Credit: Glenn Lumsden
Credit: Glenn Lumsden
Credit: Glenn Lumsden
Credit: Glenn Lumsden
Credit: Glenn Lumsden
We've all heard it before: a scientist, working in a secret laboratory buried deep in the heart of an extinct volcano, suffers an unfortunate mishap and is doused in radioactive chemicals/gamma rays/mutagenic DNA. Next thing you know, he is transformed into a crime-fighting guardian of justice.
Oddly, the physical appearance of these accident-prone super-brains is always the polar opposite of a stereotypical scientist - extraordinarily buffed and good looking even before their transformations - leading to malicious speculation about why these fit, handsome, intelligent people aren't out clubbing with all the other chick magnets.
Possible social phobias and personality disorders aside, stories about the exploits of these super-powered heroes have littered our daily newspapers for decades but, despite their sensational character, they never appear on the front pages.
Instead, they're found towards the back, just before the commonplace exploits of our sporting heroes, typically - and some would say unfairly - sandwiched between the hard-drinking English everyman Andy Capp and sarcastic, lasagne loving Garfield. Science has always played a leading role in our superhero myths, from the cosmic rays that turned a team of space pioneers into the Fantastic Four, to the alien roots of Superman.
As much as we'd all love to believe that a random mishap involving an irradiated arachnid could turn us into a crusader for truth, justice and whatever way we please, science tells us that the world is a lot more temperate when it comes to doling out super powers. So, how does the science of superheroes stack up when it's put under the microscope?
It's no accident that many superheroes themselves are scientists, including Bruce Banner (aka the Incredible Hulk) and Reed Richards (aka Mister Fantastic, the plastic man from the Fantastic Four (it's pure modesty that he's called 'Mister' and not 'Doctor'). It's also no accident that science plays a significant part in the origins of many superheroes and their stories. After all, superhero stories are really just an extension of science fiction as a genre.
The first superhero stories, led by Superman himself in Amazing Stories #1, published in 1938, were originally an offshoot of the pulp-fiction magazines and comic strips popular throughout the 1930s. These were stories of adventure, heroism, strange worlds and magical powers - whether it was Flash Gordon battling Ming the Merciless on the planet Mungo, or Conan the Barbarian wrestling dark demons in forgotten temples.
The 1930s was a time when the Great Depression gripped the globe, and this had a particularly poignant effect on the people of the United States. The country that had promised the great American dream was now a land of unemployment, poverty, suffering and a failing free-market economy. People needed heroes, and newspaper comic strips and pulp-fiction magazines provided them in spades.
