Perhaps movie director Kevin Smith said it best when he commented that it was a touch of the impossible that makes superheroes so appealing: "Nobody's built like superheroes are in the comics, women or men. If you were really as ripped as The Hulk, you couldn't leap from building to building -you'd barely be able to stretch enough to put on your socks."
Gresh and Weinberg address this and many other blatant impossibilities in an absorbing collection of real-world science lessons that dissect, piece by piece, some of the central plotlines of most superhero comic book stories. Beginning with the "is there intelligent life on other planets?" question that revolves around Superman's origins, the book points out the many and varied examples of "pseudo-science" and assorted technobabble that form many a backstory.
Each chapter begins with a well-known superhero's origins, along with a brief history of the storyline and developments along the course of that character's emergence as a popular genre icon. After this summary, a thorough (and merciless) scientific or technical debunking follows. The true nature of cosmic radiation and gamma radiation (the supposed genesis of Marvel's Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk) are explained. A brief history of the legend of Atlantis and some basic marine biology follows (erasing the likelihood of characters such as Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner). A lesson on arachnid physiology and behavior is examined, making Spider-Man's powers seem pretty far-fetched. A few fundamental premises about mass-energy conservation are reviewed, putting the idea of fifty-story giants or microbe-sized superheroes firmly outside the realm of believability, as well as the premise of high-speed heroes such as The Flash and The Avengers' Quicksilver.
Other elements of the superhero universe, however, are given a touch more credibility -the notion of containing the energies of a black hole is hypothesized, lending a faint respectability to the premise behind Green Lantern's abilities. Likewise the varied (and occasionally opposing) theories of human evolution and mutation are addressed, which at least provides some tangible groundwork to the recurring central theme of the X-Men. Of course some of the X-Men's individual superhuman powers remain strictly fictional, such as emitting high-energy plasma from one's eyes (Cyclops) or the ability to transform one's own skin into metal alloy (Colossus). Nonetheless some other gifts, most of which revolve around the phenomenon of psychokinesis (as with Storm) or telepathy (as with Professor X or his protégé, Jean Grey), are examined and a number of inadequately-explained medical cases presented.
In only one chapter do the authors relent and admit that one superhero premise is entirely possible in today's world: the story of Batman. Part of that particular title's long-lasting appeal has to do with the fact that its hero has no superhuman abilities -apart from his obsessive drive and lightning-fast powers of deductive reasoning. There is nothing substantially part of Bruce Wayne's night vigilantism that isn't truly beyond the realm of possibility. Even the once-fantastic miniature crimefighting devices attached to Batman's ubiquitous "utility belt" are today a fairly standard and unremarkable collection of equipment that could be found in any cop or detective's vest pocket or glove compartment ("buildering" cable, miniature camera, fingerprint kit, lockpick, smoke/gas capsule, oxyacetylene torch, infrared goggles, wireless surveillance gear, etc). To quote Kevin Smith again: "With a lifetime of training, you could be Batman. You'd need an assload of bank for the cool cave and the car, but you could do it if you were really committed."
The upshot of Gresh and Weinberg's collection of science refreshers isn't so much to let the wind out of the collective sails of comic book fans and superhero aficionados, so much as it is to reaffirm the superhero's unique position in contemporary culture. As with Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other popular fiction, our enjoyment of these amazing characters' exploits has little to do with scientific plausibility or how believable their powers are; it is something more primal that causes them to endure and reinvent themselves generation after generation. In the authors' words, "these are characters that we want to be real."
