Super heroes with wings growing out of back is WRONG.

[Tigermegatron]

Super heroes with wings growing out of back is WRONG.

The comic/cartoon/media writers who created this concept must have either never went to school. or didn't bother to study the wings growth patterns on birds.

Wings can not grow out of the back backbone.

Wings on birds for the the arms of birds. the birds arms have feathers on them that enables them to fly.

I honestly really hate seeing those comic super heroes who have wings growing out of their back bone. not only is it wrong,it warps/ruins the minds of kids watching/reading these media wronly placed wings.

In real life if humans ever had wings the feathers would be attached to their arms.

the whole idea of these super heroes with wings growing of of the back bone MOVING THE WINGS FOR FLIGHT IS EVEN MORE WRONG. Wings can't be move back & forth by advanced mind powers. their is nothing in the back bone that a human would be physically able to move back on forth. If humans ever grew wings they would need their arms moving back & forth in order to get flight/fly,due to humans being so large & heavy.

I realize some insects in real life might mot have their wings attached to their arms. but these insects are more stream lined,skinny & not as huge in the core area of the body & don't have overly sized limbs like birds & humans do. humans & birds due to their heavy weight,lare core/torso on their bodies & larger limbs,need the wings formed on their arms in order to achieve flight/fly.

[Onslaught Six]

The reason birds have the feathers attached to their arms (simplifying things here) is because that's how they evolved. With a beak to get food and wings to fly, they don't need an additional pair of arms, so one never evolved.

Most (all? hard to say) superheroes who have wings growing out of their back are usually the result of either technology (Falcon from Captain America) or genetic mutation (Angel/Archangel from X-Men). (I originally included magic in here, but couldn't find any examples of characters who magically sprouted wings--everyone was either a mutant or used technology.) In the case of technology, it doesn't really matter since the wings are technological and thus don't need to apply to the rules of physiology. In the case of mutation, obviously these guys are still in some process of evolution and things haven't been worked out quite yet.

In addition, the image of flighted heroes with wings stems far further back than comics, all the way to the ancient Greeks and probably beyond that. Characters like Angel and Falcon are more than likely evoking mythical characters like Icarus.

I don't understand your whole "nothing on the backbone can be moved back and forth." The wings on, say, Angel are clearly attached to bones, which extend out of his backbone or shoulderblades like any other bones. (I have to admit I'm not as familiar with him, since he wasn't a staple of most 90s X-Men stuff where I get my sources from. Ask me about Colossus and I'll tell you about him; ask me about Angel and I know fuck-all.)

All that said: Dudes with wings on their back look way cooler than dudes with feathers on their arms. Nobody liked Stratos from He-Man; everyone thought Archangel was a fucking pimp.

(To see an example of this kind of thing in real motion, though--watch the Kevin Smith movie Dogma. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play two fallen angels, who indeed have wings that they let out during the third act. Ben Affleck even flies with the things, so you can see how it might work.)

[Sparky Prime]

I've seen some anatomy drawings people have done to theorize how anything with wings on their back in addition to having arms would work in real world terms. Not just people but creatures such as dragons. It's not that the wings would be growing out of the backbone/spine, but would be more like an extra pair of limbs behind the arms, with the ball socket joint for the wings as part of the shoulder blades. Allowing for free range of movement of both the arms and wings.

[Shockwave]

I liked Stratos, but Buzz Off was cooler. And, Stratos' feathers weren't what made him fly, there too it was technological. He had a jetpack. Buzz Off on the other hand, did have naturally occuring wings on his back, but seeing as how he was a giant bee-person, I'm assuming there were be some part of his race's anatomy that would allow for the body to be lighter wheight than a human, much like insects do.