I'll start by saying that I really enjoyed watching the new Man of Steel movie! It was a very immersive experience, and I thought the character of Superman was explained better both physically and psychologically than previous adaptations had done. So the next series of posts are going to be a breakdown of how some of his amazing power can be made possible! Before we start, SPOILER ALERT: Superman saves the day! Let's start with his most obvious feature: super strength. For this, I'm going to cite James Kakalios' The Physics of Superheroes. He goes through some basic calculations in the first chapter and concludes that the planet Krypton had a force of gravity 15 times greater than that of Earth acting on the inhabitants, so Clark's Kryptonian body is adapted to withstanding much stronger forces than humans usually encounter. The chapter goes further to explain that this increased gravity can be caused by super high density neutron star matter at the core of the planet. Even better, this neutron star core would bring about the instability that caused Krypton to collapse just after baby Kal-El was shot into space! It is reasonable to think that Superman's DNA was wired to build a body with incredibly strong bones and muscles, but some will cite the counterargument of "Use it or lose it" in protest. Sure, Clark probably did not reach his full strength potential at first since his muscles wouldn't have overdeveloped in the weaker gravity field. Still, he would have been born naturally stronger than other kids, and once he realized that he probably started bench-pressing farm equipment to build up his body. What else would you do if you were an awkward super-powered adolescent? The super strength explanation spills over into a discussion of his flight powers. Super strong legs is the only explanation needed for the original Golden Age Superman that was "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" because that was all he got: one bound. This style of flying is similar to the Hulk's galavanting around NYC in The Avengers. There was a subtle homage to this early Superman description in the Man of Steel movie when Kal-El is first testing the limits of his powers after discovering his true identity. He starts flying by making really really big jumps, but then after a few tries he learns the mysterious "double jump" skill and can change course in mid-air without any solid surfaces to push off of. So yeah, there's not really a good scientific explanation than that, sorry.
Stay tuned for X-ray vision Xplained!
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Alanna DurkinExploring the realm of biologically inspired design one superhero example at a time, with some other natural sciences mixed in. Archives
September 2016
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