We’re on the golden anniversary of giant-sized X-Men #1, originally released in February 1975. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, it’s hard to describe just how huge it is. Size X-Men #1 changed the franchise. Many of today’s most popular X-Men first appeared in this 68-page issue, including Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. Additionally, it established Wolverine as a mutant and put him on the team. Even though Chris Claremont didn’t take over writing duties until the next regular issue (X-Men #94), it jump-started a title that had been dead for five years and began the most significant run in X-Men history. .
But for all the good things in Colossal Size X-Men #1, the five-page action-packed climax contains some of the worst physics I’ve ever read in a comic book. I don’t usually complain about funky science in works of science fiction and fantasy, but this one is worth noting.
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To defeat the evil Living Island of the X-Men, X-Men old and new formed the Mutant Circuit long before the recent Krakon era made mutant circuits popular. Storms charge and amplify electrical charges. Polaris’ magnetic power is further enhanced by blasts from Havok and Cyclops. Polaris eventually releases energy built up in a powerful electromagnetic blast that somehow removes Krakoa from Earth’s gravitational field.
Freed from Earth’s pull, Krakoa then flies off into space, I’m assuming its own inertia – Wine’s explanation is that it’s due to “Earth forces” coming together violently. I say. Rumor has it that this was all Claremont’s idea.
Well, what’s so bad about that? Well, besides the fact that I don’t know what Wine means by “earth force”, gravity basically has nothing to do with electromagnetism. They are different forces that affect two different aspects of matter. The only connection between electromagnetism and gravity seen so far comes from Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Also, electromagnetic fields have energy, so they create gravity, but not by much. Creating any kind of measurable gravitational effect would require an unimaginably powerful electromagnetic explosion.
And if Polaris’ electromagnetic blast is strong enough to do that, it will actually just strengthen the gravity around it, potentially being felt everywhere on Earth! There is no way for Polaris to break the planet’s gravity. Not to mention doing so for specific locations and objects.
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If that wasn’t enough, we can’t help but see even worse physics as Krakoa’s trajectory flies away from Earth. Well, I think if it was shot from the surface by “earth forces” coming together violently, the trajectory could be straight perpendicular to the surface. But if Krakoa actually flew away due to its own inertia after it was no longer held by Earth’s gravity, it would actually move along a tangent to (i.e. parallel to) a line to the surface.
You can demonstrate this at home. Tie something to the end of the string and rotate it in a circle parallel to the floor. For example, on the head. When you let go of the string, the object does not fly perpendicular to the rotation, but rather is tangent to it. I did this once and created the Stroboscope image below. Similarly, in Colossal Size X-Men #1, Krakoa is a string object, and disconnecting Krakoa from Earth’s gravity lets go of the string.
photo by photo
Now, from the point of view of someone in the water nearby, it will probably initially look like Klaokoa is being shot straight into the air. So the left panel in the image above isn’t that bad.
However, the next panel is pulled from a cosmic reference point and shows Krakoa shooting straight at it, perpendicular to the Earth’s surface. It’s either bad art, bad physics, or a fictional work of violent “Earth figure.”
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But it’s not all bad. I especially like the idea of electricity repowering Polaris, and the idea that it has electromagnetic powers rather than just magnetic powers. About 200 years ago, physicists discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism, and about 160 years ago, Maxwell’s equations perfectly summarized the classical theory of electromagnetism. Later, using Einstein’s special theory of relativity, physicists are able to show that electricity and magnetism are the same, just experienced in different frames of reference. Therefore, according to the laws of physics, every character with magnetic power should also have electric power (and vice versa).
In fact, the unification of electricity and magnetism was very successful. Many physicists, including Einstein himself, spent years trying to combine gravity and electromagnetism into some grand unified theory. Modern physicists continue to work on it, but no grand unified theory has yet been developed.
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Then there’s Havok and Cyclops, who propel Iceman’s icy advance by blasting in opposite directions, very much present with the physics of rocket propulsion. Also, I like the vortex formation in Krakoa’s wake. Because that can definitely happen when water rushes into the now empty space.
Funky science or not, Giant-Sized X-Men #1 is one of the best comic books of all time. From Cockrum’s great art and character design, to the great writing and excitement of the action-packed story and tension of the conflict, to the introduction of so many popular characters (not to mention the pure historical influence), who knows? You can’t deny how important this comic is. Physics doesn’t even pass the Stan Lee sniff test.
AIPT Science is presented jointly by AIPT and New York City Skeptics.
