Monday PSA: Batman Sells Out to Claritin

January 12th, 2009

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

This was a free comic produced by DC Comics and Schering in 1999. Although generally well written and illustrated, the underlying concept makes this a very bad comic.

cover, BatmanA rare white orchid is on display at the black-tie dinner at the Gotham City Botanical Gardens and Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Tim Drake (Robin) are there to keep an eye on it. The reason? Poison Ivy has recently broken out of prison and this is just the kind of plant she likes to steal. Sure enough, she shows up and Batman and Robin spring into action. Unfortunately Robin is so sedated from his over-the-counter allergy medication that he lets Poison Ivy escape with the orchid.

When Batman and Batgirl head out to track down Poison Ivy and the orchid, Robin wants to come along, but Batman grounds him because of his antihistamine-related grogginess. Robin starts to sulk, but Alfred sends him to his doctor who prescribes him a non-sedating antihistamine (Claritin, of course — this was published when it was a prescription-only drug). Thanks to his new medication, Robin is able to conquer his hay fever and avoid sedating side effects; he joins the battle just in time to redeem himself by capturing Poison Ivy and rescue the orchid.

As giveaway comics go, the story by Christopher Priest is quite well done and Joe Staton handles the art well. What keeps it from being a good comic is the fact that Batman is selling drugs. Batman. Is. Selling. Drugs. Look, I don’t mind using super-heroes on occasion to sell something: subscription, Hostess snack cakes, Underoos, etc. I understand that bills have to be paid. But I draw the line at using super-heroes to sell drugs, even ones as innocuous as Claritin. There are some lines that just should not be crossed.

Tags:

13 Responses to “ Monday PSA: Batman Sells Out to Claritin ”

  1. Psudo
    January 13th, 2009 at 3:07 am

    Batman as a crack dealer… the final sign of impending Armageddon.

  2. skizelo
    January 13th, 2009 at 4:25 am

    I would like to see Batman shilling for other drugs. Actually, Alan Moore’s probably written one where he catches the Joker only after taking LSD.

  3. Bosda Di\\\\\\\'Chi
    January 13th, 2009 at 6:46 am

    One word–Miraclo.

    Nuff said

  4. Carl
    January 13th, 2009 at 6:47 am

    Be fair, it’s ROBIN selling the drugs. Or maybe Alfred.

  5. Your Obedient Serpent
    January 13th, 2009 at 11:31 am

    Ironically, ten years later, my antihistamine of choice is over-the-counter… Claritin.

    (Worse, it’s the REALLY CHEAP GENERIC VERSION.)

  6. Aine
    January 13th, 2009 at 11:36 am

    I haven’t read this comic but could someone who has please tell me why no-one noticed how affected Robin was by his meds before the fight?

  7. Scott
    January 13th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
    Official Comment


    Bosda:
    There’s plenty of heroes with drugs as their origin/powers — it seems like every other hero in the Golden Age was taking something. But this is the first (and hopefully only) time I’ve seen a super-hero shill for a prescription drug.

    Aine:
    Apparently he stopped by the drug-store to get some allergy medicine on the way to the black-tie dinner.

  8. princess edamame
    January 13th, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    This really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. From time to time, at my pediatrician’s recommendation and direction, I gave my 4 year old son generic Claritin. And it made him Angry. ANGRY. Combative, argumentative, violent and mean. Two out of the three times I had to pick him up from school because he was out of control, I had given him Claritin in the morning. Once I saw the pattern, I talked to my aunt, a pharmacy tech, who said that was not an unheard-of side effect. In fact, it makes my cousin, an adult, paranoid. And comic book characters are shilling for this? Oy.

  9. Your Obedient Serpent
    January 13th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    Princess: is this plain Claritin, or Claritin-D? The “D” flavor has a decongestant, and up until recently, that was psuedoephedrine — and “Sudafed” always affected ME like caffeine does.

    (and for the record, caffeine tends to make me “angry, combative, argumentative, violent, mean, and paranoid.”)

  10. Princess Edamame
    January 13th, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    This was the Target generic version of Claritin. Just plain loratadine? I’d tell you more about what it was, but it pissed me off so badly (yup – made me angry and I didn’t even take it!) that I tossed the box and vowed never to buy it again.

  11. The Perky Skeptic
    January 13th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    To be fair to Claritin/loratadine, lots of antihistamines have that side effect on young children. In fact, I believe the latest recommendation is not to give antihistamines to children under six.

    My son FREAKED OUT in exactly the way Princess Edamame describes when we gave him Zyrtec, but he seems to do fine on Claritin. Of course, he’s older now and may have just grown out of that side effect.

  12. Sarah
    January 14th, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    My husband gets stoned and giggly on non-drowsy Claritin – enough so that I’ve been known to use it as an emergency anti-panic-attack manoevre when we’re out of lorazapam.

  13. Sean Duggan
    February 26th, 2009 at 9:10 am

    @princess edamame – Thank you… I just offhand mentioned the whole “rage in children on Claritin” thing to a co-worker and found that one of our children, who’d been on Claritin for a month, had indeed been puzzlingly violent and moody. She took him off of it and he’s back to being a little angel. Moreover, she came to realize that the Zyrtec she was taking was having a similar effect in her. Now, I’m starting to wonder about my own usage…

    But yeah, an offhand mention from a comic book blog led to the avoidance of some very nasty situations. Times like this, I feel like God does occasionally nudge us with inspiration.

Leave a Reply

« Your Weekend Moment of Psychic Nosebleed Zen: The Un-Men I Swear, The Plan Looked Foolproof on Paper »