Polite Dissent

Civil War: Frontline #1 “The Accused”
Paul Jenkins, writer
Steve Lieber, artist

I want to take a brief look at Civil War: Front Line #1. Not the boring main story, but the first of the backup stories — the one that deals with Robbie Baldwin, a.k.a. Speedball.

Speedball was caught in the explosion that kicked off the “Civil War” and was blown 500 miles away. He was found unconscious in a field and is now being cared for in some sort of highly secure government facility. It is unclear how much time has passed since the explosion and what precise injuries he suffered.

When we see Speedball, he is lying unconscious in a hospital bed and bruises can be seen on his chest, mouth, and eyes. His head has been shaved. There are electrodes attached to the left and right sides of his chest and abdomen. There is an IV running into the back of his left hand (most of the time) and there is a pulse oximetry monitor on his left index finger (which reads the amount of oxygen in his blood). He has a nasogastric tube in his right nostril, and there is tape over the bridge his nose.

Medically, the main concern for Speedball would be the damage he sustained from the explosion as well as from the force of his landing. His powers seemed to have protected him from most of the damage, but seem to have been burnt out in the process. If I were his physician, my main concern would be why he is unconscious and not whether or not he has lost his powers. I think it’s safe to assume that they’ve taken the necessary precautions and ruled out any spinal trauma or cerebral hemorrhages.

Speedball is in an intensive care setting, so the heart monitor and pulse oximetry make sense (though I’d recommend placing the electrodes where the heart actually is, on the left side of the chest, not evenly spaced over the entire torso). It’s always a good idea in critical care situations to have intravenous access, though Speedball seems to have a magic IV — sometimes it’s on the back of his hand, sometimes it’s in the crook of his elbow. Nasogastric tubes are generally used either to deliver food, fluids, or medicine to the stomach — or to suck out gastric contents. In this case, I suspect they’ve been feeding him through the NG tube, but it doesn’t seem to be hooked up to anything. It’s not clear why his head has been shaved — maybe surgery — or why he has tape on his nose — maybe it’s broken?

There are all sorts of other equipment around the room including surgical lights, monitors, and what appears to be an unused dialysis machine. They may have used these when he first arrived, or may have them around just in case they need them later. I have no problem with this. The middle of an emergency is the wrong time to go scrounging for the piece of equipment you need. Still, I bet if we look hard enough, I’m sure we can find the machine that goes “ping.”

Doctor #1: John! We’ve got a spike!
Doctor #2 (presumably John): What? What kind?
Doctor #1: EEG!* He’s coming to!**

I have a couple of problems with this. First, this is not how EEGs work. They can’t magically and instantaneously tell the difference between unconsciousness and alertness. They show differences in voltages across the brains as a series of waveforms, and many of these waveforms can be the same for alert, asleep, and unconscious patients depending on the circumstances. Anyway, “spikes” on EEGs do not represent waking up, but instead signify epileptiform behaviour — in other words, seizures.

Finally, I’d have a lot more faith in this doctor’s interpretation of EEG reading if Speedball actually had any EEG electrodes on…

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*I could be reading this wrong. The doctor in question might not be saying “E.E.G.,” but may instead have made the exclamation “Eeg!” – just as others might say “Arrgh!” “Jeepers!” or “Hoboken!” The lettering is not clear.

**Boy, that’s some of the most awkward dialogue I’ve seen in a while. Try reading it out loud, emphasizing the words the way the author did.

Tags: comics medicine civil war front line speedball eeg paul jenkins steve leiber