Superman's Powers Mean He Can Inhale An Entire Firestorm
The Man Of Steel can utilize one of his best-known powers in a surprising way to not only save the day - but also preserve a potential crime scene!
There is no more powerful, or storied, superhero in the history of DC Comics than the Man of Steel himself, Superman. Apart from being the most powerful hero in terms of sheer strength, Superman also has at his disposal an array of superpowers that can also do plenty of damage on their own, from being one of the fastest beings alive, to being nearly invulnerable. And while he also has some little-remembered powers, one of his most well-known is his super-breath. While he usually utilizes his breath in order to blow away enemies or freeze them, there is one story in which he literally inhales a flaming inferno.
Within the first few pages of Brian Michael Bendis's The Man Of Steel #1, we open on Killer Moth and Firefly having a spat; Killer Moth has tracked Firefly down at Metropolis, where the flame-obsessed villain is laying low between jobs. Killer Moth has Firefly pinned down, threatening him at gunpoint, and accuses him of ripping him off of some money to which Moth feels entitled. Killer Moth doesn't bother taking precaution enough to keep his voice low enough to not attract Superman's attention, who he believes is out "in Tanzia, or someplace", and therefore no longer a threat. Right on cue, in flies Superman, carrying both villains out like they were nothing.
After dealing with the two flying-insect-themed villains, Superman takes a moment to listen to the sounds of the city, musing over some music a woman is performing, and trying to seek out any problems that might need his attention. Over a the growing sound of screams, Superman zeroes in a raging inferno on a housing project. The area is not known for its up-to-code residential buildings, but, as Superman recounts, there have been a spate of what has been attributed as "electrical fires" in the area...enough for him to grow suspicious. With a villain such as Firefly in town, his mind quickly turns to foul play being the cause of the spate of fires.
Rescuing several tenants, Superman then rushes inside the building, saving a younger girl and her two puppies, and upon finding the building empty, tries to put the fire out. While he'd used his super-breath inside the building in close quarters, his main concern is blowing away any evidence of arson. Instead of blowing the fire away, he instead inhales deeply, literally sucking the fire up into the air, where it burns itself out in a blaze high in the atmosphere, away from any damage it could cause. With the fire out, and the building still standing in nearly the exact same condition in which it was prior to the fire, Superman then enters, using his x-ray vision to search for any signs of arson...of which he finds a few clues.
Superman, again, is almost ridiculously over-powered, with several powers that make one or two appearances, never to be mentioned again. So long as Superman exists, he will constantly gain new powers and abilities, with the classic powers always being front and center. Within this story, though, he manages to adapt one of his most well-known abilities, and use it in a way that isn't always common. In doing so, he not only saves the day, but saves any evidence of arson from being blown away. Once again, Superman saves the day not just by being one of the most powerful heroes in comics, but being one of the smartest as well.