The Physics of Superheroes: Spectacular Second Edition Read Online Free PDF

1984 and is a barely detectible tenth of a square inch in 2004 (for DC Comics, that is; Marvel Comics quit its participation in the CCA in 2001 and employs a self-determined labeling system roughly equivalent to the PG, PG-13, and R ratings used by movies).
    Declining sales from the loss of a major distribution network and the competition from television led to the near collapse of the comic-book industry, and from 1953 to 1956, only about a half-dozen superhero comics continued to be published, a dramatic reduction from the 130 different superhero titles available at newsstands at the peak of the Golden Age. Funny animal stories, Westerns, and young-romance comics were safer alternatives for the few companies that persevered in publishing comics during this period.
    In 1956 National Comics decided to test the superhero waters with the reintroduction of the Flash in Showcase # 4. The sales figures for each issue of Showcase that featured the Flash indicated that the market for superheroes had returned, and over the next few years, National brought back new versions of the Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawkman, and others. The Silver Age of superhero comic books had begun, and superheroes have remained a mainstay of comic books ever since.
    From the very beginning in Showcase # 4, examples of correctly applied physics principles appeared in these stories. With the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957 at the height of the Cold War, there was considerable anxiety over the quality of science education that American schoolchildren were receiving. The Comics Code Authority seal on their covers plus the inclusion of science concepts may have convinced wary parents that there was a net positive benefit to these four-colored adventures.
    In addition to employing accurate science, comics from the Silver Age often had scholarly nuggets from other learned disciplines buried within their stories. For example, the plot of “The Adventure of the Cancelled Birthday” in The Atom # 21 (written by Gardner Fox, who was both a lawyer and a writer for science-fiction pulp magazines) revolved around the obscure fact that in 1752, when Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar to replace the Julian calendar, eleven days were omitted during the transition. That is, September 2, 1752, was followed the next day by September 14, in order to regularize the British calendar with other parts of Europe. Two issues later, the letters column in The Atom printed a complaint from one such fan, arguing over the poor choice of historical characters, such as the obscure Justice Fielding. The editor of Atom comics, Julius “Julie” Schwartz, responsible for reintroducing the Flash in 1956, defended the story in the letters column, pointing out that it was high time that the reader become acquainted, as had the Atom, with Henry Fielding, the author of Tom Jones.
    Even if they were not woven into the plot, bits of historical or scientific trivia would occasionally pop up in comic-book adventures through the appearance of a caption box containing a fact that had no direct bearing on the story at hand. For example, in The Brave and the Bold # 28 featuring the first appearance of the Justice League of America, an alliance of National Comics’ super heroes, Aquaman swims by a puffer fish and has a brief conversation with him using his “fish telepathy.” The puffer fish relates some crucial information gleaned while floating on the surface of the ocean. A caption in this panel informs us that “by swallowing air into a special sac beneath its throat, the puffer fish becomes inflated like a football—whereupon it rises to the surface and floats upside down.”
    Why take the time to include these educational captions? They may have been a consequence of the habits of the former pulp-fiction writers penning these tales. Prior to editing comic books at National, Mort Weisinger and Julie Schwartz, lifelong fans of science fiction, had been literary agents