Post-Crisis Superman and the Mageddon

Epic Mike's Description[]

If you've ever debated Post-Crisis Superman, you've probably at least heard the name Mageddon crop up once or twice. But what is Mageddon?

Basically, it's a weapon created by the Old Gods (the precursors to the New Gods of New Genesis and Apokolips) which played a role in their eventual destruction. After that, it was trapped in a gravity well beyond the event horizon of the visible universe for some 15 billion years, until it somehow escaped, destroyed the planet of superpowered beings assigned to guard it, and headed for Earth.

Why do all of the dangerous cosmic threats always make a direct beeline for Earth? Well Sinestro Corps War actually explained that, thus depriving me of any jokes I could make about it here. But I digress.

Via a lot of plot devices and DEM (including everyone on Earth temporarily being given superpowers by an alien superbeing), Mageddon was defeated. Superman has two notable feats involving Mageddon, the first being when he was captured by it and forced to turn its wheels to help move its body. The second was when he absorbed the power in the "anti-sun" warhead designed to wipe out the galaxy. As the latter involves funky FTL physics, I'm going to attempt to quantify the former.

Endless Mike's Calculation[]

First of all, how big is Mageddon? In a word, Big. This is the clearest picture I could find of its whole body:

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505073151im_/http://i50.tinypic.com/5u0pi.jpg

Yes, that's the sun in the foreground.

Now if I were to simply pixel scale it from the sun, I would be underestimating its real size, since it's further away from the viewer than the sun. So in order to get a slightly more accurate value, I'll try something I don't think has been attempted in any other calcs. (I hope I can explain it clearly, since it's rather complicated).

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505073151im_/http://i48.tinypic.com/2hmiuex.jpg

First I'll scale the sun and then use the angular size calculator to find the distance from the viewer:

Redoing with new angsize rules.

Panel width = 990 px

Panel height = 1526 px

2*atan(tan(70/2)*(990/1526) = 48.86108984882531

Redoing yet again.

2*atan(187/(1526/tan(70/2))) = 9.80853240447804 degrees.

Distance to the sun = 8,115,400 km

Now as we were measuring the diameter of the sun from one visible edge to another, and the farthest edges would be on the plane bisecting the sun perpendicular to our angle of vision (crappy diagram to illustrate what I'm talking about):

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505073151im_/http://i50.tinypic.com/14id3xh.jpg

This means the distance we got above is the distance from the viewer to the closest edge of the sun + the radius of the sun. Now since Mageddon is behind the sun, it is at least a further solar radius away, so it minimum distance would be 8,811,742 km (again, the real distance would be much greater than this, since Mageddon is obviously not physically touching the sun and there is likely a great deal of space between the sun and its body, but it's closer than the previous number).

Now I'll use the angular size calculator again, but this time I'll input the diameter of the sun and the distance I got above, then solve for the angle. I got 9.0367 degrees, which corresponds to 172.284989263888339368388306 px. This means the sun would appear this size if it was one further solar radius away. This is a difference of 108.5410869507457368286906617486%. So now I can pixel scale Mageddon from the sun, and multiply the numbers by this factor to get his size if he were one further solar radius away, which would be closer to his true size.

Since the edges of Mageddon's body extend past the page, I used the ellipse select and brush tools in GIMP to extend the outlines of its body. I think these are pretty accurate, considering they resemble the contours of an octopus, which Mageddon's shape seems to be based on.

Now to actually scale the thing.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505073151im_/http://i46.tinypic.com/24qtqja.jpg

Using the ellipsoid volume calculator, I get a volume of 710,013,062,229,702,200,000 km^3.

Now for the tentacles. I couldn't find a pic showing their total length, so I'm going to have to lowball it and scale only the parts shown on-panel. There are 6 visible tentacles in the picture, 4 in the foreground and 2 in the background. They should all be the same size, roughly (just appearing different due to perspective). Scaling one of them gives it a width of 216.8893727 px, which equals (after applying the multiplier) 1,753,248.26848862672371842037765084468754 km. The visible length of the tentacle (394.5072876 px), using the same method, is 3,189,041.53892112151524991989311794619585 km.

Volume of a cylinder = pi * r^2 * h. So the volume of the visible part of one tentacle = 7,699,045,653,143,722,653.2871066757734430060194931798365898948 km^3. Multiplying this by 6, we get 46,194,273,918,862,335,919.7226400546406580361169590790195393688 km^3. Adding this to the volume of the head, we get a total volume for Mageddon of 756,207,336,148,564,535,919.7226400546406580361169590790195393688 km^3.

Now for density. It was never stated what Mageddon was actually made of, but it must have been some pretty hardcore shit, considering it can not only maintain its non-spherical shape despite its size, but it casually shrugs off planet busters with no visible damage and it essentially pulled itself out of a black hole (not to mention its chains could restrain even Superman). Given these facts, I think the density of osmium would be a very conservative estimate. Now obviously Mageddon is not completely solid, but as we are only measuring the part Superman pulled, which would be solid, that's immaterial (no pun intended).

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505073151im_/http://i.imgur.com/EcRi0.jpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505073151im_/http://i.imgur.com/KU5IO.jpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505073151im_/http://i.imgur.com/Z6q8D.jpg

I'll estimate that 60% of Mageddon is empty space, so Superman would be pulling 40% of its volume: 302,482,934,459,425,814,367.88905602185626321444678363160781574752 km^3. Using the density of osmium, that's 6,833,089,489,438,429,146,570,613,775,533,732,986.0143528422380205577364768 kg.

Now we just need to find the speed at which he pulled it. There was no indication that he was turning the wheels at any kind of insane relativistic or FTL super speed, but he was doing it fast enough to move the entire thing around in a reasonable amount of time. So as a low end I'll use the speed required to move Mageddon one of its own body lengths (measured by its shorter axis) in one hour, which is equal to 2952.7616934798691031463416360116629215 km/s.

Now KE = 0.5 * m * v^2. So the total energy involved in this feat is 29,788,175,849,874,416,436,740,588,643,341,052,300,501,390.153934195361739869296143779199863126295 joules, or 7,119,544,897.1975182688194523526149742592020530960645782 yottatons

Huge downgrade, but I think it's less due to the angsizing and more due to errors I made in my previous attempt at this calc. Good thing I caught them then.

My Feat Description (JLA (1997) #37-41)[]

JLA #15

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/xiJ1LnxDzBxl724-VCpMv7Yoao_zEqgdBhm61KkiA7H5CutizzNxcnCKQknywrbcNBJc2de-Kv4O=s0

JLA #36

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/GQ4QNJT08elb0GXttBYZFfjLmfkstO8yvGFEUmqEV2SBWzQLfot-mQNhgX3iFWvDj89nPoMWXY6A=s0

JLA #37 https://2.bp.blogspot.com/nqCO7kayNvSK8THI1afawZxrkMmuF1RlTDPK6YyPnsFFcEbYFhBUfeA4HsQZjeKDeuzdWVN5T2Rc=s0

Maggedon's first appearance.

JLA #39

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/AU0q7CADcXAvGaXiGZGANFI35ISB_CTAcYtI0nNjBfg8zhS4cizSlDUVSlgJjCt2M9siFV1g334u=s0

Superman is currently in the Ghost Zone.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/GsWquz6d1tiIgu3y4tvxraUazv_erkbmBkVSApPZeng2kelSbFWDaxCRhQEXlrBmY2cRRKcoGgm4=s0

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/VEvWHE3o0d5Ci-M1-5CliibgHui7wOONVapIt7QdNccAYgzdF6h6gsNJNnL8BxjnpKnE3iIxCiSZ=s0

Superman and Orion Boom Tube to Mageddon just as it arrives at the solar system.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/yzIIh9Gm3MCpuyTBXuzzs4z9X2wkasjQtKG6oRC1q0uMN8-06TNyi1WHESm5JWuP379PmNJp9FVT=s0

Mageddon is right next to Earth.

JLA #40

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/3ztDk8JFl63qNs6d5qpL9H1SZyQLwfjh32M_lqziwQNQ840cv4ewVnLRi6BdbmfSfz5zmhpLLt33=s0

Mageddon next to Earth.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/oMIQji7zrNXjm05S93NzVPfHlZCk-83frrKhqgjc0DAOW4wrjXt6ELErIONCNTOnftRVJyhvRoCd=s0

The Mageddon is right next to Earth. Martian Manhunter Searches inside Mageddon.

"A great suffering presence there. Chained and despairing. Mah-geh-dun. Turning the endless millwheels."

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/heR69SuldFyTA_x-8k5xU8uXMk075PnYevTMFv869Mf904bck2U1vAchLrWgwS4qyA0qyotdUt3l=s0

It's Superman.

JLA #41

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/lt--eQVAIAX4JvOelS6gX8kUZZ5dLbubq_QJKoVzTRLe5-aStMa4bGwwCv68n_mxs19AA3El5qMH=s0

"Mageddon has Superman. He is a component now. It will use his strength to destroy us. Great Gods of Mars."

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/R-0I-mhGGeRoj6I9yn5SfHV6hAS_1Lgfk6Mv5Rv4FGy5_x9oZ3nXJOXYhuBvv-86jBbb4JSDZh83=s0

Mageddon next to Earth.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/4vGSYbBXnrLIzgWaU5ZQbTYX-rTZLC3EhF3jhgDcjYPkKM621M0WyOzB15-W3fYF4UKxUhpC5K13=s0

Mageddon above Earth.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dZKvXReqPM1cx1AZnU8swUOURGklaRmLmgmE2xDgq87QPahOQVDIwB2EMyiJGzXysrHURkX6Ukl=s0

Mageddon above Earth.

JLA Secret Files and Origins Vol 1 #3 December 2000

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NNeOVJsRIPc/WvAQP_oz3OI/AAAAAAAAJPg/-cARDlcnwO8FL57_Vnwgg8JYU86ql-PIACHMYCw/s0/RCO035_w.JPG

The Mageddon is smaller than previously thought[]

Currently, people judge Mageddon's size based on his first appearance in JLA #37 .

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/nqCO7kayNvSK8THI1afawZxrkMmuF1RlTDPK6YyPnsFFcEbYFhBUfeA4HsQZjeKDeuzdWVN5T2Rc=s0

The caption reads that Mageddon is 12 light years away from Earth, and people believe that the star between its eyes is our sun. This is not the case.

As seen in JLA #15

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/xiJ1LnxDzBxl724-VCpMv7Yoao_zEqgdBhm61KkiA7H5CutizzNxcnCKQknywrbcNBJc2de-Kv4O=s0

and JLA #36,

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/GQ4QNJT08elb0GXttBYZFfjLmfkstO8yvGFEUmqEV2SBWzQLfot-mQNhgX3iFWvDj89nPoMWXY6A=s0

the star between its eyes was there since its creation.

In JLA #39,

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/yzIIh9Gm3MCpuyTBXuzzs4z9X2wkasjQtKG6oRC1q0uMN8-06TNyi1WHESm5JWuP379PmNJp9FVT=s0

Mageddon is right next to Earth. The size of the star between its eyes is comparable to the size of the Earth. There are several scenes later on that support my claim of its true size.

In JLA #40 ,

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/3ztDk8JFl63qNs6d5qpL9H1SZyQLwfjh32M_lqziwQNQ840cv4ewVnLRi6BdbmfSfz5zmhpLLt33=s0

Mageddon is next to Earth.

In JLA #41,

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/R-0I-mhGGeRoj6I9yn5SfHV6hAS_1Lgfk6Mv5Rv4FGy5_x9oZ3nXJOXYhuBvv-86jBbb4JSDZh83=s0

Mageddon is next to Earth.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/4vGSYbBXnrLIzgWaU5ZQbTYX-rTZLC3EhF3jhgDcjYPkKM621M0WyOzB15-W3fYF4UKxUhpC5K13=s0

Mageddon is above Earth.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dZKvXReqPM1cx1AZnU8swUOURGklaRmLmgmE2xDgq87QPahOQVDIwB2EMyiJGzXysrHURkX6Ukl=s0

Mageddon is above Earth.