Was there ever a plausible explanation for Superman's vision powers

[Randy Jackson]

Over the years as Superman's mythos has expanded, we've been given relatively plausible explanations for his superhuman abilities(I'm not going to say it makes scientific sense for a difference in solar radiation to enhance his physical abilities but I'm willing to accept that explanation). However, he has a handful of abilities, mostly related to his vision powers, that don't make quite as much sense.

As his senses are all enhanced over a normal human's, I'm willing to accept (to a certain degree) his telescopic and microscopic vision powers. But what's the explanation for him being able to look through solid, opaque objects or fire laser beams ftom his eyes? Even with enhanced senses that stretches the credibility of what he should be able to do.

Yes, I'm well aware I'm talking about a fictional character that's had stories written about him by hundreds of different people olin the past, many of whom did not have a Mort Weisinger looming over their shoulders to make silure the continuity lined up. Still, this is just something I'm curious about. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"For some reason, this is what bugs me. How the Hell could lead be immune to heat?"

You may as well ask why Cyclops' optic blasts are shielded by ruby quartz. 

[Don Mankowski]

The densest elements (grams per cubic centimeter for solids):

22.6 -- Osmium
22.4 -- Iridium
21.45 -- Platinum
21.04 -- Rhenium
20.2 -- Neptunium
19.84 -- Americium
19.35 -- Tungsten
19.32 -- Gold
19 -- Uranium
16.65 -- Tantalum
15.4 -- Thorium
15.1 -- Californium
14.78 -- Berkelium
13.67 -- Plutonium
13.55 -- Mercury
13.5 -- Curium
13.31 -- Hafnium
12.41 -- Rhodium
12.37 -- Ruthenium
12.02 -- Palladium
11.85 -- Thallium
11.72 -- Protactinium
11.5 -- Technetium
11.35 -- Lead

Lead ranks 25th

My source did not include Kryptonite.

[Don Mankowski]

Once we've explained everything else, let's hear how SUPERMAN PROJECTS HIS TELESCOPIC VISION ACROSS THE TIME BARRIER ...

[Superman #127, 1959]

And, why he doesn't do that more often? It would seem more convenient that flying back through time just to witness something.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"The densest elements..."

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."

--Harlan Ellison

[Fraser Sherman]

I think Mort's explanation was that it was really super-imagination, though I don't know if that excuse holds up for all examples.

Don Mankowski said:

Once we've explained everything else, let's hear how SUPERMAN PROJECTS HIS TELESCOPIC VISION ACROSS THE TIME BARRIER ...

[Superman #127, 1959]

And, why he doesn't do that more often? It would seem more convenient that flying back through time just to witness something.

[Don Mankowski]

As we get older, we lose some of the ability to focus our eyes far and near, because the little muscles that squeeze and re-shape the lens get weaker. Presumably, someone with "super strength" (and very resilient lenses) can do better, but surely there's a limit. A good microscope or telescope requires a second lens at least.

[Richard Willis]

Randy Jackson said:

Yes, I remember well Superman using "the heat of my x-ray vision" from late Golden Age/Silver Age stories I read as a kid. Unfortunately, that doesn't explain how the xgray vision was supposed to work. 

I remember "the heat of my x-ray vision" popping up fairly early in my Superman and Action Comics reading. I also remember being surprised by this new ability. I'm pretty sure that the earliest I bought any Superman and Action Comics was 1958. Prior to that I bought only funny animal comics.

This is a job for Commander Benson! Only he can ferret out when his x-ray vision was first used to heat something.

P.S: Somewhere along the line his super-breath was modified to be able to freeze things.

[Richard Willis]

The Baron said:

For some reason, this is what bugs me.  How the Hell could lead be immune to heat?

I guess the "except lead" part of the statement is because DC decided to relate the heat vision to x-ray vision.

Obviously, lead isn't immune to heat because we melt it every day. Logically, if density is why he can't see through lead, the other metals in Don's list would also block hit x-ray vision. Radiation is also blocked by concrete, so he shouldn't be able to see through gold, platinum or concrete in addition to the several other metals. He sees through concrete in many stories.

The only way to rationalize it is that his "x-ray vision" isn't x-rays at all, but something unknown.

[Richard Willis]

I just had another thought. 

The yellow sun is enhancing natural abilities. Kal-El is not an Earthman!

Maybe Kryptonians on their own world had some vestigial abilities different from Earthmen. They could have been left over from prehistoric times and completely atrophied. The cavemen of Krypton may have been able to see through some things and heat some things by looking at them. The yellow sun would enhance these atrophied abilities the same way as his strength. Flying? Maybe a telekinetic ability from ancient times. (I guess reading all of those Weisinger letter pages warped my mind.)

[Don Mankowski]

I remember that in the comics I read as a little kid (circa 1960), Superman used to use "the heat of my x-ray vision" to burn or to melt things all the time. Somewhere along the way the writers were somehow convinced that x-rays did no such thing, and switched the attribution, briefly to "infra-red vision," and finally to simply "heat vision." I recall some of the reprinted stories in annuals with "HEAT" clumsily lettered over "X-RAY."

Back then, there were campaigns for kids to insist on chest x-rays during doctor appointments, and I'm wondering if the media weren't encouraged to stress the beneficent use of x-rays, and perhaps this caused the comic book writers to scrap the destructive implication. It wouldn't help to have the comic-reading public afraid of x-rays, now would it?

(I do remember a shoe store in my neighborhood that had an x-ray machine on the premises. Apparently, you were supposed to step on it, stick your feet in the slot, and look in the viewport to check out the bones, all to help you select good-fitting shoes! However, said machine was out of service, and however cool it sounded to a kid, they wouldn't let us try it out. Eventually, it was gone. I suspect that they had just learned that too much of this wasn't a good thing either.)

[Don Mankowski]

Richard Willis said:

...

The only way to rationalize it is that his "x-ray vision" isn't x-rays at all, but something unknown.

In fact, Roentgen (the 1895 discoverer) used "x" in the expression x-rays to indicate "unknown"!

[Fraser Sherman]

IIRC in the 1970s Martin Pasko had Superman's heat vision melting lead, a logical outcome from it not being x-rays.

Richard Willis said:

The Baron said:

For some reason, this is what bugs me.  How the Hell could lead be immune to heat?

I guess the "except lead" part of the statement is because DC decided to relate the heat vision to x-ray vision.

Obviously, lead isn't immune to heat because we melt it every day. Logically, if density is why he can't see through lead, the other metals in Don's list would also block hit x-ray vision. Radiation is also blocked by concrete, so he shouldn't be able to see through gold, platinum or concrete in addition to the several other metals. He sees through concrete in many stories.

The only way to rationalize it is that his "x-ray vision" isn't x-rays at all, but something unknown.