So, what happens if Superman receives fifteen thousand years of radiation from the sun’s core? Well, he gets more powerful than almost every other superhero in the DC universe.
His origin story was told in the DC film All-Star Superman and expanded upon in the 1998 limited comic DC One Million. We meet Superman One Million in these two sources, who possessed powers comparable to, if not greater than, those of gods. This guy was capable of deeds unknown to man, and he possessed so many powers that even the designers were unable to list them all.
When Superman One Million became bored of outliving his loved ones, he embarked on an unending adventure into the depths of the cosmos in order to study its mysteries and achieve greater skills. In this video, we will look at Superman One Million’s origins and path to becoming the living manifestation of pure energy that he is now. Let us get this party started, shall we?
Superman One Million Origin
Dr. Leo Quintum was trying to explore the sun for one of his revolutionary projects, but everything went south when the crew finds amongst them a genetically enhanced booby trap. The monster would have exploded on board, killing everyone. But, Superman came to the rescue and took the creature out of the spacecraft and into the very sun that powered Superman.
The close vicinity to the sun led to an overdose in his cells, which increased his powers and intellect manifold. But this was an overdose nonetheless and led to his cells bursting up from the inside, which was the beginning of Superman’s end. It turns out that Lex Luthor was behind this elaborate conspiracy to kill Superman, and he was subsequently sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. Knowing that his end was near, Superman wished to spend the rest of his days with Lois Lane, and revealed his identity to her.
However, she had failed to prove that Clark Kent and Superman were the same people, and she was doubtful even now; her paranoia only increased after getting subjected to alien chemicals in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. It turns out that Superman had become supremely intelligent and intellectual, not only did the exposure to the sun increase his physical capabilities, but also his mental capacities.
His Fortress had numerous loyal robots who served him and only him. Furthermore, he had several alien artifacts and weapons so dangerous that they could even hurt him; for instance, the gravity gun could increase a person’s gravity up to at least five hundred times, making it impossible for them to fly. Lois was flabbergasted at these artifacts, but her paranoia led her to believe that he wanted to make her the mother of a new race of superhumans who would rule the Earth.
However, she soon overcomes it, and Superman presents her with a superpower serum, that could give its user Superman’s very abilities for twenty-four hours. After taking the serum, the two of them went on various adventures like fighting the subterranean race of dinosaur humans called Subterranosauri, facing the uber-powerful Ultra-Sphynx, and taking a trip through Atlantis. In reality, the serum was made by copying Superman’s genetic code to the last detail.
Later, Superman visits Lex Luthor for an exclusive interview in his Clark Kent disguise, but Superman’s heightened energy leads the power-hungry alien called Parasite to go berserk and break its cell. Superman struggles to not reveal his identity and successfully defeats Parasite.
Lex leads him through a backdoor and into a tunnel, where his niece Nashthalthia was waiting. He reveals to Clark the respect he had for the latter and lets him leave with the young girl. Sometime later, Clark reveals his morose secret to Lois and leaves with the bottled and shrunk city of Kandor, so that he can find a new planet for the denizens of Kandor to settle.
He tells her that his condition might stop him from making a trip back, but she promises to wait for him no matter what. Superman left Earth, only to return two months later in a worsened physical state. But what was still worse was that Metropolis had been converted into a makeshift Kryptonian city by Bar-El and Lilo, two spacefaring Kryptonians. They didn’t have altruistic goals or the benefit of humanity in their minds and displayed the cold, brutal nature of Kryptonians like General Zod.
However, while fighting Superman, they displayed signs of weakness because they had come across Kryptonite rubble on their way to Earth. Superman then places them in the Phantom Zone, until a cure could be found. The day of Luthor’s execution had arrived, but he managed to evade it by obtaining the superhuman serum with the help of Robot #7, whom Lex had corrupted.
Meanwhile, the sun had turned red because of an ultra-powerful entity called Solaris, which was a living star and computer. To ensure that his powers are not affected by the red sunlight, Superman wore a protective suit and left with his legion of robots to fight Solaris.
Although other robots vaporized because of Solaris’s heat, Robot #7 sacrificed itself to injure the living star. He did so in order to redeem himself for betraying his master, Superman. It turns out that Lex had partnered with Solaris to defeat Superman. When all seemed to be lost, Superman defeated Solaris after Superman’s pet Sun-Eater weakened the monstrous living star.
Superman had defeated one of his enemies, and returned to the Daily Planet headquarters, only to collapse and fall, but not before, delivering his final article, titled Superman Dead. His heart had stopped, and he had stopped breathing, but just about the Lex Luthor arrived at the Daily Planet and attacked Lois Lane. It was probably the power of love that revived Superman, who shot Lex with the gravity gun, raising his personal gravity five hundred times.
The effect of the gravity gun had warped time around Lex Luthor, and his time had accelerated. However, in his final moments as a superhero, he realized the intricate interconnection between subatomic particles and believed that he could change the world for the better, but he conceded to admit that Superman was right all along.
In the end, Superman’s body was turning into pure energy, and the sun had started to turn blue because of the effect Solaris left on it. Superman bids final goodbye to Lois and flies towards the sun, presumably sacrificing himself to turn it back to yellow. Lois remains on Earth, still waiting for Superman and believing with her heart and soul that Superman was up there fixing the sun, and would return one day.
So that’s how Superman reached the center of the sun, according to the DC film. However, Superman One Million’s comic origins are a tad bit different than that. According to the comics, Clark Kent’s superpowers and immortality led him to outlive everyone he ever loved, including his parents and Lois Lane. These losses began to take over him, which then led to Superman becoming slower, if not weaker.
By the end of the 21st century, Superman created a dynasty after his name and left his responsibilities at the hand of Superman Secundus, before leaving Earth for an indefinite journey into the depths of the universe. Superman returned to Earth at the turn of the 700th century, and by now, he had become an almost omnipotent being, having acquired several powers and learned several secrets about the universe.
After his return, he formed a covenant with the members of the Superman Dynasty and gave each of them a fraction of his newfound powers, so that they could serve humanity better. After this, he left Earth to reside in his Fortress of solitude, which was now the center of the Super Sun of the 700th century. Interestingly enough, the fourth issue of the comics titled DC One Million takes place in the 853rd century, or 15000 years after Superman started living inside the nuclear hot Fortress.
In the comics, the original Justice League from the 21st century and the Justice Legion of the 853rd century were fighting the combined force of Vandal Savage and Solaris. Vandal Savage had discovered a chunk of Kryptonite on Mars, which he gave to Solaris to fight Superman. Solaris destroys several thousands of Justice Leaguers from various timelines and shot the Kryptonite chunk into the Super Sun to kill Superman Prime. However, the Huntress, in the 20th century, had replaced the Kryptonite with a Green Lantern Ring.
So, Superman Prime had received the ring and emerged from the sun as the golden superhero named Superman One Million. He had absorbed the power of the sun for thousands of years and ended the menace of Solaris once and for all, a piece of cake for him. Later, Superman One Million and the future Hourman recreate Lois Lane with the help of a DNA sample. She emerges as a silver superhero. Furthermore, he also recreates the lost planet of Krypton in our solar system and lives with them forever.
What Makes Superman One Million A God?
So, Superman is already beyond overpowered and possessed several god-like qualities, right? I mean, the dude can fly, knock down skyscrapers, and has heat vision, and icy breath. He can look through opaque objects and at microscopic particles, down to the last electron. So, what more could he do? Well, the creators of DC seem to have outdone themselves and made him more powerful than probably any other superhero in the DC as well as the Marvel universe.
As we already know, Superman One Million came into existence after living inside the sun’s core for almost 15000 years. The sun’s core is like 27 million degrees Fahrenheit or 15 million degrees Celsius; that’s a temperature the human mind can not even imagine. So, the first question that comes to our mind after hearing about this magnificent feat is, what happened to him after living in the sun’s core for 15000 years? Well, the first superpower he gained was stellar energy absorption.
So, as some of you may already know, his Kryptonian physiology renders his cells to function as small batteries, absorbing power from Earth’s yellow sun. This energy fuels and enables him to perform unimaginable feats. So, fifteen thousand years of absorption of the sun’s radiations led turned him into a supercharged battery of billions of supercharged cells. This further allowed him to gain other abilities such as radiation manipulation and unleashing bursts of pure solar and other forms of energy. His residence in the sun pushed his limits to unknown levels and gave him a golden outlook, which reflects the amount of power he holds within himself.
Furthermore, he could warp reality as we know it and even lead to reincarnation and birth of not just individuals but entire planets. As we saw earlier, Superman One Million was able to bring back Lois Lane from a DNA sample, and it was not like this new being resembled Lois physically. The new Lois had the soul of the old Lois, which is really a feat only a God can achieve.
Also, he resurrected the entire planet of Krypton, along with its denizens, and placed it within Earth’s solar system. It’s like he said, ‘Let there be Krypton,’ and there was Krypton. You know how we say God created man in his own image! Well, Superman One Million did lead his own band of Supermen, and in the end, he gave all of the tiny pieces of his newly formed superpowers. However, this fraction of his superpowers was huge enough to enhance the powers of the other Supermen.
But that’s not it, it seems that Superman One Million could travel at a speed that was way faster than light, and many scientists have taught us that attaining the speed of light changes mass into pure energy and vice versa. So, was Superman Prime an embodiment of pure energy? Furthermore, this guy had more gravitational pull than the largest of black holes. To give you perspective, black holes have such a huge gravitational pull that even light doesn’t escape them. They’re the least understood celestial object because not even radiation leaves their depths.
So, that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is Superman One Million’s superpowers. This god-like version of the original Superman is the ultimate superhero one can imagine, and naturally, he comes without any weaknesses. Or at least, none of his weaknesses have come to the fore. Let us know what you thought about Superman One Million. DO you think there’s any other superhero across the Marvel and DC Universe who comes even close to Superman One Million?