Let’s say Marvel and DC superheroes actually exist. They have all of their powers and abilities, the only restriction being… reality.
It’s still the real world, as in, this one, the one you and I and everyone else is in right now.
Anything is possible, as long as it adheres to the limitations of accepted physical, medical, and biological science. There is no magic. There are no aliens, mythical beings, or other-dimensional beings. There are no incredible meta-geniuses, fantastical human mutations, or super-double-secret-experimental-military-super-soldiers. Technology is right where it is this very second.
A person could be exceptionally strong or fast, but only to the physical limit of actual real-world biology. If Peter Parker and Bruce Banner and Tony Stark and everyone else existed in the real world, and the things that made them Spider-Man and Hulk and Iron Man still happened (or as close to portrayed events as reality allows), what would have happened to them?
For example, Peter Parker may experience some temporary discomfort due to being bit by a spider, but otherwise would survive the event unharmed and unchanged.
Bruce Banner, he’s dead. Acute gamma ray exposure is generally unkind, not to mention the explosion itself.
So, after erasing everyone that’s been made impossible by reality, of who’s left what would have happened to them?
None of the X-mutants would exist, because due to the damaging effects that mutations can have on genes, organisms have mechanisms such as DNA repair to prevent or correct mutations by reverting the mutated sequence back to its original state.
Parker may well be dead too, or at least seriously ill…remember it was a** radioactive** spider. A spider who absorbed enough radiation to rewrite Parker’s DNA.
I used to have a vague idea for a “What If–?” scenario–namely, What if radiation in the Marvel Universe worked like it does in real life? Probably half of the major Marvel heroes, and quite a few of the villains, would either be dead or riddled with cancer. There’s the FF, the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Daredevil, and that’s just off the top of my head. Plus, the X-Men used to be called “Children of the Atom,” so toss them in too!
Wasn’t it Roy Thomas who said, “The basic message of Marvel Comics in the sixties was: radiation is good for you!”
I noted in a similar thread a while back that, the year the Challengers of the Unknown made their comic-book debut, America in fact had a guy with Ace’s skillset, and a guy with Rocky’s skillset: we had John Glenn, who shot down enemy planes during the Korean War before becoming a record-breaking test pilot; and we had Henry Wittenberg, an Olympic wrestling champ who knew how to handle a gun.
And in real life, they were – well, serving in the USMC and in the NYPD, respectively. Because of course they were; if you want to risk your life as a do-gooder, why put on a costume and run around calling yourself a superhero? Just join the military, or work in law enforcement, or whatever; that’s what people actually do.
(Granted, what made the Challs work were their other two teammates: one was a scuba-diving explosives expert; the other, a mountain-climbing sharpshooter. And, again, guys like that are naturals to become Navy SEALs, right?)
I question whether a spider is capable of absorbing an amount of radiation significant enough to have an effect on other creatures, particularly one so much larger than it as a human, but insignificant enough not to kill it. I don’t believe an irradiated spider bite would be any more harmful than a bite from a non-irradiated one.
Well, in real life, Iron Man is just a can full of powdered bones in the desert somewhere, because, while it’s comic book canon that falling from great heights doesn’t hurt as long as there’s something between you and the ground, in real life, he would have undergone several hundred g’s of deceleration on his first test flight (as shown in the movie). I seem to recall that in the same movie, Iron Man gets hit by a tank shell and shrugs it off. Given the kinetic energy involved, I suspect that’s also not a survivable event.
Note that even knights had substantial padding underneath their armor; Stark, on the other hand, is wearing street clothes while banging around inside of a metal suit. Without some kind of inertial damper field, the reality is that any battleground would probably be littered with pulp-filled Iron Man suits leaking unsavory fluids.
Of course, as the second and third movies demonstrate, you don’t actually need a human in the suit – it can be operated by telepresence. Which makes a lot more sense, because it leaves more room in the suit for batteries, motors, and other high tech stuff. So, if Iron Man exists at all, it’s some rich guy hanging out at home and playing with the Mother of all drones.
Anybody who doesn’t pick up some variety of mutant healing factor or just plain immunity to damage along with their powers is going to be a decrepit, wheelchair-bound ex-hero after a startlingly short number of fights.
A protest and vigil is being held is being held outside of City Hall this evening, in response to shocking video that shows officer Frank Castle shooting an unarmed and compliant suspect nine times.
There’s no way people wouldn’t know Clark Kent = Superman. You can’t be the most famous person on earth and be able to blend in by donning a pair of glasses.
Black Widow doesn’t have any supernatural powers or enhancements does she? If we accept that her martial arts skill are as good as they are portrayed, I mean.
Only nine times? Man, Frank has really mellowed.
Earlier today, the Coast Guard called off the search for Arthur Curry. The champion swimmer was last seen off the coast of San Diego approaching a Killer Whale calf.