We will commit to post two top fives or top tens per month on the themes of the blog: comics, and of course… sci-fi :), [disclaimer: our mum is helping on these]

To start us off, this is our top five of super-heroes that have some solid (or at least plausible) science basis. So forget the hulk, forget flash, and forget anything that changes density, here are our top ten superheroes

Numberrrr 5- Professor X

Ok telepathy, telekinesis, mental powers… one might question the plausibility. But if we consider that the brain has electricity and electromagnetic fields then someone being able to “read” these waves and interpret them is possible.

He is depicted as a genius so maybe he has cracked the code of the brain’s neural networks?

Numberrrr 4- Spider-Man

A superhero that first was working at and got his major transformation in a lab had to be in this top five. And any reader of spider man would have thought about genetics, DNA and gene editing.

Numberrrr 3 – Black Cat

Black Cat appears first as a super villain against Spider-Man and then becomes a bit of an ambivalent character. She has several powers based on physical strength and prowess but her most intriguing one is her ability to change probability fields and cause bad luck to others.

so the question that arises is : can we change probabilities in reality? and how would that work? Maybe she is able to actually change initial conditions super fast hence impacting the outcomes i.e. she is a super chaos theory hero? or maybe she could add bad data to events real time to skew probabilities towards bad outcomes? And are probabilities the same everywhere in the universe? (definitely gonna research this last one…)

In any case, because her power made us think about these existential questions, she is at number 3.

Big shout to Longshot (one of the rare characters created by a woman in the 80s) who also had that power, although with a more mystical aura.

Numberrrr 2 – Iron Man & Black Panther (tie)

Iron Man is Tony Stark, an engineer. He made his armor himself, is aided by an AI called Jarvis, used nanotechnology etc.. Of course there are some questions to be had on his use of magnetic rays and how his jet boots allow him to fly (for the brave, force and acceleration equations y’all). but a good superhero for aspiring engineers.

We tied Iron Man with Black Panther for number 2 given all the technological advances of Wakanda and of course Vibranium. For fans of the periodic table, a comic that has a whole new element is always fun. And even the CIA explored what could be real from Wakandan technology. We wont be able to do better than them, so here’s the link https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/wakandan-technology-today-a-cia-scientist-explores-the-possibilities/

Numberrrr 1 – Batman

A billionnaire with heavy trauma, large ego, that spends a lot building high-tech weapons, no more needs to be said on this being quite realistic and plausible…

Many of Batman gadgets ended existing, and he even had a first aid kit in his belt!

And you, what do you think?

Special thanks to great scientists and science communicators thanks to whom we learned a bit about the subject:

• Professor James Kakalios – who wrote the book “the physics of superheroes”, the photo with this post (a really good read!). Book available on many book selling platforms, just google it if interested!
• Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson – without Star Talk, and a few episodes on the topic, we would not have thought about it the same way (and thanks to lord Nice too!)
• check the StarkTalk podcast on any podcast provider and the show’s resources are here: https://startalkmedia.com/
• Professor Brian Green – just because we love the idea of the String Theory.