****

JB: A bit of trivia -- and not much more than trivia since for the most part, as here, the terms are used interchangably these days -- the term "psi" was coined to cover all the "psychic" gifts people are supposed to have, like telepathy, teleportation, "mind over matter" and such --- while "psionic" (as the name suggests) was coined to describe a machine with such abilities.

*****

Hadn't heard that before! Hmm. Makes sense. I've also seen "psychotronic" but that's clumsy on the page and in the ear.

JB: "Supervision" is a word that already exists, and has an entirely different meaning.

*****

"Lois! Come quick! Superman's assigned all of our reporters and photographers, evaluated our interns, spotted sixteen different things we can do to make the Planet a more efficient operation... and he's corrected all of our vouchers for the past year. It's as if he has... supervision!"

Sure would make for a slow and confusing issue of Action...

JB said:  Along with his other gifts, Superman also possesses super-concentration. He can "focus" his mind so that he shuts out unwanted intrusions, such as would be brought on by his super hearing and super vision.

*****

I've always been interested in this topic; it seems to me Superman (and the Flash) must process an incredibly large and compressed amount of information owing only to their ability to see at super-speed.  Superman obviously has even more distractions with his x-ray vision and super-hearing.  Seems like it could be quite a problem requiring amazing discipline and filtering practice.  Martin Pasko did a decent subplot on this very topic (cover illo by no less than Garcia Lopez) in the late 70s... Frank Miller did a similar and even more thorough tale during his DAREDEVIL run. 

Intelligence is not one single quality or characteristic, if we can believe the author of Emotional Intelligence. Goleman qualifies intelligence as eight distinct aspects of information retention, retrieval and processing. Superman does not think the same way Batman does; if it were me writing it, I'd suggest that Superman doesn't have the nasty, worst-case-scenario imagination that Batman does.

Besides, if Superman is one half of a team, you have to give the other guy something he does better!

Andrew said:  ...you have to give the other guy something he does better!

+++++

Right.  Likewise, because The Flash is "The Fastest man Alive!" and speed is his only real skill (besides "control over his own molecular structure"), it was only fair that he won the third, and deciding, of those Superman / Flash races of the 60s and early 70s.   Ultimately, it seems to me that the greatest enemy of the all-powerful Superman I grew up on is his own complacency (or magic, or kryptonite, or a red sun, or phantom zone villains, or a team-up of his most powerful foes, etc.)  

It always struck me as funny that The Justice League regularly LOST battles initially against all-powerful foes (they always ultimately won the rematch) with a roster that should have been utterly unstoppable (GL and Superman alone have about as much muscle and invulnerability as you could need, to say nothing of super-speeding FLASH, World's Greatest Detective Batman, and Wonder Woman, who is also basically invulnerable on her own.  I know Aquaman and Green Arrow, Zatanna, Red Tornado and maybe Black Canary are kind of weak links, but be serious... you've got at least two heroes who can travel back in time at the drop of a hat and first sign of trouble.  How could the JLA ever do anything but win?

Rick Senger wrote: [...]you've got at least two heroes who can travel back in time at the drop of a hat and first sign of trouble.  How could the JLA ever do anything but win?

On the other hand, how come no one ever notices the cape-bulge of super-hero costumes under civilian clothes, while everybody notices George W. Bush's jacket-bulge? Ehhh... got you there!

--

edited cos I suk at code

QUOTE: Superman's intelligence has to be off the chart based on the amount of information he can process and retain. Jim Starlin touched on this in a Superman/Spectre team-up where Supergirl has been struck so hard by Mongul that she's flying (unconsious) at multiples of lightspeed. Superman stops to calculate the exact trajectory he has to fly in order to intercept her. One can easily imagine this bit of math requiring a Cray super-computer, but Superman manages to perform the calculations without even having to count on his fingers.

This was also very briefly touched on in (of all places) the Supergirl film.  Early in the film Kara, while still in in Argo City, mentions that she has trouble doing calculations in her head.  Later in a school on earth, she ticks off the long answer to a complicated equation wth no pause whatsoever.

The film didn't explain her power to "morph" her clothes and hair color though!