Reading (For Dummies)

Nerd Alert

I read JLA: Tower of Babel the other day and have a bone to pick. J'onn J'onnz gets covered with Magnesium nanites, which supposedly burst into flame on contact with air. He has to get himself into an aqua-suit to keep the fire out. There are two problems. One, magnesium doesn't spontaneously combust on contact with air. It takes a little something-something to get it going. Second, diving underwater doesn't help the situation (much like it didn't for a certain British WW2 vessel with a hull of magnesium compound. When the boat was torpedoed it went down, and continued burning underwater. I'll dig up the name...). Magnesium burns just fine underwater, getting all the oxygen it needs off of this thing called H20. Also note that underwater diving flares are made of the stuff. Magnesium wants electrons that badly...

Not only that, but magnesium burns in excess of 5000 degrees. Seeing as how Martians are incredibly susceptible to even the littlest gasoline flame, Mr. J'onnz would have died instantly from his injury.