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Science question.

spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
So I'm no big city doctor but as I understand it we build muscle because we essentially tear up our muscle fibers and then they grow back bulkier because that's what our bodies do. So if Wolverine's mutant power is that he heals back crazy fast doesn't that mean he should be like the most buff muscular dude in the marvel universe? Like any time he exerts himself it should be near instant muscle game. Like him lifting weights should mean that you can actually see his muscles swelling as he's lifting and so long as he keeps lifting heavier and heavier weights he could become like incredible hulk levels of buff over the course of like fifteen minutes right?

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  • no, because he heals so fast the muscle never actually gets a chance to tear​​
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  • pantagruel01pantagruel01 Posts: 7,091 Arc User
    spinnytop wrote: »
    So if Wolverine's mutant power is that he heals back crazy fast doesn't that mean he should be like the most buff muscular dude in the marvel universe?
    First of all, you're applying science to comic books. Second, Wolverine is actually pretty muscular. Third, no, he'd get the same amount of muscle from a given amount of exercise as anyone else, he'd just get it faster.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited March 2020
    First of all, you're applying science to comic books.

    Why wouldn't I? Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Otto Octavius, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, and many others do it all the time. It's not a magical fantasy setting, and mutations are scientific in nature.
    Third, no, he'd get the same amount of muscle from a given amount of exercise as anyone else, he'd just get it faster.

    That's exactly what I said.
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Like any time he exerts himself it should be near instant muscle game.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    no, because he heals so fast the muscle never actually gets a chance to tear​​

    But if this is true then he would be a skinny wimp with baby muscles because it would mean he was never able to build muscle mass ever.
  • i have no idea what kind of backstory the current iteration of wolverine has, but i doubt he was born with an active mutation (because very few, if any, marvel characters in the current CU do) - so he could've easily had existing muscle mass BEFORE it activated​​
    #LegalizeAwoo
  • flyingfinnflyingfinn Posts: 8,408 Arc User
    People mixing real science with superhero science.
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  • jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,315 Arc User
    Tony Stark doesn't use science - he uses sciency. By real-world physics, none of his gadgets should work, especially the whole flying-with-rocket-boots-and-no-stabilizing-wings bit. And Bruce Banner is sold to us as a physicist, but in the real world exposure to massive amounts of gamma radiation will simply kill you quickly. Your cells don't mutate, they just break down.

    And Wolvie is supposed to be so muscled that he's damn near as wide as he is tall - check out his earlier appearances, back when he was 5' 3". He gets loads of exercise lugging that adamantium skeleton around.
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    jonsills wrote: »
    And Wolvie is supposed to be so muscled that he's damn near as wide as he is tall - check out his earlier appearances, back when he was 5' 3". He gets loads of exercise lugging that adamantium skeleton around.

    That makes sense then. I imagine at some point he's literally so dense with muscle fibers that they stop tearing at all and that's when he's reached peak muscularity. Sometimes I feel like not enough things break when he sits on them tho.. that dude must weigh at least as much as a minivan, little terminator that he is.
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    OTOH Wolvie is pretty short, which would make him less heavy than an average-sized dude with proportionate metal in him. We also don't know how much adamantium actually weighs per a given volume. I've also always read/heard that his skeleton is "adamanatium-laced," not solid adamantium.

    But like jonsills and flyingfinn wrote, comic-book science very frequently diverges from real-world science. It's just a cool-sounding excuse for cool superhuman abilities. All that really matters is that it's applied consistently when a concept is established.
  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    edited March 2020
    spinnytop wrote: »
    First of all, you're applying science to comic books.

    Why wouldn't I? Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Otto Octavius, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, and many others do it all the time. It's not a magical fantasy setting, and mutations are scientific in nature.
    Just because a work of fiction features characters who "do science," that doesn't mean the work itself is scientifically accurate. As for Wolverine, I guess if you want to get technical, humans have a natural limit (before performance-enhancing drugs come into play) on how much muscle their bodies will build, and that amount varies from person to person. Maybe Wolverine's at his limit already, and that's why he's not ULTRA HUGE or whatever.
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited March 2020
    aesica wrote: »
    Just because a work of fiction features characters who "do science," that doesn't mean the work itself is scientifically accurate.

    Yeah... that was the point I was making. The fact that Wolverine isn't the size of the hulk is potentially not scientifically accurate. Glad we could finally end up there 26 days later.

    aesica wrote: »
    humans have a natural limit (before performance-enhancing drugs come into play)

    Yes. Maybe the mutant who can regenerate from getting blown up within seconds just needs to take steroids so he can exceed his natural human limits.
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  • ealford1985ealford1985 Posts: 3,582 Arc User
    Some of the post I agree with so I’ll sum up what I believe.

    If you tear muscle when you workout and it heals and builds more more.

    Then when he works out he tears and instantly heals. No stretching needed.

    The minor tear for him is instantly heal. So it could also be argued that he works outs and his muscles heal faster than they can tear...or perhaps he builds muscle instantly because for each miniatures tear it’s healing instantly.

    So...

    If we also believe there is a cap on how big he can get, he could literally bulk up in less time than most people. Like...inna freakishly less time. He could go from skinny to peek physical condition in a matter of a week.
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    spinnytop wrote: »
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    Gloriana Leadership Camp for Female Empowerment. hahaha. :D Also that's totally Sue Storm.

    GLCFE isn't a good acronym... sounds like someone choking on a lego.
  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Yeah... that was the point I was making. The fact that Wolverine isn't the size of the hulk is potentially not scientifically accurate. Glad we could finally end up there 26 days later.
    I don't use these forums nearly as much as I used to, so if I want to reply to a topic that's nearly a month old, I'm going to and there's nothing (short of your typical smartass reply) you can do about it. ;)
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Yes. Maybe the mutant who can regenerate from getting blown up within seconds just needs to take steroids so he can exceed his natural human limits.
    If the X-men were a Russian operation, he probably would. Of course it's also possible that his body metabolizes performance enhancers so quickly that they're in and out before they can have any noticeable effect.
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited April 2020
    aesica wrote: »
    so if I want to reply to a topic that's nearly a month old

    you completely missed the point o3o again

    aesica wrote: »
    If the X-men were a Russian operation, he probably would. Of course it's also possible that his body metabolizes performance enhancers so quickly that they're in and out before they can have any noticeable effect.

    That is, in fact, canon. During the birthday thing with spiderman he downs an entire bottle of whiskey, gets super drunk for a few seconds, then has a big hangover for a little bit. Steroids would not be able to help Wolverine exceed his very normal human limits. Well, unless they were specifically designed for his normal human superhuman mutant physiology.
  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    So you answered your own question. Grats!
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    aesica wrote: »
    So you answered your own question. Grats!

    I wasn't asking about steroids tho o3o you brought that up
  • sandukutupusandukutupu Posts: 65 Arc User
    @spinnytop I pretty much agree with everyone who told you that you are mixing real world science with comic book fantasy.

    As an author, I always shy away from writing about science fiction and stick with fantasy. There are millions of neckbeards, who debate things about Star Wars and Star Trek, right down to where the ships toilets are located. Meanwhile... if I tell you the wizard casts a spell or witch turns a person into a frog, no science comes into play. Sure the neckbeard can look at me and say, "In your book, where the witch turned the hero into a frog, the mass of an average human person is 70 to 80 kg and the mass of a frog..." I just hold up my hand and reply, "Magic! Duh?!".

    According to everything I read, about both Deadpool and Wolverine, states they can recomposite themselves, after being tossed into a wood chipper, and fed to sharks as chum. Deadpool has the worse version, as he not only is suspend in a constant state of death, his lost limbs wander off to become Evil Deadpool.
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited April 2020
    @spinnytop I pretty much agree with everyone who told you that you are mixing real world science with comic book fantasy.

    That's good because it's the entire point of the thread. It's strange how people keep feeling the need to point out that I asked a science question about a comic book character o3o
    Post edited by spinnytop on
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    The basic impression I get is that Wolverine's healing factor doesn't undo muscle growth. But his muscles always regenerate to the massively jacked size, so that's only a partial explanation.
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    The basic impression I get is that Wolverine's healing factor doesn't undo muscle growth. But his muscles always regenerate to the massively jacked size, so that's only a partial explanation.

    Perhaps. Maybe he's like a vampire and he always grows back to some sort of set form that he attained when his powers reached 'maturity' or something. Now that I think about it that makes the most sense. Wolverine is like a vampire.
  • jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,315 Arc User
    spinnytop wrote: »
    The basic impression I get is that Wolverine's healing factor doesn't undo muscle growth. But his muscles always regenerate to the massively jacked size, so that's only a partial explanation.

    Perhaps. Maybe he's like a vampire and he always grows back to some sort of set form that he attained when his powers reached 'maturity' or something. Now that I think about it that makes the most sense. Wolverine is like a vampire.
    That's how his appearance is fixed, yes - which is why he's had the same ridiculous hairstyle since the first time Herb Trimpe drew him, back in Incredible Hulk #180. He's had haircuts over the years, but every time his hair regenerates to the same silly shape. (Which is weird, because hair isn't technically alive, but it's hardly the strangest thing about Wolvie's biology...)
    "Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"

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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    jonsills wrote: »
    spinnytop wrote: »
    The basic impression I get is that Wolverine's healing factor doesn't undo muscle growth. But his muscles always regenerate to the massively jacked size, so that's only a partial explanation.

    Perhaps. Maybe he's like a vampire and he always grows back to some sort of set form that he attained when his powers reached 'maturity' or something. Now that I think about it that makes the most sense. Wolverine is like a vampire.
    That's how his appearance is fixed, yes - which is why he's had the same ridiculous hairstyle since the first time Herb Trimpe drew him, back in Incredible Hulk #180. He's had haircuts over the years, but every time his hair regenerates to the same silly shape. (Which is weird, because hair isn't technically alive, but it's hardly the strangest thing about Wolvie's biology...)

    That's the answer then. That's also actually a thing that has come up in Vampire tabletop sessions. Specifically a character who bore a centuries long grudge against his sire because he delayed siring him for a decade for political reasons, during which the character went partly bald, and now has to look like that for all eternity rather than the glorious mane they had in their younger years. So I guess Logan could have had it worse than looking like an anime character.
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