We all heard the story of an apple falling down on Newton’s head. The famous scientist, who lived in England, realised that the apple is being pulled down by an some type of invisible force. Before Newton, the force of gravity was studied by Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Aristotle, but was truly taken seriously until Isaac Newton’s “Universal Law of Gravitation was published in 1687. Scientists like Albert Einstein spent most of his academic career working on gravity. Scientists made a huge progress ever since, advancing our understanding of gravity.

And some of the comic book writers included gravity in their art. Today is the goal to review the concept of gravity in comic books and verify if the information is correct.

Let’s start with Batman – Off World , a great comic book where (spoiler alert) Batman is in outer space to help fight crime. He’s experiencing the vast cosmos for the first time and in some moments he expresses how vast and lonely he is. Let’s go over the comic book and verify a few things:

“Artificial Gravity throws me off. Feel too sluggish and too weightless at the same time”

This is true. Artificial gravity is produced in spaceships to allow humans go about their space tasks, while feeling an Earth-like environment, with gravity keeping our feet on the ground. Artificial gravity is a force that mimics real gravity – simply pulling objects together. Rotational simulated gravity has been used in simulations to help astronauts train for extreme condition. For example, one of the human spaceflights, Gemini 11, artificial gravity was attempted to be tested. The astronauts were able to generate a small amount of artificial gravity, about 0.00015 g, but not enough to be felt by either astronaut, but objects were observed moving towards the “floor” of the capsule.

“Falling through space, unprotected, no air left in my lungs… Only seconds before I pass out , then suffocate and freeze.”

True. It takes only a couple of seconds before a human body is turned into a block of ice. People without a space suit in space do die, from the same reason as people who are left too long underwater: lack of oxygen. In this case Batman is thrown out of the spaceship. The Federal Aviation Administration reports in advisory circular 61-107 that humans remain fully conscious and useful for 9-12 seconds after being exposed to a vacuum. There are other dangerous effects that the spacesuits protect against, such as cold and radiation, but these do not cause immediate death, and they definitely don’t cause explosion.

“Space is a staggering vast of nothingness. A darkness and silence that feels… All encompassing.”

True. Space is a staggering vast of nothingness, it stretches out in every direction, and is expanding at an incredible rate, faster than the speed of light. We cannot see the edge, whether or not there is one, because light has not reached it yet.

Is it silent? Yes. In order for the sound to travel we need something that will help the sound travel from one place to another. We need a physical medium. On Earth, the sound waves can travel through matter like air, liquid, gas or other solids. In space, there is no matter between galaxies or stars. So if you wanted to shout from Earth, hoping that you’ll be heard from a nearby galaxy, this just won’t happen.

In the last few months I’ve come to understand that space between worlds is a long, dark alleyway.”

This might be considered as a metaphor. True, the space between planets is long and dark. Batman fights most of his crimes in dark alleyways in Gotham City. He expresses a nostalgic memory of his hometown.

Everyone on this planet experiences gravity. And not just this planet, any planet that exists or ever existed. All the stars, galaxies, clusters, they all experience gravity. You. Me.