Print

[Andrew999]

If you were allowed one superpower, what would it be?

I think I would go for shapeshifter.

No, you can't say my superpower would be to create/exchange any superpower I wanted whenever I wanted it.

[The Australian Panther]

To cure disease!

[Robb_K]

To cure disease!

Well said!!  I've heard the sirens of ambulances several times daily over the past week (more each day). I also am convinced that if I catch the virus, and go into hospital here, I'm not likely to survive.

Was there ever a superhero doctor or scientist in comic books???

I know there was a healer in Catholic Comics!  But, I only read Catholic Comics because of the "Pudgy Pig" stories!   

[paw broon]

Good question and I'll need to think about it.  When I was a wee boy, I used to wander about shouting, KIMOTA, but I never turned into Marvelman.
Lots of medics and scientists had superhero alter egos.  The greatest, of course, Bob Benton, pharmacist, who invented the stuff that gave him superpowers.  And he used them as the Black Terror.  Charles McNider, surgeon - Doctor Midnite. I'll sure more will be suggested.
I could be wrong but I get the impression  the biggest occupations of superheroes in everyday life were reporters or media folk and playboys/dilettante, if the latter can be considered an occupation.

[Robb_K]

Good question and I'll need to think about it.  When I was a wee boy, I used to wander about shouting, KIMOTA, but I never turned into Marvelman.
Lots of medics and scientists had superhero alter egos.  The greatest, of course, Bob Benton, pharmacist, who invented the stuff that gave him superpowers.  And he used them as the Black Terror.  Charles McNider, surgeon - Doctor Midnite. I'll sure more will be suggested.
I could be wrong but I get the impression  the biggest occupations of superheroes in everyday life were reporters or media folk and playboys/dilettante, if the latter can be considered an occupation.

You've answered my question.  But, to go further with it, did any of the doctors and scientist use their knowledge of science to apprehend criminals and right the wrongs of Human society?  Or did they just become a standard superhero, just using stepped-up levels of brawn from their particular super power?

I guess that Sherlock Holmes and Donald Duck's nephews (Huey, Dewey, and Louie) fit my category of using scientific knowledge for the above-mentioned purposes, with Holmes' exaggerated knowledge of chemistry, biology, and human nature, as well as an impossibly fantastic memory; and Huey, Dewey, and Louie's using of their "Junior Woodchucks' inexhaustible Book Of Knowledge", to help The World in any situation they encounter, which requires such help.  I would imagine there are a few Science Fiction series that have a scientific genius who is the lead character, who also is the physically-oriented hero, who also uses his great scientific knowledge as a weapon against bad or evil forces.

[Andrew999]

Interesting turn in the discussion. Was Sherlock's memory impossible? I wonder if he was
hyperthymesiac  - like the actress Marilu Henner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpTCZ-hO6iI

[SuperScrounge]

Was there ever a superhero doctor or scientist in comic books???

My first thought was a one-time cover gag from Archie Comics, Super-Doctor https://www.comics.org/issue/172697/cover/4/

But, yeah various heroes were doctors or scientists and once in a blue moon they would be shown trying to help people medically, usually as a smaller part of a longer story.

Osamu Tezuka, who I believe was a doctor before he started cartooning, had a series about a rogue doctor called Black Jack, but I haven't read any of those stories to know how much of the stories were about doctoring. https://www.comics.org/issue/233694/cover/4/

[Robb_K]

Was there ever a superhero doctor or scientist in comic books???

My first thought was a one-time cover gag from Archie Comics, Super-Doctor https://www.comics.org/issue/172697/cover/4/

But, yeah various heroes were doctors or scientists and once in a blue moon they would be shown trying to help people medically, usually as a smaller part of a longer story.

Osamu Tezuka, who I believe was a doctor before he started cartooning, had a series about a rogue doctor called Black Jack, but I haven't read any of those stories to know how much of the stories were about doctoring. https://www.comics.org/issue/233694/cover/4/

But just doctoring during their "normal" portion of their existence implies that the aren't Superdoctors, and don't use superdoctoring powers to treat or cure the ill.  And no mention of Super-knowledgeable scientists using their super level of knowledge to save cities, states and provinces, nations, or, The World, as a whole, from disaster. 

So, that just implies to me that their knowledge of science is only their "disguise" for their alterego, so they aren't recognised, and that their existence as a Superhero is similar to that of all the traditional-style Superman clones, who just by the luck of discovering the super power, or inheriting it, or having had it thrust upon them, are just using it for the good of mankind.  That's very boring to me. 

I'd rather have had a situation in which an extremely hard-working, dedicated person, with normal intelligence, worked extremely hard all his or her young life, towards discovering secrets of The Universe, and has to deal with the practicality or lack of it in using that knowledge (which can be manifest in power to accomplish things on a big scale), and is also burdened by the moral issues or uncertainty of which way the net results will lead.  Thus, I would end up with a normal text novel, or at smallest, a comic-book album (graphic novel) or album series.

[The Australian Panther]

Awful lot to respond to here!
First Robb. One thing that's annoying me about the Media coverage of the Pandemic, is the almost refusal to spread good news. There have in fact been quite a number of persons over 70 who have had CoronaVirus19 and recovered. Even, I understand, at least two that were over 100. The tipping factor seems to be, as you would expect, pre-existing health factors, in particular respiratory problems. And I would still like to know how many are dying of complications and not directly from the Virus. So live in hope, my brother!
Andrew999 > Good question but anything about Sherlock is at least one thead in itself. So I ain't goin' there.
Robb >

You've answered my question.  But, to go further with it, did any of the doctors and scientist use their knowledge of science to apprehend criminals and right the wrongs of Human society?  Or did they just become a standard superhero, just using stepped-up levels of brawn from their particular super power?

My [faulty] memory tells me that the 80's version of Dr Midnight, [one miniseries which I liked a lot, but then it went nowhere]. That this guy was a working doctor, a surgeon. Became blind through a drug overdose, so he was very down on the drug scene, if I remember it correctly.
Currently Marvel has been running a miniseries where Dr Strange has no magic powers and his powers and abilitys are just his surgical skills. Marvel also has NIGHT NURSE, who operates a black ops medical service for Superheroes. She is currently in a relationship with Hawkeye. That guy gets around!
Paw Broon > Something I recently discovered about Bob Benton, 'Black Terror' I always thought that the skull and crossbones he wears was just a scary decal. But, no, this is the universal symbol for poison! D-Oh! And that obviously goes with his occupation as a chemist. Don't remember him poisoning any criminals tho.
Actually, In most superhero comics, Most Doctors are villains!
Doc Savage comes to mind. He was a genius at anything and everything. And he was always saving the world. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the many stories in the pulps, he didn't head off a Pandemic at least once.  We could use him!

Doing a Googlesearch, for comic strip doctors,  of course I got Dr Who at the top of the page. Another Doctor we could use!
Then I got this - no relation but a great find. I think you, in particular, might like it Robb!
http://wondermark.com/comic-strip-doctor/
And this guy has trawled strips to find gags about Doctors,
I think I will save and print the Frank and Earnest one.
http://www.thecomicstrips.com/subject/The-Doctor-Comic-Strips.php

This was created by a high school boy. CoronaVirusDashboard. Send it on. Also, note the recovery stats.   

https://ncov2019.live/data

Cheers! And look to your loved ones, friends and neighbours and local small businesspersons! 
       
   
         

[crashryan]

Since this thread started a vague memory has gnawed at me. I seem to remember a second- or third-string Marvel superhero from the 1970s(?) who was some kind of mental health professional. A psychiatrist? I don't know his name. I remember that in the character's early appearances the writer seemed to be trying for a hero who occasionally worked conflicts out peacefully instead of using standard superhero violence. I also recall that it didn't work out and the hero eventually turned to punching out villains like everyone else.

Am I recalling a real character? Have I misremembered him or mashed him up with someone else? At any rate it would have been a rare example of a comic book medical man using his skills directly in his job as a superhero.

On another note, Doc Savage was supposedly an expert surgeon (and expert everything else). He invented the brain surgery procedure that removed a bad guy's criminal impulses and made him an upstanding citizen. I was a big Doc Savage fan but that idea always creeped me out.

[SuperScrounge]

Crash, I think you're thinking of Doc Samson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Samson


Panther, do you realize that those two survivors over 100 actually lived through two pandemics, children when the Spanish Flu was going on and senior citizens during the current one. Whoa!

[Andrew999]

Tezuka was indeed a doctor although I don't think he practised much as Astro Boy was launched in 1951 and was an instant hit. I remember watching the TV series in the sixties as a kid and loving it.

[Andrew999]

Thought-provoking comments Panther with which I agree.

I'm not a total denier - but I do think there's been an over-reaction to COVID-19. Yes, the elderly and those with particular health conditions have a particular risk (I'm one of them) and it's right that they should self-isolate, take care, people around them wear appropriate masks and so on - but to crush the world's economy feels like a one-size-fits-all hammer-to-crack-a-nut solution.

Where outbreaks accelerate - Hunan, London, New York - it's probably a good idea to impose stricter measures until the virus blows by - I agree with that - but in Sussex, we have had only ten deaths in the last month attributed to COVID-19, most of which I'm prepared to bet, if not all, had underlying factors. That's in a population of half a million - a death rate of 0.002% - more risk of dying in a road accident.

The total number of deaths per month in the UK normally is around 50,000 - I've read that total is pretty much the same for March 2020 as it was for March 2019 - in other words, most who have died were scheduled to die anyway in one sense. I know that sounds heartless, I'm not really like that.

I lived through the so-called Hong Kong flu of '68 when 25,000 died in the UK (normally, 10000 die in a flu season). Obviously, that's sad but life continues as normal.

I know people are saying that if we didn't take measures, many more would die - but is that really true? Are we not just delaying deaths that would occur in the next twelve months anyway? Again that sounds heartless, but I'm trying to strip emotion and fear out of something that is not much worse than normal.

I'm open to alternative views! (That's the thing about getting old, you realise you may not always be right!)

[Andrew999]

Does this help:

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/a-guide-to-marvel-s-mental-health-practitioners

[paw broon]

Re. Andrew's post, I tend to agree, and I am in the vulnerable group because of age.  But despite being 70, I'm fitter and healthier than some of those much younger people who wander about the local town streets drunk or drugged up, and the many who are overweight and eating rubbish.  So the idea, as mooted on Radio Scotland yesterday morning, that non resuscitation based on an arbitrary age limit should be brought in worries me.
Superpowers: I invented a superhero years ago who could use any power he could imagine, but only once for each power.
What about being able to fly using ley lines?  I suppose you'd need a rocket pack for those times when the lines didn't go where you needed to be. Mind you, you'd be better with a car.
As for superhero medics, I see what you're getting at Robb.  War nurse does qualify, although she is really a masked mystery woman.
There is another memory floating about in what passes for my brain, about aminister/vicar? who takes off his dog collar and becomes a MMM, or am I hallucinating again?
There was another surgeon in DC comics.  Mitchell Black was a later version of Peacemaker, part of L.A.W.

[Robb_K]

Since this thread started a vague memory has gnawed at me. I seem to remember a second- or third-string Marvel superhero from the 1970s(?) who was some kind of mental health professional. A psychiatrist? I don't know his name. I remember that in the character's early appearances the writer seemed to be trying for a hero who occasionally worked conflicts out peacefully instead of using standard superhero violence. I also recall that it didn't work out and the hero eventually turned to punching out villains like everyone else.

Am I recalling a real character? Have I misremembered him or mashed him up with someone else? At any rate it would have been a rare example of a comic book medical man using his skills directly in his job as a superhero.

On another note, Doc Savage was supposedly an expert surgeon (and expert everything else). He invented the brain surgery procedure that removed a bad guy's criminal impulses and made him an upstanding citizen. I was a big Doc Savage fan but that idea always creeped me out.

With good reason.  How could an ex-criminal who had a frontal lobotomy then be an "upstanding citizen", with a now deficient brain?  He'd be a docile but mentally impaired (to mentally retarded levels) citizen.   

[Andrew999]

Was Nightcrawler a priest - but maybe that was in his past?

[Robb_K]

Interesting turn in the discussion. Was Sherlock's memory impossible? I wonder if he was
hyperthymesiac  - like the actress Marilu Henner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpTCZ-hO6iI

Holmes' fantastic memory was exaggerated (perhaps not as much as most people would guess), based on the encyclopedic (perhaps marginally Asbergian) memory of forensic Doctor Joseph Bell, under whom Arthur Conan Doyle worked and studied during his medical education at The University of Edinburgh Medical School. The fixation on one subject of Asberger's Syndrome is more analogous to Dr. Bell's and Sherlock Holmes' fantastic memory for details regarding a forensic case, than hyperthymesia, which is more of an ability to remember the vast majority of events in one's life, which CAN include tiny details of many events, but, in that case, tiny details do not make up the bulk of the memories.

[crashryan]

Of course, this being pulp fiction, in Doc Savage criminality was an identifiable structural defect that could be removed like a tumor. Happily Doc's process didn't leave the patients lobotomized, but rather let them be "normal" people missing only the urge to commit crimes. It would be nice if life worked that way.

More troublesome was the fact that Doc's sanitarium also wiped the patient's memory and provided him with a new, upstanding identity so he could re-integrate into society. This meant he'd lose all knowledge of the good parts of his prior life as well as the bad. Parents, children, spouses, lovers, all forgotten. It's interesting to note that the "graduate" apparently kept his physical appearance. That means that he might be recognized by former acquaintances, criminal or honest, but he wouldn't know them. You know, this could be the germ of an interesting story: the tribulations of a man remanufactured by Doc's sanitarium who gets mixed up with people from his previous life, which they know all about but he can't remember and never will.