Polite Dissent

In Amazing Spider-Man #10 (March 1964), Aunt May is recuperating in the hospital after undergoing surgery in the previous issue. Peter Parker comes to visit her after the surgery. He meets with the doctor, who tells him:

Your aunt is doing as well as can be expected, son, after her operation…but she does need a blood transfusion! What is your blood type?

Peter hesitates, afraid of causing problems for Aunt May with his radioactive spider-tainted blood, but ultimately relents and provides blood for a transfusion.

Why does the doctor need blood from Peter for a transfusion? Aunt May is a relative by marriage, not blood, so Peter has no better chance of matching her blood type than a random person off the street. Furthermore, blood banks had been established in the United States starting in 1937. By 1962, there were 4,400 hospital blood banks, 123 community blood centers, and 55 American Red Cross blood centers in the United States. Certainly a hospital in New York City would have a blood bank – or at least access to a community blood bank — and they shouldn’t need Peter’s blood at all (except as a plot point).

Before the transfusion, Peter’s blood is tested:

Lucky for me my blood checked out okay! The tests didn’t reveal my super qualities!

The hospital only checked for blood type, so of course the tests wouldn’t show any spider qualities.

The physician then proceeds to transfuse Peter’s blood directly into Aunt May. This is unusual because even directly donated blood is purified and concentrated so that only the needed portions (in this case the red blood cells) are transfused. Otherwise, fluid overload may result — especially in frail elderly ladies.

Finally, the hospital is using glass bottles to hold the blood, which was anachronistic even in 1964. Plastic bags for storage and transfusion of blood had been developed in 1950 and gone into widespread use almost immediately. I would strongly recommend that Aunt May find a better hospital next time.

Returning to Peter, as he was donating blood, he was worried about his powers:

If my strength comes from my blood, which was affected by the spider’s bite, how will this transfusion affect me? I’ll probably be weakened for a while, until the blood cells can replenish themselves!

He is right to be concerned. After a blood donation, no strenuous activity or heavy lifting is recommended for 24 hours. While it takes less than one day for a person to replenish the fluid lost in donation, it takes 4-6 weeks to replenish all the red blood cells donated.

The following day, despite his doctor’s advice to rest, Spider-Man fights the Enforcers:

Getting weak! Doctor told me to take it easy for a while! My body hasn’t yet replenished the spider blood cells which I lost in transfusion!

He has to run away from the battle to recover (but don’t worry, he manages to catch them all the next day).

Peter is mistaken in thinking that his body has spider blood cells. First of all, spider blood is very different from human blood (it’s blue, for starters) and has only a very few cells. They have no red blood cells. Second, non-human blood cells cause serious antibody reactions in humans. Spider-Man may get his power from his blood, but it isn’t due to any spider blood cells. Peter’s a talented scientist and knows better, so I assume he was just speaking metaphorically…

Interesting sources:

1. The Blood Book. An very thorough site concerning blood and blood transfusions.
2. Two sites with good information on the biology of spiders.
3. How sick is Aunt May?