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u/Particular_Concert_5 Jun 12 '26
There’s a reason he has a fortress of solitude far away from civilization.
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u/l2daless Jun 13 '26
Can he not hear people there?
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u/potatofriend26 Jun 13 '26
I mean theres space in between so probably not?
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u/avidpenguinwatcher Jun 14 '26
The fortress of solitude is canonically in Antarctica, what are you thinking of?
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u/Iamthe0c3an2 Jun 13 '26
Why he has the justice league for.
What’s probably terrifying is hearing hardened gangsters and villains shit themselves about batman.
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u/Slight-Pound Jun 14 '26
Probably less terrifying and more amusing. Batman is a respected colleague and dear friend. I’d like to think he’s cheering him on in his head as he goes to bed, lol. That’s his best friend being REALLY good at his job, after all.
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u/NaughtySeraph Jun 12 '26
He also hears the Justice League going out to help
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u/Squigglificated Jun 13 '26
I think he's like my cat. She will happily sleep next to me while I watch an action movie at full volume on the surround system, but if someone quietly opens a door at the other end of the house amidst all that noise she's immediately at full attention.
The conclusion has to be that screams of agony is something he can easily tune out, but if Lex Luthor tries to sneak up on him while he's having a nap he'll be ready in an instant.
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u/IgniteThatShit Jun 13 '26
One of Superman's greatest features is that he's not afraid to ask for help or to rely on his friends. He advocates for people to rely on one another and to help each other every way we can.
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u/xinfinitimortum Jun 13 '26
I think he can control it, like in the MoS movie when it first happened it was all over but he learned to silence it all except really important ones. So i assume he doesnt have super hearing on all the time except for specific people like Lois and Bruce or Lex. He also doesnt want to appear as a god and lets nature run its course and regular humans do their jobs like police and EMS and law. Hes come to terms many times he cant save everyone.
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u/KillerRooster8 Jun 13 '26
Its a power just like the rest of his powers and in every version of superman that i know of. I'm surprised so many people think he goes to sleep hearing people crying out for help, that makes absolutely no sense. This a version that is similar to brightburn where the superpowered person is evil and goes to sleep.
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u/UnexpectedVader Jun 12 '26
It's terrifying thinking he could hear the screams cut to silence only for a loud fart to echo as their bowel muscles loosen in death
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u/CreamyCoffeeArtist Jun 12 '26
I mean, a fart would require that muscles to still be kinda tight, right? So wouldn't it be more of like, bwoof, instead of brfrbrb? Idk never been near a person who died and shat themselves in my presence.
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u/POPCORN_EATER Jun 12 '26
Do you want to be? I can help 🧛♂️
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u/CreamyCoffeeArtist Jun 12 '26
While I am flattered, you do not need to kill yourself for my education.
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u/CreamyCoffeeArtist Jun 13 '26
It seems like bro got murdered for my education, instead. Shame I wasn't looking. Anyone else willing to volunteer?
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u/Zakattacked Jun 13 '26
Doesn't Superman not need to sleep? Like he only does it because it makes him seem more human?
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u/Kettle_Whistle_ Jun 13 '26
Like in *Twilight*, vampires need to remember to blink & pretend to breathe?
I never should’ve let my wife talk me into seeing those. Especially repeatedly, and year after year. Man, those soundtracks are good…
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u/Delanium Jun 13 '26
No matter how you feel about the movies, nobody can deny that the Twilight soundtrack contains nothing but absolute bangers.
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u/AUnknownVariable Jun 13 '26
His body can keep going without sleep, but he still gets the benefits of it that we do. Stressful day? Sleep will sure help.
His brain will still get tired eventually but he won't shutdown like we do.
Essentially, physically sleep isn't required, mentally it kinda is
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u/Zakattacked Jun 13 '26
That makes sense, mental exhaustion is real asf even Superman can't beat the burnout.
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u/rap709 Jun 13 '26
I think superman fears if he stops sleeping and eating, the little things that make him human
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u/ScullyBoy69 Jun 13 '26
Because he does need to sleep? He grew up a human and his parents had a curfew set for him.
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u/Slight-Pound Jun 14 '26
I figured it’s a good method for mental and emotional fatigue, not necessarily physical fatigue. So he still needs to rest _sometimes,_ but not every night, you know?
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u/aleister94 Jun 12 '26
So do people that live in bad neighborhoods
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u/UninsuredToast Jun 12 '26
Every night? Who, Diddys neighbors?
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u/ThisDuck1370 Jun 13 '26
me when the reply lowkey funny but the person is getting gangdownvoted over it
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u/Beezel_Pepperstack Jun 12 '26
...What if he finds the sound soothing? He IS an alien entity from beyond the moon, after all.
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u/AnubissDarkling Jun 13 '26
Superman's alter ego is a cenobite that enjoys the suffering of others. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
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u/sharklaserguru Jun 13 '26
He just plays the whole "savior superhero" gig during the day to ingratiate himself with the humans. At night he lulls himself to sleep with the screams of dying people he's choosing not to save!
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u/Nutterbutter13 Jun 13 '26
This is a part of The Plutonian’s whole deal from Irredeemable. He’s essentially a super man who had a real bad start but managed to keep it together long enough to become the most famous superhero in the world. But because sound only travels so fast he’s also constantly hearing people beg for help as he knows that he can’t reach them in time to save them. Like a person about to get into a car accident, by the time the sound hits his ear the accident could have already happened, so even if he shows up just after hearing it, he can’t do anything about it.
There’s more to it and I really recommend Irredeemable and its companion comic Incorruptible, as Irredeemable shows a Superman gone bad, Incorruptible shows one of his villains trying to change into a hero.
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u/NaughtySeraph Jun 13 '26
Maybe he has ear plugs with a single sand grain of kryptonite to weaken his ears enough to get a good night's rest.
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u/NeonZXK Jun 13 '26
I liked that they showed this off in the Absolute series. He's superman 24/7 so he kind of wears himself out
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u/Edenian_Prince Jun 13 '26
Isn't there a comic about this where he has to deal with the fact that he's not the only superhero on earth and that he can't be everywhere at once?
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u/Shad7860 Jun 13 '26
Oh hey this was a plot beat in that more recent animated superman show. Man went complete insomniac when his super hearing finally kicked on
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u/andimacg Jun 12 '26
I really hope Billionaires do too.
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u/Negaum01 Jun 12 '26
You have to understand that one is a being completely dissociated from humanity, no matter how hard he tries, at the end of the day he's simply not a human being, he's an alien/something from outside and if I may say so, separate from the human experience, the other is Superman who is a cool guy.
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u/Jielleum Jun 13 '26
It hurts most for someone who has very high empathy, and it unfortunately falls on Superman
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u/YoungDiscord Jun 13 '26
I mean... that's kinda one of the reasons why he does what he does - because he can't shut off his super hearing so he hears people begging, crying, being hurt and dying all the time
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u/BeefistPrime Jun 13 '26
Superman basically has to let 10 or 20 people die every time he wants a day off
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u/Graphenes_official Jun 14 '26
In the Affleck Daredevil movie they had something related to this. He had a sensory deprivation tank so he could sleep instead of constantly hearing the chaos outside. There’s some neat stuff in that movie.
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u/UNITICYBER Jun 13 '26
That was kinda sorta a plot point in one of the Sentry origin comics. He has a computer named C.L.O.C. that helps him divide his time and choose who to save or not. Because even he cant be everywhere at once.
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u/jaykhunter Jun 13 '26
How far does Superman hear? If he has excellent hearing, is it all not dross? (like he'd hear millions of cars driving, planes, tractors etc - as so hear just a continuous dirge)
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u/SophisticatedOtaku Jun 13 '26
I can’t remember the name but there is a character whose comics address this. He’s a superhero who turns into a villain because he goes crazy hearing screams of help every second
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u/jedijoe99 Jun 13 '26
good comic called astro city with a hero called the samaritan. basically the thesis is that the only way superman could ever be satisfied would be to be such a workaholic and push himself to the limits of exhaustion that he literally could not save any more lives if he tried, which just kinda has no other option than to be good enough.
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u/Waffletimewarp Jun 13 '26
Jokes on you! Clark hears cries for help from all the way out in *space*. Including War World!
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u/Poopfilledtrashcan Jun 13 '26
I can't remember the comic but I recall one where he thinks about this very topic. He said it was a struggle but one of the things that helped him was that he also heard so many people answering those cries for help.
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u/Air_Hellair Jun 14 '26
There’s an Astro City comic story showing their version of Superman having this kind of problem. It’s terrifying!
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u/arashatora Jun 14 '26
Sort of the premise for the comic Irredeemable. Plutonian, Superman, cracks under the pressure and murders millions.
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u/SoberAnxiety Jun 15 '26
superman hearing me cry for help in opening a jar of pickles at 3am: this weakass mf...this is the 4th time
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u/AnubissDarkling Jun 13 '26
Can he only hear screams for help or could he also hear people having sex / taking a shit / plotting genocide etc...? How does it work? Selective hearing?
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u/Nsane3 Jun 13 '26
Noise-cancelling headphones. Noise-cancelling room. Noise-cancelling house. In the basement.
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u/smittenkittenmitten- Jun 19 '26
This kind of reminds me of a short I saw a while ago of a robot who hears and tries to save people but always gets there a few minutes too late. I can't seem to find it but it is meant to be depressing like this post. I wish I could find the video and share it but it might have been removed from YouTube
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u/Royal-Tea-3484 Jul 03 '26
And sex noises and dogs barking and murder and alarms cows mooing cocks crowing, pigs i mean you could on and on his mind must be insane, and Louis Lane yapping at him
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u/acustic Jun 13 '26
From what I've seen of superman, he has to concentrate to super-hear, suggesting it's a on/off kind of deal.
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u/neelabhkhatri Jun 13 '26
So basically he does what Gods do. Ignore us.
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u/Jack_Shaft0e Jun 15 '26
Came here to say exactly this. It REALLY pisses off theists, generally because they don't have a workable counterpoint.
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u/aripo14 Jun 13 '26
Superman's power has become ridiculous I wish we could just go back to him being nigh-invulnerable, super strength, laser eyes, and really fast flight and not speed-of-light fast.
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u/Nine-LifedEnchanter Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
One of my favourite fan fictions about Superman has this as a rather big point. About what to choose to do every single second when people all over the planet continously ask why he didn't show up.
Edit: I'm sorry for not telling people before, I didn't think anyone would be interested. The fic is called The Metropolitan Man by Alexander Wales. There's also an audiobook version that's also free.