Solar Battery
Linda's body acts as a constant solar battery, absorbing solar energy and solar radiation from her environment. That energy, contained within her body, is what powers most of her other abilities. The hotter the spectrum of solar radiation Linda's body absorbs, the stronger her reserves become, which is why the radiant yellow sun of Earth's solar system is such a benefit.
The more Linda uses her powers, at higher levels, the more of the energy she is using up. The theory holds that if she could be held in an environment completely sealed off from solar radiation, and forced to use up what she's already holding, her powers could be reduced dramatically.
Strength
Linda is amazingly, improbably strong. The truth is, she has only the slightest of ideas just what her upper limit might be, and she certainly hasn't encountered it yet. She can punch through steel and reinforced concrete, tear apart armor, and catch and hold whole airliners in her hands. Even more amazingly, she seems somehow able to use her strength and hold up objects in such a way that they don't collapse under their own mass and momentum, despite the rules of physics.
Given the knowledge from Jor-El's journals of his time on Earth, Linda is aware of - intellectually, at least - the existence of some materials she might find difficult to bend or break. Vibranium, especially like that found in Captain America's shield, would be largely as impervious to her blows as it would be to other tremendously strong forces. Less ideal vibranium constructs might be bendable with severe effort on her part, but that's only theoretical. Similarly, properly forged adamantium would not bend or break under her strength unless denatured with extreme heat.
Invulnerability
Linda is incredibly impervious to damage, be it direct physical force or energy. She is bulletproof, even to heavy-caliber weapons. Even many tons of force will not do much lasting damage to Linda, though if she isn't prepared for the blow, it's likely to send her hurtling away, and may rock her head one way or another in surprise. Blows in the hundreds of tons range might bloody her up a bit, but are still unlikely to do any permanent damage. She is similarly resistant to energy attacks, unaffected even by huge fiery blazes and high-energy blasts, though high-yield actual electrical jolts can sometimes stun or phase her. She is also virtually immune to high pressure and extreme low-pressure or vacuum, and most radiation.
Endurance
Linda's endurance is prodigious. Fueled by the solar energy in her cells, she can seemingly go forever, or at least so long as that energy holds out, while showing little signs of tiring. The truth is that she doesn't need to sleep more than a couple of hours a night to stay in optimal shape, and she can go without for days if necessary so long as she keeps her solar energies up. She can also hold her breath for hours at a time, enabling her to operate in space or underwater without additional gear.
Speed
Linda can move at incredible speed, and do so with exceptional accuracy. She can run at least a few times the speed of sound, and she can react as well to sudden surprises at that speed as a top sprinter can react to course corrections at those speeds. As such, she is capable of tracking the firing and path of a bullet or even most directed energy weapons and intercepting them. Note that when moving at such speeds, she is generally a blur, at most, to the human eye or even most human technology. And typing up code or term papers is a breeze! Just as long as the computer and keyboard and keep up and don't short out.
Senses
Linda's senses are prodigious. Her visual acuity is such that she can see out to ranges of dozens of miles with the kind of accuracy most would expect at a range of twenty feet or so. She can also focus at close ranges down to truly microscopic levels. She can even shift her vision to focus on wavelengths of energy which grant her X-Ray like abilities to see through physical matter and make out its inner structure, picking out the skeletons of animals and any unusual additions (steel plates, cybernetic implants, etc.). Only the densest of metals - lead - is able to block this vision.
Linda's hearing is such that she can not only make out sounds at ranges miles away, but she can even sift through the wealth of sound common in even urban areas at such ranges and pick out particular sounds, either those to which she has become especially attuned - the voice of a friend in distress - or those she is specifically trying to find.
Linda's senses of smell, touch and taste are also greatly enhanced, though she has much less practice with them. She can often pick up a whiff of something without knowing what it means, unless the scent is somehow already familiar to her. She can also pick up the tiniest marks and imperfections in a surface at a touch.
Flight
Linda has the ability to hover or fly about as she wills, with the same agility as her own imagination and achieving speeds in excess of the fastest jets. Linda can even keep herself in mid-air while holding massive objects, though she is going to fly more slowly when holding more massive objects (airliners, large ships, aircraft carriers). Additionally, if she has people to care for, she has to fly much slower for their safety.
Freed of the limitations of Earth's atmosphere, and surrounded by the much less diluted solar radiation, Linda can even achieve high fractional-C speeds, able to reach even the most distant planets in the solar system in a few hours.
Heat Vision
Linda can project the solar energy contained within her cells out through her eyes in beams intense enough to superheat and slag most metals, burn most materials, and can focus it sufficient to cut like a laser with pinpoint - even surgical - precision. The beams can strike with reasonable - if not quite surgical - accuracy many miles away, and can do serious collateral damage, which is why she doesn't use this ability much.
It should also be noted that this ability uses up more of her solar energy than any other power she has, much more quickly. If she is unable to restore her energy from available solar radiation, overuse of this ability could quickly deplete her reserves and weaken her powers.
Breath
Linda's lungs are just as strong and supercharged as the rest of her. As such, she is capable of stupendous (ludicrous?) inhales or exhales, including sucking all of the air out of a moderate-sized space (a high school gymnasium or the like), or blowing a potentially mighty cone of forceful wind, enough that she could capsize a sailing vessel, or potentially put out a medium-sized blaze or a section of forest fire. Most amazingly, Linda can cause her breath to blow very, very cold, rapidly dropping the temperature or even freezing anything subject to her breath.
Healing
Despite the fact that Linda is exceptionally durable, it is possible to do her injury. However, with sufficient solar radiation, her enhanced physiology can rapidly heal injuries. Minor cuts and bruises can vanish in several seconds. Heavier bruising and deeper cuts may take a few minutes. Anything like broken bones or serious internal injuries may take hours. However, the one thing of note is that these injuries will usually heal without any scarring. This usually requires that she stay outside under clear sunlight while healing.
It should be noted that this same effect is also very likely to greatly retard if not completely halt Linda's biological aging.
Alien Physiology
Linda may look human, but she's not. Her physiology is human, and genetically engineered for perfection to boot. The net result of this is that she is largely resistant if not outright immune to most toxins and diseases that adversely affect humans.
Mental Speed
Thanks to the incredible speed of which Linda is capable, her mind moves at similarly rapid pace. This means that Linda is capable of processing incoming information with exceptional speed, even going over it multiple times in a fraction of the time a normal person would take. This is a big part of the reason why Linda comes off as being so brilliant, since she can process dozens of ideas and avenues around a thought process in seconds. It is also part of the reason that she learns incredibly quickly.
STEM
Linda is, in human terms. a bona fide genius - if not supergenius - in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She has a natural aptitude for these studies, which is dramatically augmented by the advantages she experiences as a Kryptonian under Earth's yellow sun radiation. And all of that is further augmented by the wealth of advanced Kryptonian studies in these areas, gleaned from the wealth of Kryptonian knowledge held within the symbioship and transferred through her learning simulations.
In terms of science, Linda's knowledge in areas as diverse as gravitics and astronomy to biology, geology, physics, organic and inorganic chemistry is would easily equate to advanced graduate students in the fields. And she is capable of puzzling out science that is beyond Earth's general current ability with study and effort.
In terms of technology, Linda's advantages mean that she is capable of comprehending and working with technologies well in advance of Earth's current levels. She understands the underpinnings of the like of quantum crystal computing on near-zero energy levels in multi-state processing and even artificial intelligence programming. However, she is limited in what she can actually build by available materials and manufacturing processes. She is exceptionally gifted in using and modifying or customizing available technologies.
In terms of engineering Linda is a capable study in every area of engineering, from physical and mechanical to chemical, material, electrical and aeronautical and even civil. Her specific education is in electrical engineering, and the depth of her knowledge in that field exceeds others. But she is capable of analyzing and grasping the designs and plans for most anything from a space ship to a city to a computer or a suit of armor or a robot, given some time to do so.
In terms of mathematics, Linda is capable of completing complex high-order calculations at speeds that would match if not exceed supercomputers. Her grasp of advanced mathematical principles and proofs equal some of the greatest minds in the field, past or present.
The major limitations to Linda's skills in these area come down to the fact that while she may have a great deal of knowledge, some of it far in advance of modern Earth, she largely lacks the creative drive and spark that causes the likes of a Reed Richards or a Tony Stark to step beyond what they know or have learned, to push the boundaries and develop whole new science and math. She can use what others have done well, and can grasp and potentially repair what she finds, but her inventiveness is very limited by what she has learned on her own, outside the hidebound and rigid knowledge and thinking of Kryptonian science. Hence why her 'genius' has expressed itself largely with incremental advances in electrical and physical engineering, consumer electronics and programming.
People Skills
Linda is quite good with people, able to interface with and reach folks regardless of their cultural biases, social or economic standing. She is pretty much equally good in front of groups or with individuals one on one, and has proven very good at empathizing with others despite her Kryptonian heritage. She's a pretty good leader, understanding how to motivate others, how to synthesize unifying goals from disparate views and tap into the talents of individuals in a group to achieve those goals. Her one limitation is that she does not tend to conform to culturally ingrained biases for women, playing soft, nice, or demure. She is strong, capable and up-front, and those who can't deal with it had best get out of her way. She won't drub them over the head, but she won't bow to them either.
Languages
Linda is effectively a polyglot. With her speed of learning and her perfect memory, she tends to pick up new languages after limited exposure. As it is, she has proven fluent in Kryptonian, English, French, Spanish, Greek, Cantonese, Russian, German, Japanese and Swedish, as well as a smattering of other alien languages picked up during recent contact with their members on Earth.
History
Linda's perfect memory has left her with a gifted facility for history, including studies of Earth history around the world from many perspectives, and Kryptonian history. Since she also reads and remembers historical analysis, she has a pretty keen understanding of not just what those histories say, but how and why they say them, and where they have been shown to be inaccurate or biased. It all gives her a long view on the potential of her adopted homeworld, and its people.
Business
Linda is a great business genius. She has read the laws of the United States, most of their trade partners, and specifically the states of Florida, New York and New Jersey. She knows what businesses can and cannot do, and she works hard to stay within the rules, while offering her guidance and desires to the Board of Directors and her employees. She has proven to be a visionary business leader.
Parents
Linda may no longer live with her adopted parents, but Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers are still a big part of her life and her support structure. Both are reasonably healthy, in their early to mid-sixties.
The Danvers are well aware of their daughter's secrets, from her alien origin and heritage to her powers, her weaknesses - at least those of which Linda herself is aware - and more. They have done and continue to do all they can to help, support and guide her. They even worked together to develop her costume and persona as Superwoman, right down to changes in hairstyle and makeup to differentiate from Linda's everyday. They love her as their own daughter, of whom they are more proud than words can say. In her turn, Linda loves and adores her parents, and does her best with every day to continue to make them proud and live up to the potential they see in her.
Symbioship
Linda's one greatest link to her origins and to her biological parents is the ship in which she arrived. Her ship is a powerful piece of Kryptonian legacy and technology, considering it contains a fully-functioning birthing matrix, a full virtual reality interface, and a computer library containing most of Kryptonian knowledge, science and history. The ship has been a big part of her development and education. It no longer hides in the cellar beneath the Danvers' family garage, but is hidden in her secret lair.
Secret Lair
Within a series of dormant volcanic magma chambers and flues within Mount Baker, well north of Seattle in the Cascade Mountains, Linda has created a secret lair. Sealed off with two giant boulders, covering the massive reinforced metal doors, the space is very much a giant geode formation, beautiful gleaming crystals surrounding an open inner space, within the heart of 'plain' and unremarkable stone. The lair is a bastion of Kryptonian science and construction, with its own central computer system, all grown from a Kryptonian crystal Linda found within her Symbioship. The Symbioship is now here, within one of the side chambers, its computer interfaced with the lair's. The lair's computers operate with projected holograms for interface.
StarTech, Inc.
Using as seed money the original funds from the WorldWatching app, Linda established StarTech, Inc. with her mother's help as part of her goal to find the means to make the world a better place. The company has had tremendous successes in just a bit over seventeen years, including managing to win more than one of the vaunted X-Prizes for privately developed manned space flight. The company has a significant reputation, a multi-national conglomerate. It brings in hundreds of billions a year, but it expends almost ninety percent of that, continually re-investing in new projects, new research, and gathering some of the best and brightest minds from around the world.
Linda is currently CEO of the company, having founded it and being openly acknowledged as the driving force behind several of its best known products. She currently only collects a salary of $1 annually, a contractual stipulation that remains in place from the earliest years of the company when her mother ran it. In addition, all of the patents for Linda's inventions are held by the company.
The company does not maintain many of the luxuries that many others do, but instead makes do with business class commercial flights, moderate business suites in any cities being visited, and simple town car rentals in place of private jets, posh company condos, limousines and fleets of company vehicles. What they do maintain is bleeding edge technology and scientific acumen and the will to use all of that for both the beterment of the world and a reasonable profit motive.
Personal Wealth & Resources
Linda isn't rich, despite building her own well-reputed multinational technology company. In fact, she lives largely off of her company's resources, and does not splurge overmuch. She is not quite as cash-strapped as some college students, but she isn't tossing money around like nobody's business, either. She still eats more often on corporate campuses with her company plan card than otherwise. She doesn't have her own car. Her one exceptional resource that everyone can see is that she has quite a collection of personal tech, including her own rack of servers in one of the corporate datacenters, a top of the line laptop, several top of the line tablets and smartphones used for product development and testing, and her own personal StarTech wearable computing accessories.
Fame and Reputation - Linda Lee Danvers
Linda Lee Danvers is pretty well known and a bit famous in certain circles. She is not instantly recognizable, except to those who follow technology news. But to those in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) circles, hers is a name many have heard of, as a child prodigy and genius in the fields. There are even those who lament the fact that she seems now to have been distracted by pursuing what they see as the transitory glory of consumer electronics instead of bigger things, greater advances in science and mathematics. Even the continued advancements made by the research of StarTech, Inc. haven't silenced the critics. Nevertheless, she has a rep, and it is only growing, spreading from the STEM circles to the general public with the spread of StarTech's tech.
Fame and Reputation - Superwoman
Superwoman is a face, a figure and a name known around the world. She made a huge and splashy display of her first major public act, and she has not shied away from media coverage and attention in the years since then. In fact, she has gone out of her way to establish a loose but ongoing relationship with Trish Tilby of CBNC, granting Trish several exclusive interviews over the years. She has openly acknowledged in those interviews her connections to the Superman of World War II and her admiration for all of the heroes - men and women - of that bygone age. She has in turn earned a lot of respect from the authorities, especially in the Western world, and a lot of good will. People like and trust her - she's Superwoman!
Superwoman's likeness has been spread pretty far and wide in the last several years. What few know is that Superwoman arranged with a lawyer within days of her debut to establish an ongoing contract with anyone wishing to use her likeness, granting permission with a 'licensing fee' that is paid to a trust, which in turn donates 99%% of that income to various charities around the world. The 1%% is not paid to Superwoman herself, but is paid to the law offices that maintain the contracts and the trust. ||
Intelligence
Linda has always been an incredibly bright, smart person. From her earliest days, she has proven exceptionally adept intellectually. Part of this is due to her engineered genetics. Part of it may be due to the virtual reality inculcation she experienced while aboard the symbioship prior to being discovered by the Danvers. But certainly a lot of it has to do with the Danvers' support for her education, always trying to offer her the best and broadest exposure to new concepts, new ideas and opportunities.
Linda is not natively quite as creatively brilliant as perhaps a Tony Stark. But paired with her exceptional mental speed and her exposure to science and technology that is literally hundreds of thousands of years in advance of modern day Earth, she certainly seems it. She is always looking for the better way, the way to make things better than they are. That natural curiosity and insistence upon looking at every situation and bit of information from every angle is what makes her so bright.
Memory
Linda also has an incredible eidetic memory, with perfect recall of everything she has ever seen, heard or experienced. This is the second factor that leads to her incredible learning speed.
Kryptonite
Like all Kryptonians, Linda is deathly 'allergic' or susceptible to Krptonite and Kryptonite radiation. Even a small amount, a few ounces, can produce waves of dizziness and weakness within a range of a few feet. Larger samples have been known to sufficiently blanket small to medium-sized rooms, the fields strong enough that its weakening effects would leave Linda too weak to even crawl away to safety.
Mere exposure to the energy is enough for moments of weakness, as powers fluctuate downward rapidly towards a normal human's abilities. Several seconds or more can reduce this to even less, causing her to collapse, as the radiation sets in to poison her Kryptonian physiology. Within a minute or so, high levels of such radiation could prove fatal. Kryptonite that can actually make physical contact is even worse, as it will tend to poison the very blood stream, reaching fatal levels quickly unless somehow neutralized.Like it or not, Kryptonite is the great equalizer to the incredible power of Kryptonians.
It should be noted that what is described thus far here is green Kryptonite, or 'classic' Kryptonite. There are other kinds of Kryptonite out there - other colors, with other various effects - and all would affect her with similar severity, but in very different ways. In theory, Red Kryptonite lowers inhibitions and generally lets out the 'dark side'; Gold Kryptonite destroys a Kryptonian's ability to store and process solar energy, erasing all of their powers permanently; Blue Kryptonite suppresses Kryptonian powers but also removes sensitivity to Green Kryptonite for as long as exposed. There are other colors, with a wide array of strange effects.
Magic
The profound power of the natural Kryptonian is largely ineffective against magic. Magical spells will generally prove as effective against Linda as they would against any other hero. Physical force from direct magic can do harm, where equal levels of force from non-magical means could not. Magical blades can pierce her skin. Magical fire can burn. And so forth.
Equally problematic, Linda's great power is much less effective against magical defenses. Her strongest punches may still be effective, but they will also deliver equal force to her hands, causing serious injury, and their effect will be blunted more than a little.
Red Sun Radiation
Because Linda's body is a solar battery, it will absorb whatever solar energy reaches it. But the strength of her powers is based on her body processing yellow sun radiation. If she is exposed instead to red sun radiation, this will progressively reduce her stores of yellow sun radiation, and fill her solar battery with energy she cannot use to power her abilities, weakening her. If she should use up her stores of yellow sun energy while being restricted to only taking in red sun radiation, she could in fact be rendered powerless. Red Sun radiation that is used aggressively, as a weapon, can even 'poison' the yellow sun energy within Linda, twisting it to relatively useless red sun energy to exacerbate and speed up the weakening effects.
Girl Scout
Linda is a 'girl scout'. No, the truth is, she was never a member of Girl Scouts of America. But the point is that she believes in right. She's an idealist, not a pragmatist. She will obey the rules, take care of innocents, won't kill if she can find any other way to deal with a problem - and she's smart, so she can almost always think of /some/ other way - etc. She's a 'goody two boots'. And she likes it that way. It does mean, however, that it's possible for others to use those ideals against her to manipulate her, or to act in ways she won't initially think of or have a ready counter handy.
Alien
As human as Linda may look, she's not. She's an alien life form. This means that if she gets hurt or sick, human science and medicine will be of limited if any use in treating her. It's even possible that human attempts to deal with the problem could make things worse.
Secret Identity
Linda is doing all she can manage to keep the secret that Linda Lee Danvers is also the world-renowned superheroine Superwoman. In spite of the fact that she doesn't wear a mask, she does what she can in changing hairstyle, makeup, posture and tone of voice to maintain separation. She also makes a point of choosing various outfits as Linda that help to downplay her figure a bit, and she rarely appears in public without a StarGazeR headset of glasses, which nicely breaks up the lines of her face for facial recognition. She will also do what she must - or perhaps not do what she would wish to do - in order to keep that secret, as much to protect the others in her life more than herself. That and the fact she treasures her ability to interact with folks as an equal.
Big Target
Like it or not - and usually Linda likes it a lot - Superwoman is a very big target. She has one of the highest profiles and biggest names amongst the modern heroes. She has made a splash, and kept on coming, never shying away from the hardest challenges or the spotlights that come with them. And that makes her one of the biggest targets out there. The bad guys with an urge to prove something will often take aim at Superwoman before anyone else, because if they can take her down, they are sure it'll intimidate the most people into going along, or just to say that they did it or see how they can measure up. It should also be noted that as the last known Kryptonian currently, Linda would be a huge attraction to such enemies as Braniac, the Collector, and others with interest in such matters.
Hackable
Linda uses a lot of computing resources. She depends on her WorldWatching network to gather information on where she is needed. She uses her StarGazeR headset and her StarkPhone to stay in touch and keep up on the latest information, or to get access to the information she needs when she needs it. And like it or not, her tech and programming are not immune to being hacked. It's not easy, or rife with weaknesses. But there are those out there with the skills, the gifts, the talents and resources to find and exploit weaknesses who could shut down her network, shut off her remote systems, and attack the things she depends on every day, forcing her to devote her time and effort to resisting that instead of being out there doing the heroic works the world depends on Superwoman to do.