![]() ![]() Sharon Packer, MD, is a practicing psychiatrist and is Asst. Superheroes and Superegos: The Minds behind the Masks. Thor comic books should be required reading for those who like top-of-the-line sci-fi and also like to contemplate shifts in society’s perceptions of health care. But it is the comic book that is thought-provoking. In summary, the film about the Mighty Thor is good for diversion. Some feel that they, too, were “cast from grace.” It’s strange that we need to retreat to comic book stories to remember when society still revered medical care. Many don’t think that they are treated like doctors. Most doctors today do not believe that they are treated like deities. We practice in a country where our President nominated a nurse as the country’s “Surgeon General.” We practice in the democratizing world of Internet medical information, where everyone is an instant expert, and where DTC pharma advertising to patients bypasses doctors altogether. Today, doctors live in a world that is ruled by managed care companies, but is threatened by more and more government intrusion. (It arrived in 1965, over the objections of the still-strong AMA, which feared government control of medicine.) Salk developed the first safe polio vaccine, but refused to patent it because he did not want public health commandeered by private profit. In the early ‘60s, society was delighted by doctors, especially after Salk’s historic (and selfless) achievements in the 1950s. This superhero story says a lot about how docs perceived themselves, and how society perceived doctors - in the early 1960s. Or, like other fallen angels (Lucifer?), they can hasten death. Like divinities, doctors can bestow life. Their scalpels are as powerful as Thor’s hammer. It implies that doctors in general - even obviously disabled doctors - are closet deities. ![]() It can console patients, assuring them that even superficially imperfect practitioners possess godlike healing powers. Blake should be more “down to earth”? Does Marvel remind prideful physicians that they, too, can lose face (or limb), and be limited by the same illnesses that afflict mere mortals (such as their patients)?Īlternatively, this story might express admiration for MDs. What kind of message does this send? Is this Marvel’s way of saying that supercilious surgeons like Dr. Much more follows this origin story, but let’s zoom in on this, and leave the rest for later. In the film, we witness the war-mongering young Thor berating his aging father Odin, who is played by Anthony Hopkins of Hannibal Lecter fame. Those unfamiliar with the comics would not notice this off-handed allusion. There is a cursory mention that the coat belonged to the “ex” of the female lead, who becomes Thor’s romantic interest. There is little in the film to remind us of Thor’s comic book origin story - save for a glimpse of a white coat embroidered with the name, Dr. While trying to escape, he slams his cane against the wall-and then discovers his secret: his cane becomes his hammer, and Blake becomes “The Mighty Thor”. He loses his footing, falls into a cave, and drops his cane. Sometime later, while hiking along a rocky path, Dr. Odin turns Thor into a “lame” human medical student, who walks with a cane but becomes a star surgeon named Dr. In Marvel’s comic book, Thor’s father Odin, ruler of the Asgards and a demigod himself, strips Thor of his powers and memories and sends him to Earth to learn humility. I don’t mean to berate this lively film, but, for the sake of full disclosure, I must inform you that there is much more to the story of this Norse mythological character. Donald Blake, the mighty Thor’s alter ego.) ![]() (Or you can wait for the sequel, which promises more data on Dr. If you like fantasy battle scenes, where four brave men (and one woman) combat miles of military troops, where monstrous beasts make Jurassic Park dinosaurs look like Minnie Mouse, this is the film for you.īut if you want to know about Thor’s real origin story, and what Thor says about doctors, their social status, and their psychological states, then you should head for the source material: Thor comic books, published by Marvel since 1962. ![]() If you like flaxen-haired men with chiseled bodies and protruding pecs - men who fight foes like fearless warriors but melt like M&Ms in the arms of a woman, this is the film for you. If you like 3-D special effects, with CGI-generated galaxies that catapult you billions of miles and millions of years away, this is the film for you. This entry in the seemingly endless run of superhero movies features plenty of action, but also has a lot to say about the changing public image of physicians. Thor: From Myth to Marvel Comics to Movies to Medical Commentary ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |