Superman vs. Sylar

[ILikeDeathNote]

Pretty self-explanatory, I'm pretty sure people who don't even watch Heroes knows who Skylar is, and the only way you don't know who Superman is if you've been living under a rock.

[Praeothmin]

I think the main questions are:
Which Incarnations of Superman do we use.

and

Can Skylar even hurt the "Man of Steel"?

[Mike DiCenso]

The pre-Crisis Superman easily wins the day. The earliest and some of the later incarnations of Supes would have a bit more difficult time.
-Mike

[Narsil]

Despite Sylar's greater range of powers, he's not nearly as powerful in any of them as Superman is. Unless Sylar could somehow begin to empathise with Superman, as doing so would cause him to be able to use Superman's powers via his power of empathic mimicry that's similar to Peter Petrelli's, he loses.

[Mike DiCenso]

It would not be the first time Supes has gone up against an opponent who could steal powers away. Anyone remember the Parasite? That villain is a far more formidable power-stealing opponent for Supes than Skylar ever could be.
-Mike

[Narsil]

It's Sylar, not Skylar. And the Parasite could only absorb powers through physical contact, not merely being in the vicinity of someone like Sylar (occasionally) and Peter (the entire basis for his power) can do. If Sylar begins to have any empathy for Superman whatsoever (more difficult than it sounds; Sylar's usually quite the sociopath), then he wins as he has suddenly got every last one of Superman's powers. If he doesn't, which is far more likely, he gets his arse kicked and then turns up again in a later storyline to duke it out again.

Or, seeing as it was only a crossover issue, Sylar is beaten up and decides to return to plaguing the ones who he can match up against such as Peter Petrelli, HRG and other such.

At some point during this, Superman saves Lois Lane from being telekinetically hurled out of a window at the top of a skyscraper.

[Praeothmin]

And the Parasite could only absorb powers through physical contact, not merely being in the vicinity of someone like Sylar (occasionally) and Peter (the entire basis for his power) can do.

Nope, the Parasite starts leaching powers as soon as he gets close to a victim.
The more powerful the victim, the farther away the Parasite can start leeching powers.
The physical contact only makes the transfer faster and more efficient.

[Ted C]

Generally speaking, Sylar doesn't have the sheer power to compete against Superman.

He did, however, acquire the ability to transmute materials into gold last season. The graphic novels indicate that this power can affect living tissue, so if he tricked Superman into reach (and Sylar has excelled at tricking people), he might just turn Superman into a very expensive statue. I don't know if there's any indication that Superman's invulnerability would resist such an effect.

[Mike DiCenso]

Why should Sylar even take the huge risk of trying to get close to Superman for such a thing, when he can instead attempt to make kryptonite. If he can transmute a substance into something as dense as gold, he might be able to manufacture the dreaded green death to use against Supes.
-Mike

[Praeothmin]

when he can instead attempt to make kryptonite. If he can transmute a substance into something as dense as gold, he might be able to manufacture the dreaded green death to use against Supes.

How would he even know what Kryptonite is supposed to be like in the first place?

[Mike DiCenso]

Comic books, of course. ;-)
-Mike