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Superhero Science: The Official Truth by Chris Tolworthy |
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Introduction Forget what you've seen in the old editions of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Forget what you've read in books like "The Physics of Superheroes." These are wonderful, entertaining and educational books, but as far as explaining superheroes goes, they are all wrong. And this is why. First, these books do not explain all the things that superheroes do. If you read the books, especially the very early ones, you will see them do things that just cannot be explained by the usual methods. Take for example the Human Torch. It's hard enough to explain how he survives bursting into flame. But early tales had him burn underwater (by turning the water into gas), create long lasting objects of all shapes and sizes out of flame, prevent the heat from any flame from extending more than a certain distance, and so on. That's just one character. Read any long-running superhero's comics, and you will find powers that seem contradictory, impossible, and just cannot be explained... until now! Second, the various explanations are all too complicated. They require dozens of highly unlikely coincidences. It is time for Occam's razor. All the superhero powers can be explained by slight tweaks on ONE PHYSICAL PRINCIPLE. Just one. And that power is plausible even in current physics. It hasn't been demonstrated yet (at least not in public) but perhaps future generations will discover it. OK, no more wasting time. Here's the explanation for ALL the superhero powers. Yes, all of them. The secret is... ...smart atoms exchange mass and energy at a molecular level! |
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"What?" I hear you say, "What has mass got to do with anything? Are you crazy?" Hear me out, true believer, and all will be explained. Proof that this theory is true This theory features in the OFFICIAL Handbook of the Invincible Universe. It's the OFFICIAL handbook, so that means the BEM theory is now official! It's canonized. Beyond all doubt. It is now officially The Truth. Read on, true believer... |
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How I made this discovery This all started when I was reading a comic about Giant Man. Or maybe it was Ant Man. or both. If you've read those stories, you will know that they require a Ph.D. in comicology. Ant Man? Ant Man 2? Yellow Jacket? Goliath? If you can follow all those changes, then atomic physics is easy. Anyway, three questions bugged me: 1. Where does Giant Man's extra mass come from? 2. Where does Ant Man's mass go to? 3. And why doesn't Giant Man collapse under his own weight? Think about it. Strength depends on the cross-section area of your muscles and bones. It doesn't matter how long they are, it's the thickness that counts. So if you are twice as big, you will be four times as strong (muscles are twice as wide and twice as deep) but eight times as heavy (height times width times depth). Four times as strong, but eight times as heavy? So you will feel only half as strong as before! The bigger you get, the weaker you feel. And it works the other way too. That is why fleas can jump huge distances, but elephants can't jump at all. Well it seemed obvious to me that there must be some way to change mass. But that also that mass changing had to be very smart. Though the size changed, the mass did not always change as much. Probably the distance between the atoms just increased, but the forces holding the atoms also increased so the strength changed as needed. That was it! That was the breakthrough! Suddenly I realized that this did not just explain growing and shrinking. it also explained super strength! And heroes like the Vision who change their mass radically! And a little thought showed that it also explained every other kind of super power! Yes, all of them! And it solved the problem of superheroes doing stuff that seemed just too crazy for their regular powers. It explained everything! I call this theory the BEM, not the Bug Eyed Monster, but the Background Energy Mass theory. Put simply, background energy is used to either change the mass of atoms in the superhero's body, or change the values of their normal properties (mainly energy, separation and attraction). Either read the science bit, or take my word for it. Your call! |
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Above: Janet Pym, from Avengers volume 3, 81, just after successfully stopping the Avengers Quinjet. It was flying over Britain, and she was giant sized, hanging onto the outside. I have included this picture for three reasons. FIRST, it's just a cool picture. SECOND, I live in Britain. And THIRD, this illustrates how some superheroes can grow to giant size, yet not be crushed by their own mass. So giant heroes must get extra mass from somewhere, AND their molecules are smart enough to function normally in an extremely stretched out state (in order to lower their density), AND they must get extra energy from somewhere to do this (no doubt from the same place they got the extra mass). That is the key idea: they get extra mass from somewhere! Once we understand the giant superheroes we understand all the rest. Where does extra mass come from? Giant man is able to grab mass from anywhere. And lots of other heroes change their mass when they transform (Hulk, Sasquatch, Thing, etc.) But where does the mass come from? Where does it go to? |
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Look at the panels above (featuring Giant Man from Avengers number SomethingOrOther). You will see that the mass goes to or comes from another dimension. As all you quantum physicists and string theorists will know, the concept of quantum background energy requires other dimensions. "Other dimensions" just means "where the background energy is stored." By the way, you will probably have noticed by now that all my examples are from Marvel comics. But don't worry, the principles also apply to DC, Dark Horse, and the rest. How do I know? I just do. It's a cosmic awareness thing. Now if you were paying attention to the Giant Man example, you will also see that it is important not to grow too much, too quickly. Otherwise Bad Things Happen. This is discussed later, in the topic of "powers that change." Of course, mass and energy are really the same thing. As Einstein proved, mass is just a very compressed form of energy. So let's look next at... Superheroes who grab enormous amounts of energy from... somewhere. Where does extra energy come from? Iron Man and the Vision and Black Bolt seem able to grab vast amounts of energy just from normal sunlight or cosmic rays. But get real! A normal solar panel doesn't give enough energy to do what these guys do (fly, smash buildings, etc.) so what gives? Clearly they are telling us a simplified version for the scientifically challenged. Or maybe they are preserving trade secrets. Either way, I will give you the truth. Theoretical physicists tell us that there are vast amounts of untapped energy all around us. Potential energy from being a certain distance from another big galaxy. Potential energy from quark pairs that pop into and out of existence. This is big, big, BIG energy. This is the kind of energy that produces the entire universe from a froth of potential quarks. Havoc is a good example of this. In case you missed those issues, Havoc is Cyclops' brother. In this issue of The Hulk, Havoc explains how he can grab unlimited amounts of energy from the cosmic background, and frankly that scares even him! We'll return to Havoc in a moment. |
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That's why I call this the Background Energy Mass theory. The changes in mass and other stuff comes from the background energy. Superhero cells (and technology) tap into this for all the mass and energy that they need. This may sound exotic, but it is only exotic to us. At the quantum scale, this is just normal mundane everyday life. But at a human scale, tapping into this is not easy. Some heroes are very good at this - like the Beyonder and other Cosmic Cube type guys. Others can grab more modest amounts - like the Silver Surfer. Remember Avengers 266 when he tried to create enough mass to fill a canyon? We learned the limits of his power, which we can summarize like this: Giant Man can grab a few tons of mass (enough to increase his size) but can only use a tiny part as energy to power his own body. The Silver Surfer can grab a few thousand tons and use it in any way he wishes! The Molecule Man can grab billions and billions of tons and also use it in any way he wishes, but he is less skilful or experienced than the Surfer. The raw power of a hero is measured in how much background energy they can grab, but their effectiveness depends on how it is used. Which leads to the next question, why are superheroes different? And why isn't everyone a superhero? Why powers are different Not every hero has the same skill. Obviously they would all get more of it if they could. This suggests that most super folks really don't know how they do it. They either got the power through luck or they use someone else's technology (and that person probably got it through luck). Let's return top Havoc as our example. His only power is to draw unlimited energy from the cosmic background, and use it to destroy things. Hence his name. Havoc. Because he creates havoc. He didn't like destroying stuff, so he retired as a superhero. But Professor X (a very clever guy) reckoned that Havoc could learn to control this power to do more useful things. The crunch comes when Havoc has to rescue the woman he loves, and she is on top of a mountain that the Hulk is about to throw. Havoc's dilemma: if he destroys the mountain, he destroys the girl! So he must learn to control his power more carefully, just like his brother does. |
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| Havoc had a tremendous incentive to learn, and sure enough he managed to channel his power more precisely. He targeted the Hulk's brain. Then he used a controlled force blast to lower his girlfriend gently to the ground. So we see that one general purpose energy power can appear to become a mental power, an antigravity power, and no doubt many other useful powers besides. I am not saying that other heroes can easily change their powers. Clearly it is very difficult to do consciously. Havoc had the advantage that his power was highly unfocused to begin with. If his brain had been already trained to focus his power (as Cyclops' brain was) then it would probably be much harder to change old habits. But the point is, it is possible. Havoc's power, Cyclops' power, all powers, they are basically the same background energy mass trick, but applied in different ways. |
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The BEM theory is the only way to explain super powers Only the BEM theory can explain superpowers, because only the BEM theory can explain how powers change. For example, when the Thing first fought the Super Skrull, it was estimated that he could lift five tons, max. Then five years later he was seen defeating a giant hydraulic press that was designed to crush rocks deep into planets - it must have been at least a 500 ton press. But usually his strength is more in the 50-100 ton range. The BEM theory also explains how powers can do weird and unexpected things. Why? Because all superpowers are really the same universal power, and what they do depends on the circumstances. For example, the Human Torch believes that his power is to burn, which needs air. But in one story he flew to the bottom of the sea, believing that he was gaining oxygen from the vaporized water around him. |
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How can this be? Uninformed readers might think the writer is being sloppy. But not so! How dare you challenge the mighty Stan Lee with your puny intellect? Clearly Stan the Man understands the mass-energy thing more than you do. This is how it works: Clearly a super power must be controlled by the mind to some extent. Otherwise the hero would go round destroying things and bursting into flame accidentally. So there is a strong psychological element. Clearly at times of great stress or confusion the power will be manifest in unexpected ways. Incidentally, this explains how the Hulk can get madder as he gets stronger. If you read the Hulk comics, you will see that it is all about his psychology. But this does not mean that every hero has unlimited strength if they just concentrate. Clearly there is some physical basis to each hero's power, and this places some unknown limitation, and trying to do more (like Spiderman trying to lift an ocean liner) could kill them. Also, the hero can achieve more by learning to control his power than just by letting loose and hoping. So all heroes operate within strict psychological limits. The ones that don't, like the Hulk, have serious psychological problems that are far worse than any benefit that comes from having more power. There is no other explanation. To prove it, just look at this cutting from Avengers 159. |
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In this tale, a rock the size of a small island is compressed into a super-dense ball by Graviton. It then falls to earth and four Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Vision and Wonder Man) catch it. They don't just lift it, they catch it. This thing fell a mile or so straight down, so it must have been gong at a heck of a speed, and they decelerated it to rest within, what, a couple of vertical feet? Anyone who passed high school physics can do the math: force equals mass times acceleration. Millions of tons was no exaggeration. yet according to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, the combined strength of these four heroes should only lift a few hundred tons, max. Not a few million, not a few thousand, just a few hundred. Maybe you say this was a special case and Graviton made the rock lighter? No, he was out of action at this time. Besides, But this is not an isolated case. I could show you others. The point is that sometimes superhero powers change in dramatic ways that you can only explain within the BEM theory. BEM wins by default. James Kakalios' book, The Physics of Superheroes Maybe I should say a bit about "The Physics of Superheroes" by James Kakalios. This is a great book if you want to learn physics. Kakalios takes famous events in the lives of superheroes (like Superman's origin or the death of Gwen Stacey) and does a few calculations. Like how strong must the gravity on Krypton be? And how much force must be applied to hero X to achieve acceleration Y, and what would be the result? Kakalios is a genuine physics professor and his book is worth reading for physics-as-it-is-understood-today. But he does not explain the physics of superheroes! He explains SOME superhero physics, but when he gets to the really interesting stuff, the flying through space and high energy stuff, he either says nothing or he says it cannot be done. He cops out! He runs away from the problem! In fact, he spends the last forty pages of his book denying that some things ever happened! Kakalios' approach is not scientific! When a good scientist sees something he cannot explain, what does he say? Does he close his eyes, stick his fingers in his ears, and say "that thing did not happen"? No! He says "my theories need to be improved!" A good scientists cannot deny the raw data. He cannot ignore them and hope they go away. He cannot tell the universe that it is wrong because it does not work according to popular theories. Where would we be if every scientist was like Kakalios? "If the observation disagrees with my theory, then the observation is wrong!" This is not science! This is anti-science! Kakalios is a great guy and the fact that I am motivated by bitterness and envy is not the point. The fact is that Superman does fly. Everyone who has ever seen a Superman comic or movie has seen it with their own eyes. And Cyclops really does exert massive forces from his eyes without any obvious recoil effect. He has done it numerous times. If our theories cannot account for this, then our theories need to change! The BEM theory may sound exotic, and it does appeal to facts that are not yet accepted by most scientists (i.e. that atoms have an internal structure that can be adapted to make use of cosmic background energy). But it is consistent with all known physical laws, and it is the only theory that explains the physics of superheroes. Take it or leave it. It's the only theory in town. :) OK, now you are ready for the science... or focus in on mutant powers... Or you can skip it and just go the see how your favorite superhero does his or her thing. |
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