Since his inception as simply a super-strong guy, Superman has evolved with the times and into what we need him to be to maintain his "first-among-equals" status. His greatest threat actually came in the '40s and '50s from Captain Marvel, then a Fawcett character, who, at the time, actually had more powers and abilities than Superman. DC Comics had Superman evolve and the character became "more powerful" than Captain Marvel (and DC Comics sued Fawcett, eventually buying them out and adding its characters to DC's lineup).
To today's jaded market, which has numerous titles, movies, TV shows, and cartoons of a multitude of comics properties to choose from, Superman and his 1950's style of ethics and mores seems outdated. His plethora of powers and their limitless strength hurt our modern sensibilities. It is easy to find on blogs, in chat groups, and in comic book shops, today's audiences arguing that Superman is "too powerful" and that very few threats are legitimate. When you add that he is typically a member of the Justice League, which boasts others in his power level, it makes it increasingly hard for today's audiences to find value and good, sustaining conflict in a Superman story.
Superman needs to remain the first and, arguably, the "best" superhero. However, he needs to have his powers more carefully explained and his power list modified to help add more conflict and 'vulnerability' back into his stories. Once this proliferates through other media (most notably into cartoons, TV shows, and, especially, into movies), the character's appeal will increase.
First and foremost, Superman is the physically strongest character in DC Comic's pantheon of heroes. This should not change. However, it should be better defined. He has, in various incarnations, been able to move planets easily around. He has been able to "supe" himself up to even greater feats of strength by flying into the sun for a supercharge of energy. As a character and as part of his mythology, Superman needs to perform vast, impossible feats of strength. However, hard caps should placed on, at his utmost limits, his ability to shift planetary-sized objects. He could maybe shift the moon and even the Earth slightly, but that would exhaust him utterly and would take days or even weeks to recharge his abilities after doing. His typical, "daily" usage should be in the lifting a luxury cruise liner or tanker ship out of the water scale.
Secondly, Superman is referred to as "invulnerable." This should be subtly but firmly changed to a phrase like "is resistant to high amounts of damage." Invulnerable means that you cannot be harmed and are proof against (any) attack. An invulnerable character is a boring character, as there is nothing that can defeat him. However, a person who is resistant to damage has a finite amount of resistance. Superman's may be incredibly high (and should be the highest of any DC Comics hero), but it needs limits. This allows him to have battles with someone who can overcome those limits and damage him. It will need to be defined carefully, though, so that writers in one story don't limit it one way and the writers in the next story go well past that same level.
Lightning bolts should knock him about, singe him, and harm him, but one strike would not kill him outright. It would take multiple lightning attacks to kill Superman, but it could be done. Small-yield nuclear blasts should be survivable but damaging, possibly giving him concussions, a bloody nose, ears, and/or eyes, headaches, even some of the same signs as a person who survives fallout would face, at least until he can recharge via the sun's light. High-yield, multi-ton bombs should be close-calls, with the largest weaponry hinted at possibly killing him, if not outright being able to. People in his own "weight class" of damage resistance and strength (Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Darkseid, Doomsday, et al) should be able to bruise and batter him at about the same level as two heavyweight contenders duking it out in a championship match. Broken bones, bruising, concussions, and, if the threat is great enough, death should be achievable.
Third, Superman flies and has super speed. This should not change. However, how fast and how far he can fly or run has varied greatly through the years. He has been known to fly fast enough to reach other planets and star systems, to be fast enough (flying or running) to breach the time barrier, and to be able to match the Flash when that character is running full speed. Superman is the generalist; he has powers and abilities that dip into a variety of areas; however, that does not mean he should be the best at each one of them. Characters who focus on flight and speed should be better at either than Superman, but what makes Superman the best is that he can do those feats AND a host of others. He's the Swiss Army Tool of superheroes; he may not be the best at any one thing, but he is very, very good at a lot of things. Now, audiences want and expect Superman to be "faster than a speeding bullet" so that is what he should be. Let the characters like the Flash be able to beat him in pure speed related feats regularly, if not easily.
What if Superman were able to fly and move at the equivalent of about Mach 5? That is hypersonic, and as fast as the fastest planes on the planet now travel. Within the confines of human perception, it would still allow Superman to perform feats like moving without the human brain comprehending he has moved, catching bullets, and he could still move fast enough to overtake nearly any speeding disaster (falling rocks, planes falling, lava flows, hurricanes, etc.). However, it also allows human beings to build things that go faster than he does, keeping them relevant (so, for example, the two rockets death trap at the end of the 1978 Superman movie would work-- he is fast enough to catch one, but not fast enough to necessarily catch up to the second one in time to save the explosion).
Fourth, Superman has a lot of extraneous powers that need to be looked at hard and determined if they are "core" concepts, can be worked into the mix based on his power source and background, or if they should be done away with.
- Heat vision. This is a staple power and ties in with his power source, so this should stay. However, the power has varied greatly and needs to be defined; can he really scorch the atmosphere and destroy all life on the Earth? Or is it more of a confined beam of heat in the 3,000 to 4,000 celsius range (enough to melt most metals, and many other objects, but not so powerful as to destroy the planet).
- X-ray vision. This is now a core concept. It is easily tied into his power source, so worth keeping. Plus, audiences expect this power.
- Micro/Macro vision. Not needed. Not easily tied into power source. Rarely used. Delete from power list.
- Super breath. Does Superman really need the ability to breathe frosty cold breath or hurricane-strength winds? He has other powers and abilities that he can use to achieve similar results. Delete.
- Super hearing. Does Superman really need the ability to hear people on the other side of the planet or into the hypersonic and subsonic ranges? This is, however, considered something of a core power by many fans. Consider deleting or at least toning down so that he is not listening to things from across the planet or from outer space.
- Eidetic memory and Super intelligence. Totally not needed for the character. While he can be a smart guy, there is no need to have him be a super genius with total recall. Deleting this "power" also allows for the smart people of the world to have a chance of defeating him using their intelligence. It adds conflict.
- Miscellaneous. Super ventriloquism, Super hypnosis, et al. Gone. No explanations needed-- it is just bad story writing. Superman already has the lotto winner's list of superpowers, there is no need to create new ones whenever the writer writes himself into a corner.
- Strictly his Kryptonian heritage (meaning that all Kryptonians have those abilities at roughly equivalent levels)
- A combination of his heritage and the the Earth's atmosphere and gravity in relation to Krypton's atmosphere and gravity (meaning that Kryptonians were not the least bit powerful on their own planet, but would be on Earth)
- The Sun and Earth's gravity in combination (Krypton the planet had nothing to do with it)
- The specific radiation of Earth's yellow Sun.
This is a tough one, but it seems like using his Kryptonian heritage and a sun's radiation allows for the best definition and explanation for his powers: His Kryptonian heritage provides him with a body that acts like a solar cell, constantly absorbing and powering his many incredible powers. Like a battery, if deprived of its power source, it slowly loses its charge. If the 'engine' uses a large amount of the stored energy quickly, it shuts down some or all of its functions and the solar cells must recharge before it can function again.
To take the solar cell concept further, Superman's body should react in a consistent manner to all solar radiation. A red sun, for example, should not totally depower him; instead, he gets a much weaker amount of radiation to work with and his solar cells recharge more slowly. Once he works through his stored yellow sunlight resources, his power levels are about half of what they are with a yellow sun. This also explains why the Kryptonians didn't conquer the universe and why they weren't conquered either (they were still a strong and hearty race, but not enough so to become conquerors). If Superman is placed in a situation with younger, more energized solar radiation, say a white or blue star, then his solar cells recharge much faster, allowing him to run his engine longer without losing, or be refilling the tank, his reserves. This stronger radiation could also be a source of weakness for Superman; like putting alcohol into a standard engine, he could burn out and do some serious harm to his body if he uses it too much (which explains why he doesn't just move to a solar system with a younger sun).
Lastly, Superman's vulnerabilities need to be carefully considered, toned up or down as needed, and clearly defined. Kryptonite and magic are especially troublesome right now, and cause for a great deal of fan speculation. Kryptonite needs to have its effects, radius of effect, and terms of use clearly defined. Like how nuclear radiation affects human beings, Kryptonite should affect Superman from a distance depending on the source of radiation; a tiny piece of Kryptonite should have to be placed right on his skin or ingested in order to affect him, while a baseball-sized rock of it would affect him from, say, fifteen feet away. Also like nuclear radiation to human beings, it should be a slow but steady effect. He feels sick and nauseated almost immediately, as the radiation from the rock interferes with his body's ability to process and use solar radiation. As that radiation continues to impede his body's natural systems, his powers ebb; the most energy intensive powers first (like his vision powers), then the quick-burst energy powers next (flight, speed), and then his invulnerability and strength drain away last. All of this should take a prolonged period of time depending on the strength of the Kryptonite radiation. A large amount in close proximity will disable him very quickly and kill him in a matter of hours. A small amount or a larger distance reduces the speed with which it poisons Superman's systems.
Magic and its effects should be a directly related to his ability to resist damage. If you are using magic to physically attack him, slightly lower amounts of damage will bypass his resistance sooner than non-magical versions of the same sort of attack. For example, a natural lightning bolt will hurt him, singe him, and knock him about. A magical lightning bolt will burn him, bruise him, and knock him out of the sky. If Superman is hit enough times, either lightning will kill him, but a magical one will do so faster/sooner. Under normal circumstances, a non-magical sword blade would do no damage when striking his skin, unless wielded by someone in his heroic "weight-class." Even then, the effects would be lessened. If the blade is magical, however, it should act like a normal blade does to a normal human being; cutting him, possibly able to sever limbs, and even able to kill him.
Once Superman's damage resistance, Kryptonite exposure, and magic allergy is clearly defined, all vulnerabilities come into line pretty quickly with only a limited amount of work. Actually, everything starts to flow much more smoothly once his power source, upper ability limits, and extraneous bits are defined and/or thrown out.
What is left is a character who is still "first among equals," and very powerful, but who has clearly defined limits and levels. This allows the writers to find those limits, use them to tell compelling stories, and reintroduce conflict into a character who has not had it in some time. It allows for a smart human being (ala Lex Luthor from the cartoons, TV show, and movies) to actually create situations where Superman is in jeopardy. It allows DC Comics to reevaluate their stable of heroes and villains and make decisions on who is above, below, or equal to Superman in relation to his powers and abilities. This can even be taken cross-company to Marvel for those times when the companies do crossover events. Superman, in the above example, would start vastly superior to The Hulk in strength, and probably on par with Thor. Given time, the Hulk's ability to get stronger as he gets angrier might eclipse those levels.
The Superman debate is good; it allows fanboys and others to argue over their favorite characters. However, any argument involving Superman has to start with something like, "Okay, which Superman are we talking about? The one from the Golden, Silver, Bronze, or Modern age? Which powers are we allowing?" This is indicative of a problem with the character and a lack of definition. Providing definition to this character, contrary to most creator's initial belief, actually allows for MORE flexibility with the character, greater levels of conflict, and, ultimately, more compelling and interesting stories to be told.
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