Pretty sure he's jumping into water in that scene. Despite water being as hard as concrete at high speeds, by comic logic all he'd need to do is use his shield to break the surface tension of the water as he dove in.

Sounds reasonable. I've been actually trying to track down a scan from the Moon Knight issues where Echo uses a vibranium staff made by (or more accurately, modified to include a vibranium "sliver" by) Buck Lime. The staff is designed to increase the impact of each blow (i.e., release energy) so it kind of supports the theory, but I can't seem to find any scans of Buck explaining it or Maya actually hitting anyone with it. I thought for sure she smacked Snapdragon with it at least once.

That makes sense. Theoretically it could be set up in some kind of a lattice like carbon. Carbon can be very strong on one axis and very weak on another (it is how pencils work.) An energy version of this is maybe a good explanation.

My headcanon explanation is that Cap's shield absorbs and stores energy when struck flat (slowly bleeding this out over time), but releases the stored energy when struck on the edge. This makes getting hit with the shield hurt like a mother-trucker. This also explains why the thing bounces so dramatically when thrown instead of losing momentum with each strike.

Of course, that's all just made up by me so I don't grind my teeth when I see it bouncing all over the place. But the bonus of this explanation is that jumping out of a plane and landing on his shield is a good way for cap to "charge up" his shield before a mission.

Yeah, I get that. I just find that ultimately, the answer is not a scientific one. It's just that the writers wanted it that way. I don't mind bad science. I just hate it when they seem out of character. :}

I just assumed he had a plan. Lol

I know, only when I saw it for the first time it just occurred to me that with the shield that he wouldn't need one.

Captain America has never really needed a parachute to jump out of a plane. Ultimate Cap has never even used a parachute, I can name like four separate instances where he jumped out of a plane without using one. 616 Cap does occasionally use them in his plane-jumping excursions, but he's still more than capable of doing so without one.

As for the shield, the idea behind it is that the mixture of vibranium and its unknown alloy creates an unique once-in-a-lifetime metal with special properties. Molecule Man once described its molecular makeup as being the 'weirdest of all' in comparison to Surfer's board and Thor's hammer.

So, at least for me, that's how I justify it defying all physical law ;)

@razzatazz: He did use a parachute in Avengers, he grabbed it and put it on before he jumped out of the jet after Thor and Iron Man. They didn't show him land tho.

@cbishop: Analyzing it like this is me enjoying it :)

oH no comic books are not following tHe rules of pHysics or logic! WHy are tHey doing tHis?

-ABstract4$#073-

@cbishop: yup, I usually don't take them that seriously.

Need of the writers in that particular story. Oldie but goodie: "suspend your disbelief." It's a comic book- just enjoy it.

Explain why some times cyclops beams send him flying and others it just gets blocked?

it's actually a take on a scene from the first issue of Ultimates