Polite Dissent

Amazing Spider-Man #509-#514 “Sins Past”
J. Michael Straczynski, writer
Mike Deodato Jr., penciler

A brief recap of the plot of Sins Past (unnecessary filler left out):

1. Peter Parker receives a letter that Gwen Stacy wrote to him years before but never sent. Just as the letter is getting to a big secret, it ends abruptly. 2. At Gwen’s gravesite, and then at an abandoned factory, Peter is attacked by two masked individuals named Gabriel and Sarah. 3. A police contact is able to discover trace writing on the back side of the letter in which Gwen tells Peter that she had become pregnant and borne twins: Gabriel and Sarah. 4. Peter wants to make sure the people who attacked him really are Gwen’s children. He gets a sample of Gwen’s DNA from her grave (yuck!) and compares it to the DNA of whoever licked the envelope flap1. It matches; he now knows that his attackers were Gwen’s children — somehow all grown up. Mary Jane tells Peter the secret that she knew all along: the twins’ father is Norman Osborn. It is his “tainted Osborn blood” that has caused their rapid aging and will soon kill them. 5. Peter decides to help the twins (whether they want it or not) and meets them atop the bridge their mother died on. The police open fire and Sarah is shot. 6. Peter brings her to the hospital, but she needs a transfusion. Peter is able to donate blood to her and his spider blood cancels out the Osborn blood. Meanwhile, Gabriel has (coincidentally) stumbled upon one of Norman’s labs and injects himself with Goblin serum. 7. Gabriel becomes the new Green Goblin and attacks Peter, but is driven away when Sarah shoots at him to save Peter.

A key to understanding Sins Past is realizing that the narrative is driving towards the transfusion scene where Sarah realizes that Spider-Man has saved her. That is the climax of the story. It is Sarah’s redemption. Conversely, her brother’s acceptance of the Goblin serum signals his condemnation.

The art by Mike Deodata Jr. is beautiful, as always. I do have two small medical nitpicks. What is that in Sarah’s mouth? Is it supposed to be delivering oxygen? It looks more like a bridle and bit. Now look at the monitor. That’s not a heart rhythm; it’s the Dow Jones report.

Most of the medical scenes appear in the final chapter of the storyline. As this issue begins, Sarah has been shot in the abdomen and is rushed into emergency surgery. This makes sense. Abdominal wounds can be very dangerous, particularly if any of the abdominal organs are injured or if the bowel is perforated. She needs a transfusion, but her body is rejecting blood that has an identical blood type. Pete figures that it’s due to her Osborn blood. I’ll concede this point, though it is quite unlikely².

He offers to donate his blood because he knows he and Sarah are the same blood type.

How do I say that even before I saw her DNA chart, I knew I had a 50/50 chance…because I once asked Gwen what her blood type was…

There are a couple of problems here. First, how did Peter know Sarah’s DNA profile? He got a DNA profile off the letter, but how does he know which twin it was? It could just as easily have been Gabriel’s DNA. They’re fraternal twins, not identical twins, so they wouldn’t have identical DNA. They may not even have the same blood type. Second, even though Peter knows Gwen;s blood type, he can’t make a logical guess at her children’s without knowing their father’s blood type too. This “50/50 chance” of his is completely wrong. I can’t conceive of a single situation where it would ever come down to a 50/50 chance knowing just one parent’s blood type.

It’s a great leap of faith (and creative license) that Peter’s spider blood would be able to transfuse Sarah, but remember the story is driving to the transfusion scene. Whole blood transfusions are rare because they can cause fluid overload, particularly in ill or injured patients. Packed red blood cells are almost always given — but this would deny us the transfusion scene. Also, why wouldn’t Peter’s blood have given Sarah radiation poisoning like it gave Aunt May in Amazing Spider-Man #10?

I would also like to point out that Doctor Chapin is breaking federal patient privacy laws by discussing Sarah’s medical care with Spider-Man. It doesn’t matter that he’s the one who brought her to the hospital; he’s not cleared to receive her medical information.

There are a few other minor nit-picks: Operating rooms do not open up off of major hospital corridors. They are in a sequestered and sterile area. If the transfusion caused Spider-Man to black out due to blood loss, why doesn’t he have an IV (or at least a glass of water) in the recovery room? (And does anyone else think that Mary Jane at his bedside in the hospital the entire time is more than a little detrimental to that whole secret identity thing?)

One final question. How does a temporary transfusion of Peter’s blood cleanse the “Osborn taint” that Sarah is permanently genetically coded for? Or did it?

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Footnotes:
¹ A great coincidence that one of the twins licked the letter shut. Why wouldn’t it have been Norman or some Osborn lackey?
² A person’s body reacts to transfused blood that has an extra protein, not transfused blood that is missing certain proteins. That is why O-negative blood is the universal donor (fewer proteins to react to)…but that is post for another day.