With a brand new "The Flash" comic book series set for release on Wednesday (and a first look at some of the artwork from the book in the gallery above), we asked new artist and co-writer Francis Manapul to talk about the science of one of the most famous science fiction-based superheroes.

"We have a bit of a leeway in [exploring ‘comic book science,’" he said. "What’s been really fun is finding real world scientific facts and pushing the ideas. When you read science journals where they’re theorizing, we’re able to ask, 'what if that wasn’t just a theory, but it was real?' With Barry [Allen, the Flash's altar ego] being a scientist himself, there’s lots of ways we can explore that."

The Flash can't just run so quickly that he can run on water, but he can also vibrate through objects. "This may not be [scientifically] possible for us to do, but the Flash can do it," he said. "Readers [today] are more science savvy. They need that little wedge of cheese to bring them along, to let them know it’s based on science. We’re putting steroids on science and we’re pumping it up." FULL POST