When someone’s falling hundreds of feet and when they’re inches from the ground a super hero swoops in from the side to grab them.
Sure, they didn’t hit the ground but not only did you catching them slow down their vertical velocity just as fast as the ground would have, now you’ve accelerated them horizontally so fast that they’re now twice as dead as they would’ve been otherwise
I appreciated The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for that reason. Gwen was falling so fast that when she was caught I honestly thought her neck snapped and I didn’t notice her skull hitting the floor
In the original comic her neck was broken, and it's not clear if it's due to Spiderman's failure at grasping physics or if the Green Goblin had already killed her before chucking her corpse off the bridge, but Peter Parker blames himself for it anyway.
I guess you could explain it like that, but I'd really prefer it if they just started writing Superman stories with a more realistic depiction of the world around Superman in mind. It would add more drama since, while Superman himself is invulnerable, the rest of the world isn't, so Supes should have to be extremely careful with how he uses his powers if he's actually going to save anyone.
while Superman himself is invulnerable, the rest of the world isn’t
Larry Niven wrote a great essay many years ago about the physical realities of being Superman. My favorite bit was about how him having sex with Lois Lane would have resulted in her head being blown off.
yeah but it showed what you're talking about. he's a destructive force of nature that can cause great misery even when he's trying to do the right thing
Similarly- when a person is hanging off a building or cliff by one arm, and holding something heavy or another person with the other. It requires an INSANE amount of strength to hold that position, let alone actually haul them back up.
Hey, as long as you've got three or four feet of slow down it's probably not lethal. I always assume that when a superhero catches someone, they're using the same magic they used to fly to cushion their body as they're being slowed down during the last 5 to 10 ft. And being slowed from terminal velocity to a standstill over the course of 5 ft will still be quite strenuous, but if the acceleration is relatively consistent, you almost certainly make it out okay.