Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Challengers of the Unknown Vs. The Hulk

 


Pavement sure had some strange properties in the comics I read as a kid.  Characters like The Hulk, Superman and The Thing would often pull stunts like the one above, whipping a sidewalk like it was a towel.  Another move was to roll the street up and wrap your opponents in it.  These were always visually impressive displays, if not always scientifically sound.

19 comments:

  1. Maybe in the worlds of Marvel and DC, Reed Richards' "unstable molecules" fabrics were originally invented to make elastic asphalt that could survive earthquakes and rarely get pot-holes.

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  2. Love the Challenge here. Superman, unlike anyone else, could use multiple superpowers at the same time. So, he could distract the villain, heat vision the street tar for the amount he needed to hold the same, then cool it enough to use like warm taffy.

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  3. When the Challengers were told to hit the road they didn't know the road was gonna hit back.

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  4. Puny Horsefeathers: sometimes you pound the pavement; sometimes the pavement pounds you!

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  5. talk about rolling the streets up at night....wow....lol

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  6. The only way to make this even perfecter, would be if it were all Kirby.

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  7. You're mildly complaining about this? In a universe where a meteoric metal from central-west Africa could've absorbed the vibrations of a seismically anomalous East Coast American earthquake? Thereby preventing a major city from being Congressionally declared a no-man's land?

    Shame on you, Ross! ;-)

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  8. OK! Being serious, now. Real-world physics aside, this is undeniably a striking cover. And wherever you found the original images, you have blended them together with brilliant seamlessness!

    It makes me wonder what you have planned for Issue #3300 (circa Apr. 15)?

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  9. Comment Deleted could not have,February 17, 2021 at 8:41 AM

    That's right Ross. You're a brilliantly gifted tailor.

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  10. As Cary pointed out, superhero worlds are full of "rubber science," much like any other science-fiction with roots in the middle 20th Century (Lensmen, Doctor Who, Star Trek, etc.). That said, the pliable nature of comic-book pavement is unlike the things that Cary lists in that it can't be set aside as (paraphrasing Stan Lee) "we didn't know much about it at the time, so we just figured, why not?"

    Still, the creative license has allowed for some pretty crazy visuals, and that's nicely exploited with this cover. The closest thing it has to a downside is that the choice of Hulk images makes it look like he's naked. (That would've been a good choice for pitting him against Cheetah!)

    Just an observation: The "print quality" leads me to think that all of the images are actually interior images.

    @Horsefeathers & Reg: You're starting to make this sound like a Russian reversal joke. "In America, you hit the pavement; in Russia, pavement hits you!" (Not an especially funny one, but still....)

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  11. Yes all interiors this time around

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  12. @Bob: tomato/potato. To paraphrase Zero from BEETLE BAILEY: "Rubber cement would make walking on sidewalks a whole lot of fun."

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  13. @Cary: Ah, good old Zero. He was always my favorite character in that strip.

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  14. PS @Ross: How about Wiccan and Speed meeting the Super Sons? It'd be an interesting meeting, and a good excuse to talk about both WandaVision and Superman & Lois.

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  15. Those two hit the scene just as I stopped buying comics regularly, I've never read an issue with them in it, so I know next to nothing about them.

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  16. Are you talking about Wiccan and Speed, Ross?

    For your next Valentine cover; Movie Hulk & Black Widow sharing a tea with tv Swamp Thing & Abby.

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  17. @NMSP: sounds like that would be a Heap o'fun!

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  18. No discussion about real-world science in comics is complete without a link to Dr. James Kakalios.

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  19. I wonder if he'll make any cameos in Image Comics' "CROSSOVER" story arc?

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