You're not wrong but there is one thing: hitting the ground is an instantaneous impact with a hard surface. Being swooped in some direction is a relatively slower process - the swooper is softer than concrete, and the change in velocity is spread over a longer period of time (even if it's still "instantaneous" to the casual observer, it can be an "instant" 100 times longer than ground impact).

It's like landing on a mattress vs a hard floor - from a high enough height both are deadly, but I'd still pick the mattress.

Transformer movies were awful with this. Human falling hundreds of feet to the pavement. But wait! They'll hit a giant steel hand instead! Much better. Soft.

Isn't this the story of the original Gwen Stacy? Spiderman tries to save her, but does exactly this and the force on her body kills her anyway.

It's been a long, long time since I have read the comics but iirc, it was a defining point in the spiderman canon.

That's exactly what I thought when I was watching that scene with that superfast dude in X Men where he saves a bunch of people by carrying them away from an explosion. They must accelerate from 1 to 1000 km/h in a mere second.

The scene is still awesome, but I don't think anyone would be alive after that.

Edit: https://youtu.be/ZnZqB5Z75zI?si=41ohBuk03Xuy5RGl

It's like one of the opening scenes from The Boys.

splat

Sorry Lois Lane, superman just made you into a bony pink mist.

Isn't it well known that if you're near Superman you"get" some of his powers. So him coming in to save you like this would be ok because you'd have some of his invincibility.

It is like the trope of the explosion behind the hero.

Cool Meaney (O'Brien) reversed the polarity on the inertial dampener.

I mean if you catch the person like you catch an american football ball, it should greatly reduce the effect of the impact.

What's the name of this comic and/or the artist. I recognize it from the fortune teller "I see you alone in an apartment with a lot of X... Jesus that's a lot of X" meme.

Crumple Zone is the superhero we really need here. With thick arms and soft bones he can rush to the scene and turn sudden death into mere horrific imjuries.

Check out the absorption barriers on the edges of racetracks. They’re remarkably small for cars that could be hitting them at 100+ mph.

Of course, the cars themselves are also designed to save the driver but it’s the same concept.

What's the old saying? It's not the fall that kills you, but the abrupt stop?

If Superman (or whoever) uses the remaining distance between you and the ground to reduce the impulse on your body. But they also have to be careful about their speed coming in to grab you, because they could easily substitute your impact with the ground for an impact with them.

See, that's how you know people here have never touched grass. Otherwise they'd know how big of a difference it makes to fall on grass vs concrete. All over a few mm of yield.

Also anecdotally I've seen videos of people catching falling children (back in the day in/r/DadReflexes). It works, empirically.

Superman should just fly completely under Lois, grab her and instantly match her speed, and crash through the concrete and the layers below (protecting her with his Super Bod), decelerating slowly enough that Lois is saved without harm.

Your forgetting about his Tactile Telekinesis.

I recall that scene. Didn't he lower his hand as they fell into it so it slows them? I remember appreciating that detail when I saw it

Well in Spiderman's case Gwen would've survived if she was caught before. Spidey's web is stretchable so it would have decelerated her fall. It even stretched on catching her but she was too close to the floor and hit her head.

How does the light from a different star give him all those powers? The original story is that the gamma rays from our star feed his cells, giving him super strength and speed. His power creep over the decades has truly become ridiculous.

He needs to roll him. Redirect that energy by 90°

The slicing forces would actually be helpful, because the resistance of the arms would spread the impulse out over a longer time period. So maybe you get decapitated, but your head doesn’t just instantly splat. So you get… a few seconds? more of life.

our hero's* arms

Human terminal velocity is roughly 56 m/s. Let's say our superhero wants to decelerate the person at 10G, which should be survivable for a short period. That would be 0.6 seconds of deceleration over 48 m. That's a short time but quite a long distance, let's slow down faster:

20G -> 0.28 seconds, 24 m.

30G -> 0.19 seconds, 16 m.

50G -> 0.11 seconds, 9.6 m.

100G -> 0.057 seconds, 4.79 m.

200G -> 0.029 seconds, 2.45 m.

5000G -> 0.0011 seconds, 3.6 inches.

A 40 mph car crash in a modern car into a solid wall gives around 15G.

F1 driver David Purley survived a 180G crash in 1977.

In short, I don't recommend catching someone with 3 inches to spare.