Super Soldier SCIENCE: Fact vs. Fiction

The concept of a "super soldier" abounds in comics. Were their stories to be believed, our military spends more time trying to bulk up the 4-Fs as it does actually teaching recruits to shoot. While I'm sure our government has spent some time working on possibility solutions to human frailties like sleep, aging and lack of Nazi punching abilities; they clearly don't have anything along the lines of Steve Rogers (at least as far as they've told us). But as I like to do in these columns, let's play the game of what might be possible if we did want to create the first avenger with WWII technology.

The Muscles

It was always made abundantly clear the Steve Rogers natural physique wasn't doing him any favors. He was scrawny and he was weak. And then a german scientist named Dr. Erskine offered him an experimental formula to make him stronger than the rest. Well I'm not sure how much Simon and Kirby were up on the science of the time but it actually was a German scientist named Adolf Butenandt who first isolated the chemicals that make up anabolic steroids in the 1930s. Only difference was when they tried to award him the Nobel prize the nazis forced him to decline the honor, so I doubt he would have been doing the allies any favors.

But would a simple dose of steroids be enough? Hardly. While anabolic steroids do promote muscle growth, they have a whole host of side effects not likely to aid a man in combat. So instead of Captain America you'd wind up with something more along the lines of a Hulk with feminine features. Plus it's not like one dose of steroids will do the trick for your entire life. Without regular administrations of the goods that muscle gets broken down by the body and the Allies would be left with a flabby Steve Rogers who could probably barely lift his fancy shield.

The Shield

For the purposes of getting bulked up, I can accept that fact that the genius of Dr. Erskine found a way to make a drug with a steroid-esque effect last permanently without the negative side effects. Most super heroes need at least one giant logic leap to get their powers so that's fine, but what really has me nervous is the shield. I'm expecting the basic laws of physics to get banged up more than the Hydra agents.

Anyone who's ever played billiards should have an innate knowledge of one simple rule: the angle of attack equals the angle of repose. What that fancy phrase means is that if a ball hits the wall at a 45 degree angle then it bounces off at that same angle. Nothing too fancy about it. And while that's a concept that's hard to keep track of in the comics, I imagine the possibilities for kinetic story telling of the cinema will also lead to some fast and loose use of a protractor. Don't get me wrong, I fully expect to enjoy the ricochettes for purposes of Nazi wailing, but I'll also be cringing just as hard when the vector physics gets botched. Even if the shield consists of a magic alloy allowing for perfectly elastic collisions without deformation, you just can't get around the basic rules of physics.

Anti-aging and Cryogenics

And throwing that shield doesn't get any easier with age. Fortunately Steve doesn't really age like the rest of us. But here's a question that might kind of blow your mind: what is aging, anyways? I mean, we see it every day, we know that it's these changes that make us less awesome with each passing year, but what causes it? Well the fact of the matter is that the science of aging is a hot field in biology right now, with several competing theories concerning how and why we age. If there really were people like Steve Rogers or Nick Fury running around I doubt we'd be wasting so much time studying unkillable naked mole rats (even though I believe that no time spent with a naked mole rat should be considered wasted time, as they are objectively awesome animals).

  

So all those anti-aging rejuvenative treatments you see on commercials for cosmetic companies? Exactly that, cosmetic. Science has done a lot to help folks age more gracefully, from plastic surgery, to improved nutritional science, to viagara; but there's still a long long way to go before we even understand why we get old, let alone how to stay young permanently.

As for cryogenics? Since Steve wasn't frozen on purpose I may let that one slide. There's enough abuse of that subject in comics to warrant it's own post. Suffice to say, that while there are some incidents of miraculous recovery after being subjected to very cold temperatures, they usually occur after about 40 minutes under freezing water, not 40 years. Sorry, Steve.

Exo-Suits

It seems far more likely that instead of trying to improve the man biologically, the military would rather meld man and machine into a single fighting force. Already, companies like Raytheon (see video below) are building exo-skeletons that would allow soldiers to carry loads more weight for much longer distances with the suit doing the brunt of the work. It sounds like science fiction, but it looks like Iron Man might have the super soldier edge over Tony Stark.

I actually did a series for pieces for Marvel about the science behind Iron Man's armor before the second film cam out, so I reccommend brushing up on those because I did touch on some of the real world models that currently exist. Then again there's always just a video of Clark Gregg (aka Agent Coulson) in an exo suit. That's good too.

 

So that was my attempt to break down a few of the myths vs. the reality of a potential super soldier. Obviously I don't have an infinite amount of space, or reader patience, to tackle every little minutiae to my own satisfaction but I hope it at least got the reader thinking. If I did get you thinking, tell us your thoughts in the comments!

 


Ryan Haupt's super soldier serum is nothing but simple black coffee. Hear him drink other liquids on his podcast Science… sort of

Comments

  1. I’ve always been curious about the vibranium in the shield. It’s special property is to absorb kinetic energy, right? Which enables the shield to take a huge impact and not not move. But wouldn’t that work against the shield, too? Like, if you throw it, it would absorb the energy of the first thing it hit and just come to a dead stop.

  2. I want one of those exo suits so bad. Amazing article as always!

  3. What I would love to see even more would be Ryan using science- fringe science even to provide how some of these ideas Could work instead of myth busting.

    We all suspend disbelief to read a lot of our books- it would be cool if Ryan was able to use his knowledge And imagination to explain how some of these abilities -powers and tech might actually work in some way.

     

  4. Okay, but the Cosmic Cube — that’s totally scientifically sound, right?

  5. An enhanced Growth Hormone is much more likey than steroids to have given Cap his muscle-mass and aid in his anti-ageing as well as rapid healing and resistance to injury.

  6. Steriods may have been involved in his creation but I don’t think they are why he looks the way he does now.

    Basically the Super Soldier Formula/vita-rays by-passed his initial stunted form that was due to improper nutrition and being sickly. He becomes taller/bigger because the process unlocks the genetic potential that may have been expressed if he had been in better health . But more importantly, his body is re-made to work in optimum efficiency: he processes protein and air better, allowing him to be stronger and run faster for longer periods of time.

     His physique is the result of this efficiency.

  7. Because of the Super Soldier serum does Captain America get an asterisk next to every instance he’s saved the world?

    1985 – Secret Wars*
     

  8. RessurectionFlan- Nice.

     

  9. @ResurrectionFlan  haha! I think in the Marvel universe everyone is on something except Thor. Radioactive spider venom, pym particles, some African fruit. It’s rampant.

  10. @Haupt  “just can’t get around the basic rules of physics”… well sure.. not with your basic rules of physics.

    Fun article.. thanks. 

  11. @flakbait  Excellent point.  What saves the shield kills the shield at the same time.  Maybe the vibranium component is centered to inside the outer ring, so that the attack absorbtion works when the shield is hit head-on, but when thrown, the rebound ability is retained along the edge?

    @ericmci  I agree.  I LOVE @Haupt’s articles due to their scientific analysis and component applied to fiction, but it’s much harder to speculate how close we are to achieving this magic than debunking it.  I could read books on both, and am always eagerly awaiting the next Haupt article. 🙂