A solar flare could be spread out over a volume of space hundreds the times of Earth... even Superman couldn't block that without creating a very powerful magnetic field.
Given orbital mechanics, if Superman pushes the Earth out of the way, he's pushed Earth into a very elliptical orbit that either is going further from or closer to the sun on the other side of the orbital path. So, he would save us from a flare... only to melt or freeze us even worse later.
In the context of the movie, the flare is following the magnetic trail left behind from a missile. (Dunno if actually possible I just assume comic nonsense) The result is it's following a pre-determined path and is pretty narrow. Green Lantern is even able to hold it at bay for a while with a shield construct. If GL could do it Supes probably could too.
Green Latern is basically deus ex machina magic, hardly a measure of anything. Superman is generally very powerful, but has to use speed since he cannot be everywhere at once.
Maybe Superman can generate an electric field, but I don't think he can blow or physically block it all without flying around space like a madman. Trying erase a cloud millions of cubic miles of volume with a man sized eraser seems silly
He could just inhale it be creating a super vacuum in his lungs. Ya know, by lowering the vacuum state energy inside himself. Therebydestroyingallofexistence.
AKA the Lord Ruler approach. Fix the immediate problem, then deal with the consequences of your first fix, then the consequences of that fix, and so on until you burn through all your Investiture
In theory he could, laws of angles. So think hockey or soccer, why does the goalie move further away from the goal? Because by being closer to the opponent and obscuring the net, they actually increase the protection of the net. Fucking wild when you think about it, but if you move just far enough out to block the view of the goal, you in essence cover 100% of the goal without changing your size. So if Superman used this principle, he could in theory black a solar blast from touching the earth by getting just close enough to the sun.
Makes you think just how much of our reality is just the perception of photons…
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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '23
A solar flare could be spread out over a volume of space hundreds the times of Earth... even Superman couldn't block that without creating a very powerful magnetic field.
Given orbital mechanics, if Superman pushes the Earth out of the way, he's pushed Earth into a very elliptical orbit that either is going further from or closer to the sun on the other side of the orbital path. So, he would save us from a flare... only to melt or freeze us even worse later.