From: akhale@pollux.usc.edu (Abhijit Khale)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: LSH: Evacuating the Earth
Date: 6 Nov 1992 21:32:55 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: pollux.usc.edu

In article <BxBI7H.8wL@news.cso.uiuc.edu> wogg0743@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (William Shakespeare) writes:
>The failure to totally evac the earth was just stupid.  They had two
>healthy Daxamites and one recouping one at their disposal, plus a
>pseudo Daxamite (Jo Nah).  Valor (ick--Mon El) can move Neutron stars.
>All they have to do is super-speed build arks, load 'em, and have the
>Daxamites lift them into orbit.

All WHO has to do is to build arks ? Factories take time to turn out arks.
Are you suggesting that Mon-el and co. build arks at super speed ? It doesnt
take just super speed to build arks. It takes lots of skills in electronics,
ballistics, biochemistry (for life support systems), metallurgy. It takes
lots of abilities beyond super speed, heat vision and strength. Finally it
takes lots of raw materials, many of which not might be easily procured
even by cannibalizing the dying Earth. 

There is a precedent for the "space ark" theory. Superboy, Mon-el and Ultra
Boy were able to build enough arks to evacuate the planet of Mordan. But that
planet had a population of only 1 million people.

Post-Crisis, it has not been demonstrated that Mon-el had the skills to build
even one ark, let alone several. Moreover while post-crisis Lar Gand might be
as strong and invulnerable as pre-crisis Lar Gand, he seems to lack many of
the other super powers that would be needed to do something like this. 
Even the pre-Crisis Superman, who would often do feats of incredble 
engineering at super speed would have had trouble doing much in a situation
like this. The post-Crisis Superman would have trouble piloting an ark, let
alone building one. 


>Or at least have the Daxamites move the "new earth" space thing, rather
>than shoving it into the phantom zone (oops, I mean ?@#$@? buffer zone).

Because of something called the laws of solid mechanics. The idea that 
anyone could move the "new earth" space thing by applying force to just one
of the cities and not have the structures all fall apart would represent a
worse scientific blunder than anything T & M have done. 

>If L.E.G.I.O.N can evac a planet, then the legion should be able to also.

This is silly. Arga Prime's population was in the millions, not in the bill-
ions. A few orders of magnitude difference there. 

>Also, where was Element Lad?  It seems to me, if you have a toxic waste
>problem that....

This is even sillier. Jan's powers have always had physical limits. If you
were suggesting that he should have changed the toxic waste into something 
harmless, he didnt know about it till it was too late. Even if he had known
about  it, there are limits to how much he can transmute before he gets 
tired. Even two Jan's working in tandem could not have transmuted more than
an insignificant portion of the toxic gook. Besides, I though elder Jan had
left Earth. 

>Nah, it's not worth wasting the neurons contemplating the stupidity of
>recent LSH events.  I hope they find better writers.  Strike that:  I
>hope they find WRITERS.  What they have now don't qualify.

Well, I'm not defending the current LSH events, because I dont particularly
like them too. On the other hand, I feel that lots of people dislike T & M
(which they have a perfect right to do) and  are looking for every possible
club to beat them up with, including the science angle. T & M are not the
first DC writers to use bogus science, nor will they be the last, nor are they
even the most egregious. Anyone remember Superman blowing out a star with his
super breath ? Anyone remember the Gordanians towing Earth out of orbit ? 
Anyone remember Mon-el bringing a white dwarf star to Earth ? Anyone remember
Color Kid changing Green K into Blue K by changing the color ? Anyone remember
Superman moving Earth to protect it from being hit by a laser beam ? Anyone
remember the Persuader's using his axe to cut gravity ? 

Of course, merely the fact that past or other writers have used bad science
doesnt justify doing it in legion. I'm just pointing out that it seems unfair
to single out T & M for criticism. If all DC comics were held to strong
standards of science, then most of them (including the mature) comics would
have to shut down : maybe batman and green arrow would be the only
survivors. 

Abhijit



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