A New Note on SHIELD, Just for Fun

[dewline]

Some of you may recall my post on SHIELD back in September, explaining why I think it a fun concept to set up heroes and stories around.

I still do. In that vein, I spotted a bit of techno-financial trivia that got my attention about their signature capital ships, the Helicarriers.



Apparently, in the "Classic" version of Marvel continuity - so sayeth Blade v.3 # 5 - one of those ships costs approximately US$ 90 Billion.

I did some checking to compare that against real-universe, traditional "wet navy" aircraft carrier costs. The USS Gerald R. Ford is currently priced out at US$ 13 Billion.

I grant that both of those figures are almost certainly subject to some change as the years go by. Also, I assume that a Helicarrier has a lot more to do for S.H.I.E.L.D. than a regular aircraft does for any ocean-going navy. Certainly, with the technologies aboard the 'Carriers, there's more to do it with. Examples of that technological prowess have included vortex beams, Trek-style transporters according to some accounts, supercomputers that make top of the line Crays green with silicon envy, and gravity-manipulation technology.

Still, it's an interesting figure for Blade writer Marc Guggenheim to throw out to the reading audience.

Comments

[mencc1701.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the HK Aerials from The Terminator were inspired by that at all. The design has some vague similarities.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Or for that matter, those British ships from Sky Captain.

[mencc1701.livejournal.com]

*nods* Forgot about them, but yeah, they fit the same general idea as well.

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

I suspect that that $90 billion was pulled out of thin air. Sometimes, I think that such dollar numbers are "super-sized" because, for some writers, everything needs to be exaggerated in a world with superhumans in it. Also, I think that the presumption is that such advanced tech just has to cost more. This was used as a plot point in the movie Batman Begins; Lucius Fox shows Bruce Wayne a prototype personnel armor suit that was developed for the armed forces; when Wayne asks why it wasn't put into production, Fox says that the Army wasn't about to pay the $200,000 production cost for each of its soldiers. (Of course, that eventually ends up as the Batsuit. Good deal that it just happens to fit the very muscular Wayne, eh?)

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree that - to my eyes at least - Mr. Guggenheim pulled the number out of the air. I would eventually expect that after over a decade of producing this particular type of ship, the construction costs would start to come down just a tad. No?

Interesting point about the Batman Begins version of the first Batsuit.