Last chance to guess the source of Superior Man’s powers and win 100 Kick Points! I won’t make any comments on correct or wrong answers this week in case someone pulls the answer out of left field.
Another extra half-page today. Just felt like an extra 3 frames of back-and-forth battling would help set the stage. At this point, the heroes are pretty much out of their league power-level-wise.
Next week: Revelation!
The source of Superior Man’s powers, and, in fact, the source of all hero and villain powers in this universe is…
The Artist Matt!
It’s true, i tell you! Matt is not merely reporting back on events from some parallel dimension into which he can peer; he is manufacturing the events, the characters, the setting, the weather, the hot babes, and everything else as well!
It’s a secret military-industrial facility which produces a unique energy source that is beamed across to him. It’s called… the Superiority Complex…
I’ll show myself out.
Guess uno: he’s an attention hussy. He absorbs spotlight
dos: he’s like a namek or plant. He absorbs light
tres: is it a car? Is it a plane? No, it’s kinetic absorbion flywheel man. He absorbs fight
quattro: he uses Kick Points to increase his superpower
Nah
Or he gets a superiorboost any time soeone says holy crap
I’m assuming that it’s already been called, i.e. like the Gods of the Discworld, his power is derived from people worshipping him.
I’ve guessed this before, but I’m thinking that Superior Man’s power is what people think his power is. Thus the branding of “I’m better at anything than anyone.” Thus in theory, once people stop thinking about what he can do, he’s no longer able to do it. Since he’s usually extremely public, with cameras on him all the time, there’s always people watching him and thinking about him. His aim was off when aiming for Kickman because they believed his senses would be affected the way they were. He could use his eye beams against Sticky Buns because once he found her, thats what everyone expected him to use. In this page, nobody really sees him, everyone is thinking about what’s happening with the fight rather than his abililties, and he’s getting overwhelmed because the only thing people are thinking about is how durable he is.
If this *is* the case, Psy-Hawker is actually his kryptonite, because he can actually make everyone involved think the correct thing to defeat him.
This probably isn’t it, and if it is then Matt has been really unimaginative. Like DC Supes, the power source is light. Unlike DC Supes, it is all light – not just sunlight – because Superior.
Oh, Rick Rude has already guessed that. If we’re right he gets the Kick Points then. 🙂
The source of his power is obviously the author. However I doubt that is the in-universe explanation or the answer you are looking for.
It seems possible that he absorbs light (or other forms of energy, including attacks) to fuel his powers, or that conflict, violence, respect or worship increases his power. Whatever the source of his power is, it seems likely for dramatic reasons that it must be something that is possible to cut off in order to defeat him, such as shutting him in a dark room and ignoring him.
His power obviously comes from JAGUAR BLOOD!
The source of it is opinion. It is either psionic in nature, or magical, doesn’t matter. Everyone who THINKS he is superior, adds to his fuel. His greatest source, is himself. It might even be ONLY his opinion of himself, but then he probably would have just gone on his rampage sooner.
I am gonna Guess his powers is based on how many people are watching him
It’s so bright I can’t even see what Superior Man’s power source is…..
Now we see how clever a writer Matt has been.
Is it getting hit/ generally attacked? It would explain why his powers increase over time as he continues to do heroics.
Assuming his power level is indeed a gazillion as the Supporting Cast page says, that would also explain why he fights them even though he could just crush them immediately.
In this one panel, we see him take multiple nut shots. He has historically been hurt by that and it can’t be too pleasant. Yet he continues to fight, even when he could throw them all off when he wants to. This might hint at him wishing to fight (at least until Generic Kung-fu Superhero Sidekick actually mentions something threatening).
No idea how this would be resolved if true though.
His eyes glow the same as the power beams hitting him and he seems to be getting stronger from those blows.
Superior Man collected the other seventeen power cards!
No wait! HE ABSORBS HATE! Dislike!!! He gets stronger the more he pisses people off!!
Them all you need is love: Love is all you need…
That’s why he bluffed the superior hearing. That’s why he actively incites everyone instead of being decent- he aggravates the people around him because he literally powers off their aggression!!! There are more heroes -> there are more people he’ll interact with -> he gets stronger. He’s an asshole because he’s literally powered by being an asshole!
I’m fairly certain you are correct.
Now that I think about it (and re-read previous strips), S-man has never behaved as anything other than a complete douchebag.
Even when there was no reason for it, he always had an insult or a passive/aggressive put-down ready…
I never thought he could *feed* off of it though.
He becomes superior to whoever has touched him last. i.e his power is being JUST superior to whoever his opponent is.
Nah, he has all sorts of powers all the time. He could fly after his duel with Kickman and prepare eye lasers against Sticky Buns, and none of the heroes involved can do that.