Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The Joke

Superman announces he will use his "super-breath" to freeze the surface of the ocean and stop an incoming hurricane. A bystander wonders how much energy it would take to freeze the entire Gulf of Mexico using only compressed air at the surface. The next panel shows a newspaper headline: "ATMOSPHERE SUDDENLY DISAPPEARS" — everyone is dead except Superman, and he is surviving by printing his own daily newspaper.

The Humor

The comic applies real physics to a classic Superman power. Freezing an entire body of water by blowing on it would require an absurd amount of energy, essentially consuming the entire atmosphere in the process. The joke takes this logical consequence to its extreme: Superman's well-intentioned heroic act destroys all breathable air on Earth, killing everyone. The final absurd detail — Superman alone on a dead planet, printing a newspaper for an audience of one — underscores both his invulnerability and the futility of his actions. It is a classic SMBC move of taking a superhero trope and following its physics implications to a darkly comedic conclusion.

References

• Superman's super-breath is a classic power from DC Comics, often depicted as the ability to blow hurricane-force winds or freeze objects with his breath.
• The scenario parodies the frequent use of super-breath in comics and films without regard for thermodynamic consequences.