Top Ten Comic Book Doctors #2 - Hush

July 26th, 2005

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

A villain takes the penultimate spot on the list of Comic Book Doctors Who Actually Practice Medicine:

#2 - Hush

HushI have no love for the character Hush. He’s the boy-band of Batman’s villains. Determined to make a hit, DC pre-packaged Hush and delivered him to the public without any thought to actual ability or talent. His powers? The awesome power of neurosurgery! His outfit? Cribbed from the Unknown Soldier. His origin? Decide for yourself:

Thomas Elliot was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne. They lost touch after Elliot’s parents were killed in a car accident. Along the way, Elliot attended medical school and finished a neurosurgery resident, becoming The Best Neurosurgeon in the World!* Sadly, the money, wine and women that every neurosurgeon has (let alone The Best Neurosurgeon in the World!) were not enough…he wanted revenge! It seems that Elliot blamed Thomas Wayne for the death of his parents. Not because Wayne killed them, but because he couldn’t save them. Thus he decided to come to Gotham City and get his revenge on Bruce Wayne and Batman.

Still, for all my dislike of Hush as a villain, I have to admit that he’s an effective doctor. He uses potent anesthetics to kidnap Alfred, he heals Poison Ivy, and he performs delicate life-saving surgery on Prometheus in a hotel room.

As a villain, he leaves a lot to be desired, but as a doctor? He’s The Best Neurosurgeon in the World!

*The phrase “The Best Neurosurgeon in the World” is ™ and © PoliteDissent.

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7 Responses to “ Top Ten Comic Book Doctors #2 - Hush ”

  1. Kitty
    July 26th, 2005 at 12:10 pm

    I’m not very familiar with Hush. Was he honestly introduced as a long-lost never-introduced-before childhood friend of Bruce Wayne’s? Or has he ever actually appeared before the Hush storyline started?

  2. Scott
    July 26th, 2005 at 1:07 pm
    Official Comment

    Thomas Elliot first appeared (and was first mentioned) in the Hush storyline. And then the writer wonders why everybody figured out he was the bad guy….

  3. Kitty
    July 26th, 2005 at 1:43 pm

    Ah ha ha, I just remembered I blogged about that kind of character introduction once!

    Thanks for the info. That is pretty lame.

  4. David Lawson
    July 26th, 2005 at 3:44 pm

    Actually Thomas Wayne did save Mrs. Elliot’s life. But in doing so he prevented Tommy from collecting his inheritence until she died of old age. That is why Hush hates Batman, at least, that’s what he told him at the end of the arc.

  5. Scott
    July 26th, 2005 at 3:51 pm
    Official Comment

    I must have fallen asleep by then

  6. Chris Arndt
    July 27th, 2005 at 11:39 am

    Honestly Hush must have super-human abilities.

    First of all he fired two guns with each in one hand. Anyone who knows anything like guns (and I am a decent shot myself) know you cannot achieve much accuracy shooting that way.

    Yet with one gun in each hand Hush shot one Batarang each out of the air. So essentially he hit small, invidivual, moving targets while firing John Woo style.

    Although I wonder how the villain that gave Batman a run for his money, Prometheus, got nearly wacked by Green Arrow of all people. I’ve never seen Batman get threatened by GA (quite the contrary whenever they fought).

  7. Sean Duggan
    July 7th, 2007 at 6:46 pm

    IIRC, they’ve raised some doubts in subsequent comics as to whether it really is Elliot under the bandages. It would be the first time a villain’s used fake secret identities to confuse and angst their superhero enemies. Anyone else feel like the whole “trying to kill parents for fortune” line is very similar to Black Mask’s shtick?

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