New Marvel superhero team features an IBD-fighting nurse

A nurse is helping to fight inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) by joining a new team of comic-book superheroes, all of whom have the condition.

Although she is only fictional, health experts are championing nurse Jiang Goh in the hope she will raise awareness of IBD.

She and four other super heroes are The Unbeatables, the subject of a new comic created by Marvel writer Fabian Nicieza, who worked on titles such as X-Men and Deadpool.

Adopting the moniker Luminaria, the nurse can project a wide-ranging aura that soothes emotional turmoil, panic and aggression.

As well possessing super powers, such as the ability to fly, her teammates Switchback, Rubblerouser, Datawave and Samarium have the IBD conditions ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Prestigious event

The five-piece team was launched to 100,000 Marvel fans at a prestigious Comic Con event in London on 28 October.

Backing the new characters at the event was Barts Health NHS Trust IBD specialist nurse Lisa Younge.

She said: ‘IBD is so much more than just a bowel disease, and can affect people in so many ways.

‘Social lives, education, employment and relationships can all be affected, and individuals with the disease can often feel as though they are defined by it rather than having it.

Information and support

‘Without trivialising the condition, this initiative provides information and support in a light-hearted way, and attempts to debunk the feeling that IBD is an all-consuming illness.’

Ms Younge said she would love to join the team herself and if a superpower to cure IBD across the world is unavailable, she knows what she would settle for: ‘I would like to be able to turn invisible. 

‘Either that or the ability to freeze time because all nurses could do with more time in the day.’

Further information

• IBD Unmasked