Clark Kent Donates Blood
As usual after donating blood, I have the urge to write about blood-related comic book stories. Today, I have a sadly overlooked gem of a story for your enjoyment entitled “Clark Gives Blood, Superman Saves Lives” from Superman Family #214 (January 1982):
Lana Lang is in charge of the WGBS blood drive and she is determined to have it succeed, no matter what. If that means that everyone at Galaxy Broadcasting has to donate blood, then so be it.
Clark tries to weasel his way out of it, but Lana will have none of it. She leads him over to the nurse who introduces herself and then takes a drop of his blood to make sure he’s not anemic. When that test is normal, she takes him to the donation area where another nurse gets him all set up to give blood. After about ten minutes of whining and chatting with Jimmy Olsen, Clark has donated a pint of blood. A few minutes later, Clark rejoins Lana at the canteen as he is served some orange juice and cookies (“I’ll let you in on a secret, Clark – I really do this for the cookies!” confides Jimmy).
The question*, of course, is how did Clark manage to donate blood? I assure you, it’s actually Clark Kent; not a double, not a robot, not an imaginary story (any more than every comic book story is imaginary). As we’ve seen in the past, Superman’s skin is impervious to needles. This meant that in previous stories, whenever Superman had to donate blood, he ripped his skin open himself. So what’s his secret this time?
Remember Superman is not entirely invulnerable; he has his weaknesses. Two of them in particular. One of them is Kryptonite and the other is…well, take a look at the nurse and see if she looks familiar.
Need a hint?**
The “Superman Saves Lives” part of the story comes from the fact that Clark overhears an emergency call from a hospital in Washington DC in desperate need of type AB- blood. Metropolis has the four units they need, but no way to get them there in time. Clark quickly changes into Superman and delivers the blood to Washington DC himself.
The story was written by Bob Rozakis and penciled by John Calnan. Subtitled “A Salute to the 100th Anniversary of the American Red Cross,” the story does a good job of encouraging readers to donate blood by showing how quick, easy, and (relatively) painless the procedure is. So what are you waiting for? Go give blood.
*The other — and in many ways more intriguing — question raised by this story is what happened to the person who ended up receiving a transfusion of Superman’s blood? Remember, his blood can promote miraculous healing and grant temporary super powers.
**(I hope you’ve figured it out by now, but if not, here’s the answer.)
April 12th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
I would have enjoyed this article a lot more if it didn’t remind me that I spaced on the Blood Drive at work today.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:26 pm
And, on second read — I’m really surprised they didn’t play off of this. I mean, most likely, it was Jimmy Olsen who got the blood.
April 13th, 2006 at 7:07 am
I always loved this story. I like how vague Zatanna can be, and that if the story was redone today, her spell would have had hundreds of people’s blood vessels spontaneously burst. The rest of the 5 issue mini-series would be Zatanna traveling incognito, trying to undo her damage and angsting.
The spell would have make Batman a dickhead, too, but that’s a given. :)
April 13th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
“Lana Lang is in charge of the WGBS blood drive and she is determined to have it succeed, no matter what. If that means that everyone at Galaxy Broadcasting has to donate blood, then so be it.”
This sounds pretty disturbing. If you’re running a blood drive, you *shouldn’t* be trying to get *everyone* to donate.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/13/health/main611607.shtml
“…In an e-mail sent last Tuesday to about 170 members of Gamma Phi Beta, sophomore Christie Key, the chapter’s blood donation coordinator, wrote: ‘I dont care if you got a tattoo last week LIE. I dont care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE. Recent peircings? LIE.’
“She added: ‘Even if you’re going to use the Do Not Use My Blood sticker, GIVE ANYWAY.’ Donors who have second thoughts at the donation site can discreetly attach a sticker to a health questionnaire indicating their blood shouldn’t be used…”
April 13th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Yeah, that really caught my eye too. There are a number of very embarrassing reasons not to give.
That said, go donate!
April 14th, 2006 at 10:04 am
Honestly had a hard time figuring out who the “nurse” was becuase I kept reading her name as Evig Blood which means Eternal Blood in Swedish (which ment I kept hearing that awful perky, fauxe swedish voice in my head going “Hello! My name is Inga! I am from Sweden!”. That didn’t help much). Once I managed to filter the swedish out of my brain I couldn’t help but feel how clever the solution was. Zatanna rocks. I named my epée after her.
April 14th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
But… how did Lois know to contact Zatanna? Is this story trying to tell us that Lois knew Clarks’ identity all along and only played along to keep him from looking like an idiot? Seriously, how the hell did Zatanna know to be play-acting as a nurse at just that blood drive on just that day????
April 14th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
A world-travelling reporter today can simply say he’s recently back from a malaria-prone region and they won’t take his blood. He can also say he spent 3 months in England in the 80’s or early 90’s and they won’t take his blood.
April 14th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Right, as methane says, it seems like Clark should have been able to come up with a far better excuse – wouldn’t “I had hepatitis” be fine?
On the other hand, maybe he wanted to say “Of course I’m not Superman – remember, you all saw me donate blood that day of the blood drive” (It’s a wild world where the answer is *really* “One of the volunteer nurses was also your magician buddy who cast a spell to make it happen”).
Maybe he was going to come up with a better excuse later, then saw Zatanna there by coincidence (Lois volunteers at times, so perhaps so does Zee), and changed plans.
April 15th, 2006 at 8:23 am
I’m kind of mixed. I’ve been listening to some of the old “Superman” radio shows, and Clark has quite the rep of being one tough SOB — this whole “I can’t stand the sight of blood” thing would have been quite out of character. It was always
“Clark! You rushed that armed thug and knocked him out with one blow!”
“Oh, he must have had a glass jaw. And besides, he only had one shot, and obviously, he missed.”
Which always made more sense to me. I mean, if you can use superpowers in a way that makes you look like a lucky human, why not? Of course, the radio incarnation kept forgetting that earth people didn’t have powers:
“I didn’t think the KKK would kidnap my houseboy — maybe he’s upstairs in his room, asleep!”
“No, Mr. White — he’s not there! He’s in the garage!”
“Clark, how can you be sure?”
“I heard his heart — I mean, I thought I heard a moan for help. Didn’t you?”
April 18th, 2006 at 10:32 am
Quick? easy? painless? I want to yell “Lie Lie Lie.”. At least my experience was way different. I thought I’d be a lovely person and donate blood when I was 23. That giant-gaugue needle hurt like an SOB, left me with a sore arm for days. But that wasn’t the worst of it. I expected to feel a little lightheaded for a short time, maybe, but I was sick and weak and tired and not myself for at least two weeks. I had an active job and it was hard going. Of course, I was just a slip of a girl and maybe that had something to do with it. It was such a nasty experience I have never given blood on purpose again. I was screened the usual way, but I guess thin females may have a harder time of it.
April 18th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Hilarious – I’m glad you posted it. :)
March 17th, 2008 at 9:50 am
In all fairness, Mr. O’Neill (you don’t have a daughter named April, I hope), Superman probably involved Zatanna himself, just to keep Lana from having yet another nagging suspicion that he was Superman.
And SarahW? It varies by person. I feel euphoric after donating, myself. Of course, that one time the phlebotomist went “fishing” for my blood vessels and went WAY too close to a nerve… well, let me say it for the ladies in the audience; I went into the “stirrup” position, teeth clenched, as I purposely held every muscle in my arm VERY still… by holding the reclining couch in a deathgrip! NOT fun!
(I got a t-shirt, and I love the cookies… but I’m SO glad that was the only time a nerve was grazed…)
January 21st, 2009 at 8:35 pm
If you get his blood wouldn’t you get some of his strength DNA ?
March 18th, 2012 at 11:41 pm
I love this comic, both as a Zatanna fan and as a transfusion recipient/semi-regular blood donor*. I even got a copy of the comic for my local blood center.
The writer (Bob Rozakis) is a regular blood donor (for platelets, mostly).
http://bobrozakis.blogspot.com/2011/12/another-saturday-morning-at-blood.html
Oddly, the ARC isn’t mentioned in the story, and the logo used on the nurse’s uniforms looks like the Symbol of the Seven from Dr. Occult.
And Jimmy Olsen gets to help donate too…though you can’t help but wonder if others get weird powers from his blood…(And he’s a regular donor!)
*It’s not the only Zee story that has a medical connection for me. A JLA story in the “Terror Incognita” arc/TPB has a one panel cameo of Zee in one comic…keeping a ward of preemies breathing. As a preemie myself, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw that.
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