Polite Dissent

Fantastic Four #549 “Reconstruction Chapter 6: So I guess You’re Saying the Honeymoon’s Over”
Dwayne McDuffie
Paul Pelletier

In a memorable and clever scene from Fantastic Four #549, Sue Richards puts the fear of God into the Wizard by threatening his life. More specifically, she threatens to use her powers to block his coronary arteries causing a massive heart attack. (Now is Sue making a real threat, or just bluffing? I leave that up to you).

♥  This is a good example of what I like to call “medicine on the attack”: characters who have enough knowledge of anatomy and physiology to cause significant damage when using their powers in a certain way. Iron Man and Battalion are two others who have made use of similar tactics. The heart always seems to be the target, but that makes sense because everyone knows where to find it, how important it is, and roughly how it works. The same can’t be said for most of the other organs (“Be careful Mole Man, or I shall crush your spleen!” just doesn’t carry the same weight) . I’ve also noticed it’s the “heroes” who are the ones making this type of attack.

♥  Despite what the Wizard says, it’s technically not a thrombosis because that refers specifically to a blood clot. You can’t fault him much for the wrong answer because no one has coined a medical term to describe an invisible forcefield blocking an artery.

♥  Sue’s plan is a little overkill. Blocking the three main coronary arteries (left anterior descending, circumflex coronary artery, right coronary artery) is more than enough to cause a fatal heart attack. Knocking out the left anterior descending alone should do the trick — it’s called the widow maker for a reason.

♥ The art looks a little misleading at first. In real life, the heart and lungs aren’t just sitting there free in the chest — they are both covered by tough protective membranes (the pericardium for the heart, and the pleura for the lungs). There’s a simple explanation though: Sue must have turned them invisible, just as she turned the Wizard’s skin and ribcage invisible. Overall, Pelletier’s command of thoracic anatomy is quite impressive.

♥ Personally, I think an even better tactic against the Wizard would be to threaten him with a stroke. Sure, threatening him with a heart attack puts his life at risk, but threaten him with a stroke and it’s his brain — his raison d’etre — that’s on the line. Just replace Sue’s comment about the coronary arteries with this line: “A man as smart as you surely knows what happens if I used a force field to close your carotid arteries.” He’d probably die of fright right there on the spot.