How did Superman get his powers?

Just out of curiosity. Spiderman got bitten by a spider, the Hulk had an accident involving radioactivity, what about Superman?How did Superman get his powers?It changes, depending on which version of Superman you refer to. In general though, it's because he was born on Krypton, and while it blew up, and he got sent to Earth as an infant, it was still enough of an influence to give him powers "above and beyond those of mortal men".



In current DCU continuity, Supes' powers are roughly 90% from the Earth's yellow sun. He absorbs the energy like a battery and uses it for his powers. Red solar radiation--like that of Krypton--acts like an off switch and cuts his powers off no matter how much energy he has. Orange solar radiation merely weakens him--makes it _harder_ to use the powers. Only about 10% of his powers come from Krypton being a higher-gravity world than Earth is. And under a Blue or White star higher up on the Main Sequence, yes, some of his non-physical powers (like Heat Vision) do get much stronger.



Things have been different previously.



With the Golden Age, 1930s Superman, the sun literally wasn't relevant--it was all about Krypton's being a high-gravity world, and _evolution_ gave these people powers beyond their strength and resilience.



With the John Byrne take on Superman (right after _Crisis on Infinite Earths_), it was _all_ about the sunlight, and there were stricter limits on the physical side of his abilities, especially Superman's invulnerability.



Most of the different versions of Superman have been _in between_ those two extremes: a blend of the high-gravity/evolution theory and the solar-metabolism theory, although newer versions of Supes do lean in the direction of the solar-metabolism theory.



I hope this was helpful, thanks for your time. ^_^How did Superman get his powers?
Thanks kindly for the Best Answer, I do appreciate it. Truth is, if you just look at the _in print_ comics featuring "mainstream Superman" there's at least five different versions of him. So I had to go into some detail to cover _most_ of them in a way that makes sense. (more)

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How did Superman get his powers?(continued) Of course there's some parts that don't make sense. There's no explaining the Silver Age silliness, like super-hypnotism, for example. And kryptonite itself changes into something else with each reboot. But the core of Superman himself is solidly in there, in simple science fiction.

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His powers are innate.



So long as he is on Earth or near a yellow sun, he has super powers. Under a red sun, like Krypton had, he is as powerless (relatively speaking) as any other man.



I am not sure, but IIRC, under a blue giant star, his powers are even greater.



http://superman.wikia.com/wiki/Blue_Star鈥?/a>How did Superman get his powers?http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?鈥?/a>

hope i helped :)How did Superman get his powers?
Superman is an alien from Krypton. when he came to earth his alien DNA absorbed our yellow stars radiation and thats how he got his powers!
Superman isn't from earth, he's from Krypton. His strength and skills am whatnot are enhanced by earths yellow sun.How did Superman get his powers?
Anyone from Krypton gets their superpowers from the Sun pretty much, just born like that.
He is an alien and he came from a Planet named Krypton
HE is from KRypton not friggin earth