Polite Dissent

Batwoman (Kate Kane) is bound to an altar to be sacrificed by Bruno Mannheim, the leader of Intergang. Renee Montoya, Kate’s lover and the new Question, rushes in to rescue her.

With Kate bound on the altar, Mannheim drives the sacrificial blade into her heart. This is quite an impressive feat. The blade appears to be a fairly wide blade, yet he drives it vertically into her chest. Remember that the heart is protected by a little something known as the rib cage. Mannheim would have to drive the blade through a rib or two to reach her heart — and maybe even the breastbone — no easy task.

Kate tells Renee not to remove the blade. On one hand, this is good advice. The blade is plugging the hole it made and removing it will let blood pour out of the heart. On the other hand, blood loss is only part of Kate’s problem. The blade is large enough that it would have severely lacerated the heart muscle. The heart is a very efficient pump and contracts concentrically to push the blood through the arterial system. A large laceration will disrupt this contraction and compromise the heart’s ability to pump blood. Additionally, the knife probably severed one or more of the coronary arteries — the arteries that supply the heart muscle itself with blood. A severed coronary artery deprives the muscle beyond it of blood causing a heart attack. The knife wound would also disrupt the electrical conduction of the heart, further compromising its ability to function. Finally, the trachea, lungs, and esophagus may have been injured as well — and seeing the blood oozing from Kate’s mouth — probably were. In real life, without immediate resuscitation and surgery, this would be a mortal wound.

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Fatal wound or not, Kate is able to sit up, wrench the blade from her heart (and rib cage) and throw it at Mannheim.

Even accepting the comic book truism that all thrown weapons land blade-first, this is still an impressive throw. Despite being weak from her injury, she is able to bury the blade hilt deep in Mannheim’s back — remember that little thing called the rib cage? Kate manages to cut through it with a thrown knife. Her throw looks like it landed a little right of center, so she would have missed his heart. However, given the amount of blood shown in a later image, she probably cut through one of the major blood vessels such as the subclavian artery or vena cava, which would also be a mortal wound. I think it’s safe to say that severe lung damage would have occurred as well.

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I’m generally a big fan of Darrick Robertson’s art (way back from his time on the New Warriors) and his last go on 52 was some of the best pencils of the series. The art this time is not nearly as good — far too dark and scratchy – and looks like it was rushed. It costs the fight scene much of its excitement. There’s also the matter of the magically shrinking altar. When the scene starts, the altar ends a good foot above Kate’s head; her arms are resting on top of it. At the end of the scene, the altar now ends at the top of Kate’s head with her hair and arms dangling off the edge. Personally, I blame Darkseid.

Tags: comics medicine batwoman renee montoya the question 52