As most of us know, Johnny Quick activated his powers using a mathematical formula. Also, notoriously, Dr. Sivana came up with a formula that when spoken allowed him to walk through walls. Later, Captain Marvel himself used the same formula for the same reason--easier and cheaper than bursting through a wall, I suppose.
Can we identify other characters who used similar equations to allow them to do superhuman feats? I'm not referring to a magic word or some sort of device whipped up, but something where someone activated a power by speaking a formula.
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What Mark's referring to is "Logopolis" the last Doctor Who story starring the Fourth Doctor. A planet of "math monks" speak aloud a set of computations, and the process of doing so has been holding back a destructive wave of entropy. It's similar to the anti-matter wave from "Crisis on Infinite Earths," but "Logopolis" aired four years before the publication of "Crisis." "Logopolis" also features a character called the Monitor.
I couldn't think of another one, but thought there might be further examples, and found a page here which lists related ideas.
It doesn't have another example that fully fits your criteria in its "Comic Books" list. It does mention the Anti-Life Equation, which doesn't fully fit your criteria: it wasn't something that became effective through being spoken aloud, and its precise nature was unclear.
The "Western Animation" list describes a sequence from a Camp Lazlo! episode that seems to fully qualify, and the "Newspaper Comics" and "Western Animation" lists include examples (from Bloom Country and a Loony Tunes cartoon respectively) in which the writing of a mathematical formula affects reality. Of the items mentioned under "Literature" I have The Incomplete Enchanter. In thisthe key to shifting between alternative universes is "filling your mind with the fundamental assumptions of the world" you want to travel to (ch.1), written out as equations: "He bent over, giving his whole attention to the formulas, trying not to focus on one spot, but to apprehend the whole" (ch.1).
I don't have a clear idea of how Marvelman's magic word, in his Mick Anglo-era stories, was supposed to work. A review at Amazon calls it "a magic "keyword" that channels the power of the universe". There's a post here on a Young Marvelman story in which Young Gargunza comes up with a related incantation that has a mathematical component.
According to this page Johnny Quick had a formula to cancel his speed too.
I'm reading the "Worldbeater" story from Prize Comics v.4 #2 (38) at Comic Book Plus. The title character is a man from the thirtieth century who has travelled back in time. At one point in the story he recites mathematical formulas to "escape through the fourth dimension" by walking through a wall. He gets stuck because the walls have iron girders and iron resists "the fourth dimensional entrance".
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Does Block Transfer Computation from Doctor Who count?
What Mark's referring to is "Logopolis" the last Doctor Who story starring the Fourth Doctor. A planet of "math monks" speak aloud a set of computations, and the process of doing so has been holding back a destructive wave of entropy. It's similar to the anti-matter wave from "Crisis on Infinite Earths," but "Logopolis" aired four years before the publication of "Crisis." "Logopolis" also features a character called the Monitor.
I couldn't think of another one, but thought there might be further examples, and found a page here which lists related ideas.
It doesn't have another example that fully fits your criteria in its "Comic Books" list. It does mention the Anti-Life Equation, which doesn't fully fit your criteria: it wasn't something that became effective through being spoken aloud, and its precise nature was unclear.
The "Western Animation" list describes a sequence from a Camp Lazlo! episode that seems to fully qualify, and the "Newspaper Comics" and "Western Animation" lists include examples (from Bloom Country and a Loony Tunes cartoon respectively) in which the writing of a mathematical formula affects reality. Of the items mentioned under "Literature" I have The Incomplete Enchanter. In this the key to shifting between alternative universes is "filling your mind with the fundamental assumptions of the world" you want to travel to (ch.1), written out as equations: "He bent over, giving his whole attention to the formulas, trying not to focus on one spot, but to apprehend the whole" (ch.1).
I don't have a clear idea of how Marvelman's magic word, in his Mick Anglo-era stories, was supposed to work. A review at Amazon calls it "a magic "keyword" that channels the power of the universe". There's a post here on a Young Marvelman story in which Young Gargunza comes up with a related incantation that has a mathematical component.
According to this page Johnny Quick had a formula to cancel his speed too.
I'm reading the "Worldbeater" story from Prize Comics v.4 #2 (38) at Comic Book Plus. The title character is a man from the thirtieth century who has travelled back in time. At one point in the story he recites mathematical formulas to "escape through the fourth dimension" by walking through a wall. He gets stuck because the walls have iron girders and iron resists "the fourth dimensional entrance".
This post displaced the thread The New Season (2014) from the home page.
Would Zatanna count here?
I don't ever recall her using math for one of her spells.
Mark S. Ogilvie said: