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"Radioactivity is something we've mythologized so that it's easier for us deal with," says professor Paul Brians of Washington State University, the creator of the Nuke Pop Web site.

The "Fantastic Four" — created 44 years ago by Marvel Comics — is just part of a giant wave of super heroes, many created at the height of the Cold War, that draw their power from radiation.

In the months after the bombing of Hiroshima, America's comic book shelves even welcomed one hero called "Atomic Mouse," who gets his super strength by munching on uranium 235, just like Popeye ate spinach.

Ninja Turtles, the Bikini and Other Unintended Consequences of Technology

One sure thing about showbiz radiation — it can super-size almost any critter. The Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles are nothing but household pets until they wash up in a New York sewer, where radioactive ooze blesses them with advanced skills in martial arts.

Suddenly, the quartet of Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello become pizza-eating heroes-on-the-half-shell.

In the B-movie tradition of Godzilla and Mothra, irradiated and enlarged varmints tend to get a little more ornery than some of their comic book contemporaries. Who can forget Joan Collins' unearthly screams in 1977's "Empire of the Ants," when she must bow to welcome planet Earth's new insect overlords, which stand over 50 feet tall?

On some level, movie house irradiation is nothing more than a magnifying glass, amplifying the best and worst in anybody. That perhaps explains why each of the Fantastic Four is bequeathed a different super power, and each new power comes at a personal price.

Ben Grimm loves being the fist-pounding Thing. But as a hideous man-mountain of rocks, he's got zero chance of getting a date, leaving him perpetually crying on the inside.

This much is true: When the fickle finger of fallout points at you, the salubrious effects are a mixed blessing at best, and the effects are irreversible. As Mr. Burns on "The Simpsons" once put it, "A lifetime of working with nuclear power has left me with a healthy green glow … and left me as impotent as a Nevada boxing commissioner."