So imagine this scenario...

There's this car (most probably a limousine) moving at a sedate speed of 60 mph (~100 km/h), and Superman wants to stop it but he can't come in contact with it, i.e. he cannot swoop in and bodily stop it for some reason. Is there any way to halt it or do something from a distance so that the car can go no further?

Is bursting the tires or over-heating the engine feasible? Can super-cool breath help? Should the car be moving faster or slower for his actions to cause minimal damage?

I mean obviously there'd be some sort of wreckage, but he definitely does not want to cause too serious an accident or hurt any passengers (specifically one particular brunette).

Maybe there's no harmless way to do this and my characters should simply ditch the car and walk instead?

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance,

~ Ankit (who knows nothing about cars except how to drive it).

Hi Ankit !

Option 1: Using superbreath to generate enough force to stop the car from moving.

Option 2: is the brunette bound, or can she move freely? If so, she only has to turn off the ignition and let the car roll to a stop.

Option 3: Superman can fry the engine, thus turning of the ignition. Superbreath for cooling and heatvision for cutting should do the trick.

Michael

Well, my first thoughts are one or more of the following:

Heat vision to blow out one of the tyres - or small holes in all four so that the car can be stopped safely.

Dump a tree or a few tons of rock on the road a few hundred yards ahead of the car, then do the same thing behind it.

Water all over the road then use superbreath to freeze it as ice - the car skids, loses traction, and slows. Heat vision to blow the tyres once it stops.

Heat vision to melt the road surface (if tarred); the car sinks into the surface and the tyres melt onto it.

Use super-accurate throwing skills to hurl a potato so that it blocks the exhaust. The engine will cut out.

Given a modern car with electronic ignition and engine controls Superman can probably create enough of a magnetic pulse to fry the electronics. Not sure how common this is in 1993-7

X-ray vision to locate the distributor then heat vision to destroy it - the engine will stop.

Should I go on?

A reply I wrote just before the boards went offline. May be some double coverage here, but I'm too lazy to fix. :p

He could zap out the tires, but that would send it spinning out of control.

He could put obstacles in its path to slow it down or force the driver to stop. Dump a big pile of mud, say, in front of it.

He could use his super breath, which has been shown to be powerful enough to push cars around.

He could use his heat vision to zap something in the engine. One of the gears or belts or wires crucial to making it go. (Fuel line not recommended.)

Similarly (although more difficult to pull off for a variety of reasons), he could use his freeze breath to freeze the engine block.

He could use his freeze breath to freeze the road. Car would lose traction (and also control), but if he had something to cushion the impact...

A little more crazy, but... he could build a ramp and put it down in front of the car. Don't know if he's allowed to catch it in mid-air or if he could use something to catch it or if there's a soft landing place available or something.

Back to obstacles... He could fly to New York, grab Spider-Man, fly back, and have him build a web... (Or, you know, find some flexible cargo netting and use that. Like the netting they use on aircraft carriers for emergency landings. There might be something of the sort lying around at the naval base which is no doubt located somewhere in harbor area...)

Note that some or all of these options could affect other cars in the area, depending on conditions.

Why didn't I think of that before??? That is so obviously the way for Superman to stop a moving car!!!

Ann

He could flip a penny at the tires at super speed causing a blowout. He could blow the car sideways with his breath.

He could melt the tires with his vision, turning them to slag until they blew.

First thing I thought of was: 60 MPH is a sedate speed? That's 88 feet per second, so if the car stops abruptly at that speed - no matter how it's done - the occupants are going to be tossed around inside. Add to that the high probability that the passengers of a limo aren't wearing seat belts, and you have a prescription for serious trouble.

If Superman can't be seen to stop the car, most of the above solutions would work, but the speed is pretty high. If a limo skids out of control, it takes a lot of energy and skill to get control of it again.

But now I'm wondering where that scene is going to show up. Soon, I hope!