Cons of Super Powers

You know, everyone has talked about why superheroes can’t exist. But when pressed for details, people would just say that if they could exist, they would already.

Well since the rains over the weekend just kept me home, I had some free time to think about a couple of disadvantages of certain types of super powers.

Invincibility Analysis

Who wouldn’t want to repel bullets or to survive a bomb blast unscathed? Not only is this the second most sought after power by kids, next to flight, it is also the second most wished for.

In order to survive high velocity projectiles, like a bullet or shrapnel from a bomb or even fire, you need to have impenetrable skin.

In the case of old tank armor, it repels bullets and shrapnel because it is thick. In the case of bulletproof vests, it is made of several layers of different materials to absorb the energy of projectiles.

Now you’re probably thinking that I was going to say the disadvantage here is that humans will need to have very thick skin, resulting in a human that looks like the Thing of the Fantastic Four, just to make it more realistic, right?

Well, that wasn’t what I was coming up to.

The disadvantage a person with impenetrable skin, such as Superman, is that he shouldn’t be able to feel a thing all over his body because the thicker your armor, the less sensation you have.

Now imagine if your feet were as sensitive as your face. It would probably hurt to walk barefoot because it would be so sensitive you could feel the tiniest pebble on the ground.

You’ll probably argue that our hands are very sensitive and have thick skin, similar to our feet. But if you use your hands for heavy repetitive work, you’ll develop calluses.

And those calluses, which actually are the human body’s equivalence to armor, have less sensation than normal skin.

Invincibility Conclusion

So, what am I getting at here?

It just means that if you have invulnerable skin you will have the following disadvantages:

The first is that your sense of touch will be next to nothing because your skin is so thick. And since you can’t feel anything as a child, you wouldn’t learn how to apply the right force for things like holding a glass or carrying an egg.

So if Lois Lane were to fall from a helicopter, you’ll probably crush her because you wouldn’t know how much pressure to apply.

The second is that if you do have some sensation, you’d be paralyzed by fear because of the pain you’d feel every time you’re shot with a gun or beside an exploding bomb since the pain will be much worse than a doctor’s injection or a dentist’s drill.

Yes, you’d survive, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to do it again. And it is that fear of pain that would make you a useless super hero.

Super Speed Analysis

Another super power that was fascinating as a kid was super speed. Imagine being able to run around so fast, no one could catch you.

Now when a rocket re-enters the atmosphere, it encounters friction with the air. I understand the Space Shuttle goes as fast as Mach 25, or 30,000 kilometers per hour for re-entry from space. It also endures as much as 1,500 degrees centigrade at this speed.

And since the Flash is the fastest man alive, he’s supposed to be much faster than the space shuttle.

Now you’re probably thinking that I was going to talk about the impossibility of the Flash surviving all that friction, right? Then you’d probably say that the Flash has some sort of aura that protects him and his costume from the friction.

But that’s not what I was going to say.

I was going to say that the speed the flash runs at would strip the flesh off his bones when he suddenly changes direction or stops.

This will happen because of Physics, which we studied back in high school. The lessor I refer to is Newton’s second law of motion which is Force = Mass x Acceleration.

Let’s start out simple by examining a bug crashing into the windshield of a car crashing. Now before I go on, those of you who are squeamish might want to skip to my conclusion instead.

The bug exerts force in the direction of the windshield, but the windshield exerts a force back on the bug. It is this force that causes the bug to crumple and splatter during collisions. With me so far?

Now since we are talking about motion, it should be easy to picture the Flash travelling at Mach 25. At this speed, every part of his body, his skeleton, organs, and what have you, is traveling at the same speed.

Then he decides to stop on a dime.

Assuming that the cement does not break apart, his entire body should accordion just like the car. It’ll be just like a bug hitting the windshield of a car.

But, let say, just for argument that his bones are as strong as the unbreakable Adamantium bones of Wolverine, they won’t accordion and stop. However, the rest of the Flash’s body will still be in motion and they will be ripped off his bones.

Super Speed Conclusion

So what have we learned here?

Assuming that the Flash is still made of flesh and bone, Newton’s second law of motion which is Force, dictates that the Flash will not survive sudden starts, changes in direction, and stops.

Any change in motion will kill him as his bones go one direction and the flesh goes another.

And to say that is a disadvantage would be an understatement. He’d cease to exist at all.

Overall Conclusion

Well, there you have it, two disadvantages that keep our superheroes in comic books instead of existing in real life.

Who knows, maybe one day science may actually make them more than celluloid characters to save the world.

Then again, if everyone did have superpowers, we won’t be able to call them super anymore, can we?