Scienceish Lesson: Captain Marvel and the EM Spectrum

A Science-ish Lesson for today: The Electromagnetic Spectrum (and a little more) with Captain Marvel. 

This comes from Avengers #233 (1983) by Roger Stern and John Byrne, back in the day when you could spend a whole issue trying to figure out a way to get through a growing force field with the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building at the center. That all started when the FF jumped into the Negative Zone (an alternate dimension next door to ours), and the major bad guy who blames Reed Richards and his family for everything bad that has ever happened to him, Annihilus, jumped over into our universe.  

The hero of the day is the Monica Rambeau version of Captain Marvel (yes, that Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel MCU fans). Monica is the first to discover the field as she bounces off of it while flying through Manhattan in her light form – which is our first indication that this is scienceish: we can clearly see objects inside the field, meaning light can come through the field – something Monica quickly realizes. 

She changes her form into every version of electromagnetic energy in the electromagnetic spectrum, and then cosmic rays. Okay – I know the history of cosmic rays in the Marvel Universe is long and storied, straddle the line between science and “other,” and are part of the foundational myth of the entire universe – the FF got their powers from cosmic rays. But in our universe, they’re not energy. Cosmic rays are mostly protons and other atomic nuclei moving through space at nearly the speed of light. We’re still not exactly sure where they come from either – a lot of evidence points to supernovae, while other research suggests black holes, or yet-unknown, extragalactic origin. Oh, and the faster they move, the more energy they have.

Likewise, the comment that Captain Marvel shoots as an electrical discharge. While I’m not about to dispute Captain Marvel’s powers, the easiest way to describe electricity is moving charges, and most commonly, those charges are electrons. Like cosmic rays, electrons aren’t part of the electromagnetic spectrum in our universe.  

What’s in the electromagnetic spectrum? That is, what’s the other stuff Monica tried? Here’s a quick illustration: 

Just for a light touch reminder of whatever science class you encountered this, this is how we organize all of the radiating energy that we know of. On the left side, starting with radio waves, you’ve got energy with large wavelengths and low frequency (the number of waves that pass a given point in a second). As you move to the right – through microwave, infrared (that would include the “radiant heat” Captain Marvel tried), visible light (that’s what she was when she hit the barrier), ultraviolet, x-rays and then, gamma rays. Look at the waves – they’re getting closer together as you move to the right, so the wavelength is smaller, and the frequency is higher as you move from left to right. 

As you get into the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, that’s where the higher energy starts to be a problem. We call the types of electromagnetic radiation from that midpoint on up “ionizing radiation.” The name comes from the fact that the wavelengths are small enough and energetic enough that they can knock electrons off of atoms, creating ions (charged particles). That’s why UV from the sun can give you a sunburn and/or skin cancer, higher energy UV light, called UV-C can reportedly kill coronaviruses. After that, we make sure we’re super-protected from the rest – you wear a lead shield on parts that might not be broken when you get an x-ray, and gamma rays – just don’t. A quick reminder – ionizing radiation is harmful, if the radiation isn’t ionizing, its generally not harmful…which is the core reasoning behind the idea that no, cell phones (which use radio waves) don’t cause cancer.  

For a great, comprehensive view of the EM spectrum, you can’t beat NASA’s free video collection with an accompanying book. 

So as Monica tried again and again – vanishing from sight (we can only see the visible light portion of the spectrum), returning again and again in fractions of a second (every type of energy in the EM spectrum travels at the same speed – the speed of light, 3.0 x 10⁸ meters per second, abbreviated as c, as in E=mc2), nothing seemed to work, although she did feel it give a little when she tried it as gamma rays. 

How does she stay coherent in all of these forms? Hey – scienceish.

Later, as the collected Avengers realize the threat of the growing field, Starfox (Thanos’ brother, and a cringey, 100% sexual harassment product of his times) gives the thoroughly sciencesh explanation that the field they’ve been trying to stop is a null-field that cancels out all energy (I know…), while a second field of positive energy is expanding within the null-field at a faster rate than the null field. 

When the two fields touch, both the universe they’re in and the adjacent “negative” universe (or the Negative Zone, if you’re in the FF) will be destroyed…which is the goal of Annihilus. He’s very angry and has a very strong death wish. It’s kind of in his name. Oh, and they’ve got just about 20 or so minutes before the fields touch. Physics teachers love a good constant motion (the null field) vs. accelerated motion (the positive field) problem, and they’ll tell you that calculating when the two fields would touch wouldn’t have been that hard.    

It’s quickly realized that their only hope is for Monica to pierce the two fields as a gamma-ray laser, and destroy the field generators inside the building…and the comic references that calculations were made and double-checked! And no male character mansplained anything! Well, maybe, Cap did, but hey…he was born in like 1920 or something. 

To do this – Monica will have to circle the sun to get a speed boost. It’s a hugely complicated, risky plan, but it’s all they’ve got. Even though it’s scienceish, it’s nice to see a nod to actual calculations done on something as complicated as Monica is attempting – not to mention a reference to the notion that if she’s successful, she’ll stop the fields from touching just before the twenty-minute mark, a reference to the fact that it’s going to take her eight minutes to get to the sun, a few more to circle it, and then eight minutes to get back to earth. If this doesn’t work, the Avengers are completely out of options.    

As Monica makes her journey, Stern’s narration calls out the speed of light, how long the journey is going to take, and the fact that even as light, Monica can feel the gravity of the sun tugging at her – a lovely reference to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity which was published in 1905 and proven by the observation of an eclipse in 1919. 

Coming around from the “back” of the sun, Monica hitches a ride on the targeting laser shot provided by the (fictional) Starcore One solar satellite. And yeah – we did learn that Captain America had called the satellite to tell them the plan. If you’re thinking science, that call would have been harrowing – Cap would’ve made the call at the same time Monica left, and since both radio waves and Monica’s visible light form were traveling at the same speed, they would have learned about what was going on, and what they had to do just as she was streaking past them, circling the sun. Being a superhero is tough. 

Heading back to earth, Monica compresses her wavelengths again, changing from visible light, through ultraviolet and x-ray into a gamma laser of a single wavelength, which is shorthand for a gamma-ray laser. Unlike regular light that can contain many wavelengths, lasers organize the light into the same wavelength. By being a gamma-ray laser, Monica was technically a grazer – something that’s still hypothetical in our universe but is getting closer to reality with each passing year. But just so we’re clear – bring a grazer, or a gamma-ray laser isn’t dependant on speed. It’s dependent on organization. 

Okay – we’re going to have to agree to throw the scienceish flag in here. The trip around the sun was nice and all, but Monica couldn’t have gone any faster as a gamma-ray laser than she had as visible light, radio waves, or light – that is, the speed of light. While it wasn’t said, the implication is there as reasoning for her trip around the sun: increase her speed. But, just FYI, you can’t. At least in our universe. The speed of light is it, as far as we know. 

But – back to the issue, there’s a double flash as Monica, moving at the speed of light (or c+?) punches through both fields into the Baxter Building, and with an epic SKRAKATA-BOOM, Annihilus’ field generator is destroyed. 

Yes, it’s scienceish, but it’s still cool. Why? Glad you asked. It’s an entire issue devoted to a single problem – getting through a force field with brains, not brawn. You just don’t find that today in comics. Not only that, but it also featured Monica Rambeau, a smart, powerful, female Black superhero saving the day – in 1983. 

Moreover – more than lip service was given to the non-punchy work of the heroes: figuring out the mystery, developing a solution to the problem, actual calculations(!), the work, the science(ishness) behind the solution, the time it took for Monica to get there and back, Cap calling Starcore One to get targeting guidance for Monica (she needed pinpoint accuracy), the realization that they could try everything, and it could still go wrong, and Monica’s extreme effort in saving the day. Oh, and for a touch of Monica’s history since in the Marvel Universe (she currently goes by the name Spectrum), click here. 

Good stuff.

You can grab Avengers #233 from Comixology here.