vulture

Feathers and Fury
The Vulture
Not all superheroes were created equal. Nor were the villains they
fought. The Fantastic Four’s first foe was the Mole Man and his
legion of underground troglodytes. The Incredible Hulk battled the
U.S. Army and the Russian fiend, the Gargoyle. Powerful, tough enemies,
they tested the new Marvel wave of superheroes to the limit.
And then there was Spider-Man.
In his first adventure, published in Amazing Fantasy #15, in the
guise of Spider-Man, Peter Parker fought a sideshow wrestler called
the Crusher. Parker then captured the petty crook who had shot and
killed his Uncle Ben. Neither foe proved much of a challenge for the
teenager with the powers of a human spider.
When Spider-Man appeared in the first issue of his own comic
book, his initial foes weren’t really enemies. Instead, they were the
Fantastic Four. Being new to the superhero business and the sole support
for his aunt and himself, Peter Parker decided the best way to
make money was to join the Fantastic Four. The top superhero team
in the city was living in a penthouse on top of the Baxter Building, so
Peter reasoned that they were making big bucks. After fighting the
team to a standstill, Parker was disappointed to learn that the Fantastic
Four was a nonprofit group that donated all money and rewards
they earned to charity.
In the same issue, Peter found himself battling for his reputation
when confronted by a master spy called the Chameleon. Though
40
possessing no real superpower, the Chameleon proved quite a challenge
with his quick-change antics, disguising himself as Spider-
Man to throw the police off his trail. At the end of the adventure, a
despondent Peter walked away from the scene of the crime wondering
if he would ever become a true superhero. All of which provided
the perfect lead-in to the main story in Spider-Man #2, which introduced
the first supervillain in the Spider-Man saga, the Vulture.
In “Duel to the Death with the Vulture,” the story opens with the
Vulture dropping from the sky and stealing a briefcase filled with
valuable bonds. From there, the story shifts to Peter Parker in high
school worrying about how he and his frail Aunt May will pay the
mortgage now that Uncle Ben is dead. Thought balloons, a device
used sparingly in comics up to that time, fill every blank space in the
panel, revealing the focal character’s every thought and emotion.
This is done for the main villain as well as the hero.
In their first face-to-face meeting, the Vulture catches Spider-
Man by surprise and tosses him into a half-filled water tank. In escaping
the trap, Spider-Man is forced to use his brains as well as his
brawn. Readers understand exactly how Parker figures the way out of
his predicament thanks to the thought balloons.
Although they were a cumbersome device, thought balloons
worked much better than the usual comic book gimmicks. No longer
did the hero have to explain later in the story how he managed to
escape a death trap to a concerned sidekick (a popular Batman
device). Nor did he need to brag about his triumph to the captured
and immobilized crook (as often happened in Superman and other
DC Comics of the period). Spider-Man grew in popularity because
his problems and their solutions were spelled out in black and white.
Needless to say, thought balloons soon became standard for every
hero and villain in the Marvel universe.
Despite being the first supervillain featured in the Spider-Man
saga, the Vulture was a fairly unimpressive foe. He didn’t present
much of a challenge, even for a young Peter Parker just learning how
to use his powers (and discovering such important crime-fighting
lessons as never let yourself run out of web shooter fluid). A large
THE VULTURE 41
portion of the second issue of Spider-Man concentrated on the mundane
aspects of the ongoing Parker saga. Readers wondered if Aunt
May might lose the house that Uncle Ben had bought, if Peter Parker
would ever find a part-time job to help pay the bills, and if there was any
way Peter could convince the gang at school that he wasn’t a geek.
These melodramatic cuts relegated the menace of the Vulture to a secondary
spot in the issue. As was often the case in subsequent Marvel
Comics, Spider-Man was soap opera with supervillains.
In his first comic appearance, the Vulture wasn’t given a name or
any background. He was merely a smart crook looking to make a few
big scores. He was an older man, completely bald, with narrow, thin
features and a hook nose, thus giving him the appearance of a giant
vulture. He wore a green costume made out of synthetic stretch fabric
that covered him from neck to toe. Gigantic synthetic feathers on
his arms served as his wings. He also had tail feathers connected to his
lower spine. A white fur collar around his neck supposedly made him
look even more like a vulture.
The Vulture had no visible exoskeleton, yet his legs remained
straight behind him when flying. Much like real-life vultures, he
made no noise when he flew. However, the lack of sound was not
from gliding on air currents like his namesake but was the result of his
using an electromagnetic harness that he had invented to supply him
with power for his wings. His hideout was an abandoned silo on
Staten Island just minutes from New York City. In real life, the Vulture
could have made millions legally selling copies of his flying costume
to frustrated commuters from Staten Island and New Jersey
heading into Manhattan in the morning.
It wasn’t until after several encounters with Spider-Man that we
learned the Vulture had once lived a normal life before becoming a
criminal mastermind. Other than prison fatigues, the Vulture never
seemed to wear anything but his green stretch outfit, which maybe
explained his lack of a social life. The Vulture’s real name was Adrian
Toomes, and he had been a brilliant electronic engineer before turning
to a life of crime. Toomes and various doppelgangers fought
42 THE SCIENCE OF SUPERVILLAINS
Spider-Man a number of times, until finally the Vulture joined the
Sinister Six, a group of Spider-Man enemies dedicated to combining
their powers to defeat their common enemy. Minor villains in the
Marvel universe believed in strength in numbers and were always
combining into teams like the Sinister Six, the Frightful Four, and the
Mutant Liberation Front. Considering their lack of success, these
teams might have functioned better as social clubs.
Though the Vulture was described as using an “electromagnetic
graviton harness”1 to increase his strength and stamina when flying,
exactly how the device worked was never mentioned in the comic. In
several of their aerial duels, Spider-Man used a homemade gadget to
scramble the electromagnetic waves generated by the harness, causing
the Vulture to plunge earthward.
It was implied in all of his appearances that the Vulture often used
his artificial wings as gliders and thus was able to fly noiselessly
through the brick canyons of New York City. For a man gliding on
wings made out of gigantic imitation feathers, the Vulture performed
a number of incredible aerial stunts and vertical ascents that contradicted
the laws of physics, but no one seemed to care. Still, the graviton
generator was not enough to keep the Vulture airborne. In a
decisive fight high above the city, Spider-Man used his webbing to tie
the Vulture’s wings tightly together and the bird-man dropped like a
rock. Only the combination of wings and generator allowed the Vulture
to fly.
Can an ordinary, middle-aged, bald guy actually soar through the
air using a giant set of wings? If not, then why not?
Humans have dreamed of flying for thousands of years. Long before
the rise of modern civilization, Greek mythology told the story of the
great inventor, Daedalus, and his son, Icarus, taken prisoner by King
Minos of Crete and imprisoned in the Minotaur’s labyrinth. Determined
to escape, Daedalus designed artificial wings for himself and
his son, using wax to attach feathers to their bodies. The two escaped
Crete, flying to their freedom. Unfortunately, Icarus was so entranced
THE VULTURE 43
by flying that he flew too high and the heat of the sun melted the wax
on his wings. He fell to his death. Daedalus flew to safety but never
used the wings again.
Icarus’s death meant different things to different people. Those
who believed that if the gods wanted humans to fly, they would have
been born with wings felt the story was clear vindication of their attitude.
Those who saw the event as a noble attempt doomed by a brash
young man considered the motto of the story to be “use better wax.”
As the battle of philosophies raged over the centuries, brave men continued
to try to duplicate the action of birds. It was a challenge that
baffled great minds for thousands of years. Even Leonardo da Vinci
drew up plans for a pair of artificial wings but never actually constructed
them.
As science emerged from superstition, scientists studied and analyzed
the movements of birds to understand how they flew. Despite
learning how wings worked and how birds lifted themselves off the
ground, humans found themselves physically unable to duplicate
those actions. They were not meant to fly. At least, not using their
own muscle power.
Flying using science, not muscle, became a reality in 1783 in
France when the Montgolfier brothers invented the first hot air balloon.
A large bag was constructed from paper and linen, and a hot fire
was positioned on a platform attached beneath it. The heat generated
by the fire caused the air inside the bag to expand, squeezing air molecules
from the bottom opening. Thus, the air inside the balloon was
lighter than the air outside. The lighter-than-air balloon flew upward,
carrying a goat, a chicken, and a mouse as its first passengers.
A few months later, two brave Frenchmen flew by balloon across
the English Channel. The age of lighter-than-air flight had begun.
For the next hundred years, scientists and inventors experimented
with balloons. More than a few of these experiments ended in disaster,
but they didn’t discourage balloonists. For long trips, a mixture
of lighter-than-air gas (preferably helium instead of the explosive
hydrogen) and hot air worked best, and intrepid flyers traveled across
America and Europe.
44 THE SCIENCE OF SUPERVILLAINS
The world changed once more on December 17, 1903, when the
Wright brothers flew the first heavier-than-air vehicle, an airplane,
at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The modern age of flight began. A
century of airplanes, large and small, followed. But humans still
needed machinery to fly. Why?
The most obvious answer to why the Vulture and all other
winged supervillains and superheroes (such as DC Comics’ Hawkman
and Hawkgirl) can’t fly is that they’re not birds. While humans
and birds are biologically similar in many ways, including having a
heart, lungs, and stomach, they are also quite different.
Birds are designed for flying. They have extremely strong hearts
and chest muscles. They are lighter than other animals, as their bones
are hollow. More astonishing, the skull bones of birds have air cavities
continuous with the nasal cavities. Trunk bones like the breastbone,
vertebrae, and pelvic bones also contain air sacs. These hollow
bones are known as pneumatic bones. Along with making the bird
skeleton lighter, they also serve as a source for extra oxygen to be
absorbed into the blood for greater energy.
The strong but lightweight bones in the wings and legs of birds
are long, hollow tubes supported by many small cross-braces. Also,
several smaller bones in birds are fused together, creating one large,
strong bone. The bones of the collarbone are connected to provide
strong support for the powerful shoulder muscles that move the
bird’s wings.
Birds do not have teeth or heavy jaws. They use bits of gravel
inside their body to grind their food into small pieces. A bird’s skull
only has two thin layers of bone. Birds also have extremely powerful
lungs that efficiently remove oxygen from the air and filter it into
their blood. All of these factors, combined with the shape of their
wings and the composition of their feathers, make it possible for birds
to fly. Genetic engineering won’t be producing any bird-men in the
near future. For the record, the heaviest bird capable of flight is the
great bustard, which weighs approximately forty pounds. Since our
criminal mastermind, the Vulture, is a lot heavier, he’s not operating
under bird power. Which means he’s flying like a human airplane.
THE VULTURE 45
• • •
To truly understand how birds and airplanes fly, we must define the
four basic terms of aerodynamics. Thrust is the force generated by the
plane or bird to move forward. Airplanes in the twenty-first century
normally create thrust by using jet engines. Birds create thrust by
flapping their wings. The aerodynamic force overcome by thrust is
known as drag.
The third force acting on a flying object is its weight. One fact
worth remembering is that everything on Earth, including air, has
weight. Obviously, the weight of a plane or a bird is what keeps it on
the ground. The aerodynamic force that raises and holds the airplane
or bird in the air is known as lift. When lift is greater than weight, a
plane flies. When lift decreases, the plane descends. Both lift and drag
can only exist in a moving fluid—and air, in this case, is considered to
be a fluid. Thus, neither birds nor airplanes can work in outer space
where there is no fluid.
Of these four terms, the first three are easy to understand. A
motor powers an airplane and muscles flap a bird’s wings, in each case
developing thrust. Air resistance acts as drag. The weight of an object
is its mass affected by the power of gravity. Only lift is a mystery. How
is lift created?
There are two fairly simple scientific methods used to explain lift
in most textbooks: Bernoulli’s principle and the transfer of momentum
principle. Unfortunately, while each of these standard explanations
is partially right, each is also partially wrong. We’ll describe the
two wrong explanations so that you can recognize them (and be a hero
to your class by correcting your science teacher), understand their
flaws, then examine the truth about lift and what it tells us about airplanes,
birds, and a certain crook called the Vulture.
The Bernoulli principle is often called the longer path explanation.
It looks at the top and bottom surfaces of an airplane wing, and
deals with a stream of air particles traveling toward the front of the
wing. When the particles split at the wing tip, the ones traveling over
the top have a greater distance to travel to the back. If they are going
to take the same amount of time to make it to the back of the wing as
46 THE SCIENCE OF SUPERVILLAINS
the particles going underneath, they must travel faster. Bernoulli’s
equation, one of the fundamental rules of fluid dynamics, says that as
the speed of a fluid increases, the pressure it exerts decreases. Thus,
Bernoulli’s equation implies that the pressure on top of the wing
must be less than the pressure on the bottom of the wing. Since the
air pressure beneath the wing is greater than that above the wing, the
wing (and with it, the airplane) rises.
Unfortunately, there are several major problems associated with
applying Bernoulli’s principle to wings. For one, there’s no valid reason
why the air particles that go over the wing and under the wing
need to meet at the back of the wing at the same time. Another problem
is that not all wings have a curve on top and a flat surface on the
bottom. Some wings are curved both above and below. More troublesome,
sometimes planes fly upside down. If Bernoulli’s principle
were true all the time, the higher air pressure would be pressing down
on the top of the wing and would drive the plane straight into the
ground.
Still, the longer path explanation isn’t entirely wrong. The air on
the top part of the wing does flow faster than on the bottom. So there
is some truth to the theory.
The transfer of momentum theory is based on Newton’s third
law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton
imagined air molecules acting like bullets and striking the bottom
surface of the wing. These particles would add the force of momentum
to the wing and slowly move it up into the air.
The problem with Newton’s idea is that air acts as a fluid, not as
a stream of molecules. Also, his theory never takes into account the
THE VULTURE 47
top surface of the wing, so his calculations are not very accurate.
However, at very high speeds (five times that of sound), air molecules
behave much more like bullets, so Newton’s ideas aren’t entirely
worthless.
If we take some of the best of both theories, we finally come up
with an explanation that has no flaws and explains lift clearly and concisely.
Lift is a force on a wing completely immersed in a moving fluid
(air). It acts on the wing in a direction perpendicular to the flow of the
air. The force is created by differences in pressure that occur because
of variations in the speed of the air all around the wing (both top and
bottom). The result of this force is divided into lift (raising the wing)
and drag (slowing it down). When the flow of air past a wing is
increased, the pressure differences between the top and bottom of the
wing become greater, and lift increases. Lift can also be changed by
varying the angle of the wing.
Putting all these factors together, we come up with the standard
equation used for calculating lift:
L = (C)(R)(V2)(A)
where L = lift
C = the lift coefficient
R = air density
V = air velocity
A = wing area
Looking at the equation, we immediately notice that lift is dependent
on two variables: the air velocity (or how fast the plane or bird is traveling)
and the wing area. For people who are deathly afraid of flying,
it’s worth noting that a 747 generates a lift greater than 870,000
pounds on takeoff. The lift coefficient is entirely dependent on the
angle of the wing, while the air density is totally dependent on the
height of the plane or bird above sea level.
Finally, we can plug in some numbers. If we are flying at sea level,
R = .00237 slugs/cubic foot (taken from a handy textbook defining air
density). Using a table of lift coefficients calculated by the National
48 THE SCIENCE OF SUPERVILLAINS
Advisory Committee of Aeronautics for a 1408 airfoil shape with the
wing at 4 degrees,2 we arrive at C = .55. Doing some quick calculations,
L = .00065175 (V2)(A). Which again points out that the lift of
a plane flying at a certain height (in this case, sea level) with a wing at
a specific standard angle is directly related to the air velocity and the
area of the wing. So, the weight of our plane or bird (or bird-man)
relies on how fast it moves and the size of its wings.
Now the numbers get interesting. If the Vulture weighs 200
pounds (fully equipped with wings and costume) and is sprinting at
20 feet per second (a record-setting pace, running a mile in less than
four minutes), he will need a wing area of approximately 800 square
feet to lift him off the ground. Of course, that assumes he can keep
moving at 20 feet per second all the time he is in the air. Which leads
us to conclude that the Vulture flying under his own power or even
with the aid of an electromagnetic booster is impossible. Still, he’s
not as outrageous now as he seemed nearly forty years ago.
In 1933, a German group of aviation experts offered a 5,000-mark
prize for the first human-powered airplane. Prizes were offered in
Italy and Russia, as well, but the money went unclaimed. The problem,
as seen in the equation above, is one of power. Even with huge
ultralight wings, it takes at least 10 horsepower to power a glider, and
the best-trained athletes can only generate 0.4 horsepower for any
length of time.
In 1959, British industrialist Henry Kremer offered 50,000
pounds for a human-powered aircraft that could fly around two
markers four-fifths of a mile apart. On August 23, 1977, eighteen
years after the prize was offered, California energy consultant Paul
McReady claimed the money with his self-designed plane, the Gossamer
Condor. Later, in the Gossamer Albatross, McReady flew across
the English Channel.
The Condor was the result of years of designing and redesigning
a plane aimed solely at winning the Kremer prize. Working with Dr.
Peter Lissaman, McReady modified the plane after each test flight,
relying on engineering know-how instead of computer modeling.
THE VULTURE 49
The plane was made of extremely thin aluminum tubes covered
with Mylar plastic and braced with stainless steel wires. The pilot sat
in a semireclining position, which enabled him to have both hands
free for the controls. One hand controlled the vertical and lateral
movement, and the other hand moved a lever controlling steel wires
that twisted the wing, making the plane turn.
The pilot who flew the plane was Bryan Allen, a champion bicyclist
and hang-glider pilot. The plane reached a speed of approximately 11
miles per hour, with Allen developing one-third horsepower by bicycle
pedaling. The Condor weighed 70 pounds without a pilot and approximately
200 pounds with Allen. It was 30 feet long, 18 feet high, with a
wingspan of 96 feet.
The Albatross, an improved version of The Condor, weighed only
60 pounds. The energy needed to attain proper velocity was obtained
by bicycle pedaling at 20 miles per hour.
Not everyone is willing to fly by the rules. Take, for example,
Felix Baumgartner.
On July 31, 2003, the Austrian skydiver became the first person to
skydive across the English Channel. Felix jumped out of a plane
above Dover, England, and landed just 14 minutes later in Cap Blanc-
Nez near Calais, France, 22 miles away. He wore only an aerodynamic
jumpsuit with a 6-foot carbon fin strapped to his back, an
oxygen tank from which to breathe, and a parachute to land. Baumgartner
leapt from the plane when it was 30,000 feet in the air, free
falling most of the time at approximately 135 miles an hour.
Human-propelled flying is still in its early stages. Hundreds of young
scientists and engineers from around the world are constantly working
on more efficient and durable human-powered planes. It’s doubtful
that they’ll ever come up with a green-feathered suit used for
criminal activities, but you never can tell. While the Vulture remains
strictly in the world of comics for the present, who knows what will
happen in the real world during the next twenty years?