Polite Dissent

Daredevil: Father #4
writer, Joe Quesada
penciler, Joe Quesada

I finally got around to reading Daredevil: Father the other night, and I never should have bothered. It was the epitome of padding out a story to “write for the trade.” In the six issues of the mini-series, there is at best one-and-a-half issues of plot. Daredevil’s origin is retold in detail on at least three separate occasions, but don’t think this is a comic for new readers as Quesada throws in without explanation characters you wouldn’t recognize unless you follow the Daredevil mythos pretty closely (Jessica Jone, Melvin Potter). The “mystery” of the series requires Daredevil to miss a clue so blatantly obvious that no competent super-hero, let alone one who’s a top flight lawyer by day, could possibly overlook it. The story might have worked as an issue or two of the regular series, but not as a stand alone six issue mini-series.

In issue #4, the villain of the series, a serial killer, is shown playing with two prescription bottles: one marked Ketamine, one marked Rohypnol. The implication is pretty clear: these are both infamous date rape drugs, and this is how the killer incapacitates their victims. Unfortunately, Quesada gets every detail of the prescriptions wrong.

Ketamine is a potent dissociative drug and is not available in neighborhood pharmacies. It is only available directly to physicians, medical facilities, researchers, and veterinarians. Furthermore, it only comes in liquid and powder forms; no pills. The “160/25 MG” label makes no sense. That notation is used for medications that contain 2 drugs, most commonly pain medications such as Vicodin (5/500, for 5MG Oxycodone Hydrocodone + 500MG acetaminophen) or blood pressure medications such as Diovan-HCT (160/12.5, 160MG Diovan + 12.5MG hydrochlorothiazide) — it would not apply to a single drug such as Ketamine.

While there is a bizarre warning label on the bottle, there is no quantity of pills dispensed or directions of how to take the pills, two key parts of an actual prescription.

Rohypnol is powerful benzodiazepine, the class of sedative drugs that also contains Valium and Xanax. It is illegal to prescribe Rohypnol in the United States, so there’s no way to get a prescription. This bottle also shows the 160/25 MG notation, but once again that would not apply to Rohypnol, which only comes in strengths of 1, 2, and 5MG (but again, is not legally available in the U.S.) As before, the prescription is missing the quantity and the directions but contains a bizarre and redundant warning (all prescriptions should be taken under the supervision of a doctor — that’s why they’re called prescription drugs, not over the counter drugs).

Both drugs are listed on the label as tablets, yet the killer is shown emptying capsules into the victim’s drinks. Normally I’d complain about lack of communication between the artist and writer, but there’s nothing I can really say about that this time as they’re both the same person.