Polite Dissent

Ultimates 3 #1 “Improbable Cause”
Jeph Loeb, writer
Joe Madureira, art

The Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) has been shot with a high velocity projectile. According to the art, the bullet strikes her not from the front, but from the left side of the chest, near the shoulder. Yet somehow — despite the far left lateral location of the entry wound — blood is splattered all over her face as if a water balloon full of red Jell-O has just burst on her chin¹. When Quicksilver tried to catch the bullet, it made a huge hole in his hand, about the diameter of a golf ball, so it’s likely to cause a similarly sized wound in Wanda. Given the location of the injury, the bullet likely entered her left lung, shredded her heart, then tunneled through her right lung before exiting out her back. (At least, I’m assuming there’s an exit wound in her back because of the massive amount of blood pooling behind her. Or maybe it’s more of that red Jell-O.) This is a devastating injury — there’s no way that Wanda can survive.

Out of the blue, a Doctor D. Blake shows up and announces that he needs to start CPR. Only he never gets around to the C of CPR (the “cardio” part) and instead focuses all his attention on the artificial respiration. I hope it goes without saying that breathing is very important. After all, it is the “B” of the ABCs of emergency care, but it doesn’t do much good to supply oxygen to the lungs if the heart’s not beating to pump it around the body — or chest compressions aren’t being performed to circulate the blood². Come to think of it, Blake doesn’t do particularly well with the A (“Airway”) of the ABCs either. He correctly pinches shut Wanda’s nose, but neglects to perform the head tilt/chin lift to fully open her airway.

Dr. Blake gives Wanda all of three breaths before he announces that it’s no use and she’s dead. This is extremely poor form for a doctor who should know what he’s doing. If the patient is clearly dead (like, for instance, she has a massive bullet tract through her chest and is leaking cherry Jell-O), then he should never have started CPR in the first place. On the other hand, if he chooses to begin resuscitation, it needs to be a whole-hearted attempt. Three breaths is nothing but a joke. Blake chose to begin CPR — at the very least Blake should continue CPR until paramedics arrive.

Did I mention how awkward the art is? I think I did, but there’s more…and I’m just talking about the final scene of the book.
There’s a frame (reproduced above) where Blake appears to be holding Wanda’s head up, as if he’s Hamlet speaking to Yorick’s skull. But then closer examination shows that he’s not lifting her head up at all, it’s still resting on the ground and he’s bending over her — it’s just that the panel is drawn with a bizarre tilt that’s only evidenced by the shadow behind her head. But then even closer examination reveals that Blake’s tie (the same one that went flying when Quicksilver grabbed him a few panels earlier) is nestled against his shirt, so he can’t be bending over or it would be drooping forward. Maybe the dead/dying Wanda’s powers have somehow negated gravity in Blake’s tie?
Dr. Blake has a magical walking stick. I don’t mean that it turns into a mystical hammer (which it probably does), but I mean that when he first appears it comes up to his armpit, but in the last panel it’s only as high as his waist.

Notes:
¹ Look at the panel. It looks much more like Jell-O than blood. Or maybe strawberry jelly.
² Quicksilver may be performing chest compressions while Blake is giving Wanda artificial respirations, once again the art is hard to interpret, but if he is doing compressions his hands are about a foot and a half south of the heart. Just a little hint, but uterine compressions are not a key part of CPR.