Comic physics - what can you think of?

[Leigh]

Here are some I have mentioned before:

• Hulk shouldn't hit that hard. f=ma or p=mv, whichever you prefer. Either way, speed is an important component. Hulk is heavy but doesn't have superspeed. He has the strength to ensure that all of his bodyweight is behind a punch but if he weighs 1000lbs, he should only be hitting 5-7 times harder than a decent boxer. Spider-man should punch harder than Hulk. Now if it comes to grappling, no chance. Hulk will squish anyone.
• Spider-man should be bullet proof, at least from small arms. He can lift 10 tons, making him more than 100 times stronger than an average man. If he can lift 100 times more, his bones, tendons and skin etc also need to be proportionally stronger. So a bullet would feel 100 times weaker to him. A .45 would feel 10 times weaker than an air pistol to him.
• A common explanation for Superman's ability to fly is that he manipulates gravitons. How does that help him move in space? Or move left and right? He would need something heavy to attract or repel against.

What can you guys think of? Unfortunately, if you're thinking of the Flash, the answer is always "speed force"

 

[Punch]

Taken from the Marvel wiki:
Hulk (Robert Bruce Banner) - Marvel Comics Database
Superhuman Leaping: The Hulk is able to use his highly developed leg muscles to leap great distances. As the Hulk becomes enraged, his strength increases considerably, which means he can jump farther than usual. The Hulk has transposed 1,000 miles with a single leap,[289] and he jumped on top of the Mount Olympus from ground level, in one single leap.[290] On more than one occasion, the Hulk has nearly jumped into the Earth's orbit.[291][2] The Hulk also shows incredible precision with his ability to aim his jumps and landings. He grabbed missiles on multiple occasions and landed on islands barely visible from the height he fell from.[289] The Hulk's super leap has also been measured as reaching 473 mph.

Superhuman Speed: Regardless of his size, Hulk's superhumanly strong legs allow him to run at speeds that are well beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete. Hulk's speed is so relatively high that, while tunneling underground from Subterranea to California at superhuman speeds, the Avengers apprehensively feared that the Hulk could fracture the San Andreas fault line in a matter of few hours.[100] The Hulk has once spun around like a tornado to get Mr. Fantastic off him.[28] In a notorious display of speed, the Hulk can even surpass an aircraft's speed while on land.[190] The Hulk also possesses immense swimming speeds as well. He has been clocked to be swimming at 80 knots,[289] and has even matched Namor's underwater speed,[91] even while Namor was moving at speeds enough to create a whirlpool,[72] much to the Atlantean king's surprise. Referring to the Hulk's formidable speed, Banner pondered that the Hulk is able to run at eye-blurring speeds and swim fast enough to build propulsion.[323] The Hulk has been fast enough to capture mortar shells and missiles shot at him.[249][324] The Hulk has also eventually been recognized to be extremely agile proportionally to his size.[28][119][55][248][325][267] His reflexes have even been described as "lightning-fast reflexes".[326][134] More examples of his prodigious reaction-time include pursuing and touching Silver Surfer while he was maneuvering at high speeds,[69] and struck Quicksilver who attacked him at super speed.[327]

Check out Indestructable Hulk #11 to see how fast the big guy can really go. Will research the others later...

 

[vermonter]

Oh I'm def getting in on this.

 

[Punch]

Ok so the plane the Hulk caught was going about 250 meters per second and his weight at the time was around 521.6 kg, so if he hits you using this formula of f=ma it's going to impact with the force of 130,400 Newtons. That's fucking 29315.0860945672 LBS!

 

[Punch]

Regarding Superman's Space flight, here's a good article on it.
How does Superman fly in space (in reference to "Man of Steel")? - Quora

 

[Leigh]

I know Hulk has some speed feats but he punches slow. His lack of speed has been used against him numerous times in fights. Wolverine, Spiderman and an old Aikido woman have all dodged him.

 

[Leigh]

Regarding Superman's Space flight, here's a good article on it.
How does Superman fly in space (in reference to "Man of Steel")? - Quora

Emitting ions would work but the amount he'd be emitting would frazzle anyone near him.

Good suggestions though

 

[Punch]

Concerning Spider Man's resistance to bullets, what i've been reading states strength doesn't equal density. I'm having a very hard time tracking this one down in canon. Will update when i find any new info.

 

[Punch]

I know Hulk has some speed feats but he punches slow. His lack of speed has been used against him numerous times in fights. Wolverine, Spiderman and an old Aikido woman have all dodged him.

 

[Punch]

Hulk is actually kind of a speedster now.

 

[Leigh]

LOL

 

[Punch]

LOL

That's what happens when you tell Mark Waid to do the Hulk i guess.

 

[Punch]

Found this on Comicvine in the case of Spider Man:

Spider-Man (Character) - Comic Vine
Superhuman Durability

Spider-Man also has incredible durability to blunt trauma as his body is much tougher than that of a normal person. He can withstand such levels of damage and punishment that would kill non-super powered individuals. For example he has frequently taken blows from characters with high levels of superhuman strength (Hulk, Venom, Rhino, Puma, Green Goblin etc) without sustaining significant injury. He has also survived the force of having a building collapse on him multiple times. This durability extends to falling from great heights. For example, he was once knocked through three buildings by Mr Negative before falling multiple stories to the ground, yet still remained conscious. His durability to blunt trauma also extends to explosive forces, and he has taken explosions with the force of a hand grenade and recovered nearly instantly in a recent fight with the Juggernaut. In the Sins Past Storyline he tanked a building destroying explosion, but was significantly weakened afterwards. The toughness of Spider-Man is such that he often rolls with the blows of punches thrown by non-powered foes to avoid injuring them- when he once decided to tense his abdominal muscles against the blows of a trained boxer, the boxer broke his wrists. Scorpion once described Spider-Man's body "as being as hard as concrete".

However, Spider-Man's durability isn't nearly as formidable against penetrative forces. He can be hurt by knives and bullets much in the same way that normal humans can, and has been rendered unconscious by a tracking bullet which pierced his shoulder. Normal bullets also tend to cause Spider-Man problems as well. When he lost his Spider-Sense and faced a villain known as Massacre who utilized multiple weaponry and traps, Spider-Man decided to make a bulletproof suit from tech at Horizon labs. However, if injured by such forces, Spider-Man healing factor allows him to heal much faster than normal humans can

 

[Leigh]

That's another good one. LOL @ taking punches from Hulk and Jobbernaut, being smashed through buildings and having a body "as hard as concrete" yet having problems with knives and hand guns.

 

[Punch]

That's another good one. LOL @ taking punches from Hulk and Jobbernaut, being smashed through buildings and having a body "as hard as concrete" yet having problems with knives and hand guns.

Probably can be explained as some point of impact/concentrated force in an area to a degree... but yeah man i agree that there are plenty of comic book instances that are just silly or outlandish..

I dunno, you gotta have some verisimilitude when reading comic books; Especially the super hero ones.

 

[Jonny Quest]

 

[vermonter]

I wanted to be better prepared for this, but in doing so, I'll never actually post it, so here goes:

Superman's power level has always bothered me. Dude is solar powered. And, in reality, it would be the difference in energy between his red sun (which, frankly would provide just as much energy since it would have to have been closer to krypton than Sol is to earth, but I digress) and our yellow sun. And it would be the amount of radiation he'd absorb across his exposed surface area (which he almost completely covers...).

Point is, he'd be stronger than a normal person, but not by much. About as much stronger as a patch of grass is with a similar surface area.

We also know he doesn't absorb all (or even most) of the energy because if he did you wouldn't be able to see him. He'd be pitch black.

In short, how can someone use the energy from light to be faster and more powerful than light?

 

[Leigh]

Agreed. He doesn't receive enough energy to lift a car, let alone push planets.

Regarding not getting energy on Krypton, maybe the frequency of the red light isn't adequate. Maybe he needs the UV light from a yellow sun. Plants don't grow under any old type of light.

And how does solar radiation improve his hearing and eyesight?

 

[Leigh]

Another one I was thinking of was Wonder Woman. She can trade blows with Superman and Doomsday but needs her bracelets to block bullets? Da fuq? She'd experience stronger forces flying through the air at the speed she can travel.

 

[vermonter]

I suppose, but it's not like the red star doesn't put out a full spectrum, it just doesn't do so in quite the same way right? It's just more red, not that there aren't other colors in there.

And the habitable zone for a red star is just nearer... so again, the intensity of the radiation should be similar, yes? It's interesting though. Does a red star actually look red when you're on a planet in the habitable zone?

But regardless we agree.

 

[Punch]

Photonucleic Effect - Superman Wiki

It has to do with his kryptonian physiology and the planetary origin according to this.

 

[Punch]

Y'all getting awful deep into this. Way more so than i ever would on my own.

 

[vermonter]

That explanation makes me want to punch the author in the face, FYI.

Also, Krypton's red star is supposed to be a red GIANT???? Ludicrous. I hate this even more now.

 

[Punch]

That explanation makes me want to punch the author in the face, FYI.

Also, Krypton's red star is supposed to be a red GIANT???? Ludicrous. I hate this even more now.

The character was created in 1933. They've had to retcon his powers and abilities numerous times, in no small part to advancing understanding of the way the universe works.
Have you read this page yet? Superman's Powers and Abilities - Superman Wiki

 

[vermonter]

Well, I'm glad, but this speaks to a larger issue. When there's so many writers, and they have only so great an understanding of certain facets of biology, physics, etc... you get shit that's PIS enough to take me out of the story. E.G. an object as small as superman cannot push a planet. It isn't possible. The planet doesn't have enough density and stability to move as a unit when pushed on such a small point. He would just pass through.

Besides, I'm pretty sure the superman bench pressing the weight of the earth for a lot of reps was a recent story. The sun doesn't provide enough energy to him to do anything resembling a feat like that. Like Leigh mentioned, it's not even enough to lift a car. Might not be enough to throw a basketball.