Polite Dissent

Sadly, this marks the last adventure I have of Dr. Dan Dazzler, everyone’s favorite intern (or at least the last back-up story from Ben Casey — for all I know he might have been a space filler in other comics as well). This story comes courtesy of Ben Casey #4 (Dell Comics, February 1963)

Click on any of the images for the full story

Discussion questions:
1. Bad things always seem to happen around Dr. Dazzler. Could that be why he doesn’t have any friends?
2. Even if Dr. Dazzler does talk in his sleep, why was Dr. Jay close enough to hear?
3. Do you really think that making an unconscious person swallow a salt solution is a good idea? And doesn’t the guy bringing the solution look like Igor?
4. It’s nice that Dr. Dazzler is trying not to contaminate the wound by using a clean sheet, but it would probably be better if wore gloves, or at least washed his hands first.
5. Just how long is that ambulance?

*Dr. Dan Dazzler was the four-page back-up comic that ran in Dell’s Ben Casey comic book. Further adventures and information on Dr. Dazzler can be found here.

Tags: comics dell ben casey dazzler burns

A convenient list of all the back-up strips I’ve featured over the past several years:

Dr. Dan Dazzler
Backup strip from Dell’s Ben Casey comic, featuring the adventures of the intrepid intern, Dr. Dan Dazzler

• Dial EMERGENCY… Dan rescues a young boy stuck in a hole, all the while obsessing on a crossword puzzle (from Ben Casey #2)
• Rumble..! Dan gets involved in a gangland fight (from Ben Casey #3)
• One Heartbeat from Death Dan rescues a man from downed power lines (from Ben Casey #4)
• Deadly Playmates Dan visits the circus and meets a few snakes (from Ben Casey #5)
• Open-Shut Case On vacation in the mountains, Dan is called on to rescue an injured hiker (from Ben Casey #6)
• 9 Lives Has Dr. Dazzler Dan has too much luck, both good and bad (from Ben Casey #7)
• I Can’t Breathe Dan and his first (and apparently only) date visit the zoo, where he treats a boy who swallowed some change (from Ben Casey #8)

Jungle Doctor
Doctor Frank Dale and his assistant Bob Rose travel around Africa as the “Jungle Doctor” in this series of backup strips from Dell’s Dr. Kildare comic.

• Who Will Be Chief? Dr. Dale and Bob assist in a matter of succession (and fist-fighting) in this story from Dr. Kildare #4.
• A Dangerous Game Dr. Dale and Bob break up a black market drug smuggling organization to save a village from jungle fever in this adventure from Dr. Kildare #5.
• Dangerous Waters In this story from Dr. Kildare #7, Dr. Dale rescues a family trapped on a raft in a raging river.

Tags: comics dell ben casey dr kildare dazzler jungle doctor

Billy: Nuts to you Mom! I’m going to a disco show…This polyester suit is the grooviest!

This Jack Chick-esque warning tract concerning the dangers of disco music comes from the pages of Deadpool #67, where it was mailed to the Dazzler. Click on the image to the right for the full ad. The PSA may have been created by a homicidal maniac, but it sure seems to me like it carries a good message: “Beware the beat….the beat…the beat!”* Deadpool #67 is by Gail Simone and Udon. *The beat of disco music, that is. Not this Beat. Tags: comics psa deadpool disco dazzler gail simone

Whatever happened to pipe-smoking characters? Back in the Golden and Silver Ages, they were a dime a dozen.

Smoking a pipe had several connotations. In the Golden Age, it was used to lend an air of sophistication to a character, for instance an itinerant archaeologist (Carter Hall) or a playboy dilettante (Bruce Wayne). Check out this classic ad posted by Sleestak as well for the pipe smoking/sophistication connection.

During the Silver Age, it was used to represent a scientist who was brilliant — yet unorthodox – such as Reed Richards, Will Magnus, or Leonard Samson.

Then there was the classic use of pipe smoking to represent a fatherly figure (for a quick example, check out Dan’s supervisor in the most recent Dr. Dan Dazzler story).

Nowadays, I think Will Magnus still smokes a pipe (maybe) and that’s about it. When did the depiction of pipe smokers in comics die out? Did it mirror the decline of pipe smoking in society at large, or did it fall prey to comic book anti-smoking zealotry? While I am opposed to smoking (both from a medical and a scent-oriented point of view), I see nothing wrong having the occasional character who smokes. Despite all appearances to the contrary, I can tell fact from fiction and a cigar chomping Nick Fury is not going to convince me to smoke (or join the Army, for that matter — why don’t people complain about the soldiers in comics making kids want to join the military?). Personally, I miss having characters who would pull their pipe out their pocket and light it, all the while lecturing about the Negative Zone, responsometers, or the sublimation of the psyche.

Tags: comics pipes carter hall bruce wayne reed richards will magnus leonard samson

Brought to you by the Marvel Family from Whiz Comics #44 (July 1943) and Captain Marvel Jr #9 (July 1943)

Having heroes turn into villains has only rarely been handled well. The payoffs — when it’ s done right — are memorable, but the ploy seems to fail (and usually fail spectacularly) far more often than it works. The most common explanations (amnesia, mind control, shape-shifter impersonation, mirror universe, vampire bite, evil clone) have never worked for me, it always seems superficial and not real.

Looking at my list, a few patterns emerge. A good hero/villain doesn’t necessarily need a good motivation (did Terra really have one besides money and disliking do-gooders?), but a bad motivation (trying to win an ex-husband back, for example) will kill any momentum. The revelation should come as a surprise, but there should be hints that all is not right if you go back and read the previous issues. Every hero is somebody’s favorite, so a hero-turned-villain, even handled well, is going to piss somebody off. Finally and most importantly, any hero/villain conversion as part of an event comic or mini-series is pretty much guaranteed to be bad.

(I’m not counting any villains turned heroes turned back to villains because that reversion to type seems inevitable. Magneto’s gone through the villain/hero/villain cycle at least 6 or 7 times alone. I’m also not counting Elseworlds or possible futures.)

Here’s my quick list of hero turned villains that have worked, or not worked for me (plus a few I’m not quite sure about). There may be some spoilers:

GOOD:
1. Terra from The New Teen Titans.
2. Dark Phoenix. I’m not counting the Black Queen aspect, as that falls under the mind control explanation I don’t care for, but Jean’s subsequent metamorphosis into Dark Phoenix was well done.
3. Runaways. (I don’t want to name names, since this is still a recent series.)

BAD:
1. Madeline Pryor
2. Monarch/Extant (Hawk)
3. Monarch (Captain Atom)
4. Alfred Pennyworth
5. Jean Loring
6. Maxwell Lord
7. Iron Man
8. Parallax
9. Triumph
10. Rusty, Skids

UNDECIDED:
1. Ozymandias in Watchmen. This never completely worked for me, mostly because I never had a good sense for who Ozymandias was, so why should the reveal be a surprise?
2. Atom Smasher.
3. Hulk. He’s coming back to take names and kick butt. But then, he’s been played as a villain many times before.

Tags: comics hero villain

Amazing Spider-Man #541 “Back in Black, part 3 of 5”
J. Michael Straczynski, writer
Ron Garney, penciler

Aunt May has been shot by an assassin’s bullet meant for Peter. Critically wounded, she lies in the hospital’s intensive care unit, kept alive only by machines. Talking to Mary Jane, Peter explains that he wants to give Aunt May a transfusion.

Peter: Do you remember me telling you how I once had some doctors give Aunt May a transfusion of my blood? It saved her life.

I think Peter is misunderstanding the previous situation. The transfusion saved May’s life because she was dangerously anemic after surgery. That’s it. Her recovery had nothing to do with any special spider blood.

Of course, Straczynski appears to have given Peter special healing blood as a new power, though it’s not clear where he came up with this idea. Admittedly, in the Sins Past storyline, a transfusion of Peter’s blood did save Sarah’s life, but that was described as the spider blood canceling out the “tainted” Osborn blood. I don’t think Aunt May has any Osborn blood.

Peter: When they did the transfusion they purified it, taking out everything but the red blood cells to avoid fluid overload. My white blood cells could have saved her from that reaction.
Peter: So it would have to be a straight-up transfusion. No doctors to purify things or get in the way.

Peter is right: fluid overload is one of the reasons PRBCs (packed red blood cells) are used instead of whole blood. The Amazing Spider-Man #10 shows it differently than Peter describes it — no purification, no centrifuging — the blood is pretty much taken from Peter and given directly to May.

While it may be true that Peter’s white blood cells will prevent the radiation poisoning (it seems a stretch to me, but this is a comic book after all), a whole blood transfusion is still risky. May’s a great deal sicker this time, and if fluid overload would have been bad before, it will be even worse now. There’s also more of a chance of a transfusion reaction with whole blood. With packed red cells, you have to worry about the recipient’s serum reacting with the donor cells. With whole blood, in addition to donor cell/recipient serum reactions, you also have to worry about the reverse: the donor’s serum reacting with the recipient’s cells.

Mary Jane sneaks into the (strangely unlocked) store room and gets the necessary equipment to transfuse Peter’s blood. The transfusion art is little off — for instance what is Peter doing with the syringe? And why is he sporting a bandage over his bandage on his arm? These are nit-picks though, and overall Garney does a good job with the medical scenes (though May needs an endotracheal tube, and not just a face mask).

Related Posts:
Amazing Spider-Man #10 — Peter gives Aunt May a transfusion
Aunt May’s Radiation Sickness — Listen bud, he’s got radioactive blood.
The Sins Past storyline — Peter gives Sarah a transfusion

Tags: comics medicine spider-man aunt may transfusion

Wonder Woman stars in the public service ad from March, 1950, stressing the importance of being “healthy” to students everywhere.

And just what is her secret Amazonian plan for health? Brushing your teeth, plenty of sleep, exercise, and healthful foods. (I really can’t complain about any of these suggestions, though I would probably throw in “take a bath or shower” as well. Frankly, if more people followed her last two recommendations, there’d be a lot less need for physicians.)

Click on the image to the right for the full ad.

Wonder Woman’s acting a little creepy and stalker-ish in this ad, showing up at Dick’s house during breakfast. Of course, Dick looks like he needs all the help he can get: “What is this, a magic potion?” No, it’s breakfast cereal, you idiot!

This ad was written by PSA-meister Jack Schiff with art by Irwin Hasen.

Tags: comics medicine psa wonder woman jack schiff irwin hasen

Avengers: The Initiative #3 “Bug Hunt”
Dan Slott, writer
Stefano Caselli, penciler

It’s nice to see that the Initiative is taking the time to teach its recruits some basic lifesaving skills. Your know what would be even nicer? If they taught CPR correctly.

♥  Komodo has her hands in the right place to give chest compressions, but her arms should be straight, not bent. It’s hard to get the proper amount of force for chest compressions with bent elbows. I know that’s how they show it on TV, but that doesn’t make it right (remember, they’re often giving chest compressions to a live actor, so they don’t want to push too hard — broken ribs with CPR is common.)

I suppose it could be argued that Komodo’s strength is such that she has to have her arms bent or she’ll give compressions that are too powerful — but that seems like quite a stretch because it would mean that she has no control over her strength.

♥  Since 2005, the current CPR instructions call for 30 compression to 2 breaths; 15 to 2 was the old method.

It’s nice to see Hellcat again too, but it’s hard for me to understand why someone who has successfully faced down the hordes of Hell would cave to government registration.

Tags: comics medicine avengers initiative cpr komodo hellcat

scene from New X-Men #38. Words by Yost and Kyle, Art by Young.

Here’s an interesting scene from the New X-Men #39 where Elixir uses his power to regrow David’s heart after it was ripped out by Belasco. In his recitation of the anatomy, he’s missing a few important parts (the ventricles, for instance — and it’s pulmonary arteries, plural), but he’s pretty much just talking himself through the procedure, and it’s the end result the counts — and his results seem to be quite good.

It did get me to wondering how may heroes and supporting characters have the super-power of healing. Not the healing of themselves, but the healing of others. (I’m not counting doctors or nurses with super-powers, unless their powers include healing. Nor am I including über-Doctors like Reed Richards and Henry McCoy). Off the top of my head I can think of five:

1. Angel (healing blood)
2. Healer from the Morlocks
3. Elixir
4. Spider-Man (healing blood, at least to Sarah and Aunt May)
5. Superman (in the Golden Age his blood was super-healing, in the Silver Age it granted temporary super-powers)

I love Easter Egg scenes, where half the fun is finding out who (or what) the artist added into the image. This is a good one from Superman #633 (script by Busiek, art by Pacheco) (Top 10 probably holds the record for the most easter eggs).

Back row: Zauriel, the guys from Arrowsmith (coincidentally — I’m sure — also a Busiek/Pacheco creation), the Oblivion bartender (whose name I can’t remember), and Amethyst.

Front row: Dawn and Manitou Raven, Witchfire (another Busiek creation), faux-Arion, and Girl 13 (i.e. Tracy 13).

Actual quote:

“I can’t remember the name of the vitamin I take for my memory.”

Scene from Justice League of America #10, script by Brad Meltzer, pencils by Ed Benes.

A month out, and this image still bugs me.

First, it’s the way Superman is scanning the “whole spectrum” including “microscopic, chemical, x-ray, auditory, ultrasonic, magnetic, photonic.” I wasn’t even aware that some of those had spectrums — and those that do are overlapping (auditory and ultrasonic fall within one spectrum, while magnetic, x-ray, and “photonic” fall within another). What exactly is a chemical spectrum, and how is Superman testing it? Is he smelling her? Tasting her? This is pushing his super-senses a little too far.

Second, and most important, the perspective really bothers me. It’s not that the art is particularly bad (though I’ve seen much better from Benes), but it’s the way he’s showing Superman’s x-ray vision. Superman is standing behind Sensor Girl and looking at her back, yet we are seeing the cutaway view of her front. I’m sure this is just Benes’s way of showing that Superman is using his x-ray vision and not how the scene would actually look, because the alternatives would truly be bizarre (Superman’s x-ray vision is also a mirror vision allowing him to see her front, or his x-ray vision is irradiating her so much that she is see-through to everyone). It’s not wrong per se, it just seems a strange way to stage the action.

Third, — and I want a show of hands — upon reading that Sensor Girl has two hearts, how many of you immediately thought: “She’s a Timelord!” I know I did.

Tags: comics justice league superman sensor girl brad meltzer ed benes

Time to take a look at the list of best-selling book in the Marvel Universe:

Fiction
1. My Husband the Skrull
Judith thought she had the perfect marriage, but then the truth came out: not only was her husband seeing other people, he was other people.

2. How Green Was My Jury
In her third book, ace attorney Suzanne Grey takes on the Crass Corporation, accused of poisoning an entire town with toxic gamma radioactive waste.

3. Un-Registered Love
He was an vigilante who refused to register, she was the government agent designed to hunt him down. Could the love they once shared survive this tumultuous time?

4. Secret Agent Spencer: Death Wears a Cape
In his eighth book, the world’s top secret agent Blaze Spencer takes on a crazed serial killer who was once a teen-aged sidekick.

5. Superheroe$ Wive$
Being the wife of a famous super-hero isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, discovered Tess, the young wife of Mr. Patriot. She soon learned the sordid details of what really goes on behind closed doors at “team meetings.”

Non-Fiction
1. Iron Man’s Fascism is Fun Children’s Activity Book
Now in its 17th printing, this exciting coloring book allows children to understand why it is important to do everything the government asks without question.

2. The Champion’s Order’s Guide to Trademark Protection
Tired of your once protected trademarks expiring? This book will tell you how to keep trademarks forever and ever. Endorsed by Disney.

3. So Your Neighbor is an Un-Registered Vigilante
Learn how to turn in your neighbors, family, and friends for fund and profit. Sold in sets with The Field Guide to Registered Super-Heroes.

4. Doc Samson’s Guide to Cooking Lean and Staying Clean
Eat healthy and think healthy thanks to America’s favorite super-hero psychiatrist.

5. The Wit and Wisdom of Penance
Pamphlet. Large Print.

New Avengers/Transformers #1 “Man and Machine, part one”
Stuart Moore, writer
Tyler Kirkham, penciler

By request, a look at New Avengers/Transformers #1:

The Avengers are investigating a strange building in Latveria. It turns out that the building is the lair of the Decepticons, and while exploring, the Avengers are scanned with a futuristic machine by the Decepticon leader Megatron.

One could quibble whether blood is the best thing to scan, particularly if you have a futuristic machine — why not scan the body as a whole? (Or if the whole body is being scanned, why are anomalies just showing up in the blood?) You could also ask whether some of these results would show up in the blood at all. However, as far as I’m concerned, “scanning the blood” is a common science fiction cliché, and this comic is painfully mediocre science fiction, so I’m just going to go with flow.

Luke Cage
Blood anomalies: Human cell regeneration serum.
This fits his origin, where he was submerged in a vat of regeneration serum and electrified, granting him his powers. I’m not sure why the serum would show up in the bloodstream since he never exposed to it internally, just the skin.

Captain America
Blood anomalies: Experimental bioenhancement serum (trace).
How does Megatron know that it is an experimental serum? (For that matter, Luke Cage’s was experimental as well, why wasn’t that listed as experiemental?) And why is only a trace amount showing up in his blood? Is the writer suggesting that the serum is wearing out (it has been over 60 years), or that he doesn’t need much to begin with? And how does he know how much is “trace”?

Wolverine
Blood anomalies: mutant x-factor; rapid healing
So is Wolverine’s rapid healing granted by a factor in his blood that Megatron can detect, or can he read the DNA well enough to see a “rapid healing” gene?
(And to be a total nit-picker, is Megatron suggesting that Wolverine is a mutant because he has the x-factor, or that he has a “mutant x-factor” — which would make him a mutant mutant?)

Spider-Man
Blood anomalies: Irradiation, extreme cellular alteration
His radioactive blood is a matter of record as far back as the early years of The Amazing Spider-Man. This is the first I’ve heard of “extreme cellular alteration” in his blood, though.

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Later in the issue, Megatron reveals that he is causing the Avengers to ask more aggressive by using an “Aggression Ray” on them:

Megatron: It works directly on the humans’ minds — raises their serotonin levels and scrambles their neurotransmitters.

There have been good studies linking aggressive behavior with high serotonin levels (serotonin is a neurotransmitter — one of the chemicals used by the brain to transmit information between neurons). It’s not clear-cut situation though, as there have been other good studies linking aggression with low serotonin levels. At this point, we don’t know enough about neuroscience to understand for sure what causes aggression (but you’ll notice that Megatron hedges his bets, since he suggests his machine’s effects are not limited to serotonin alone). I’m more concerned about Megatron’s ray causing Serotonin Syndrome, a rare but potentially serious condition caused by too much serotonin.

Tags: comics medicine avengers transformers spider-man captain america wolverine luke cage

A great patriotic PSA advertisement from World War II found in the pages of Uncle Sam Quarterly #4 (Quality Comics, Autumn 1942).

Who knew eating candy (“rich with wholesome dextrose!”) could be so patriotic?

Click on the image above (or click here ) for the full ad.

I love how these old World War II ads evoke a nation and a war effort so different than what see today (or really since WWII). I wonder how accurate these depictions really are…

Thanks to my friend Bob for digging up this ad for me.

Tags: comics psa uncle sam tootsie roll world war II

Armageddon 2001 was the big DC “event comic” of 1991. There were two bookend comics, Armageddon 2001 #1 and #2, at the beginning and end of the summer. In between, all the annuals (back with every series had an annual) tied into the storyline: in the not too distant future of 2001 (remember, this was written in 1991), the villainous Monarch has taken over the entire world and slaughtered all the super-heroes. The kicker is that he used to be a super-hero himself before becoming evil, but no one knows which hero. One of the citizens of the dystopic future uses experimental equipment to gain time-based superpowers. As “Waverider,” he can travel through time. He can also look into a person’s future just by touching them. He resolves to use his powers to travel back to 1991, the year when Monarch first appeared, and discover Monarch’s identity by looking into the future of each hero.

In Hawk & Dove Annual #2, Waverider appears just as Hawk and Dove have broken up a mugging. First he touches Hawk. He sees a future where Hank has become a member of Monarch’s Peacemakers, his powerful Brownshirt-like police force. Hank is unhappy because he realizes that the Peacemakers are no better than thugs and Monarch just a tin-plated despot. His attitude has already gotten him in trouble once when his superiors decided that Hank needs a little “re-education.” Hank takes this as an opportunity to turn into Hawk, for the first time in years, and face Monarch mano a mano. He explains to Monarch that he hasn’t been in hiding, but slowly and carefully building up his powers to become more powerful. Hawk transforms into a more powerful version of Hawk (who looks ridiculous, like a thick-waisted chicken-headed monster) and attacks Monarch. Despite all his added power, Hawk is still losing the fight when Dove rescues him by bringing him over to another dimension where she’s been hiding and building a resistance against Monarch.

Next, Waverider touches Dove — but unlike other heroes, her link to Order allows her to sense him and she realizes what he is doing. She takes control of Waverider’s powers and shows him three futures, which may or may not be linked. First, there is a council of war on a distant planet. Encouraged by an aged Dove, they agree to attack Monarch before he becomes an intergalactic problem. Second, on another planet (which looks to be Gemworld), Dove mourns a dead Hawk. She is also raising her child, who has some sort of magical powers. For the third future, Dove brings Waverider back to his own world of Armageddon 2001. In this future, Hank is married to Ren and Dawn to Captain Arsala. Hank and Dawn have realized that it is time to confront Monarch one last time. They realize that they are likely to die in the battle, and ask Ren and Arsala to raise their child (Hank and Dawn’s — or is it Hawk and Dove’s) in secret.

Finally, Waverider touches both Hawk and Dove together. In this vision of the future, a young, female, first-nameless Dr. Arsala is the top neurosurgeon of the time, good enough to catch the eye of Monarch. She is also a friend of Barter’s, and he gives her two special gifts that he says comes from her “real parents” who died fighting Monarch. He gives her a vial of Chaos (the essence of Kestrel he took from Ren back in Hawk & Dove #17) and a gem of Order (the blue gem Hawk fought in Hawk & Dove #25) and tells her to remember “unity.” Puzzled, Dr. Arsala talks to her father, the former Captain Arsala, who tells her that Barter was right — Hawk and Dove were her parents. He explains a little about her real parents to her, and how they gained powers by speaking a certain word. She remembers what Barter told her and speaks the word “unity” — and she is instantly transformed into Unity, who seems to have the powers of both Hawk and Dove. Her costume reflects both of her parent’s costumes, in color at least (purple instead of red or blue), though the actual design leaves much to be desired. She confronts Monarch and decides that she will use her super-powers combined with her neurosurgical skills to physically and literally change his mind.

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This comic, published shortly after Hawk & Dove #28 (the official “last issue”) is a fitting epilogue to the series. It follows the themes presented in the series, particularly after Hawk and Dove’s return from Druspa Tau, to their logical conclusion. The annual ties nicely into the continuity of the regular series with such things as Barter, the essence of Kestrel, and the Order gem. It also manages to fit into the Armageddon 2001 storyline in a logical fashion, better than any of the other annuals, and as far as I can tell it was the only annual that actually dealt with Monarch.

Sadly, the art was sub-par for most of the issue. The connecting sequences were by Curt Swan, and while better than his work on issue #28, I still don’t care for his take on Hawk and Dove. The Dove sequences were drawn well, but the Hawk and Hawk-and-Dove sequences could have used better pencils. The character designs, particularly of the supposed-to-be-impressive über-Hawk and Unity, were more silly than awe-inspiring.

All Previous Hawk and Dove Reviews

Tags: comics hawk dove armageddon 2001 monarch waverider unity barter

The Fountain of Youth has long been a staple of stories and legends. It should come as no surprise then that the legend has made its way into comic books as well. Not always the fountain itself (though it does show up from time to time), but the concept of restoring youth to an older or aged character. In comic books, there are many ways this can occur, and regaining one’s lost youth is rarely a good thing.

Magic is the most common method of de-aging characters, at least when one considers the number of individuals affected For example, Klarion used his powers to de-age the entire JLA and JSA during the Sins of Youth storyline. Monster Girl of the Guardians of the Globe (as seen in Invincible) grows younger because of a curse whenever she uses her powers. Superman was turned into Superbaby by a mystic potion (labeled “Ye Youth Potion,” of course) in Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #32.

Alien Super Technology is another common method of de-aging characters. It was used notably on Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants by Alpha the Ultimate Mutant* in Defenders #16 and the Atom (Ray Palmer) during Zero Hour. Mojo used the superior technology of his Mojoverse to change the X-Men into the X-Babies in X-Men Annual #10.

Plain old American Mad Science can make characters more youthful as well. Lois Lane found this out when she decided to expose herself to Professor Lockhart’s Youth Rays in Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #10 and ended up as a bawling baby.

Mutant powers can also lead to the de-aging of a character. This can be a mutant whose powers affect others (like Nanny, who regressed Storm in the Uncanny X-Men), or a character whose powers affect themselves (Sally Floyd’s daughter Minnie, as mentioned in Generation M).

Surprisingly, there is no mention of any de-aging medication (unless one counts Ye Youth Potion) in any comic book that I can find. (Slightly off topic, but as far as I’m concerned, the best scene with youth-restoring medication in literature of any sort occurs in Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator).

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You’ll notice that I’m only considering situations where a character actually becomes younger, not ones where lifespan and youth are preserved (like, Steve Rogers and Nick Fury) — that’s a post for another day.

I’m also not considering cases where the youthful characters are explained away as clones or denizens of an alternate universe (Batch SW6 in Legion of Super-Heroes, or the younger Tony Stark in Avengers: The Crossing)

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*This could also be considered de-aging due to mutant powers, but since Alpha was bio-engineered by Magneto using alien technology, I’m classifying it as “alien super tech.”

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Other Comic Book Diagnoses:
Frozen Solid
Brains! Brains!
Hypertrichosis
Xenografting

Tags: comics medicine youth jla jsa superman lois lane atom magneto x-babies

…because, really, what can you add to it?

Click on the image for the full ad

A toy ad from 1974 (found in Rima, the Jungle Girl #5). I really want the Duke’s H.Q. set, because the idea of a dog using a periscope amuses me to no end.

This nice example of a psychic nose bleed — and accompanying eye bleed — comes from Ms. Marvel #16, where S.H.I.E.L.D. psychic Agent Locke fires a “neural blast” to incapacitate the various members of A.I.M. and their monsters that she is fighting. It worked incredibly well, but also knocked her down for the count. I’m a little behind on my S.H.I.E.L.D. history — I remember that there were S.H.I.E.L.D. psychics (“ESPers”) shown during the the original Micronauts series (issues #25-28, the return of Baron Karza), and now Agent Locke and other psychic agents have been introduced recently. Was their any mention of S.H.I.E.L.D. psychics in the intervening twenty-five years? All previous Psychic Nosebleed Zen posts Tags: comics medicine nosebleed ms marvel shield

From Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #53 comes this PSA reminding us that “Honesty is the best policy.” It also reminds me that 43 years ago, five dollars would by three movie tickets and snacks — nowadays it wouldn’t buy a single ticket, let alone any snacks at the movie theater. Finally, the ad reminds me that Dr. Brown needs to be a lot more careful with patient information and not just share it with passing schoolboys.

Click on the image to the right for the full ad.

Ad is usual for these DC comics PSAs, Jack Schiff wrote the script with pencils by frequent PSA collaborator Sheldon Moldoff..

Tags: comics psa honesty jack schiff sheldon moldoff