It has been a long time since I did a "Science of ..." blog, mostly because my reading preferences shifted away from the science-focused series of the early new 52 (well actually DC shifted away as well, cancelling regular Science of ... series Mr. Terrific, Firestorm and Captain Atom.) At the behest of a friend I have started reading the mostly all female X-Men. I am still a little lost in terms of the characters, but the science I can tackle. This issue is divided between Wolverine and Jubilee in Los Angeles and the remainder of the team trying to assist a plane in distress over the Sierra Nevada mountains. There was no science in the Jubilee part, but the other part had some (spoilers obviously).

Cord Strength

Gallery

I never would have thoughts of it before, but how does one make a line or cord out of telekinetic energy? There is unfortunately no common answer as when Rogue descends the cord between the two planes the cord that she is shown to be using is both flexible and inflexible. It would stand to reason that any cord of TK energy would be absolutely straight as it is not a type of energy which is considered to be at all normal. Despite this, the strength of any cord is at its weakest at the exact center point of the cord, which therefore asks the question, why are the X-Men flying their aircraft so far away from the plane. The larger the distance the greater the strain and the more likely that the cord will snap.

Verdict: Comic science

Air resistance

I am not saying that the above panel is impossible to achieve at least in terms of the desired effect, but it certainly wouldn't work like this. The stall speed for a large airplane like a passenger jet is well above the speed that it would take to blow a regular person easily off of holding a cord, no matter how strong they were. OK ... Rogue is a superhero and could be using some built up whatever to hold on, but even if she were it would look nothing like how she is depicted here, somewhat casually crawling down the TK line. Instead she would be essentially hanging on for her life and hoping that gravity could do its work and pull her down, providing that the downward force of the gravity was not overcome by the sideways force of the drag.What would have been a lot easier? Get in front of the plane and let both the drag and the gravity work, but they approached from behind for some reason. I guess they wanted more of a challenge.

Verdict: Bad Science

Material Stresses and Pressure

So for a pretty accurate look at what would be the real effect of a mid air intervention, it is worth checking out the movies Superman Returns and The Dark Knight Rises. Don't check out too much of Superman Returns, as it is mostly bad science except for the part where Superman tries to grab the wing and the wing falls off. In TDKR the wings tear off after Bane and his men have grabbed hold of the plane. The common theme here is that wings rip off really easily of airplanes. So it makes very little sense to focus the telekinetic energy on the wings. Another thing to consider is the weight. I am not sure how much a loaded airplane weighs (let's just say ... a lot) and to hold a plane up by two cords in this way is going to accomplish two things. It is going to cut right through the X-Men aircraft and it is going to put a ridiculous amount of weight on two small points on the plane below meaning that regardless of where the TK cords are, that they are going to tear through the plane. The thing is though, that the weight and the momentum of the plane are mostly fixed in the equation, so spreading telekinesis over the entire hull or on a small point is going to require the same amount of effort and it would not make the plane go topsy-turvy as it would have done (like in TDKR.) If there is one salvageable point it is that the the X-Men's aircraft can produce a lot of thrust, and probably as much as a fighter jet, which means that lift is not as much of a consideration to fly. That being the case, it might actually be able to handle the load.

Verdict: Bad Science

I was reading the most recent X-Men and something caught my eye. I didn't think about it at first, but something seemed pretty familiar to me. Jubilee was wearing a pair of tights:

They are pretty cool looking, but when I took a closer look, they are actually these:

These tights come from Australian company Black Milk (which I am a big fan of). There is no way to be sure, but how many times do specific items show up in comics, and not just name brands?

Steampunk as a genre is slowly finding a way to infiltrate comics. I have mentioned this before in its occasional introduction into Grimm Fairy Tales, including a what is essentially a steampunk character is Liesel Van Helsing. As I was watching Heroes of Cosplay last night, one of the characters decided to create a steampunk stormtrooper (steamtrooper). It was a pretty interesting costume and one of the better ones in terms of original design:

I was completely impressed with the character until the judges asked him about his design. "Why would a strormtrooper have goggles?" one of the judges asked. I was expecting an answer like "steamtroopers operate on the steam moon of Halta V, and when trapped in a steam pocket their regular visors are not sufficient protection so they deploy their steam goggles." Instead the response was "Because they look badass!" which resulted in me yelling "NOOOOOOO!" at my screen.

In my appreciation of steampunk and how it is used in its own small niche, this is a common problem. People regard steampunk as something which has a thematic look but not a practical story behind it. In comics recently, Antarctic Press has made it a thing to try to get industry recognition by depicting the genre in a series of one shot steampunk themed specials:

The problem with the concept is that of a running cliche at this point. A steampunk character does not need to have goggles (to be fair many of the Antarctic Press characters don't) and if they do they should have some kind of meaning to the character. The idea behind the original introduction of steampunk goggles was that because steampunk characters were using the technology of today based off of steam power and the equivalent technology of the time, that they had to be continually tinkering with their technological items, which would require magnifying goggles. I think in order to better capture the spirit of the genre that it is necessary to understand why certain items belong to the genre in the first place. In terms of the HoC steamtrooper, this is even more evident, as a crossover character the background story and the thematic look don't need to mesh at all.

After the introduction to the show and the characters last week at Wizard Con, this week the focus of the show changes to Emerald City Comic Con. After the first week of the show I had some preconceived notions about this show, but after this week I can see that this show actually has a bit more depth than I thought that it would. This episode included the introduction of three new cast members - Riki, Monika and Chloe. In a sense it is an reintroduction ti the world of cosplay for all of them. Chloe is more of a reporter, Riki has visited a special effects artist to figure out how to take cosplay to a new level, and Monika is being influenced by a colleague to go for more sex appeal.

Most of the show focuses on the latter, with the industry veterans such as Riki and Yaya Han trying to influence the younger cosplayer to more meaning to the pursuits. It is evocative of a lot of questions which are pertinent to women in the industry as a whole, such as whether to sell out with sexiness or to go with a character and look that is more in line with what a character might actually look realistically look like. There is a somewhat staged meeting between the older characters and Chloe where this is talked about in greater detail. As a side story and one which highlights the questions about Monika's character, Chloe wonders whether cosplay is not just for fun, or if there is something more (with the question of whether a 300 pound man should go as Superman?) I thought in terms of the amount of gravity that this show had, that I was not expecting as much actual conversation about the industry. As the show bills itself beside the purely competition based Face Off, I was expecting a lot more of direct competition, so I was happy to see some discussion here in terms of bigger issues.

As I occasionally allude to, I am a big fan of the show So You Think You Can Dance. Being a big fan of comics as well, it was interesting this week when the two of those interests intersected on the show. Long time fan favourite and show veteran tWitch happens to also be a huge superhero fan, and when given the chance to choreograph a dance on the show for the first time, he chose a superhero theme. Take a look:

The entire dance is the part preceding an actual heroic endeavour, and so did not feel very superhero like in parts, but it was still well danced. It is nice to see that people can use inspiration from the medium for other artistic creations, though the bridge from comics to dance is a large one.

I am not much of an artist. I have been trying to learn, mostly as a function of being able to give writing concept better development as I perceive them. This morning I sat down and tried to draw a character (with Lily Collins as a base) but ended up crumpling up both of them and throwing them out. Coincidentally I was looking into an obscure DC team this morning called the Omega Men. I am not sure if their stories are memorable, but as I use a lot of campy science fiction for the inspiration I am always on the lookout for more. One photo was interesting to me which came fro the first encounter with Hal Jordan with the characters. The set up was kind of funny to begin with. As a native of Canada's Atlantic provinces, I rarely if ever see any comic book action set in the any of them, and while this was more far away Newfoundland it still kind of felt like home. The setup made sense though, the Omage Men needed a place to hide out of sight, and what better place in North America to do so. Equally Halm and Carol were interested in getting away from it all completely, and so again it was a perfect setting. Anyway here is the panel:

Again, I have very little experience as an artist, but one of the things which I thought was an unwritten rule among comic book artists was not to include accessories unless they are absolutely essential to the character, to the point of not including them as characteristics of certain characters instead of having to draw them time and again. This seems to be the case here as the artist has decided to give one of the characters (Kallista) nearly impossibly long eyelashes (they stick out from her face almost as far as her nose.) I guess it is just a case of artists not following one of their own rules.

Seeing as I am somewhat of a fan of the SyFy series Face Off, I decided to give this new show as well, which is based on a similar format, though somewhat different in execution. As opposed to Face Off which takes professional and puts them in an artificial setting, this show takes amateurs and puts them in the real world setting of cosplay competitions at conventions. In so doing it might seem as though the six featured cosplayers were being given some kind of advantage over the remainder of their competition, though it really turn out like that. For anyone that is used to seeing Face Off, the initial episode of this series seems to be a bit restricted in its accomplishments as instead of truly letting imagination run wild it is more about trying to strictly adhere to the established deigns of certain characters. At the same time though this is an interesting look into the world of cosplay and I can't really think of a format that is better than this in terms of connecting with an audience. It is not exactly must-see tv, but it accomplishes what it is after well enough and is endearing enough in the process. The characters aren't all from comics, but they do a good enough job as well of representing characters from across a variety of media.

I was looking for some inspiration for writing this morning, and so I went back to what started it all. It is not really what started it all per se, as I have been having ideas about stuff to write about since forever, but watching John Carter last year really got me started on the concept of a neat science fiction story that I could write which was based somewhat in a harder form of science fiction than the inspiration of John Carter and Adam Strange.

Incidentally, I was thinking about something else this morning, the concept of dystopian worlds and the idea came to me of the All Star Squadron/Justice League of America/Justice Soicety of America crossover which started the whole Crisis on Infinite Earths concept (and led to the other Crisis series.) It has been a while since I read these, I read them first when I read through most of the original Justice League of America series when I was younger. I had thus forgotten about what happened really in this story arc. The thing which ties these two together is gladiatorial combat. In John Carter I had forgotten that the main hero at one point is put into a gladiatorial ring by the Tharks and made to battle some giant white apes. In the beginning of the second part of the crossover with the JLA (issue #14 of the All Star Squadron) the characters are lined up to do battle in a world where Per Degaton (who is essentially Hitler) has taken over.

I am not sure what it is about gladiatorial combat, but or some reason it speaks to us as people. I suppose part of it is that as entertainment we tend to not care too much about the fate of the entertainers as long as we are in fact entertained, and if someone dies for our pleasure than that is fine for some. I think that can be too jaded of an outlook though, as gladiatorial combat also represents the ultimate in underdog battles, where even the victors might be put to death by an unforgiving stadium, that it provides fertile ground for the emergence of a hero (as was well displayed in the movie Gladiator.)

As with any such popular culture there are some cliches, for instance the phrase "Ave Imperatur, morituri te salutent" which translates as the always present plea of "we who are about to die salute you" appears in a lot of versions of the gladiatorial combat, though there is actually only one instance of this ever being used in the history of the ancient Roman games. As a cliche and plot device though, I think that gladiatorial combat can almost prove to be effective provided that the ground is set for it. It makes me wonder where exactly this could be used? Gladiatorial combat involving vampires or zombies? A true dystopian gladiator?

When I first started on this site I had somewhat more of an interest in fashion as it relates to comics. One sequence of blogs which I posted was blogs from movie premieres involving comic characters. I stopped doing this after a while, mostly because I ran out of movies, but also because I had veered a bit too far off of what might actually be considered a comic character and was mostly posting random pictures. In the mix of this are the Smurfs, who are way more comic characters than a lot of the characters I made an exception for, but the premiere pictures stood out for me for two reasons, I really liked the original Smurfs movie and I really liked the dress that Katy Perry wore to the premiere (seen in part 1 of the blog). I have yet to see part 2 (I was actually the most keen to see this movie than any other this summer, but haven't gotten to it yet) but here are the premiere photos, a bit more sedate this time.

As is somewhat the standard for me, I am way behind on summer movie watching. I am not even sure about the movies that I should have seen which I haven't yet, though I did see Man of Steel. As a comic fan, near the top of the list should have been Iron Man 3, but I think at this point that I will just wait for it to watch at home. There has been one thing kind of bothering me about the movie and that is the riding of the shock wave scene when the Stark mansion gets blown up. This is kind of a problem with action movies in general, and not really specific to Iron Man 3, but I will get around to why Iron Man is probably the worst case for riding a shock wave.

It is not really relevant that this generally is an effect which can be applied only to heroes (heroes ride shock waves, villains experience trauma and death) but there is a fair amount of bad science behind this. Explosions occur when there is a release of chemical energy (or nuclear energy - but let's ignore that because nuclear weapon do not really create shrapnel). Generally these explosions do two things, they create a shock wave and they create tiny flying pieces of debris (the aforementioned shrapnel.) The shockwave is because of the rapid expansion of air around the explosive device and is generally of secondary importance to explosions, as the flying debris essentially makes a bunch of miniature bullets. As an example take a look at this picture of a soldier that survived an IED explosion:

Luckily this guy was apparently wearing a helmet and ballistic eyeglasses, but the difference between the two is quite evident. Below the eyes they are hundred of tiny puncture wounds, just like explosives are designed to do. Thus the first major problem with riding the shock wave is that it doesn't account for all the actual dangerous stuff. Maybe the heroes good a bit bloodied but it is rarely consistent with the actual explosion

Wit the grim part of the analysis out of the way, the next major problem of the riding of shockwaves is the shockwave itself. First of all, shrapnel travels faster through air than shockwaves do, because shrapnel is a solid, and shock waves are made of gas. That they are made of gas is a good way to illustrate the problem, because how many times has a person been standing in the wind and blown off of their feet? Not just knocked down, but actually picked up and moved aloft? Almost never, it would require greater than hurricane force winds. Not to say that an explosion cannot create such winds, just that air offers extremely poor drag. For air to move anything, it would have to hit all at once, kind of like a giant pillow, but even then a pillow is not a good comparison because pillows are made of solid matter. Instead if one were to effectively ride a shockwave, they would already have to be traveling in the same direction with the same relatively energy. To compare this to a different kind of wave action, when surfers try to catch a wave, they paddle furiously to match the speed. If they just sat in the water, the wave would mostly pass underneath them. In the case of a stationary person (or worse ... one walking towards the explosion) it would be essentially impossible to ride a shock wave. Also if one was already matching the relative speed of the shock wave in order to be blown back by it, why would they need the shockwave anyway?

OK, so with the riding of the shockwave somewhat dispelled as a visually impressive but scientifically impossible occurrence in action movies, why does this matter specifically to Iron Man? It is because his origin as a super hero depends on him not riding the shockwave. If he had done so with the explosion that otherwise would have lodged the shrapnel near his heart, he would never had needed to become Iron Man in the first place.