I mean I know one of his powers is heat vision (basically laser eyes) but how hot can his heat vision get? what's the highest temperature superman's heat vision has got to?

 

I assume infinite temperature because Superman is HAX.

I'm betting his chill breath can take anything down to absolute zero, too.

With his X-ray vision and super sight, I'm sure he could see anywhere in the universe, too.

 

First of all, Superman's heat vision isn't laser based: its microwave based (on the opposite spectrum of his x-ray vision). As such, you can't just give a straight forward answer as to high his heat vision's temperature becomes as microwave radiation doesn't operate that way. Basically, microwaves can heat up anything to most extremest of highest of temperatures depending on the size of the frequency they use. So essentially, Superman's heat vision does not have an upper limit to temperature so long as his solar power reserves aren't depleted.

Now, as for how high the temperatures can get to before his solar energy is depleted: I don't think that's ever been explored in the comics. But pretty gosh darn high.

Yeesh, all this physics talk about a comic book character.

 

so he can melt titanium pretty easily?

 

I think he's shown to have melted titanium pretty easily in the old issues of his comic  

 

Superman is literally as powerful as the author wants him to be. His abilities can range between superhuman to godlike to nigh-infinite, depending on what the story needs him to do.

His limitations are neither consistent nor based in logic. Superman's heat vision, for example, is weak enough to be reflected in a mirror without melting it, but strong enough to burn the hairs off his face, which can stand the heat of the sun, which is how he shaves.

 

Also strong enough to bore through his own skull, using the same method.

At least in the case of a Superman clone, as depicted in the Superman: Doomsday animated movie (not sure about the comics version of the story), when the clone Superman realized that he had a microchip implanted in his head, and gave himself a very precise lobotomy to get it out.

Also notable that he'll often heat up guns and turn them into puddles of molten sludge, while they're being held, in which the wielder will simply drop the decaying weapon in panic. And y'know, not drop screaming as his hand is instantly vaporized through contact with 1000+ degree molten metal, and at least his sleeves and maybe more ignited by the radiant heat.

 

Interestingly enough, molten metal sticks to flesh, and continues to burn tissue as it cools and solidifies.

 

Sound like fun.

Superman's a dick.

 

I'd say he can regulate the temperature pretty precisely to make the guns hot enough to drop, then bump up the temperature once they're out of the guy's hands to reduce them to useless.

As for the upper limit, I know of one - he couldn't hurt Blaze, one of the DCU devil characters, with it. She called it "lukewarm" vision. It's certainly powerful and basically whatever is needed, as Aernaroth states.

Also with regards the mirror thing, one old issue mentioned it was made from a piece of Superman's ship. Though I think that gets forgotten as often as not.


Basically the short version is that Superman's entire powers run on the rule of cool: whatever is cool, and whatever the writer needs the limit to be at a certain time, is what he's able to do.

 

He's a... Superdickie.

 

 

Heat/Fire-based powers are typically completely useless against Devils/demonic entities no matter the upper limits. So not exactly a notable exception. Superman's eye beams are explicitly heat-based, unlike Cyclops' "pure concussive force" beams that can vary in intensity between "blunt force trauma" and "mono-molecular blade".

Yeah, in the Superman: Doomsday movie, he just waltzes into a hair salon.

 

That is not how heat transfer works. Metal conducts heat well, but there's still limitations on that kind of thing due to thermal conductivity and thermal capacity. He could maybe burn a hole through a gun, like a really powerful laser, but he couldn't make part of it melt and/or the rest of it hot enough to drop without burning someone pretty badly. Maybe if it was a gun where just the barrel was metal he could melt the barrel without the rest of the gun being injuriously hot.

Actually, Superman's heat vision should be completely invisible except for some minor heat distortion in the air, as it's been shown a couple of times. The hotter he makes it and the farther he projects it, though, the more collateral damage it should do along the way in an increasingly wider cone of effect.

 

If you want an exact number, I'd say it's over 9000.

 

Presumably, Superman has a secondary power that allows him to completely control the heat transfer, conduction, convection and radiation that should logically be produced from use of his heat vision. This would allow him to do things like melt just the barrel of a gun without burning a criminal's hand or to fire a beam of heat strong enough to melt metal without causing auto-ignition of all the paper, fabric and other materials in the beam's path.

 

Superman's Heat Vision?


ITS OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cmon.....someone had to say it  

 

Someone did....

The problem with a lot of 'classic' heroes like that is that they were written back when things like that didn't have to make sense. Audiences didn't care how these things might work they just thought it was cool.

Best guess - hot as plot.

 

Probably more to do with his inherent weakness to magic than anything else, which demons and such probably qualify as.