1792: Bird/Plane/Superman

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Bird/Plane/Superman

Title text: You can apply special translucent films to your windows to help keep birds/Superman from accidentally flying into them.

Explanation

This comic is a logical comparison of observations to resolve the classic Superman catchphrase of comic book bystanders: "Look, up in the sky... It's a bird!... It's a plane!... It's Superman!", hence the title. Superman, a character originally created for comic books in the 1930s, is an alien with superpowers, including the power of unaided flight; hence the catchphrase exclaiming peoples' amazement.

At the correct distance both birds, planes and the fictional Superman could be mistaken for each other. So this comic aims to help people identify the airborne object by listing on which properties they are alike and on which they are different. This problem was also mentioned in the title text of 1633: Possible Undiscovered Planets, putting Superman near the bird/plane boundary explaining why all this confusion has arisen.

The observations compared range from the mundane to the bizarre and they are listed and explained below in the table. Here some highlights are mentioned, but for all these there are much more detail below.

Some of the mundane observations are that birds don't fly around with people, while Superman can do it, and planes are meant for it; and that the latter two are new "inventions", whereas birds have flown around for millions of years.

Interestingly enough there are actually two observations that have check mark for all three; the first being that there are enthusiasts for all three different flying objects. And these will obsess over small color details in otherwise similar looking objects. The other common thing is that they all may have sex in midair. The possibility of that happening for the all three are discussed in the table.

Three observations only counts for birds, where all those that do not count for birds do count for both planes and superman. Two of these relates to the fact that birds are eaten by cats and humans, the last is that birds flap their wings to fly, the others have other means of flight. There are observations that rules out only planes or only superman, but none that rules out only one of them at the same time as birds are ruled out.

There are also three direct jokes towards the bottom. The first is that David Attenborough may also have observed Superman's mating habits just like he has with birds in the documentary series The Life of Birds. The second is that not only birds poop in flight, but that Superman could and would also do so. And the third (and also final observation) is that not only birds chase insects to eat them, but Superman also chases them... though only when he is bored. These last three observations have that in common that the planes are left out of all of them, and the joke is always on Superman. As it has been before in 1384: Krypton and 1394: Superm*n (released just ten comics apart).

The title text refers to black stickers (decals) in the shape of an easily recognizable predatory bird, like falcons to enhance the visibility of clear glass windows or doors and scare smaller birds away before they crash into the window. This may actually not work very well according to this article: Why Birds Hit Windows, where a falcon decal is also shown. But they are meant to warn birds away and according to this comic they could also prevent Superman from flying through your window (and thus also stop him from possibly just continuing through the building). They are not known to affect the risk of airplanes flying into the building.^{[citation needed]}

Table

	Bird	Plane	Superman
Explanation
Carries people		✓	✓
Some birds are capable of flying off while carrying a small human away, but this happens extremely rarely (although hoax stories are often reported). An Ostrich can easily carry a human; and this happens regularly in arranged races. The context of the strip implies that it's referring to birds in flight, so flightless birds like ostriches are ignored. Most planes are specifically designed to carry human passengers, although many are cargo planes with humans only acting as crew, and autonomous drones without humans also exist. Superman often carries other people with him, such as his girlfriend, rescued victims or the various villains that people need to be rescued from.
Often flies in groups	✓	✓
Many types of birds fly in flocks, particularly during long-range migrations. Some birds often fly in the V formation which has also been copied by planes. This formation has been used at least twice in xkcd in 1440: Geese and recently in 1729: Migrating Geese (notice the similarity in number of that bird comic compared to the one for this comic). Planes sometimes fly in group formation, particularly when engaged in military operations where mutual support is tactically useful (or when conducting practice maneuvers for such operations). Though the people who would mistake those planes for birds will mainly see this at air shows. Superman is a unique person, and thus does not fly in groups at all. While Superman occasionally operates alongside other flying superheroes, and in some stories is duplicated or split into multiple beings, Randall apparently considers these circumstances too unusual to meet the "often" qualifier.
Created in 20th century		✓	✓
Birds evolved from dinosaurs, appearing as early as the Late Jurassic period, roughly 150 million years ago. That birds evolved from dinosaur who also had wings with feathers before they evolved on to becoming birds has often been referenced by Randall in comics like 1104: Feathers, 1211: Birds and Dinosaurs and the title texts of 867: Herpetology and 1527: Humans. The first successful flight of a powered heavier-than-air craft took place on December 17, 1903 and was performed by the Wright brothers. There are several other claims for the first such flight, but few are from before the 20th century, and those are generally considered to be unreliable. Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1, published in June 1938.
Uses magnetic navigation	✓	✓
Some types of birds use magnetoreception to navigate using the earth's magnetic field as a guide. Artificial magnetic compasses, along with other navigational equipment, are used by planes. Superman, while possessing a plethora of super-senses/powers, does not appear to be particularly sensitive to magnetism.
Enthusiast community obsesses over small coloration details	✓	✓	✓
Birdwatchers identify bird species by a range of characteristics, including small details in the bird's color pattern which identify one species apart from another. Similarly, airplane hobbyists and plane spotters take note of the colors of a plane's paint job and insignia. Comics fans can similarly identify the artist and date of a depiction of Superman by the coloration and configuration of his costume and be obsessed with their favorite coloration being the canon.
Preyed on by cats	✓
Cats kill several billion birds a year, often - but not always - eating them. There has never been a case of a cat successfully catching and eating a plane.[citation needed] In the comics, Superman has never been eaten by a cat, although he has been devoured by a dinosaur...
Occasional mid-air sex	✓	✓	✓
Almost no bird species have sex in flight. Hummingbirds, for example, engage in courting behavior which one might falsely identify as sex (explained in this article Do hummingbirds have sex in midair?). This article Animal Sex: How Birds Do It explains how birds in general have sex. However, this article Aerial mating points out that the common swift (Apus apus) engages in mid-air sex, an act presumably caught on video here. Mid-air sex involving planes usually involves passengers (and potentially air crew), not the plane itself. However, this could also be a metaphorical reference to in-flight refueling (such as the depiction, set to romantic music, in the opening scene of the movie Dr. Strangelove, a movie Randall has referenced before for instance in this scene from 1608: Hoverboard) It could also refer to this incident where one plane landed atop another in mid-air. As for Superman, there have been occasional moments in the comics which indicate or at least imply that he sometimes engages in mid-air sex.
Eaten during seasonal feasts	✓
Turkeys, a type of bird, are eaten by Americans during Thanksgiving, a "seasonal feast" held on the fourth Thursday of November of each year. Britons eat Turkey or Goose at Christmas, in other countries it may be ducks instead. It is unlikely that normal humans would eat a plane, however it has been done by Michel Lotito who has digested an entire Cessna aircraft. However he used two years to consume the plane, so although he may have eaten some parts during holidays, he did not do it because there was a seasonal feast. Superman is too strong and "made of steel" for him to let any human eat him. But as also mentioned above he has been devoured by a dinosaur although that probably did not kill him, and does not seem to be linked to a holiday.
Propelled by flapping	✓
Birds fly by flapping their wings.[citation needed] Planes have fixed wings, and fly by maintaining forward velocity and exploiting the aerodynamic effects of air flowing over the upper and lower wing surfaces, which are shaped and angled to produce lift. However some experimental designs for some of the earlier planes made such as Leonardo Da Vinci's Flying Machine that was propelled by flapping. Superman flies using superpowers which require neither wings nor flapping.
Sometimes loses ability to fly, needs to sunbathe to regain it	✓		✓
Birds can "lose" the ability to fly, if their wings are weighed down by water from swimming. One way for birds to dry out their wings is to sunbathe. An airplane can lose its ability to fly, but no issues occurring in modern aircraft can be fixed by sunbathing, except in some experimental solar-powered aircraft. As for Superman, he is at risk of losing his superpowers, including flight, with prolonged exposure to Kryptonite, which makes him weak. Also the rays from the sun at his home planet Krypton can remove his super powers as it happened in Superman II. Superman's ability to fly is a superpower caused by "electromagnetic radiation from the rays of a yellow sun", so he could regain his strength and superhuman abilities through sunbathing in the Sun's light here on Earth. Which was how he got his super powers in the first place.
Can take a punch		✓	✓
Many birds are small and fragile creatures, whose bone structures are meant to be light in order to fly, and thus are not very durable. If a man punched, say, a pigeon, he could probably break/dislocate most of its bones, either killing it immediately or leaving it in a state from which it will probably never ever recover on its own. However, there are definitely some big, flightless birds that could take a punch from a human such as ostriches and emus, but since both are large creatures that would probably react by fighting back, it would not be wise to try. Also Randall is (again) plainly ignoring this type of birds as they cannot fly and this comic is about making mistakes regarding things flying through the air (typically far enough away from the observer to mistake a pigeon for a plane). Planes are usually massive, or at least big enough to carry a human, and their structure is composed of fairly solid metals. A human punching an airplane is unlikely to result in significant damage (to the plane, at least, the human's hand is a different story.) One of Superman's (the Man of Steel) trademark abilities is his near indestructibility; a punch from any regular human would not hurt him, but again hurt the hand.
Mating behavior often observed by a hidden David Attenborough	✓		Not that we know of
David Attenborough is an English broadcaster and naturalist, who produced a documentary series The Life of Birds. Included in the series is an episode entitled "Finding Partners", which discussed mating rituals of birds. That these can be very strange has been mentioned in the title text of 1747: Spider Paleontology, of course in relation to Dinosaur behavior. Planes are inanimate objects with no mating behavior.[citation needed] However, referring back to the observations made under the Occasional mid-air sex explanation it could be discussed if this was mating behavior. Also there are movies like Planes and its sequel has living planes, which could mate. But Randall may know for sure that Attenborough is not interested in those. The comic states that we don't know for sure if Attenborough has observed Superman's mating behavior. As Superman doesn't exist,[citation needed] Attenborough has not seen Superman in reality (which would lead to a "No" response), but maybe Attenborough has watched all the movies or read all the comics in which Superman courts Lois Lane just to observe Superman's (made up) mating behavior (which would lead to a "Yes" response). Since we do not know Attenborough's habits, this leads to Randall giving the "Not that we know of" response.
Capable of intentionally releasing poop mid-flight	✓		✓
Birds often poop during flight, often enough that people regularly get hit in the head by the poop, which has caused the unlucky people to come up with the superstition that it brings good luck. For birds it is just economical to shed excess mass when they are going to fly, and many birds poop just at take off. But on long flights it is the best use of resources to not carry extra weight along, that increases their efficiency. Unlike mammals who pee urea, bird poop is both pee and feces as birds only have one hole, a cloaca, and the black poop is surrounded by their pee which is the white stuff containing uric acid. Not peeing lots of water out reduces their water loss. There have long existed urban myths about airplanes regularly discharging their septic tanks, resulting in blocks of blue ice crushing houses and people. This line refers to that myth, and the fact that it's untrue. A leaky septic disposal system can unintentionally discharge liquid waste while in flight, but there is no way for an airplane to intentionally release the sewage. As Superman's physiology is nearly identical to that of a human, he is in theory capable of voluntarily voiding his bowels at any time, including during flight. There would be little reason for him to do so,[citation needed], but he presumably has the ability to do so.
Chases and eats bugs	✓		Only when bored
Many bird species prey on insects and similar-sized animals. Planes often fly into and kill insects (as well as birds, and sometimes humans), but this is unintentional, planes never pursue the insects, and don't "eat" them in the traditional sense. Superman is not known for eating insects, but Randall implies that he may do so, but only when he's bored. This is a humorous suggestion that Superman engages in odd behavior for a lack of anything else to do.

Transcript

	Bird	Plane	Superman
Carries people		✓	✓
Often flies in groups	✓	✓
Created in 20th century		✓	✓
Uses magnetic navigation	✓	✓
Enthusiast community obsesses over small coloration details	✓	✓	✓
Preyed on by cats	✓
Occasional mid-air sex	✓	✓	✓
Eaten during seasonal feasts	✓
Propelled by flapping	✓
Sometimes loses ability to fly, needs to sunbathe to regain it	✓		✓
Can take a punch		✓	✓
Mating behavior often observed by a hidden David Attenborough	✓		Not that we know of
Capable of intentionally releasing poop mid-flight	✓		✓
Chases and eats bugs	✓		Only when bored

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Discussion

The explanation says that "birds evolved from dinosaurs". But birds **are** dinosaurs --172.68.54.100 05:40, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

You're right. The sentence is literally true, in the sense that humans evolved from other humans (e. g. Homo erectus) but it's misleading. Nitpicking (talk) 03:29, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

Backforming your parallel, "Birds evolved from other birds". Not sure that's what you meant. Humans evolved from hominids, apes, or (more of an equivalent?) mammals, you might wish to say. Also, plenty of mammals/dinosaurs did not evolve into humans/birds. (And birds are vastly more diverse than humans, so perhaps "¿hominids? evolved from..." would be better equivalence, as well, though still imperfect.) 172.70.85.211 16:00, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

The point is, we are still apes, apes are still mammals, mammals are still reptiles, and reptiles are still fishes. (Many intermediate designations omitted.) You don't stop being a Christian because you are a Baptist, for one analogy. This is the modern cladistic taxonomy now used in biology. Nitpicking (talk) 16:37, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

Hmmm, a stretch. We are reptiliomorph (by classical measures, those tetrapods/amniotes that are not in the lissamphibia family). But birds are (a subset of) dinosaurs even if neither they nor ourselves are actually reptillian. And it is all too common to talk of "...Christians and Catholics", although I think that's stupid and probably based upon historic religious divisions in (Western) Europe. 162.158.159.73 01:45, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

Sunbathing

Randall missed that a plane can lose it's ability to fly via excessive icing on surfaces. While it is not usually the way in which it is cured (using deicing solution and onboard aircraft systems to melt them,) sunbathing the plane in greater than freezing temperatures is an excellent way to regain the ability to fly. (And without additional energy cost, too!) 108.162.216.34 17:58, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Now that we have solar planes, some planes may occasionally require a sunbath to get airborne again. 162.158.114.88 21:51, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Flapping

Perhaps we should mention the pre-twentieth century attempts at powered flight some of which were powered by flapping.

Also should we mention that a hta craft pwered by flapping would be an ornithopter.

Though an ornithopter most definitely counts as a heavier-than-air aircraft, referring to it as a plane would be inaccurate as that term is used specifically when referring to fixed-wing aircraft. If anything, an ornithopter would be closer to a helicopter than a plane.162.158.107.198 00:11, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

Mating & Peeping David

Given their is only one David Attenborough and he does not spend his entire life making wildlife documentaries the chance of his observing any individual bird copulation is remarkably small.

141.101.99.137 19:28, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

What sort of birds mate in mid flight? --141.101.80.52 19:47, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Swifts for example. --DaB. (talk) 21:37, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

You seem to be right about swifts mating in mid flight. According to | this source, the common swift (Apus apus) is the only species who engages in this behavior.--141.101.98.160 14:59, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

mid flight poop

From what I understand, superman gets the majority of his energy from the sun. Is there any confirmation that he can poop mid flight, or even poop at all? Maybe he just slowly releases various gasses?--173.245.51.17 22:47, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Well Superman does eat, so it is likely he does poop too. Sun gives him super power thing, but he frequents restaurants as Clark Kent. --Trimutius (talk) 04:00, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Planes are definitely capable of releasing their poop intentionally. They choose not to. Truth Rating: Pants On Fire. 108.162.219.76 14:47, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

It depends what you mean by 'plane poop'. Is it engines exhaust? Fuel, hydraulic oil or other technical fluids? Or is it passengers' poop... If you mean the latter than no, there's no "empty toilet in mid flight" functionality. A malfunction may cause the toilet contents to spill over but it is not intentional. -- Malgond (talk) 11:39, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

The Indian government thinks planes do intentionally release their poop. Citation: [1] -- 21:48, 2 February 2017 (UTC) User:Scryer

There were several aircraft in the early days of flight that had toilets that were directly connected outside. One such one, the Supermarine Stranraer, got the nickname "whistling shithouse" because when the toilet seat was lifted, the airflow through the tube caused it to whistle. Also, during WW2 on bomber aircraft, they would sometimes crap in a cardboard box and throw it overboard rather than use the difficult to use and unpopular chemical toilets. 108.162.250.17 06:59, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

I was under the impression that birds either do not have sphincters, or do but can't control them to hold their poop in. Would this not mean that birds should not be ticked, or am I completely wrong?141.101.98.52 06:35, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

punching

No need to go to ostriches or emus, swans can fly well, and certainly take a punch, though i would *strongly* recommend against trying. [2]. Geese are also probably not much safer. --162.158.89.43 12:27, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

I found a video [3] that shows a seagull taking a punch from a rather stout man and seeming to not be terribly hurt from it, though the video focuses more on the man than the bird.172.70.179.20 21:03, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

Title text

I've never seen such a sticker with a spider web - unless on Helloween. But stickers depicting silhouettes of birds on the other hand: https://www.google.com/search?q=vogel+aufkleber&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjj64Xlv-zRAhXGtxQKHS3ABh0QsAQIgwE&biw=1920&bih=914 But it seems as if this is a regional (Germany - or maybe Europe) thing, since searching for "bird stickers" didn't yield such a clear result... Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 13:22, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Magnetic navigation

There is no evidence that Superman is not able to fly in Magnetic navigation mode... 188.114.103.11 17:33, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

There is no evidence that Superman exists. --162.158.150.22 15:00, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Other Comparisons

Missing: Frog and Underdog. Underdog would be a disappointing subset of Superman, Frog a subset of Bird. Schnitz (talk) 20:09, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

This page has quite a few typos and instances of awkward phrasing. I'll go through it and clean it up in a bit.
--Sensorfire (talk) 01:03, 19 August 2018 (UTC)