Comments on: Sue Storm’s Bloody Nose

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:24:44 +0000

everyone knows you only get nosebleeds from staring at pretty girls

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:23:39 +0000

To be fair, some people really do have rather fragile blood vessels in their noses. For those people, it really doesn’t take much to develop a nosebleed; too much nose-blowing, too strong an allergic reaction, etc. (The first time I went to school in Downtown Dallas, my nose bled regularly for the first two weeks. Too much smog irritated my nasal passages, and the resulting nose-blowing to clear away the accumulated mucus wore a small hole straight through the outermost layer of that tender skin.)

If you really need a justification for “straining psychic” nosebleeds, consider this: As Ms. Storm expends additional energy to maintain and strengthen her forcefields, her blood pressure and breathing both jump. In addition, her levels of norepinephrine and acetylcholine levels will spike, due to the stress of combat and her intense focus. This will provoke a histamine response, both as a buffer and to increase the delivery of needed blood to her brain. Under this combination of circumstances, a single weakness in her nasal lining can readily provide the little trickle of blood you get to see.

What do you think, Doctor? Reasonable enough to patch the plot hole? ;)

By: Scipio

Scipio — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 04:06:03 +0000

Perhaps Sue caught it from Max Lord…

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:17:36 +0000

You are all psychics and just haven’t realized it yet.

By: Tom Foss

Tom Foss — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 04:47:41 +0000

Count me in as well as a “drop-of-the-hat” nosebleeder. Up until about Junior year of High School, I’d get nosebleeds after the smallest impacts with the right part of my nose, and nearly every dry day in the winter. I saw an ear-nose-throat guy for an unrelated problem, but mentioned it and he cauterized the problem veins then and there. I haven’t really had the problem since.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 22:47:40 +0000

Use of psychic powers obviously requires a “turbocharging” of the brain, accomplished by raising the blood pressure. The brain vessels of psychics seem to be reinforced, but apparently not nasal passages.

In _Firestarter_, it wasn’t just nosebleeds – the father character got small strokes from using his powers. And the more strongly he used them, the stronger the stroke.

By: David

David — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 20:47:57 +0000

It’s certainly not only a comic book convention…It’s used in movies and books all the time. Firestarter by Stephen King
pops immediately to mind, where the father character would get nosebleeds when using his mental “push.”

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 19:58:05 +0000

Like #3’s friend, I used to get nosebleeds a lot, especially in the winter. My doctor told me it was because of … yep, herpes. Apparently you can get cold sores in your nose, and when they burst (especially in very dry weather, so the winter is bad), your nose bleeds. Maybe Sue is doing all this work in the nasty New York winters, when the air is really dry. The FF should move to Miami and then the humidity would keep her nose from bleeding.

By: Robert Donovan

Robert Donovan — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 18:50:41 +0000

“Um… what about the other use of nosebleeds as comic book shorthand?
In Japan, nosebleeds signify lust or embarassment.”

Well, that has an established explanation. Firstly, observation of manga/anime violence and blood-letting indicates that manga/anime characters have at least 12-15 pints of blood in their bodies, all of it under high pressure. Secondly, the structure of the nose is much smaller and weaker, due to the need for the skull to accomodate much larger eyes. In moments of embarrasment or sexual arousal, the heart rate increases, forcing the blood around the body at an even greater pressure, resulting in the rupture of the weak blood vessels/membranes in the nose. Interestingly, it seems much less common in females, who usually only suffer a rush of blood to the area of the face in question. Possibly it may have evolved in males as a safety measure to counteract the rush of blood to, uh, other areas.

By: Lyle

Lyle — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 18:28:09 +0000

Hm, I used to get nosebleeds quite easily in high school, sometimes getting them from sneezing. I have no idea what caused this, but it went away on its own as I got older.