XA-POW! KIDS LEARNING SCIENCE BY THE BOOK - COMIC BOOK, THAT IS.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

A school field trip to a museum? Groan. A school field trip to a museum to touch and climb on stuff while learning about the science of comic books? That's different ...

They're coming by the big yellow busload from schools and spring-break day camps to the Marvel Super Heroes Science Exhibition, making its world premiere at the California Science Center at Exposition Park.

The exhibit pushes the envelope of even the very hands-on, kid-friendly Science Center, inviting guests to climb, swing, lift and scream in "action stations" that tie the worlds of the Incredible Hulk, Storm, Daredevil, Iron Man and more to scientific concepts.

Visitors enter the exhibit through a freight elevator with flashing lights and step into a Stan Lee-inspired world of sirens, jet sounds and splashes of primary colors in an industrial gray space.

One station allows kids to experience Spider-Man's ability to rappel or swing from one building to another on a strand of silk. It's not real spider silk they're hanging on as they sway on a swing, but 3 mm-diameter Technora, a synthetic of similar tensile strength that could support up to 3,000 pounds.

Another station allows kids (or grown-ups) to match Iron Man's superhuman strength as they are aided by an exo-suit in lifting a 2,470-pound car. An oversize figure of Doc Ock, the notorious nemesis of the "Spider-Man 2" movie, has a joystick for controlling his animated metallic appendages.

Each station had more everyday scientific applications relating to bigger elements, as well as an explanation of the science of, say, how Magneto's powers demonstrate north-south polarity, why Iceman's frosty hands get wet when you touch them, or how difficult it is to tie a shoe with a pair of tongs, simulating Doc Ock's prosthetics.

Under a large brain, kids can see the amygdala (ah-MIG-dah-lah) and the prefrontal cortex that trigger the Incredible Hulk's extreme mood swings, and next to a climbing wall they can see magnified photos showing how a spider's legs attach to even the smoothest vertical surfaces. Think those blades shooting out of Wolverine's knuckles are weird? Scan an X-ray-like panel over the image of a man and see the pacemaker in his heart and the hardware helping his hip, knee and ankle function better.

Nicola Lisus, co-creator of the exhibition, says kids who have come through in its first days seem to enjoy it very much, particularly the exo-suit and the gallery of comic book images over the years.

"They're engaged," she said. "They're noisy."

That's an understatement, particularly in the zone where visitors are encouraged to defeat a bad guy by screaming like superhero Banshee. A chart outside that chamber shows the decibel scale, explaining that the threshold of pain is 10 billion times louder than a whisper - a level that surely was achieved by one group of 10-year-old girls as they aimed to blow the decibel meter well into the red zone.

Another exhibit points out the human eye's naturally occurring blind spot as an image of the Invisible Girl seems to disappear while the viewer focuses on Dr. Doom. The Daredevil station shows how a blind person can use other senses, such as touch and echolocation, to make up for a lack of sight.

Asked what he liked most about the exhibition, Ivan Ware, 10, of Camarillo said, "Almost everything. The 3D, lots of lights, lots of superheroes." Does it make him want to buy comics? "Yeah!"

Marvel is one of the best merchandising partners in the comic book business, as the wide range of products in the gift shop would attest - everything from limited-edition photos framed with film segments from the movies "X-Men," "Spider-Man 2" and "The Fantastic Four" to action figures, coloring books and decorative light strings.

But there were other reasons for the museum partnering with the Marvel brand, Lisus said. Her team studied the super-powered characters of Marvel's comics and found lessons not only in science but in culture and sociology as well.

"It just shows you what a broad array of subjects are in comic books," she said. "It's not just fabulous art between glossy covers."

She also found herself drawn to the women, such as Storm and the Invisible Girl.

"They have these fantastic female warriors," Lisus said. "They're not just women in skintight suits. They're complex and they have great powers." This is not the first connection between science and comic books made by a respected expert. A physics professor at the University of Minnesota has turned some nonmajors on to his subject with a class that extracts scientific principles from the pages of popular comic books.

James Kakalios' famous freshman seminar, "Everything I Know About Science I Learned From Reading Comic Books," is one of the campus' most popular classes and was one source of inspiration for the exhibition. Lisus says his book, "The Physics of Superheroes," was on her research team's reading list.

While he hasn't been involved in the Science Center's exhibit, Kakalios supports the idea of bringing science to kids by unconventional means.

"The traditional ways we teach physics work for some people. They certainly worked for me," he said in a phone interview. "For other people, it sometimes helps if you can tie it in to a story. Whether you take the story from a Hollywood movie or a television show or a comic book doesn't really matter, as long as the listener is following you.

"So often in my classes for nonmajors, they ask me, When am I going to use this in the real world?' Interestingly enough, whenever I teach the class on superheroes, nobody asks that question. I can only assume they have plans after graduation that involve spandex."

Just as some superheroes' powers evolve from one issue to another, the Marvel Super Heroes Science Exhibition will see some changes over time.

"The wonderful thing about being the world premiere is we can see what appeals, what works," Lisus said. "We're going to have to make some tweaks. As the show goes on - it travels for five years, and there is one (Marvel movie) blockbuster after another - we'll adapt it to keep it current."

Kakalios said a knowledge of physics and other sciences has never been more important than it is now, if for no other reason than to be informed citizens.

"We're not strong as a bear, as fast as a cheetah or as indestructible as a cockroach," he said. "Our superpower is our intelligence and when we don't use it we are in trouble - and the forces of evil are everywhere."

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com

MARVEL SUPER HEROES SCIENCE EXHIBITION

Where: California Science Center, 700 State Drive, Exposition Park.

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Sept. 4.

Tickets: $7.75-$9.75, with advance purchase online at www.californiasciencecenter.org. For general information, call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) MAGNETIC ATTRACTION

Science center exhibit pulls kids into world of superheroes

(2 -- color) Kids can touch the frozen hands of the Iceman in an area that covers the states of matter and cryogenics, and the study of the effects of low temperatures.

(3 -- color) Using sound as a weapon, Savannah Temple screams at the Banshee. Hitting specific decibel levels will make him do different things in the video the children are watching.

(4 -- color) With some superhuman bionic assistance, a girl is able to lift a car. The Marvel Super Heroes Science Exhibition, at the California Science Center, takes an interactive look at the science behindsuperheroes' powers.

(5 -- color) In the Spider-Man area, kids climb along a wall that is scaled to make them feel like they are the size of a spider. Young visitors also learn how the hairs on the ends of arachnids' legs allow them to grip all the tiny edges on a surface.

(6 -- color) no caption (Spiderman)

David Crane/Staff Photographer