Likely because it's an incredibly common fantasy, many superheores - Superman among them - have the power of flight. Sometimes, it's pretty clear how they do it. Hawkman has his winged harness to fly like a bird. Iron Man has the ability to propel himself through the air with repulsor blasts. Green Lanterns have an aura of energy around them that can defy gravity. However, not every hero has an obvious mechanism for their flight capabilities. Superman flies through the air without any clear explanation of how his powers lift his weight. Not one to let the matter go unchallenged, writer Tom King gave a rather cheeky answer, recently doubling down on the assertion on Twitter.
Tom King is no stranger to the Man of Steel. His most extensive work with Superman is in the story Superman: Up in the Sky with artist Andy Kubert, where Superman goes into space to save a little girl that has been abducted by an alien warlord. King even got into a mini-feud with Dean Cain over Superman's "American way" motto, using a scene from the book as ammunition. It is this story that contains King's hot take on Superman's flight.
King tweeted an image from the last issue of Up in the Sky where Superman is taking the girl, Alice, back to Earth after defeating her captor. Alice is a huge Superman fan and asks the Man of Steel a number of questions. One of the questions, displayed in the tweeted image, is how Superman flies. He answers that it is because of the Earth's yellow sun but Alice isn't satisfied. She cites her time in airplane club at school and notes that something needs to be pushing from the back for an object like a plane to move forward. She asks what that would be for Superman who responds, "it's... complicated." Alice then sheepishly asks if Superman fires stuff out his bottom and just isn't telling anyone. Tom King notes in the tweet, "The truth is out there."
While it's certainly a funny theory that is being somewhat confirmed by a mainstream DC Comics writer, the reality is it's unlikely Superman's super farts are going to be canon anytime soon. Canonically, Superman's correct in that his ability to fly is pretty complicated. Originally, Superman didn't have the power of flight, but rather the ability to leap incredible distances. Later, in the Golden Age of comics, Superman's ability to fly was explained as due to his people's physiology being used to much stronger gravity on Krypton.
However, in the Silver Age comics, this was changed to be (as Superman notes in the image) due to Kryptonians gaining powers like super strength and flight under a yellow sun. This is explained by a "bio-electric aura" around him powered by yellow sunlight, pushing behind Superman and allowing him to fly. This can be seen in All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, where a trip to the sun's surface supercharges Superman's aura and it becomes visible. Tom King followed up this tweet with a more mysterious page in which Superman discusses his faith, perhaps suggesting fans take a similarly open attitude to the source of his abilities.
The reality, of course, is that Tom King is messing around to amuse his fans while reminding everyone of an amazing story. King is notorious for embracing the sillier parts of DC Comics with tongue firmly in cheek, and tempting fans to investigate the idea of Superman's metahuman wind is just a fun way to do so... or is it?
