Let's begin a two-part look at Superman #13, which had the first appearance of a super-power I have yet to understand:
I understand powers Superman has that are extreme versions of things we can do anyway. Heck, I even accept the power of flight as just being an evolved form of jumping. But I just don't know under what circumstance I can make my voice appear behind you. I just never get that one.
But there it is:
And here's one I don't think I've ever seen before or since: The ability to knock women unconscious with my glare:
That would be mighty handy when Beloved is feeling chatty while I'm trying to play video games.
And when we've run out of powers to make up, we'll fight dinosaurs. Again:
That's the second time in two issues. Fortunately, fighting dinosaurs is always awesome.
See you Monday!
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4 comments:
"Voice projection" is a technique that must be mastered by any actor, that is, being able to speak in a loud voice and using your respiratory muscles to "focus" the sound emitted upon a target (the audience, in this case). I think that if Supes' appendicular muscles enabled him to fly, no stretch of imagination would be necessary to suppose that his powerful diaphragm and intercostals allowed him to perform that "little bit of ventriloquism".
Adam, go to the old Union Station in St. Louis. They have an arch with a groove in it, you can say something and have it heard on the other side. My fellow writer Brian Hodge showed me this, and I started saying odd things like VOOP! and 23 SKIDDOO! and people started looking his way.
Cfl Maior describes an easier way, though.
Cfl Major makes a good point about voice projection. Of course, that's a completely different thing from ventriloquism, which isn't so much about "throwing your voice" as it is using visual showmanship to create the illusion that the dummy is speaking. There's a classic story about the early days of television. When they tried to film Paul Winchell, the sound never picked up the dummy's portion of the act. They thought that there was something inherent about ventriloquism that made it inaudible for television, until Winchell noticed the problem: The boom mike operator kept moving the microphone over to the dummy for his responses, not realizing that Winchell wasn't actually "throwing his voice" so that it came out of the dummy. Winchell explained that they had to keep the microphone on him the whole time, and it worked just fine after that.
I don't have to stare into a woman's eyes to put her into a trance - usually I just have to speak to her about my comic collection for a couple of minutes.
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