Small injury treatment?

You could get tetanus (not from the barbed wire per se, but from the organism being on the wire or introduced into the fresh would)...however superhero tend to be up on their tetanus. The rule is once every ten years. I'm no superhero, but I manage to get an pokey owie often enough that I 'm more often than not within ten years of my last booster.

If he just has punctures from the barbs, the wounds only need cleaning, light bandaging can also work in the story if you want. If there are lacerations, as in the barb entered and then was pulled along inside the skin or he pulled away, ripping the skin, then after a serious cleaning with disinfectant, he may need Steri-strips (or sutures) but the ends of the wound will not be sealed. For example, if the cut is four inches long, the closing would start half an inch along the cut and go for three inches then stop, leaving the ends to ooze and heal more slowly so as not to allow an abcess to form in the deep healing. If his home care kit if super skookum, he may have drains and he has a very significant deep laceration, his attendant may leave a little drain (looks like a small rubber tube) in the wound with the end sticking out of the ends of the laceration.

In no circumstances will his savvy attendant or he apply home first aid cream that contains cortisone or another steroid.

And get that barbed wire shooty thing away from the bad guy. It's only funny 'til someone loses an eye.

*sucks in breath*

Flying barb wire would absolutely shred you. Don't think punctures, but tears of various nasty.

*cringes and walks out*

Oh, you can prolly google-img-search for horse barb wire too see some nasty wounds. Ugh. Cruelest supervillian ever.

ETA: There's a reason barb wire also goes by razor wire.

Wavy_Blue said:

Yeah, he's a pretty creepy dude. I definitely think his superpowers is one of the coolest I've come up with, though. Just a bit...lethal.

Click to expand...

Reading the original post, I wondered - as Bahamut did - how the barbed wire wraps around the arm without doing much flesh tearing.

I would envision the wrapping around the arm to include movement, struggling and then more movement after the skin has been punctured. Basically, I'm envisioning a bit of bone with just a little bit of flesh left hanging from it here and there.

However, the questions you pose make it seem as if the wire will wrap around and create a neat little line of puncturing. Which - if I could get past the idea of a villian being able to shoot barbed wire out of their fingers - would make me toss the book in the general direction of the goodwill pile.

Rabe...

Well, if he's a superhero, his skin isn't going to be as fragile as ordinary mortals'. I wouldn't worry about verisimilitude too much when you're writing about superheroes: just be consistent with his powers.