Outsiders #37: A Medical Review
Outsiders #37 “Silver and Grey, part one: Familiar Faces”
Judd Winick, writer
Tom Grindberg, penciler
The Outsiders and Alan Scott are examining the clone of Jay Garrick that they fought in the previous issue:
Shift: He also seems to be suffering from some dort of decomposition…like a mild form of the flesh-eating virus.
Shift: His costume coated his skin with a constant dose of an antibacterial retardant that seemed to keep it at bay.
A good example of Second Most Common Comic Book Writer Medical Error: trying to treat a virus with an antibiotic. In his first line, Shift clearly says that condition is viral, yet in his second line he states that an antibacterial will stop it. Which is it — a virus or bacteria? (I suspect that the second statement is the correct one because I think Shift’s first statement is meant to refer to necrotizing fasciitis — the infamous “flesh-eating bacteria1“).
So is Winick wrong, or did he purposefully write Shift to be wrong? I leave it to you to decide, but if the latter is the case, the Outsiders would be wise to choose another member to act as the medic2.
Finally, I give full credit to Grindberg for drawing a correct nasal cannula — though it seems to disappear in many panels and often is not even connected to an air source.
Notes:1If this is the case, then that makes this a case of the most common writer medical error: blaming the wrong germ for a disease. Geoff Johns made the same mistake with the same disease in the Red Zone storyline in the Avengers.
2I mean , look at him — why’s he even wearing a head mirror? With all the Outsider’s equipment they can’t afford a good lamp? And what exactly was he looking at with it anyway?
October 4th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
I would assume the head mirror was created as part of his shape shifting, and serves no actual purpose.
October 4th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Hmmm… depends on what Shift means by “like a mild form of the flesh-eating virus”.
If he’s just listing what he knows, rather than giving an actual diagnosis, it’s not that bad. He might be saying that he doesn’t know what’s causing the decomposition, only that the symptom is similar to that of the flesh-eating virus and the treatment (not his, of course, but The Brain’s) is antibiotic (and appears to be working).
That’s the “No-Prize” explaination, anyway.
The other is that “flesh-eating virus” sounds scarier than “flesh-eating bacteria,” though honestly “flesh-eating” is the key here. “Flesh-eating socks” would be pretty scary too.
October 5th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Not Shift, he’s Metamorpho one year later. And the mirror was probably something he shapeshifted into as a joke
October 10th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Well, with the latest issue of Outsiders naming Thunder as having once been pre-med, wouldn’t you think she might have had something intelligent to add, or been at least part of the medical examination?
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