Terra #1: Metahumans and Blood Type

November 10th, 2008

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

scene from Terra #1

Some interesting points in a couple of throwaway lines by Dr Mid-Nite in the recent Terra #1.

I. “Regular physicians don’t know how to store and maintain metahuman blood.”
I had not realized that metahuman blood required any different storage than normal blood, and I don’t recall this little tidbit having been mentioned before (so I guess that makes me just a “regular doctor”).
It raises some questions:

  • Does metahuman blood require special care because it’s more fragile?
  • By metahuman, does Mid-Nite mean any super-hero’s blood (including aliens, magical beings, etc), or specifically those with the metagene?
  • Can metahumans donate blood to other metahumans? Or only to themselves? Or maybe to other metahumans with a similar power set*?

II. Dr. Mid-Nite then makes a somewhat wordy and not-entirely clear statement about transfusions, which seems to imply that metahumans essentially have a different blood type than non-metahumans.

There are over two-dozen different human blood type proteins. Most of these are minor proteins and don’t have much, if any, affect on medical care. However, there are two that are very important: the ABO and Rhesus (Rh) proteins; these are the two that make up the commonly understood definition of blood type (e.g. A+, O-, AB-, etc.). If there is a transfusion reaction due to blood cell compatibility, it will be because of a mismatch in one of these proteins.

It could be that the “blood type” that Dr. Mid-Nite refers to is one of the minor blood type proteins. In that case, the “blood type” is more of academic interest, and doesn’t affect medical care. On the other hand, Mid-Nite’s specifically mentions transfusions, which makes me think it is more similar to the ABO or Rh system, and that makes me wonder why it has never been mentioned before.

  • Wouldn’t it be relatively easy to test for these blood cell proteins to determine if someone is metahuman, as opposed to testing for the gene, which seems to be the current technique?

Firebirds

*This similar-powers-required-for-transfusion idea has surfaced the most often in Jay Faerber’s corner of the Image universe. First, there was Firebird-lite donating blood to Firebird, (though admittedly they’re related), and then more recently in Noble Causes, when the team went looking for individuals with ice powers to provide blood for the injured Frost.

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5 Responses to “ Terra #1: Metahumans and Blood Type ”

  1. Daniel
    November 10th, 2008 at 12:46 am

    I thought you’d also have something to say about the whole “not taking someone’s blood without asking” thing.

  2. Seth Finkelstein
    November 10th, 2008 at 5:29 am

    Since it’s well-established that transfusions of Superman’s blood can give temporary super-powers, there’s obvious more to it than ordinary blood.

    It’s reasonable that some super-powers also modify blood chemistry, and this is what Mid-Nite is talking about – regular physicians don’t need to know the blood chemistry specifics related to particular super-powers. It’s possible that sometimes regular blood will do, but not always, and there’s a kind of “best-match” from those with similar powers.

    Also, it’s likely you can’t reliably test blood to determine if someone in metahuman because the blood modifications don’t kick in until the powers manifest themselves, and again only some metahumaness has gross blood effects.

    But I could easily see a “CSI” scene with something like “the blood at the crime scene indicated a metahuman with fire-based powers”.

  3. Patrick
    November 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am

    My interpretation was that metahuman blood was too dangerous to be held by conventional medical facilities. Considering the number of evil scientists hellbent on cloning or empowering metahumans, it seems like a solid policy. Perhaps the meta-gene is somehow associated with one of the rarer blood types?

  4. Just Some Guy
    November 10th, 2008 at 10:42 am

    It occurs to me that a lot of metahumans (not carries of the metagene, actual people with powers) must have some very unusual blood chemistry as Seth mentions. Their bodies certainly are only superficially human if they go around violating the laws of thermodynamics all willy-nilly.

    I suspect that appropriately typed normal blood to a metahuman would be safe in the majority of instances. There’s bound to be a few whose bodies are so different that they react to it as a mismatch or worse. It wouldn’t surprise me if normal blood coursing through their veins was actively toxic to some of them.

    The real complications are going to come from metahuman blood which would be radically different. A hero could, for example, wind up poisoning their aunt and being forced to lift a massive pile of rubble off themselves in order to retrieve a treatment. Or they could accidentally cause their cousin to turn green and gain multiple short lived comic series.

    Of course the implication in the comic is the first scenario taken to an extreme where the metahumans that could take normal blood are a minority.

    Out of curiosity can a hospital still type match by mixing a small amount of the patient’s blood with a small amount of the different types? I recall reading that other chemical agents have taken the place of that test but I think that would be the safest way to handle Joe Random Superhero who turns up at the ER when you don’t happen to have a few pints of Asgardian type-Square Root of Q blood in the fridge.

  5. Sean Duggan
    November 11th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    Huh… I don’t know the exact context of the panel in question (I get most of my comics via the trade paperbacks at the library), but my immediate impression was that he was implying that there were indeed components of the blood, whether proteins, tachyons, or magical fairy dust, that were required to be there in a transfusion and that something in the storage methods didn’t properly preserve them. Which, as you said, probably flies in the face of much of comic book history. But if they are short-lived outside of the host body, that could explain why blood tests have never become a standard.

    Then, of course, there’s those classic cases of superheroes who have acid, nanites, or nuclear fire instead of blood…

    I’m vaguely reminded of that piece you ran a bit ago with the magic transfusion which involved the old African witch doctor taking the blood from a young white woman and not only stealing the youth of the younger woman, but turning the witch doctor white.

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