While Earth's super-beings enjoy a measure of autonomy and often find themselves in the driver's seat in terms of making decisions for and issuing orders to civilians, there's one profession which even someone who can take to the air or who has the strength of twenty must defer to--the time-honored profession of nursing, where men and women are tasked with caring for the injured and the dying and can brook no interference from even well-meaning family and friends whose abilities allow them to save lives by the score on a routine basis. There are a number of Marvel stories where nurses have taken center stage, for better or worse--and we'll take a look at both their finer moments and their occasional failures, as they butt heads with those with whom they don't happen to see eye-to-eye.
WITH SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MARVEL'S MOST FAMOUS CAREGIVER:
JANE FOSTER
NURSE - GODDESS - DOCTOR
Laid up in the hospital for being worked over by both Gladiator and Champion, the Thing is receiving the best of care--as well as stern instructions when called for--by the appropriately named Nurse Hasslebutt. And you can bet those instructions go double for Ben Grimm's many visitors who, simply put, are underfoot.
(Oh to see Doom under this woman's tender care.)
It goes without saying that Ben intends to be a model patient--if only to make sure he has the most speedy recovery possible in order to expedite his discharge.
In another story, where Norman Osborn's "Dark Avengers" are relentlessly pursuing their fugitive counterparts in order to arrest them, the injured Luke Cage has surrendered himself in order for his comrades to escape capture. But when "Ms. Marvel" (a/k/a Karla Sofen, the criminal known as Moonstone) storms the hospital in order to gain information on the Avengers' whereabouts, the one and only Night Nurse stonewalls her like the pro she is.
Regrettably, some nurses aren't as proficient at keeping mum or guarding their words. For example, while Reed Richards recovers in the hospital from severe exhaustion, his wife Sue has been taken captive by an unidentified humanoid creature whom the Thing and the Human Torch are investigating. Unfortunately, our nurse on duty hasn't learned the art of pulling a doctor aside for a conversation meant to be out of earshot--nor is the lady all that adept with the skill of reassurance.
Of course there are other nurses to whom tact is not only a lost art--it's a discarded one.
Though Iron Man also learns that even his incredible armor can't shield him against a forthright nurse with an honest opinion to share.
Male nurse Tom Vocson also has an opinion to share--on the evil activities of his patient, Barry Bauman, who to the naked eye appears to be confined to his bed and devoid of his physical senses. But as the Star Thief, Barry has been anything but idle, depriving Vocson of his free will and proceeding with plans to extinguish every star in the universe. But in his dealings with Warlock, Barry has left himself vulnerable--and Vocson gladly ignores one of the principle tenets of medical care: "do no harm."
Another subscriber to Vocson's way of thinking is Nurse Meachum, the "caregiver" hired by Bruce Banner's abusive father to care for the boy while the parents are out. But both father and nurse are of one mind as to how to deal with the hapless toddler.
And finally, our pièce de résistance when it comes to questionable bedside manner--but as we'll see, the nurse known as Lois doesn't restrict her T.L.C. to the bedridden. In fact, if reporter Ben Urich isn't cooperative, Lois will be only too happy to consider him an outpatient.
Lois, in the employ of the Kingpin, deals more fatally with the man Urich has been getting information from for the story he's writing for the Daily Bugle. When it becomes clear that Urich still intends to go ahead with the story, the decision is made to relocate Lois to Arizona; but Lois instead decides to send a more direct message to Urich, who is now shadowed by an officer of the N.Y.P.D. As well as one other.
Thanks to Daredevil (in his guise as Matt Murdock), Lois will soon find herself under the care of the state penal system, and likely enjoying the accommodations of Death Row. (It goes without saying that she can consider her nursing license toast.)
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