Polite Dissent

It’s that time of year again: time to look back on the absolutely worst examples of comic book medicine, both real and imaginary, over the past year. I thought it was going to be a light year (tomorrow’s “Best Comic Book Medicine of 2007″ certainly is), but it turned out to be a very good year for bad medicine after all…

Worst Depiction of Medicine:
The last six months or so of The Amazing Spider-Man have managed to contain horrible medicine in every single issue, starting with Back in Black and continuing through One More Day. It’s gotten to the point where I was too sick of the multiple errors and basic misunderstandings of medicine to even comment on every single issue…though at some point I’m still going to need to vent over Amazing Spider-Man #544 (the first part of One Day More, with that whole “move Aunt May to the charity ward.”)

Worst Doctor:
Henry McCoy is by far the worst medical doctor of the year. His biggest mistake was suggesting a lethal dose of the chemical pyridine to treat a coma (in reality, not a treatment at any dose), but he also showed confusion over the difference between genes and chromosomes. I also noticed that he showed a strange predilection for recommending medications that are common in the UK, but not in the U.S. — but I suspect that has more to do with the writer being British (and it’s not an error, I just find it amusing).
Doctor Strange takes second with his “homeopathic” spell casting in New Avengers #28.

Worst Single Medical or Scientific Concept:
Black Adam’s transfusion in the recent Black Adam #4 showed a misunderstanding of blood types, and how they function.
A close second was Nocturne’s stroke in New Excalibur. There’s a distinct difference between an embolic stroke and a hemorrhagic stroke, with different causes and different treatments. Each issue — at time, each page — flip-flopped on the type of stroke she had. It was explained one way once, a different way later, and neither matched her treatment.

Worst Imaginary Medicine or Treatment:
Iron Man wins this one for his technobabble in Iron Man #14 about how he managed to fool Spider-Man’s spider sense.

Dishonorable Mentions:
Bad CPR was a theme this year, most prominently in The Initiative #3 and The Ultimates 3 #1.
Another overused theme was the unscrupulous testing of pharmaceuticals on unsuspecting patients.
The return of the Magic Cast.
The seemingly magical rib-penetrating dagger in 52 #48.

Tomorrow, the “Best Comic Book Medicine of 2007″.

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