dragonbat2006

It's not so much that it seems to end with Nightwing dying. We know there's one more issue coming so he can probably be resu citated, right?

My main issue is that what Luthor did should not have affected the bomb in any way, shape or form.

I read the comic and I was thinking back to the days when I was into Star Trek novels. Now, while I haven't read The Entropy Effect by Vonda N. McIntyre in at least 13 years, there was a time when I would read through all my Trek novels, then start over from the ST:TMP tie-in. This was back when they were numbered. Entropy Effect was #2. I probably read it about 15–20 times over the course of 12 years. Anyway, one plot point involves the death of Jim Kirk and then Spock realizing that someone's tampered with time and he has to go back to the past to stop them from starting their experiment... and preventing Kirk's death as a side effect. However, before they realize this, McCoy has the horrible task of taking his mortally injured, brain-dead captain and friend off of life support.

Just for kicks, I Googled the novel and found that the text exists in PDF online. So, here's the memory that snapped my suspension of disbelief (emphasis mine):

Precisely, deliberately, he went to work. Once he had made up his mind, his hands moved surely,unaffected by the liquor he had drunk. He withdrew the needles from Jim’s arm. The chemistry signals started changing their harmonies immediately. The oxygen tones fell, carbon dioxide rose; nothing filtered out the products of metabolic activity. The signal deteriorated from perfect harmony to minor chords, then to complete discord. McCoy removed the connections that would have restarted Jim’s heart when inevitably it failed. Finally, his teeth clenched hard, McCoy disconnected the respirator.

Jim Kirk’s heart kept on beating, because the heart will keep on beating even if it is cut out of the chest; the muscle will contract rhythmically till the individual cells fall out of sync, the heart slips into fibrillation, and the cells die one by one.

But the breathing reflex requires a nerve impulse. When McCoy turned off the respirator, Jim’s body never even tried to draw another breath. After the final, involuntary exhalation there was no struggle at all, and that, far more than the evidence of the machines, the persuasion of Spock, or his own intellectual certainty, finally convinced McCoy that every spark or whisper of his friend was dead

(Entropy Effect, Page 79)

So, how does Luthor stop Nightwing's heart?

He puts his hand over Nightwing's nose and mouth and smothers him, beginning when the countdown clock is at 2 minutes 54 seconds on a 5-minute fuse.

Remembering that snippet set me to Googling, wondering how long it takes for a heart to stop beating after asphixiation.

How many things are wrong with this? I mean, besides the apparent murder of one of my favorite characters?

1. According to Webhealthcentre, it takes 10–12 minutes for the heart to die once breathing stops. Even if he'd done it right when the bomb armed, it would be too late.


2. Luthor is a scientist. He's not a biologist, but he should know this.


3. Even people who want to die usually struggle on reflex when someone tries to suffocate them. I will grant that possibly, Dick is strong enough to fight that impulse to the very end, but it's a real stretch.


4. According to The Naked Scientists Forum, it takes about 5 minutes to kill someone by holding a pillow over their face. I doubt a hand over the nose and mouth would be appreciably faster.

Seriously, I could have gone with "My suit can conduct an electrical charge that will stop your heart instantly, Mr. Grayson. You will feel no pain. Zzzzap!" Instead, we get something on the level of fixing Bruce's spine in The Dark Knight Rises.

NOT. Impressed.