation, suggesting an immediate change, but that sounds like a Silver Age-style story, so that may predate the period you're considering.

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  • A red sun is an entirely different situation than losing access to yellow sunlight. Final Night would be your better source material here.
    – user1027
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 4:31
  • @Keen: That makes sense. Wish I could find that alien suit story, though.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 4:34
  • @SeanDuggan - it'd be even better if you added the events of "Flash Point paradox" as well. The alternate timeline where Superman had been locked up underground for ages & hence had lost nearly all his powers.
    – Stark07
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 5:15
  • @ash_k29 considering he has flight and laser vision after minutes from being out of the red room (red sun light), its not the same
    – user16696
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 5:38
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    This makes me wonder... How long does it take Supes to fly to, say, Krypton's ruins? Does he take a slow path that puts him by a yellow sun every few days? Is that even possible at his max speed?
    – user31178
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 6:25

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