The Science of Deathstroke #6
By RazzaTazz 11 Comments
As a special request I was asked to have a look at the science of Deathstroke #6 and with the issue on hand I thought I would oblige. Keep in mind I do not usually read Deathstroke so I am not really up to date on this series (or at all) but with that in mind here I go.
Body Language
Ravager’s mother here is displayed in a position which is known as the leg twine (I know this as I am presently reading a book on body language.) The leg twine can be used by a woman who is interested in a man as a sign that she is interested in him without saying so as when one leg is pressed against the other it gives the appearance of highly toned muscles, which is the position the body takes just before engaging in sex. So what does this mean here? Is she trying to seduce her son? Is it a use of subliminal images to make the artwork more visually enticing to the reader? In both cases no (and I certainly hope not for the first question.) So why did I include it? Because in order to do a “Science of …” analysis I need at least two things to analyze and so this I guess makes it to two.
Verdict: Bad Science (just kidding, this is not really related to anything in the issue at all)
Electro-Magnetic Pulse
So seeing as that last topic was an extreme reach and as I was requested to do one of these articles on this issue, it is easy to figure out what the request might have been for - it was for the impromptu electro-magnetic pulse which Slade manages to create with his sword. As far as I know the electro-magnetic pulse’s first major appearance in fiction was in the James Bond movie Goldeneye, and due to the success and popularity of this movie combined with the sort of easy off-the-shelf application of the electro-magnetic pulse as an easy plot device, it kind of caught on in fiction, showing up in movies such as Eraser or Ocean’s Eleven. There is actually very little understanding of how these work as far as I have seen them displayed in fiction. The easiest way to accomplish one of these is by an explosion in the upper atmosphere by a nuclear weapon in which the gamma rays created in an explosion interfere with electrons in the ionosphere and this affects the Earth’s magnetic field in a small area (I am not a ballistic or nuclear physicist, someone else feel to jump in here.) This will knock out all kinds of electronics in the affected area below on the Earth’s surface. This is clearly not what Slade has done here though seeing as he created this with his sword and some wire. Slade has created what is known as a non-nuclear EMP (also known as an NNEMP). This do in fact exist, just they are on a much lower scale as their energy source is based on a chemical reaction not a nuclear one. While these do exist they are pretty tricky and serve only a small area. I am not going to go too much into the science of this as I do not understand it in any more than a superficial sense, but this would not work. NNEMPs are based on some very specific ability to interfere with magnetic fields, something which would be impossible with wire wrapped around a sword. By the way even though Wade is tapping into a reactor for this, the energy would still be based on a chemical reaction (there are no reactors which convert nuclear energy to electricity directly.) So the verdict is … wait I am not done yet. Because I am going to give a never before given designation to this. It is actually not particularly difficult to insulate against an EMP blast. Earlier in the issue the bad guy claims to be wearing an armour made of Nth Metal. I am not intimately familiar with this stuff (but I do read Hawkman) and I do know that this stuff can modify all kinds of energy, including what would be here an extremely low yield EMP. So this deserves a designation of bad comic science as the nth metal would stop the blast even if it were possible.
Verdict: Bad Comic Science