General Superman discussion

[Carol the Dabbler]

Any and all Superman-related discussion is welcome here, but right now I have a specific question:

Is Superman immortal?  OK, he can apparently be killed by Kryptonite, but if he avoids that, would he live forever?

I got to wondering about this because of the intro in the George Reeves TV series, the voice-over that starts "Look!  Up in the sky!"  It says that Superman "came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal man."  Was the implication supposed to be that Superman is not mortal?  Or was the narrator merely comparing him in a general sort of way to run-of-the-mill Earth people?

 

[Caya]

I asked a comic-reading colleague and he said that to the best of his knowledge, Superman is unaging (he said there were some alternate timeline comics or such where he's quite old).

[Carol the Dabbler]

From what I've seen of Superman, he seems to be analogous to Tolkien's elves -- started out as a baby, and "aged" in the sense that he grew to maturity, but has not been observed to "age" in the sense of deteriorating.

On the other hand, maybe the comic books, tv shows, and movies simply choose to portray him in his prime?  Maybe because if he did start to age, he would gradually lose his superpowers?

6 hours ago, Caya said:

...there were some alternate timeline comics or such where he's quite old).

When you (or your friend) say "quite old," do you mean he looks old? or merely that he's lived a long time?

 

[Caya]

The latter - like the Tolkien elves you mentioned. Galadriel is pretty spry too for a thousands-of-years-old woman, after all.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Judging by Jackson's movies, Tolkien's elves not only don't look older as the years go by, some of them (e.g., Legolas and Elrond) actually look younger!