Detective Comics #849: A Medical Review
Detective Comics #849 “Heart of Hush, part 4 of 5: Scars”
Paul Dini, writer
Dustin Nguyen, penciler
This month’s issue of Detective Comics, which continues the story of Catwoman’s missing heart, answers some of the questions I raised last month, but leaves others unanswered.
1. The bizarre steampunk-ish machinery used to keep Catwoman alive without her heart is explained away as a machine designed by Mr. Freeze, utilizing his extensive knowledge of cryogenics. Her heart is kept alive in a similarly designed machine in Hush’s lair.
I consider that a reasonable explanation, at least from a comic-book-medicine point of view.
However:
It still doesn’t explain how Hush was able to transport that enormous piece of machinery — it takes up the better part of a large room — to Gotham General is a single ambulance.There remains the problem of blood mixing with air; and random units of blood hanging from the machinery.2. Hush explains that after his own run in with heart problems (thanks to the Joker), he “set about learning all I could about the heart — ways to remove it, restart it, test how long it could be kept alive outside the body…”
That’s as good an explanation as we’re probably going to get — and considering Hush is “The Best Neurosurgeon in World” — I’m willing to accept that he’s super-intelligent enough and driven enough to become “Darn Near the Best Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the World” in just a few months.
Apparently he’s also now “The Best Plastic Surgeon in the World”. Or at least “The Best Plastic Surgeon in the World who Operates on Himself.” (But remember the old adage: A Doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient.)3. It’s a shame that Dr. Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific show up just to be stymied. What a waste of great characters.
4. Hush tells Batman that Joker triggered a massive heart attack. Unlikely. An aberrant pacemaker could trigger a fatal arrhythmia, but not a heart attack — that’s a flow problem, not an electrical one. (I go into this in more depth in a previous post about the topic.)
October 10th, 2008 at 4:16 am
Perhaps one day there can be the Society of the Broken Hippocrattic Oath. Hush, the current Crime Doctor. I don’t know. The Ultra-Humanite? His surgical methods definitely aren’t for the patients benefit…
Dr. Sleepytime! The Best Yet Evilest Anatheseologist in the World!
Bad Adjustment, World’s Meanest Chiropracter!
Malpractice Doc or Dr. Doug Murphy, Not So Much Evil As Just Really Incompetant!
October 10th, 2008 at 11:58 am
—–It still doesn’t explain how Hush was able to transport that enormous piece of machinery — it takes up the better part of a large room — to Gotham General is a single ambulance.—–
That is perplexing! Doyle said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” I have a theory, on how everything fit into the ambulance. lol
Mr. Freeze stole the shrinking technology from Dr. Hank Pym (aka Ant-Man, Giant-Man/Goliath, Yellowjacket). By happenstance, they were both attending the Regional Gathering in Gotham/Chicago.
Pym was going to kill two birds with one stone. Pym was going to attend the Gathering and the following day visit Arkham Asylum. Unbeknownst to Hank, Mr. Freeze followed him to his Holiday Inn parking lot. Minutes later, the shrinking technology was acquired serendipitously.
Problem with my theory is that they inhabit two separate universes. But Superman battled Spider-Man, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility. lol
October 12th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
It was long ago established that Hush is ‘The Greatest Plastic Surgeon in the World’, as he was the one able to fully repair Harvey Dent’s face and promised to ‘fix’ Harold. (Hell, he would probably give him his voice, too.) He just may have to replace Dr. Midnite as the best doctor in the DCU.
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