Adventures of Superman #632: A Medical Review
After a brief hiatus, I am proud to announce the return of Lois Lane Friday!
Adventures of Superman #632 “Time Elapsed”
Greg Rucka, writer
Paul Pelletier, artist
Lois has been shot while covering the war in Umec. Hearing the gunshot from half a world away, Superman rushes to her side. He scoops her up and flies to the nearest field hospital.
The physicians rush Lois into surgery. She’s suffered a gunshot wound to the chest which “clipped the aorta and then ricocheted off a rib.” She also sustained a pneumothorax. After the military doctors stabilize her, Superman and the JLA fly her to the Watchtower on the moon where Dr. Mid-Nite is able to perform definitive surgery.
The medicine as written by Rucka is pretty good (except for the use of whole blood. Please, a field hospital in the desert would not have whole blood. In reality, whole blood rarely used in any circumstance.). The injuries described are consistent with the wound she suffered and the operating team seems to do a good job. I will point out that the injuries are most consistent with a low velocity projectile; I don’t have the previous issue so I don’t know if this fits the story.
The art by Pelletier isn’t nearly as accurate, which is a shame because he is usually one of my favorite artists. There’s nothing horrible, just a lot of little mistakes. For instance, the surgeons aren’t wearing gowns or caps, and they’re using some sort of bizarre surgical mask. I assume they’re wearing gloves, because everyone in the hospital is drawn wearing them. Speaking of the soldiers in the hospital, Pelletier draws every single one as a general with a star on their lapel. Then he makes the common mistake of showing two needles going into the same IV site in the hand. You can run multiple fluids through the same IV, but the tubing is connected well above the IV site and only one needle is ever used.
The book contains a couple of interesting scenes:
- Over at Suspension of Disbelief, Loren does a good job covering Superman’s “super-hearing” and the speed at which he flew to rescue Lois. I’ll only add that if Superman can travel that fast, why does he stop at the nearest field hospital instead of taking an extra second or two and flying her to a fully stocked hospital?
- The scene when Superman enters the hospital tent is very New Testament. The injured soldiers are all clustering around him as he walks him, begging him to touch them and cure their injuries. Personally, I prefer my Superman a little less Messianic.
- Flash shows up undercover to help Superman transport Lois. Why is he undercover? Because Batman told him so. Why? It’s not like the soldiers haven’t figured out that costumed heroes are involved; Superman’s been standing there for several minutes at this point.
- When Pieter Cross (Dr. Mid-Nite) is called at his clinic, he asks who was injured. The response: “One of ours.” That’s a nice answer, but it still doesn’t tell him the important fact of who it actually was. Technically, I think Lois is a superhero-in-law, not a real superhero, but it’s nice to know the perks that come with marrying in to the JLA.
Still, I can just imagine the scene in the Cross Clinic waiting room…Patient: My appointment was at one o’clock. It’s four fifteen now!
Nurse: I’m sorry, but Dr. Cross is in emergency surgery on the moon. How about some more coffee?
May 14th, 2005 at 10:25 pm
You argue that Lois is only a superhero-in-law. I presume you’re ignoring the pre-Crisis Lois, who at various times got super-powers from weird Kryptonian hot tubs, alien suns, etc.
May 14th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
Official Comment
You’re right, the Silver Age Lois did have her sharre of super-powers, but only on a temporary basis (or an imagninary one — like any superhero comic is real). So maybe we can just change the “one of us” to “occasionally one of us.”
May 15th, 2005 at 12:05 am
Someone, somewhere, wrote an essay on What’s Wrong With Superhero Comics (yeah, yeah, I know, an essay?) But they had a good point, which was that once, heroes couldn’t have a normal life and loved ones because they had to save the world. Nowadays the world can just get bent while Superman takes time out to help A person in a war zone who happens to be his wife.
May 15th, 2005 at 5:13 am
I’d just take “one of ours” to mean “someone who we care deeply about personally, rather than professionally or merely one of the other 6 billion people in the world” (so, you should make a house call).
I’m not up on current continuity, but is it still the case that Lois Lane is married to Clark Kent? If so, wouldn’t tongues be wagging about “Superman’s girlfriend” (but who would want to tell Clark …)? And wouldn’t there be attempts to contact Lois’ husband and presumed next-of-kin (maybe Superman said he’d take care of it). Are there superheroes or associates who know Superman has a civilian identity, and is married, but not the details? (”Superman’s Mistress, Lois Lane” would make a fun story title, but I suspect it wouldn’t be acceptable even these days).
May 15th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
Official Comment
Lois is still married to Clark.
Perry White called Clark to let him know that Lois had been shot, but Jonn Jonnz intercepted the call and pretended to be Clark.
I still think tongues would be wagging, or at least people would start putting 2 and 2 together and figuringout that Clark is Superman.
May 15th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
How in the world is that conclusion logical?
No, what makes infinitely more sense is that Lois and Superman are enjoying super-whoopy behind Clark’s back.
Honestly, your reasoning may work for the 1950s, but in today’s cynical world, the moral conclusion is never the first one leapt to. Obviously (to the general public) Lois is having an extra-marital affair… with Superman.
Unless they believe that Superman is actually super-moral himself, in which case the Kent family must be the best-buddies of Superman.
May 15th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
Official Comment
That’s a fair point. So I guess wherever Clark goes, people are going to be whispering behind his back about how his wife is having an affair with Superman.
On the other hand, I think there would be a large number of people in a society with “secret identity” super-heroes who were very interested in finding out their secret identity. It may not make national news, but I bet a lot of Metropolis blogs would be speculating.
May 19th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Superman needs to not only be able to fly that fast, he has to withstand the acceleration needed and the heat generated by the friction. For him, no problem. For Lois? … that nearby field hospital is looking better all the time.
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