Drugs in Comics: The Ultimates #11 and Nightwing #114
Today, a couple of brief looks at real drugs as used in comic books. First, it’s back to 2003 for a look at The Ultimates (but remember, two-and-a-half years is only six months in Millar-time) then a look at some of the events in a recent issue of Nightwing.
First up is The Ultimates #11. The Wasp has been captured by the Skrulls and their leader informs her that they have been adding Gamma-butyrolactone to the American water supply as a mood supressant.
Gamma Butyrolactone (GBL) is an industrial solvent used in such compounds as stain removers, paint strippers and floor cleaners. It is also a chemical precursor of the infamous date rape drug Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB).
GBL can be converted to GHB chemically by strong bases. The human body itself also converts GBL to GHB. Please note that GHB is a federally controlled substance, and GBL has similar restrictions in almost every state.
GBL has similar properties to GHB, but it is stronger and more toxic. There have been multiple case reports of death and injury from GBL in the US.
At low doses, GHB (and GBL) induce euphoria and a feeling of intoxication. At higher doses, they cause dizziness, nausea, amnesia, unconsciousness and even death.
Adding GBL to the water supply as a mood stabilizer wouldn’t work for several reasons.
- GBL has a strong odor and a bad taste. It is an irritant to the gastrointestinal tract. There’s no way it could be added to the water supply undetected.
- It acts as a euphoric and an intoxicant, which is pretty much the opposite of how a mood stabilizer works.
- It is an unsafe drug with little difference between effective doses and deadly doses. Because people consume vastly different amounts of water, it would be impossible to have the drug be strong enough to work without killing people.
In the more recent Nightwing #114, Nightwing and Rose Wilson crash a LexCorp party to divert a shipment of Nandrolone Decanoate, a component of the drug Venom.
Nandrolone Decanoateis an injectable anabolic steroid closely related to testosterone. Anabolic steroids are a class of drugs that promote cell growth, leading to increases in muscle size and strength. There are both natural and synthetic anabolic steroids.
Nandrolone is made by the human body in small doses, but synthetic nandrolone is commonly injected at much higher doses by athletes looking for a competitive edge; it is fairly easily detected by urine tests. Like most anabolic steroids, Nandrolone is a federally controlled substance.
Most newer anabolic steroids are derivatives of older ones. This is done to boost the strength of the drugs, to minimize the side effects, and in an attempt to make the drugs harder to detect.
It is logical that the drug Venom, known to be some sort of super-potent anabolic steroid, would be a derivative of Nadrolone.
The Ultimates #11 is by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch
Nightwing #114 is by Devin Grayson and Phil Hester.
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December 16th, 2005 at 11:39 pm
I do think you should note that, in the Ultimates, they didn’t say they were using it as a “mood stabilizer” (unless that appeared someplace else in the comic; I didn’t actually read any more than you posted here - they said they were using it to “dampen their thoughts” - which to me has a totally different implication. Intoxicants could in fact be said to “dampen” your thoughts, in the sense that they reduce inhibitions - and the associated cognitive effort.
On the other hand, I’m not sure whether Lithium (a mood stabilizer) really “dampens” thoughts. Dampening and stabilizing as verbs have different implications (and definitions), and mood and thought are completely different aspects of a person’s mental state.
I’m not saying the GBL-in-the-water idea would really world out, just that you switched terms (from thought dampening to mood suppressant to mood stabilizer) without explaining your basis for doing so.
~Steph
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