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I'm making a superhero comic a little more grounded in reality. One of the characters in it is a genetically modified soldier who has abilities very similar to superman. How would such a character fly without wings though? He's generally humanoid and I'd prefer to keep him mostly that way.

Alex Sash
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  • Does this answer your question? https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/202834/30492 – L.Dutch Jul 10 '22 at 08:35
  • A magical green lantern ring would do it. Many superheroes were 'super' because of artifacts. – Kilisi Jul 10 '22 at 10:35
  • flying by sheer force of will, no, there is no realistic way to do that. – John Jul 10 '22 at 13:47
  • Hi, Alex. L.Dutch kindly identified a duplicate to your question in a way that didn't slam your question closed. But 19 hours have passed with no input from you, so I'm moving forward with the closure. We're happy to retract/reopen if you can explain why your question isn't and cannot be answered by the indicated previous question. – JBH Jul 11 '22 at 03:52
  • don't forget the entomological aspect: https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=1873 – Franz Gleichmann Jul 11 '22 at 07:10

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Here are three suggested methods of superhero like flight.

Tolkien fans have often debated whether Balrogs have wings, and the related topic of whether Balrogs can fly, with or without wings.

I note that biological wings are not the only type of wings. Aircraft have nonliving mechanical wings, which usually operate very differently from biological wings. Ornithropters, machines that fly by flapping wings, are a very minor aspect of mechanical flight.

So the thought occurred to me that Balrogs might use their mystic powers as Ainur to generate (possibly invisible) stiff airplane-like wings and generate airflow over those wings for lift and propulsion. Balrogs might not fly by flapping wings like birds. Or maybe Balrogs don't use the wings they may or may not have to fly. Perhaps they generate some mystic force to travel or "fly"though the air like missiles instead of like birds or airplanes.

Suggestion One:

So possibly superheroes fly by extending invisible wings made of some type of force, like electromagnetic or gravimentric force, to serve the same purpose as airplane wings. Then they can somehow propel matter backwards, pushing their bodies forewards, and creating lift if the force wing configuration is correct. They might be able to generate electromagnetic forces with their bodies which have a hydromagnetodymaic force on the air, pushing it backwards, to propell them forwards. Generating such forces should be more plausible than generating invisible force wings.

Suggestion Two:

And if some sort of gravity control, and/or nullification, and/or generation, is possible, a superhero could wear a flying harness which negates the gravitational attraction between them and the ground and creates a gravitational attraction between them and where they want to fly to.

And possibly some superheroes who get their powers from science could be cyborgs, organisms with mechanical devices implanted in them - like a person with a pacemaker, for example - but with the purpose of nullifying and/or generating gravitational forces. Once the cyborg superheroes learn to control their implanted antigravity devices with their thoughts they will be able to fly at will. It is possible they will also have implanted devices to generate force wings as in my previous suggestion.

And possibly in some stories various animals not as intelligent as persons might possibly be implanted with gravity control devices and taught how to control them with their thoughts, and so fly like superheroes. If someone has a reason to do so.

Suggestion Three:

And psionic levitation and flight by will power or mental power is less plausible than technological flight. But depending on where a story fits in the scale of science fiction hardness it might be acceptable to the readers or viewers.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness

And if psionic levitation and flight by will power is possible in a story, some animals less intelligent than people might naturally be capable of it. Certainly animals have strong desires, so if an animal wants to fly to escape a predator or catch a meal, they might exert a lot of psionic power to do so.

And these three suggestions are the three least implausible methods I could think of for humans, other people, and/or less intelligent animals to fly like superheroes.

M. A. Golding
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If you're unwilling to give him biological wings, then you'll need to do it through tech. A jetpack, rocket and magic green lantern rings are conventional ways of doing it in comics, magic boots or sandals are more widely used in legends. You just need a new slant on the issue.

Kilisi
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Fart propulsion

You need some kind of propulsion. The simplest way for your hero to fly is by emitting gases at his rear end (commonly called "farting"). A variant of this might be that his body allows him to inhale air through mouth & nose at crazy speeds, compressing it in the digestive tract and emitting it at the rear end. Combine this with any explosive chemicals in his digestive tract and you've got a superhuman jet.

Burning Fart

Your hero, ready for liftoff.

Shockwaves

Your hero compresses the air behind him and decreases the density of the air in front of him. Nobody quite knows how he does this. Theories include physical fields yet to be discovered.

Luatic
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