Superman directed an unbelievably blue (alien) gaze from the man with the star to the kid with the spider on his chest. "Killing," he said, in a voice serious and yet not ponderous, "is always easier. This thing has already killed." Because oh yes, there were bodies under all this rubble, and Superman had already tried to find every heartbeat he could hear and every person he could reach. Anyone living, he had attempted to move out of the area if he could. Yet he didn't know what this thing was, but he did know that he could see a light, a very, very faint light, that spoke to him of what he thought of as soul. He didn't bother trying to explain that. No one else could see that light. "But I don't think it understands why."
"You all would be safer farther back," he said. "Deal with the green monster." Superman heard a sound in the distance, something mechanical heading in the direction of the Hulk creature, but he didn't do more than turn his head curiously before returning his attention to the dragon. "No explosives, Star-man," he said, speaking to Steve because he seemed to be the most sane here. He ignored Daniel's burst of irreverent laughter, and he flew back into the fray.
It immediately became apparent that he had been holding back. His first punch underneath the creature's head knocked the forty-foot thing back into the air. It sailed over the Bellagio buildings clustered around the false lake that made up the fountain, onto the freeway, which by this time had already been stopped cold by rubble and fleeing cars. Superman hit it again before it could fall, knocking it toward open desert.