Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Physics? What's that?

As I was reading through the first issue of the X-Men, I realized that physics seemed to go entirely out the window. At multiple points in the comic, some of the basic laws of physics are violated. A few of these instances can be forgiven. Hank Prim dodging bullets by spinning around a wire at a high speed, for example. Ignoring the fact that spinning around the wire at a high speed would not decrease the mathematical probability of being hit by a bullet, spinning around a wire at high enough speeds to dodge a bullet would kill Hank. However, given that Neo dodges bullets in the Matrix, I think this error can be forgiven. Cyclops' not-laser-concussive-eye-ray-beam-thing, however, defies Newton's third law - for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If a not-laser-thing is forceful enough to send his enemies flying, Cyclops should theoretically either be sent flying as well. At the very least, like a cannon firing a shot, his head should rock back a bit after unleashing a blast. However, even this can possibly be explained by his visor. Perhaps there is some physics-defying device invented by Professor X installed in the visor. Okay, fine. But Magneto's complete lack of understanding of magnetism is entirely inexcusable. At one point, Magneto creates a magnetic shield around himself, claiming that he simply changed his charge from positive to negative. Without going too into detail about the physics behind magnetism, I'll suffice it to say this: opposites attract and similar charges repel. Therefore, a negative charge would attract a positive charge and only repel another negative one. In this case, no excuse can be made; the X-Men simply got physics wrong. So in the wise words of the internet: Go home, Magneto. You're drunk.

1 comment:

  1. I am 100% on board with your sentiment, it is definitely clear that there are a lot of instances through X-Men, and other superhero comics, that are simply impossible by the laws of nature. However, that is where the magic comes from and puts the "super" in hero. What would a superhero be without their jaw-dropping and inexplicable powers? Without those impossible abilities, they drop the "super" and are reduced to nothing more than just a plain old hero,

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