Polite Dissent

Villains United #2 “A Fire in the Steppes”
Gail Simone, writer
Dale Eaglesham, artist

Thomas Blake (Catman) has been captured by the opposing society of super-villains and handed over to the Crime Doctor for torture and questioning.

Crime Doctor: Even if you could break the chair’s restraints, Mister Blake…you couldn’t get far.
The collar injects a virulent strain of botulism directly into your carotid artery.
Death would be extremely painful.

Botulism is a fascinating disease caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The causation is somewhat indirect because there is no infection involved. Instead, the bacterium produces a particularly nasty poison known as Botulinum Toxin. This poison is found in contaminated food and causes botulism when ingested or injected. Botulinum toxin is one of the most potent poisons known: 1 microgram would kill a single person, and 0.25 kg (a little over half a pound) is enough to kill everyone on Earth.

Botulinum toxin blocks the communication between nerve and muscle, leading to a floppy paralysis. The disease usually starts with the eyes (blurry and double vision), progresses to the throat (difficulty swallowing) and then on down the body. Death by respiratory failure is the result if untreated.

The Crime Doctor’s plan of injecting a “virulent strain of botulism directly into your carotid artery” is flawed for several reasons. As mentioned above, botulism is caused by a bacterial toxin and not by the bacteria itself. Injecting a particular infective strain of bacteria into the bloodstream won’t cause botulism. Additionally, Clostridium is an anaerobic bacterium — it only grows in areas with no oxygen. The bloodstream is simply too oxygen-rich for the bacteria to grow. Finally, the toxin works at the neuromuscular junction. Injecting it into the carotid artery (which would deliver it straight to the brain) won’t make it work any faster or any better because the toxin doesn’t affect the brain.

What accounts for the Crime Doctor’s errors? It could be a simple writer’s error, but of course comic book writers and artists never make mistakes (cough, cough). It could be that the Crime Doctor is lying, trying to scare Catman into divulging information. He’s torturing the guy after all; what does he have to lose by lying? Or it could be that the Crime Doctor is just a bad doctor. Personally, this is what I suspect. The guy had to have gone to medical school in the 1930s. A lot of things have changed since then. And that nom de guerre: “Crime Doctor” — it doesn’t exactly scream competence (or instill confidence, for that matter).

Two final points. First, I think this is some of the best medical comic art I’ve seen, even if the scene is not strictly medical. When the Crime Doctor injects the medication into Catman’s arm, you can tell he’s injecting it into a vein instead of just jabbing it blindly into the arm. It was real nice of him to carefully bandage up the arm of a man he’s about to torture, too. But what’s with the glasses? Who does this guy think he is, Elton John?

Second, in all fairness it needs to be pointed out that it was Gail Simone herself who brought this error to my attention, so she earns brownie points for that.

Final final notes (no really, I mean it this time):

• Botox is a diluted form of botulinum toxin. It is used to paralyze muscles in the treatment of certain neurological conditions (torticollis and migraines), and to smooth out facial wrinkles. A few months ago, a doctor in Florida injected research-grade botulinum toxin (apparently looking for a less expensive form of Botox) into himself and several patients – they all developed botulism and spent weeks in the hospital intensive care unit.
• In certain uncommon situations (infant botulism and wound botulism), the bacteria can infect people, but this is extremely rare and only occurs when the conditions are just right. The food poisoning scenario is much more common.
• The current mortality rate for botulism is 25%. This is the rate with treatment.
• Scipio over at the Absorbacon presents an excellent summary of the Crime Doctor.