The Man of Steel in Marvel

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High in the sky—

Jiro shot straight into the air, piercing the clouds in a flash.

The outline of New York quickly shrank behind him. The city lights turned into tiny pinpricks of light before being swallowed by the deep blue night.

He kept rising, higher and higher, the air thinning as he went.

His bio-force field adjusted automatically, so he didn't feel any effects.

He could feel faint cosmic rays brushing against his skin, but to his steel-like body, they were just like a breeze.

"Still not fast enough."

He shifted his position, arms tight against his sides, and a streamlined barrier formed around his body through his bio-force field.

"Accelerate."

Boom!

His speed surged—Mach 100, Mach 130—pushing the edge of the atmosphere.

The curve of Earth came into view beneath him. The deep blue oceans and white clouds weaved together in a breathtaking scene.

He tore through the last wisps of atmosphere and officially entered space.

Now, in the infinite blackness, Jiro flew like a meteor in reverse—heading straight toward the sun.

With no air resistance, his speed kept climbing: 0.1 times the speed of light, then 0.2…

The last time he absorbed energy from the sun, his top speed had hit 0.5c.

"At this rate, I'll reach the sun in just over ten minutes."

He relaxed his body, letting inertia carry him forward.

His super senses picked up the faintest ripples across the cosmos.

Far off, astronauts aboard the International Space Station gazed out the window toward Earth.

Even farther out, a few satellites silently orbited the planet.

And on the opposite side of the globe, an invisible alien scout ship lay in stealth.

His super vision instantly locked onto it—a strangely-shaped ship cloaked in some kind of optical camo. But it was completely see-through to Jiro's x-ray eyes.

"Not Earth tech… and definitely not Asgardian either."

The ship must've sensed danger, because it fired up its engines and tried to run.

Floating in space, Jiro's eyes lit up with a flash of golden light.

"If you came all this way, you might as well stay."

His eyes suddenly blazed, shooting out two beams of red-hot heat vision that sliced through the void.

There was no huge explosion, no debris scattered. The beams pierced straight through the engine core, and the ship collapsed like a balloon with a hole in it—silently disintegrating.

A few bits of shrapnel grazed his cheek, only to vaporize the second they touched his skin.

"Someone's taking a big interest in Earth," Jiro muttered, memorizing the coordinates.

He vaporized the remaining debris and pushed forward again, accelerating.

The black expanse of space unfolded around him.

Here, he felt truly free.

No gravity. No drag. Only the eternal glow of the stars.

The sunlight wrapped gently around him, like a mother's embrace—

Warm, comforting, full of energy.

"This... this feels like home."

He let his body go limp, letting the sun's gravity pull him in.

Golden energy coursed through his veins, making every cell in his body buzz with joy.

As he got closer, the solar corona danced in front of him like swirling plasma flames.

Jiro spread his arms wide like a wanderer returning home and dove into the sun's embrace.

The fire kissed his skin—not with pain, but with a feeling of overwhelming fullness.

He took a deep breath. There was no air in space, but the sun's radiation was all the nourishment he needed.

He shifted his posture and began slowing down.

Waves of golden plasma rolled like a sea beneath him. Solar flares occasionally burst out with enough power to destroy planets.

But to Jiro, this was pure, unfiltered energy.

"All right…"

He crossed his legs and sat down right in the middle of the swirling corona, golden energy flowing all around him.

The flames wrapped around him, and the power surged into every cell of his being.

"Time to run some tests."

"If my powers come from the sun, then… could I use that solar energy to channel magic too?"

That thought had been circling in his mind for a long time.

Back in Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One had once told him: "The essence of magic is the flow of energy. The medium is just a guiding tool."

So—if his body itself was an energy container, could he use it directly to cast spells, without external tools?

He wanted to understand the essence of magic.

Jiro closed his eyes and recalled everything he had learned at Kamar-Taj.

Most sorcerers needed to rely on a sling ring or magical artifacts, pulling energy from other dimensions and shaping it through incantations and gestures.

The Ancient One drew some of her power from the Dark Dimension, but her real strength came from understanding the rules.

His energy, on the other hand, came entirely from the sun—fully internal, no borrowing needed.

"If I can replace borrowed energy with my own solar power… maybe I don't need a medium at all."

"Maybe I should just try forming a self-contract?"

Jiro raised his hand. A soft golden glow lit up at his fingertips. He whispered a contract incantation from Kamar-Taj:

"By my will, I bind to the flow of the multiverse."

In that instant, he felt the solar energy inside him tremble slightly, like it was being tugged by invisible rules.

But soon after, the energy calmed again.

The contract was in place—but the energy had nowhere to flow.

He realized Kamar-Taj's magic system was built around borrowing power, and his energy wasn't borrowed at all—it was fully his own.

"Maybe I don't have to play by their rules."

"My rules… are the rules?"

Jiro made a choice—not to copy Kamar-Taj's methods anymore. Instead, he'd try to channel energy in his own way.

He began his first real attempt.

He pictured energy flowing out of his fingertips, forming a spark.

The result?

Just a few flickers of light—then they vanished.

On his second try, he adjusted how he released the energy, letting it wrap around his hands like a biological force field.

This time, the spark lasted a bit longer—but still didn't fully take shape.

On the third try, he stopped trying to force the energy into a specific form. Instead, he just let it flow naturally, like breathing.

"Maybe magic isn't about forcing things... maybe it's about going with the energy's natural flow."

"....."