#Lichtenberg lightning strike scar license

Patsy’s look a little more…geometric, which to be fair, could be some artistic license on Cafu’s part, or perhaps (and probably a little more likely) being a visual signal of some kind of “infection” from Korvac which Tony didn’t get because…armor.

#Lichtenberg lightning strike scar skin

In reality, Lichtenberg figures on human skin have a very organic look because they’re following blood vessels or other (relatively) low-resistance pathways. All in all, the skin is a pretty good insulator, and even though the near-surface blood vessels are better conductors than the neighboring skin, the pathway along the vessels slows the electricity enough to generate heat and cause very localized, superficial burns in a very distinctive pattern. The slower the electricity (the higher the resistance) the more heat produced. Both are designed with high resistance – such that the electricity must slow down as it travels through them. Think of a filament in a light bulb or a heating element in a toaster. Super-short version: when electricity is slowed in its motion, it releases heat. Often the vessels themselves will burst, but the pattern is caused by the heat from the electricity as it presses forward, trying to keep moving, despite traveling in a material that doesn’t conduct it very well. In skin, this happens as the high voltage electricity travels on the path of least resistance – most likely the surface of blood vessels near the skin. Patsy’s face is showing a Lichtenberg figure, a natural phenomenon that happens when high voltage pushes through something that is normally an insulator. Slight spoiler – Korvac isn’t done with Patsy.īut let’s talk about that marking on Patsy’s face.

Tony tries to blow it off, suggesting that maybe Reed (Richards, of the Fantastic Four) or someone else can make sure it won’t scar, but this is comics…when a villain “marks” you, it’s most likely they’re not done with you. For Patsy, a former fashion model and someone who doesn’t like to have hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity shot through her, let’s just say she was pissed about the new marking. Okay, so this week’s issue (#4) – hey, she’s alive! But – and here’s the thing, she’s got a fractal-shaped lightning pattern on the left side of her face as the result of Korvac’s zap.

At the end of the issue, we didn’t know if Patsy was alive or dead. As part of that reveal, both Iron Man and Patsy Walker (aka Hellcat) got hit by a massive bolt of lightning, directed at them by the aforementioned Korvac.īad enough that Tony’s armor had to defibrillate his heart to get him going again.

Real quick – new Iron Man series by Christopher Cantwell and Cafu.