Comments on: Detective Comics #833 and #834: A Medical Review

By: Harvey

Harvey — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:03:22 +0000

Bare a** minimum, a character in a comic book always has three powers: 1.)100% aim, 2.)reanimation, and 3.)the ability to fly a plane.

By: Mato

Mato — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 04:56:56 +0000

What I really want is if this events happen before or after Batman 655 and 663? My take would be it happens before them, just like Detective 826, thing is, if this is true, we’d already know the answer to Harley reforming in Detective 831, coz we all know that she helps the Joker escape Arkham once again in Batman 663, so next month’s Detective 837 is pretty useless to solve Harley’s mystery… Conclusion: 2 books with one continuity = sucks.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:35:44 +0000

This is what I like about your site. I’ve learned so much about drowning in such an interesting way.

By: Bryan L

Bryan L — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 13:54:41 +0000

Seth, I had the same thought — all she needs to do is recover sufficiently to use another healing spell. I also agree her abilities are not well defined — in the comic universe in my head, I’ve got a vague “rule book” for magic in the DC Universe, which I’m happy to present for purposes of debate:
1. Characters either ARE magic (Thunderbolt, Spectre) or they MANIPULATE magic forces (Dr. Fate).
2. All magic requires a focus to have any significant effect. Characters that are magic require a focus for their powers (human ally, like Johnny Thunder, or human host, like Jim Corrigan). These creatures are limited by the will and imagination of that focus (similar to Green Lantern’s ring).
3. Characters that manipulate magic must cast spells to provide a focus for that magic, and spells are limited by will and imagination.
Zatanna straddles both worlds — she’s a creature of magic but as a hybrid she requires a ritual focus (backwards spells). Her main weakness, really, is that she must have at least a few seconds to compose and focus on a spell (whether written or verbalized). Deny her those few seconds, and she’s helpless. There have been a couple of instances (Dini’s Zatanna miniseries) where she’s been shown to be able to cause some effects without a spell — shutting doors behind her, simple stuff — which ties in pretty well to my theory. She can do small stuff without a focus, but anything complex requires a spell.
As far as scope, I think that’s largely limited by (again) willpower and imagination. So while Zatanna might be able to change all the oxygen on Earth or something else (dunno why she’d want to), she can’t really think on that grand a scale. Pretty much the Green Lantern deal again.

Yeah, I spend too much time thinking about this stuff.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:58:27 +0000

How far does the “EM LAEH” work? Maybe it takes care of the medical effects of the drowning too.

The Batcave’s been shown to have medical oxygen supplies. It probably has a breathing machine too.

Besides, all she needs to do is recover enough to cast another healing spell on herself.

And the spell after that is “!EID REKOJ”

That’s the problem with Zatanna’s powers – too poorly defined.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:42:10 +0000

You’re right Aaron. A laryngospasm will often occur in drowning, blocking out water and/or air. This also accounts for the approximately 15% of drowning victims who die from “dry drowning” — the laryngospasm blocks out all air and they asphyxiate without ever inhaling a single drop of water.

By: universalperson

universalperson — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:30:13 +0000

Joker has been portrayed as being an above average marksman in the animated series.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:25:02 +0000

I thought that I remembered being taught that part of the reason for the small volume of water in the lungs of drowing victims was that as a protective response the upper airways spasm shut to keep out water, but also air.

By: Sig

Sig — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:32:38 +0000

Has an actual vocal component always been required by Zatanna to cast her spells? She can’t just mouth the words?

Not always — her post-fishnet revision around the time of Ostrander’s Spectre #19 showed her using magic freely and without her backwards vocalization. But to quoth Etrigan (I forget the first part): “No fishnet hose/I hate it when a tradition goes!”

That said, Ostrander was always good about playing within the confines of previous writers’ characterizations when using guest characters (for that Spectre storyline, Constantine was in the middle of the Damnation Flame arc, and was thus far too trashed to be of any use whatsoever), and if Dini — probably the writer we associate most with Zatanna now — now sees it fit to reimagine/redefine this aspect of Z’s vocalizations as integral to her sorcery, I think we can allow him this.