Ever since the debut of the superhero, there have been armored guys. (Seriously, Google ‘Bozo The Iron Man’ sometime.) But in recent years, the primary armor options have transitioned from transistors and circuits to nanobots and living metal, making it seem like Iron Man is behind the curve. Jaime Reyes has an alien scarab that provides his super-armored form, while many a hero ends up with a liquid metal shell, for which I blame the terminator. Still, as with so many things, it comes down to a battle between the old school and the new breed, leading to today’s gilded query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) sees the benefits of both, but also the down sides, asking: Which armor options reign supreme: Living adaptive or technological cutting-edge?
6 Comments
Would you consider the Silver Surfer to be “living adaptive” armored?
The important question is, do YOU consider it so, and can you defend your thesis? :)
Well, in his current series, he can strip off (or absorb?) his silver at will. So he apparently isn’t solid silver!
Living adaptive, I’d hate to have “Cutting Edge” armor that would be obsolete by next week like my freaking iPhone.
Living adaptive. Technology is always prone to failure so organic is superior in that regard. Unless its a hostile parasite space alien…
I like both equally since they both lend themselves to so many kinds of stories (sometimes even with both armors in the same story). But I’m a fan of Japanese superheroes, and both kinds of armor are utilized in certain series or in a particular entry in a franchise. Sometimes you even see some great stories revolving around the very idea that living adaptive armor is better than high tech, yet you see someone using once cutting edge technological armor to defeat the “better” adaptive armor simply because they make the best use of what they have available.
With that said, I’d personally want a living armor if I had the choice. The idea of being bonded to a techno-organic armor just seems really cool to me.