[Ikiteruguy]

Hi, my name's Steve Brock and I'm an aspiring comic book artist and writer working on a story.  I apologize that this question is a little trivial and quite a bit removed from the general discussion here.  However, I would really appreciate any bit of help. 

If you were a hero with no special power but were technologically savvy and fairly clever fighting a villain that can turn himself into a poisonous gas how would you propose to win that fight?  Is there a scientifically plausible way of having that hero beat that villain?  I would prefer a way that could be done anywhere.  I'm open to something that makes the villain unstable, a means of containment, possibly some natural fact about gases that the villain is unaware of like if he would dissipate into the air around him if he held that form too long or anything.  I again apologize that this is so silly, but I am by no means a scientist, but I would like this to make at least some amount of sense to people who are more familiar with this stuff than I am. Thanks so much for your time!

[macman104]

Just a random poisonous gas?  Or do you have a gas in mind? Obviously, the easiest solution would be containment with some sort of quarantine type apparatus.  If it's poisonous, making it "dissipate" won't really matter if someone still inhales some of the dissipated gas.  I'd just go with some sort of containment method.  I suppose you could cool the gas down into a solid?

[BlueTheCow]

I suppose you could cool the gas down into a solid?

Yeah, that'd be cool. Some sort of freezing gun that sucks in air, super-cools it (it's a comic book ), and shoots it out as a liquid at a decent range. The liquid air would of course quickly boil so there would be a steamy effect around the spray, and it's range would be limited by this (eventually it would all boil and slow down as it dissipated into the warm surrounding air). Anyway, I imagine your villain would panic when the gaseous form condensed into a (floating?) liquid form, trying to squirm away at this point; after reaching the supercooled solid form, he would be immobile and contained, but only as long as he remained cooled (he could also be partially solidified, and escape as a liquid, losing perhaps a limb or something that he left behind as a solid poison).

Or perhaps some chemical reaction that neutralizes the toxicity of the gas? That is, mixing the poisonous gas with some chemical which reacts with it, forming a non-toxic product.

Or suck him into a vacuum chamber! Yeah. A vacuum gun. Has an extendable nozzle, which allows distanced vacuuming into a chamber on the back using a motor on top of the chamber. The room might lose a lot of it's oxygen due to the vacuum gun taking the air out of the room and putting it into the chamber, which means a) the vacuum chamber on the guy's back would get heavy, and b) the guy with the vacuum gun would probably have to also use some sort of oxygen mask or something to allow him to breathe.

Or mix some radioactive elements into the poisonous gas so that you could... err... track him. Then... maybe shoot him when he returns to human form?

Or something.

Also, no matter what, your hero could remain invincible by simply using a gas mask. You could perhaps factor in particle size in air filters (I've been working with filter data lately; here's a chart with particle size information: http://www.sterlitech.com/pdf/filtrationspectrum.pdf)... like where someone uses a filter where the minimum size of a particle the filter can block out is not small enough, and the villain gets in with an evil laugh.

Or something.

[Sev]

If your villian is Cl₂, perhaps you could 'react him' with Na

[Borek]

Water soluble? Shower will do.

Some gases can be simply burnt - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion_limit for an idea. This will not only allow your enemy to be ignited deliberately, but any incidental spark could have the same effect.

Then you may fight fire with fire - use counter gas, that will react with the poison. Chlorine could do the trick, as it is very reactive (although very poisonous by itself) - but it will not react with everything.

For some gases, especially with more complicated molecules, UV flash (or even simple photographic flash, just really strong, like the ones used in photographic studios) can be destructing. Or mix it with chlorine first and flash it then, AKA hydrochloride synthesis.

[Borek]

If your villian is Cl₂, perhaps you could 'react him' with Na

Na will react with everything - oxygen and moist first.

[Bioionic]

What about Gas-X man? 

[Sev]

If your villian is Cl₂, perhaps you could 'react him' with Na

Na will react with everything - oxygen and moist first.

Yep, good point 

[enahs]

Lure him into a chemistry lab with a super charged fume hood?


If you had a specific gas the villain becomes, something more unique might be thought up other then just "containment" or, my first though "a big fan".

[Ikiteruguy]

Wow.  I wasn't expecting such a great response in such a short time!  Thanks to everyone for their ideas.  I really do appreciate your help with this.

I had actually thought of having a vacuum gun connected to a supercooled tank on his back in order to condense the guy into a solid.  I really like the idea of him losing a limb or something trying to escape.  Also, the hero's costume can produce a high voltage charge like a tazer.  If it were reconfigured to produce a steady lower level charge, would that do anything?  And what exactly would happen to the gas if  it were exposed to a UV flash?

I did some research on destroying gases and came across some clothing that was infused with nanofibers from silver and palladium.  http://news.softpedia.com/news/Clothes-That-Trap-Bacteria-and-Destroy-Toxic-Gases-Designed-by-Student-53792.shtml
  To protect himself, I figured his costume could be infused in a similar fashion.  Would it be plausible for him to wear a mask that had a miniaturized Clean Air Plant system possibly in conjunction with standard filters?

As far as the gas goes, I was thinking it would more than likely be a fictitious one.  The effects of the gas are extreme pain and nausea and bleeding from the pores resulting in death within a period of minutes.  The closest thing I could think of in the real world would be something like an accelerated, weaponized anthrax type of thing.  The idea is based off of Edgar Allen Poe's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.  Thanks again for all your assistance!  You guys have been great!

[P]

   would that do anything?  And what exactly would happen to the gas if  it were exposed to a UV flash?

Depends on the gas! 


My vote is vacuuming him into some sort of containment  -  or spray him with some reactive mist to have him droop out of the air as a solid all messed up from the chemical reaction or something.

[Borek]

When he is vacuumed he is only cotained - but not neutralized yet.

This is one of those methods of getting infinite number of sequels...

UV flash may end in huge explosion - that's one of these special effects that everybody loves.

[Ikiteruguy]

Thank you all very much, again.  I definitely have some good stuff to work with now.