Quick Takes: Dark Elektra #1 and Batman: Widening Gyre #1

September 3rd, 2009

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

Dark Elektra #1

scene from Dark Elektra #1

A “cracked inner ear?” There really is no such term — most people would refer to it as a skull fracture or more specifically a temporal bone fracture.

Frankly, the whole sentence is awkward — she specifically mentions which arm bone is broken (the humerus), but doesn’t mention which foot bone was broken (there are quite a few; for all we know it could be a broken pinky toe; which is no big deal for anyone, let alone a resurrected ninja). Of course, this should really come as no surprise as the woman works for Norman Osborn, whose grasp of anatomy is rather poor.

quackery!

Batman: Widening Gyre #1
scene from Batman Widening Gyre #1

I hate to disagree with Ivy, but her “homeopathic” would not even work on humans — unless you count the placebo effect — because the entire “science” behind homeopathy is pure quackery.

I suspect writer Kevin Smith meant to say “herbal” instead of “homeopathic”. It’s an all too common mistake, as is using the term homeopathic as a general term for non-traditional medicine (see also Vaughan and Bendis), but the terms are not interchangeable and mean very different things (not that you could tell by what is sold as “homeopathic medicine” in you local drug store).

Here’s a quick scorecard:
Herbal remedy — might work.
Homeopathic remedy — expensive water/quackery.

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8 Responses to “ Quick Takes: Dark Elektra #1 and Batman: Widening Gyre #1 ”

  1. Andreas
    September 3rd, 2009 at 5:32 am

    I have to disagree with a homeopathic remedy being expensive water. it is EXTREMELY expensive water and nothing else. ;)

  2. FlowerPower
    September 3rd, 2009 at 7:31 am

    Oh, man, I broke my pinky toe once and it huuurt. And they can’t do anything but tape it up. :( Then again, I am a wimp.

    Also, “homeopathic” is an adjective. I protest it being used as a noun in that sentence. Bad Batman!

  3. skizelo
    September 3rd, 2009 at 7:32 am

    Clearly the Arkham board figured it’s far cheaper and more effective to simply convince Poison Ivy to use homeopathic poison than to stop her from wanting to poison people.

  4. Bash
    September 3rd, 2009 at 7:40 am

    Elektra’s Broken foot – Maybe she broke every bone in her foot? Or maybe it was some lucky rabbit’s foot she carried around with her like a security blanket? IE, she broke the rabbits foot and was a complete mental wreck after that?

    My sister went the homeopathic route for a while. Odd, she tended to get much sicker and sick more often than me after she made that decision.

  5. Alberto
    September 3rd, 2009 at 8:18 am

    Scott,

    I once heard the term “phytopatic” or something, as a synonym for herbal medicin. Is it correct?

  6. Carl
    September 3rd, 2009 at 8:51 am

    Most commercial homeopathic remedies are actually lactose which was temporarily moistened with expensive water, then dried. And some homeopathic tinctures are expensive alcohol.

  7. Sean Duggan
    September 3rd, 2009 at 9:02 am

    @Carl – Thus continuing a fine tradition of miracle elixers and snake oil being largely alcohol. Cures what ails you and that.

  8. Xenobiologista
    September 11th, 2009 at 5:11 am

    I used to see something labelled Oscillococcinum in Whole Foods and I thought it was an algae. But apparently it’s made from the most expensive duck in the world – a duck’s heart and liver made into homeopathic pills. So not only is it nonsense, it’s not vegan either.

    Lots of modern drugs are derived from plant compounds so you could argue that things like aspirin and breast cancer chemo are “herbal” too. Unlike the kind made of crude ground-up plants, they have the virtue of having been tested for purity, stability, safety, and efficacy (usually).

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