Marvel Zombies 3 #1: A Medical Review

January 4th, 2009

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

scene from Marvel Zombies 3 #1Marvel Zombies 3 #1
Fred Van Lente, writer
Kev Walker, penciler

Jennifer Kale is a sorceress and member of Florida’s state super-hero team, the Command. They are sent to investigate strange happenings in the middle of the Florida swamp only to discover the first stages of a zombie attack from another dimension. In just a matter of minutes, her team is attacked and decimated by zombie Deadpool and his cohorts. Jennifer is the only one who manages to escape, but she is injured in the process:

Zombie Deadpool: In every school of magic I ever flunked out of, you needed the flexor digitorum profundus to do that hoodoo that you do. You know — attached to those tendons I just severed.

1. The flexor digitorum profundus is a muscle of the forearm that is required for fully flexing (bending) the fingers. It is a deep muscle, located right against the bone on the underside of the forearm. The muscle is used to flex the distal aspect (the far portion) of the fingers, but also plays a role in flexing the rest of the hand.

2. Flexing the fingers certainly seems to be an important part of spell casting in the Marvel Universe. For one thing, it’s impossible to make Dr. Strange’s classic casting technique of Ditko-fingers without flexing the fingers. From what I’ve seen, Jennifer Kale has a similar casting style. While I don’t have her earliest appearances in various Steve Gerber Man-Thing stories, in more recent years she has shown up in the absolutely horrible mini-series Witches, and there she uses a modified flexed finger technique.

scene from Witches #1

3. I don’t think that zombie Deadpool’s shot was as good as he thinks it was, but even if I’m right, it wouldn’t affect the eventual outcome:

zombiesIt’s not clear to me that Deadpool injured Jennifer’s flexor digitorum profundus. The injury seems to be on the upper-medial side of the forearm, while the flexor digitorum profundus is in on the lower medial side. His shot seems more likely to have affected the extensor muscles, but they seem equally important to Marvel universe spellcasting, so the ultimate result would have been the same.
zombiesThe tendons of the flexor digitorum profundusdon’t start that far back anyway; his shot would have hit the belly of the muscle (though severing that would have pretty much the same effect as cutting the tendons).
zombiesFinally, remember that the flexor digitorum profundusis a deep muscle. The flexor digitorum superficialis lies on top of it, and any injury that severs the profundis would have to go through the superficialis as well. Of course, the flexor digitorum superficialis is another important muscle in flexing the fingers, so the outcome would be the same — but you’d think the always chatty Deadpool would have mentioned he was severing two muscles for the price of one.

4. Even in our non-magical world, flexor digitorum profundus injuries are repairable, so assuming Jennifer survives the Zombie onslaught, she should be able to regain full use of her fingers after a surgical repair.

6 Responses to “ Marvel Zombies 3 #1: A Medical Review ”

  1. KDBryan
    January 6th, 2009 at 6:23 am

    And here I had honestly thought “Flexor Digitorum Profundus” was just Deadpool making a silly Harry Potter-style joke about magic fingers. Wow. You really do learn something new every day.

  2. Sean Duggan
    January 6th, 2009 at 9:49 am

    ^_^ Well, someone was bound to figure it out. Somehow, it doesn’t overly surprise me that Deadpool was the person. Despite a deservedly earned reputation for insanity, he’s got a knack for finding unorthodox but oddly astute solutions.

  3. Ledasmom
    January 7th, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    In any case, if the fingers are that crucial to spell-casting you’d expect somebody to have invented some sort of aid to move the fingers into the appropriate positions, if by chance an injury rendered them incapable of the normal full range of motion.

  4. Sean Duggan
    January 8th, 2009 at 7:45 am

    @Ledasmon – In other mythos, at least, there are often alternatives albeit ones that people have to specifically learn or figure out. In some ways, it’s like trying to shoot with an injured trigger finger. Yes, it’s possible, but it will probably be awkward and less accurate unless you specifically trained to shoot with your other fingers and kept in practice. There was actually a nice bit in one of the Forgotten Realms War of the Spider Queen books where a wizard with his hands chained above his head managed to improvise a Knock spell using his toes for the somatic component.

  5. deadpoolfan
    January 14th, 2009 at 10:17 am

    maybe they is a way without moving your fingures but she did not know it?

  6. Metz77
    February 10th, 2009 at 11:38 am

    Not to mention she still has full use of the flexor digitorum profundus of her other arm.

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