catching falling civillians

Psycicisists usually agree that if a fyling character caught a falling civillian in mid-air, the civillian would probably suffer the same or more damge from the abrupt save than by becoming street pizza. Are there any comic book explanitions that circumvent real life physics in these instances?

I heard a rumor that the "SNAP!" effect that accompanied Gwen's fall was only added to reprints of Amazing Spider-Man #121 and not in the original issue.   Is this true?

I thought it sounded like an odd thing to change.

Originally posted by Peter Luzifer I think there were stories that hinted at/mentioned the possibility that Gwen Stacy actually died because of Spider-Man catching her with a web-line, and the catch being that abrupt that her head swung back, snapping her neck.   Usually, though, the flying (or in Spider-Man's case, swinging) hero catches a person from the side and just redirects the downward momentum in a curve to a side/upward motion until the velocity decreases. Or if a hero dives after a civilian they actually fly next to them, match the speed, grab them and then slowly decrease their speed.   And those times it isn't shown or outright states, it happens in between the panels. :-)

That doesn't solve the problem of someone on the ground catching a falling person and having everything work out fine. Unless the catcher did a squat during the catch, but timing is everything.

If the Thing was standing on street level and caught someone who fell outta building, that person's momentum would be transferred into the Thing instead of the sidewalk, so what's the difference? (That may even be worse given the Thing's indestructable hide)

Same problem I have with Nightcrawler catching someone in mid-fall and 'porting them 'safely' back down to the ground. Problem is, that person would still have the same momentum when they arrived. So how does Kurt prevent them from going splat?

I'm almost certain I've read something about Nightcrawler shedding momentum through rapid teleports, though I'm not sure of the science behind it.

Edited by mutant: overload - 12-Jul-2010 at 4:57pm