An entertaining exploration of science through the unlikely exploits of spandex-clad heroes.  Up, up, and away?

A radioactive spider bites Peter Parker’s arm, imparting the teenager with wall-crawling abilities, enormous strength and agility, and a precognitive “spider sense”. In 1965, that was all the scientific explanation Stan Lee needed to explain the origin of Spider-Man’s superpowers. It doesn’t take a PhD to come up with questions about this breezy explanation, not to mention the similarly simple explanation for how Superman flies, or why gamma radiation makes the Hulk a muscle-bound behemoth.

© DC Comics

In The Science of Superheroes, published in 2002 by Wiley, authors Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg attempt to deduce the plausibility of these crusaders—caped or no– in light of modern science. Each chapter examines a different superhero and tries to rationalize the extraordinary feats they perform, combining explorations of sciences with comic book history. The book dissects the often absurd premises of a host of superheroes, starting with the likelihood of intelligent aliens like Superman (depending on the numbers either quite possible or completely impossible). Even if Krypton existed it couldn’t have the high-gravity described in comics, the authors explain. “According to the basic laws of physics, Krypton is impossible.”

No spandex-clad vigilante is spared. Gresh is a novelist who has written over a dozen popular science books related to pop culture, several with Weinberg, a fellow novelist with a master’s degree in mathematics.

© Marvel Comics

Unsurprisingly, radiation as a cause of superpowers gets a lot of pages, with its central role in the origin of superheroes like the Hulk (created by gamma radiation from a bomb) and the Fantastic Four (bombarded by cosmic radiation in space). In the real world, radiation does not bestow extraordinary abilities. “Hard radiation in large doses does only one thing and it does it well, it kills.” A sobering insight for superhero fans.

© Marvel Comics

Most superheroes rely on pseudoscience that does not stand up well to examination. “Comic books, particularly superhero comics, have always been a friendly technobabble environment,” Gresh and Weinberg write. Even accepting the idea that a spider-bite could impart superpowers doesn’t make Spider-Man more realistic, as his new strength and agility don’t correspond to actual spider talents. ”The problem with Spider-Man isn’t that he’s improbable but that he’s inaccurate.”

Gresh and Weinberg’s discussions of real science are much more coherent than the speculative sections. This is more of a science textbook illustrated with comics than a definitive guide to how superpowers work. Explanations about why superheroes like Ant-man and the Flash are firmly in the realm of fantasy (the law of conservation of mass and the limits of biology, respectively) are far stronger than musings on how Batman could really exist (assuming a man of unlimited wealth and unparalleled physical and mental ability wanted to dress like a flying rodent and beat up criminals).

Readers looking for hope that cosmic rays or radioactive animals will give them powers beyond those of mortal men may be disappointed by The Science of Superheroes. “In science, laws aren’t made to be broken.” But the book works quite well as a basic introduction to diverse scientific topics like the evolution of stars and the anatomy of spiders. In the end, the aspiring superhero will have to settle for dazzling friends with scientific knowledge, not heat vision.