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| From MYSTERY IN SPACE #91. Image copyright DC COMICS |
So here's the scoop! ADAM STRANGE and his girlfriend ALANNA arrive on Earth (having hitched a ride with HAWKMAN and HAWKGIRL), unaware that MORTAN (the baddie) intends to prematurely return Alanna to RANN. Having secretly bathed her in negative ZETA-BEAMS before she left, Mortan's plan is that Adam will then return to Rann at the earliest opportunity, the two lovers will run into one another's arms and - KA-BLOOIE! - the end of both of them as positive and negative Zeta-beams just don't mix.
Sounds simple, right? However, look at the pic. There's Mortan aiming his gun at the pair. He's got a clear shot and nobody even suspects he's there. So why not simply aim a disintegrator gun at the duo and blow them off the face of the planet? Well, then we wouldn't have a story is the obvious answer, but it makes one realize just how artificially convoluted (not to mention redundant) some of the plots were in a lot of those old stories. Full marks for ingenuity, but none for logic.
Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for further 'Loopy Lapses in Logic Dept.' instalments in future posts.
Whenever I re-read old Marvel stories from the '60s and '70s I often notice howlers in logic and a poor grasp of even basic scientific knowledge which obviously I didn't notice at the time - and that's the point, they were writing for kids who didn't know any better so it didn't really matter but I think modern comics writers have to be more careful as the readership is mostly adult now and would easily spot those loopy lapses in logic - I can't say I've noticed any recently while I've been reading modern comics.
ReplyDeleteOn second thoughts, you also see hilarious blunders in scientific knowledge on old sci-fi films which were intended for an adult audience so maybe the writers were just clueless - I can't understand why they just didn't employ an expert to look over the scripts and make a few changes where needed to make it a bit more scientifically correct.
ReplyDeleteYou even see hilarious blunders in scientific knowledge in old science journals, CJ. That's why they constantly have to be uodated. Nebraska Man anyone?
ReplyDeleteI see howlers in new movies, Prometheus anyone? I was just reading Supergirl and her arch enemy Lesla Lar from Kandor. She uses her kyryptonite ray on Supergirl not Superman! Ok the real reason of course is they wanted Supergirl to have an arch enemy.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Nebraska Man, Kid - was that like Piltdown Man ? I suppose there are plenty of scientific blunders in modern movies but I don't think we'll see really ridiculous ones any more like humans and dinosaurs living at the same time or humans of a million years ago looking like Raquel Welch.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen Prometheus, Phil, but I'll take your word for it. I used to fancy Supergirl when she was drawn by Jim Mooney or Curt Schaffenberger - still do in fact.
ReplyDelete******
Nebraska man was shown in the journals as a new fossil discovery. Showed you what he looked like, the way he lived, the tools he used, etc. All this was deduced from the evidence of a single tooth, which was later shown to be the tooth of an extinct pig. And there is evidence to suggest that dinosaurs and humans could have lived at the same time, CJ. Human and dinosaur footprints in the same strata of rock, legends of dragons, etc. It's not impossible. Did the women look like Raquel Welch 'though? That's another matter.
Kid, you've mentioned those dinosaur and human footprints in the same rock before but I'll have to take your word for it as I've never heard of such a thing - dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago and humans only evolved in the last few million years. But I agree that deducing all that evidence about Nebraska Man from a single tooth is bizarre - Piltdown Man was a hoax dreamed up by some students and the truth didn't emerge for several decades.
ReplyDeleteCJ, nobody knows when dinosaurs became extinct - it's all guesswork based on an inaccurate dating process interpreted in line with a particular theory. Dinosaurs could have become extinct 65 million years ago or 165 million years ago. The strict definition of science is 'knowledge' and nobody really knows what happened at the beginning of time - it's all supposition. You need to look into it more rather than just accept the 'official' explanation.
ReplyDeleteOops, 'updated' in one of my above replies, not 'uodated'.
ReplyDeleteOops again! That should have been 'Kurt' Schaffenberger, not 'Curt'.
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