Super Hero

Okay, now I'm getting into real speculation here. However, super heroes have been around since the thirties in comic book form. Before that, ancient civilizations like Greece and Egypt formulated super beings as gods. Nowadays, everyone is familiar with the super heroes of Marvel and DC comics. But, is anything like that even possible?

First of all, what is a super hero? The definition, as found in Wikipedia and elsewhere, is that a super hero has extraordinary powers or abilities when compared to a normal person. These powers could be physical, such as flying and super strength, or they could be things like enhanced senses or the ability to control forces, such as lightening, wind, electromagnetic radiation, and even gravity. In some cases a super hero has exaggerated marshal art abilities. Super heroes usually have a strong moral code, but not always. They also have a very powerful motivation to fight crime or enemies. In many cases they hide their true identity by wearing a distinctive uniform or costume, in many cases a mask to hide their faces.

Realistically, super hero powers and abilities are fictional and not physically possible. However, one could propose possible ways to circumvent this reality restriction.

One such way could be an amazing armor suit; such as the one that Tony Stark uses to be Iron Man. There are prototype suits that allow a person to fly, but the kind of rocket power that Iron Man uses is beyond current technology. When I watch Iron Man episodes, I wonder how Tony is able to survive the excessive G-forces and sudden impacts without injury. Be that as it may, this is a possible solution to acquiring super powers.

I go back to the Superman comic era, and one thing that I like about superman is
that he's an alien from a planet that has a much higher gravity than Earth. That would produce a human-like being with super powers. However, flying is still a problem. Flying requires some sort of propulsion force. Superman just seems to have this power without a source. This makes his ability to fly more of a mythical god-like power. The only creatures we see that can fly are members of bird species. They have wings, which is how man discovered a way to build airplanes. Flying without wings would be problematic unless one has a directed rocket propulsion system.

Of course, there is the Batman hero type, who is not powerful, but knows how to employ powerful technology to fight crime. Wearing a mask is most important to this type of super hero.

Another possible way to create super human powers is by use of performance enhancing drugs, the kind that professional athletes use. One of the more common ones is EPO or Erythropoietin, a synthetic version of the material in our bodies. This drug was created for cancer patients. It works by increasing the amount of red corpuscles in the blood. Red corpuscles carry oxygen to the cells, which is needed to metabolize and create energy. The reason it was used by athletes for blood doping, such as bicyclists, is because it allows super human performance over a much longer time. Athletes use it at the risk of heart attack and stroke. There are other ways to increase strength and performance, such as anabolic steroids, but they risk the possibility of cancer.

Most super powers are in the paranormal realm, such as those possessed by the X-Men. In this case the X-Men are mutants born with superhuman abilities. The problem is that they have all sorts of different abilities. That would require a lot of very odd mutations that would result in specific and unique super hero abilities. However, in all cases their powers exceed the laws of physics. That's the difficulty. One must figure out a way to defy physics, and one way is to use paranormal powers and abilities. These powers might exist but are not easily accessed by normal humans, and especially at the levels that the X-men exhibit.

A good example of a super hero breaking the laws of physics is the Flash, a guy who when struck by lightening discovers that he has the power of super speed. First of all, there isn't enough energy in a lightening strike to sustain super running speed for an extended period of time, assuming the lightening strike didn't kill him.

Realistically, there isn't enough energy in the human body to sustain super running ability. Metabolism is only so efficient and can't produce massive bursts of energy for any length of time. In prehistoric times when the Earth's atmosphere had a much higher oxygen concentration (35% in the Carboniferous era), super human abilities might have been possible, but even then the human body's construction would have limited ability to take advantage of it.
Another example of super hero physics is the Hulk. Yes, the Hulk is big and powerful, but jumping a mile is not possible. Nothing has the ability to leap that far and do it repeated times. It would require more energy than could be stored in a body, even one as large as Hulk's.

Even the mind power ideas exceed the capability of physics. Erik Lehneherr's (X-men) Tele-kinetic powers for bending metal would exceed the square root power law of physics. The mind just can't generate that kind of power over a long distance.

In some cases the individual doesn't realize that he or she is a super hero. This happened in the movie 'Unbreakable' with Bruce Willis' character. In this case he has super strength but isn't completely invulnerable. He also could sense evil in people. Bruce did an exceptional job in that move.

I was watching a Deadstroke movie and thought that the degree of violence was beyond any physics. This character could have a metal stake driven into his head and simply pull it out as if nothing happened. I've seen other super heroes fall from great distances or smack into a building at high speed and then get up and brush themselves off and act as if nothing happened. This kind of power is strictly comic book bound. It reminds me of the Road Runner comics. Wile e Coyote is able to sustain falls from high cliffs or being smacked by heavy weights without permanent damage. He keeps on ticking.

There is a possibility that alien creatures could have super powers when compared to humans. If they are insectoid-type aliens they could have exo-skeletons that would be almost invincible. Insects are super strong for their size. An ant can carry many times its body weight. However, it's difficult to imagine how that would translate if the ant were as large as we are. A good example of this type of super hero is Ant Man, but operating at the micro level. A super hero influenced by an insect bite, in this case a radioactive hybrid spider, is Spiderman. This is an example of insect power blown up to human size.

One of my favorite comic book hero groups is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are of the mutant variety but they use amazing skills, smarts and trickery to do their thing. Because they are reptiles they would have unusual strengths. I'm not sure that I would want to be like them, but they are lots of fun to watch.

The reality is that super heroes are essentially fictional characters that fill our need for someone to adore and dream about. Many of the original comic book super heroes, like Batman, Spiderman and Superman came out of an era of crime and war. People were hungry for saviors, even if they were only fictional. That hunger lives on in our dystopian human condition.

Thanks for reading.