The New Avengers #57: A Medical Review
New Avengers #57
Brian Michael Bendis, writer
Stuart Immonen, penciler
New Avengers #57 is the type of comic I like, but don’t see very often: a comic which addresses the effects of super-powers on a character’s medical care. In this case, the issue looks at Luke Cage and his unbreakable skin.
The New Avengers have just been handed a serious defeat at the hands of the Wrecking Crew and some of the villainous cohorts. It wasn’t strictly the Avenger’s fault, they were taken by surprise by some super-power draining technology the Wrecking Crew got their hands on. When the Dark Avengers also showed up, the New Avengers snuck out in the subsequent confusion. Most of the team suffered scrapes and bruises, but Luke Cage appears to be suffering from a heart attack. His teammates rush him to underground “doctor” Night Nurse.
When treating a heart attack, reperfusion — restoring the blood flow to the dying part of the heart — is the goal. Currently, there are three ways that reperfusion can be accomplished:
1. Thrombolytics – Injectable medications that break down the clot, restoring blood flow.
2. Percutaneous Coronary Angioplasty — threading a small catheter into the coronary arteries and breaking up the clot and stenting open the arteries.
3. Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery — opening the chest and surgically bypassing the blocked artery, restoring blood flow.
Night Nurse is in serious trouble, and she recognizes it. All three reperfusion techniques require either IV access or a surgical incision. This means that Cage’s invulnerable skin prevents him from receiving the necessary treatment. She tells the team he needs specialty medical care — which is true, and would be true even if his skin weren’t invulnerable. Heart attack patients need to be treated in a facility where there is access to reperfusion techniques.
Even though she can’t break Cage’s skin, there are still treatments that Night Nurse can carry out to minimize the damage from his heart attack:
1. She can give him oxygen. And she does — she also intubates him, which is probably overkill, because there’s no evidence that he is having breathing difficulties. (And the nasogastric tube probably falls in that overkill category as well)
2. She can given him an aspirin, which has surprisingly powerful anti-platelet activity (and more platelets = more clot). Chewing the aspirin is best to get in into the bloodstream quickly.
3. She can give him nitroglycerin, which widens the blood vessels and lowers the blood pressure.
4. She can give him some painkillers. A little IV Morphine is usually recommended for heart attacks — because it also acts as vasodilator and antianxiety agent — but she could certainly give him some pain relieving pills.
Finally, Night Nurse should also place him on a heart monitor and be prepared to defibrillate because it is not uncommon to see nasty and potentially fatal arrhythmias occur with heart attacks (and to her credit, she does place him on a heart monitor).
September 28th, 2009 at 3:27 am
*Looks at panel, then looks at The Oath again*
So Dr. Carter dealt with her and Dr. Strange’s break-up by dyeing her hair?
September 28th, 2009 at 8:29 am
I am another one that like comics that explore the “side effects” of superpowers.
The William Messner-Loebs stories for the Flash come to my mind. He introduced (AFAIK) the concept that the Flash needed to eat a lot more in order to have the energy to run.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:18 am
There was a 4 part series of the Incredible Hulk in the early 90’s where he gets AIDS. They show how difficult it is to treat him as they couldn’t break his skin with a needle and he has to punch himself in the nose to give them blood.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Luke Cage’s skin is only nigh-unbreakable.
Logan’s claws could cut through it. In fact, any razor-sharp adamantium could it. And I say this not {only} as a Wolverine fanboy, but as a reader of Marvel Handbook.
Oh, and John, I don’t believe you.
September 28th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
“Logan’s claws could cut through it.”
When they got to the clinic scene, I realized that was the exact reason Wolverine wasn’t in this story.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Glad to see Night Nurse is wearing her cap. My mother was a nurse (graduated in 1943 before joining the Navy, where she met my father), and it always drove her crazy when nurses didn’t wear their caps.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
There are two basic but related problems with the material: Why would the power negation cause Cage to have a heart attack? Why, if his powers were negated, would Cage still have unbreakable skin? The negation wasn’t selective, after all — and “genetic disruption” isn’t easily reversed. There is no reasoning underlying the use of the power negation. Maybe it’s magic?
There are other problems with the storyline treating the power negation concept as something wondrous and new, when such devices have been basic equipment for supervillains for decades. However the worst thing about the use of the idea is that taking away powers was taken to its limit in the AVENGERS/THUNDERBOLTS miniseries.
SRS
September 28th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
The Hulk never had AIDS. However, there were a couple of stories in the Nineties about his former partner Jim Wilson and his battle with AIDS.
I also distinctly remember the Hulk punching himself in the face to give a blood sample. This was around the same time period as the story above, but I don’t remember the exact context.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
@Rob: if I remember correctly, it’s around the same time, and he wanted to give Jim a blood transfusion to save him from AIDS, since he was immune to it or something like that.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Official Comment
Steven,
Good points.
Other thoughts — if it was a genetic disruptor — or even a super-power disruptor — why did it affect Captain America (bionic arm) and Ronin and Mockingbird (no powers)?
You’ll notice I never said it was a good comic, just that I liked the medical aspect…
September 29th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Wasn’t that point (about Ronin and Mockingbird being affected by the power disrupter) made last issue? Specifically, wasn’t Mockingbird still up and kicking butt, and she wondered internally why Clint was down, since he, like her, had no powers? I thought it was Bendis planting a mystery, like something is up with Ronin, precisely because he was affected by the disrupter.
It clearly didn’t affect Bobbi, since she left to get the plane, and wasn’t shown lying there at the start.
No idea why Cap was down, though. She may have mentioned it last issue as well.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Official Comment
There’s something wrong with the comic’s pacing when a fight scene — where pretty much everyone just lies down and does nothing — takes three issues to resolve.
September 29th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
“Why, if his powers were negated, would Cage still have unbreakable skin?”
He was no longer under the effects of the power negator. The debate at the end was whether or not they should turn themselves in to get him back under the effects so they can treat him.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Wouldn’t it be a good idea for a practitioner of superhero medicine to have a few adamantium IV needles and scalpels, for just such contingencies?
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Hello,
Just stumbled upon your site thanks to the link at the bottom of the House MD wikipedia entry. I am in medical school and also enjoy watching house and reading comics in my free time (very little).
Why not take a crack at the latest Justice Society of America treatment of Mr. Terrific (#30 and #31) after getting stabbed multiple times. I think Dr. Mid-Night and Green Lantern work on him…
Great site, I will bookmark it! :]
December 9th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
This seems Very Similar to the Alpha Flight Diamond Lil story where she has a growth in her breast, but she has unbreakable skin and no one can do a biopsy to tell her if it’s malignant. I think they ended up having aliens invade who just happened to have a laser that could cut her skin.
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