oHOTmu or NOT Ep.21: Cloak to Collector

A dark avenger of the Just Say No generation. A puff of gas. G.I. Joe's greatest enemy (oops, wrong one). And someone not quite as eccentric as Benicio del Toro. Which are Hot, and which are Not? Find out from our panel of Lovely Ladies as we take on issue 3 of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition!

Featuring permanent panelists Elyse, Isabel, Nathalie, Josée, Amélie and Shotgun.

Listen to Episode 21 below (the usual mature language warnings apply), or subscribe to oHOTmu OR NOT? on iTunes!

Relevant images and further credits at: oHOTmu or NOT ep.21 Supplemental

This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK!

Subscribe via iTunes as part of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK.

And thanks for leaving a comment.

10 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.21: Cloak to Collector

  1. I can see the walnut! Now I can’t unsee it!

    Leave it to the very quirky Defenders title to do some gender-bending back in the 80s. Even for that title, Cloud is pretty out there as a concept.

    Bonus points to Siskoid for using the G.I. Joe: The Movie opening theme for Cobra. That gets me right in my 11 year old heart. Of course that discussion turned into Cobra being able to slip into some places that my 11 year old mind wasn’t quite ready to think of, so…

    Siskoid knows I would totally love to hang out and go flea-marketing with the Collector. So girls, can I borrow Grandpa for a while? With all the brick-brack in my house, maybe I’m an Elder of the Universe?

    Great show ladies and gentleman!

    Chris

  2. Well now this is an interesting mix. While I’ve read very few of Cloak’s appearances I’ve always dug the hell out of his look so I’m glad to see him have a good showing here. Not sure I could actually date him though because of Dagger being part of the package. Not that I’d have an issue with a polyamorous triad situation, but they always struck me as extremely co-dependent and I suspect it’d end up being more of a unicorn scenario where I’d feel like the third wheel rather than an equal partner.

    I am SUPER torn on Cloud. I was listening to the podcast in the car when you talked about them and there was so much about that description I loved. I actually found myself thinking “this is a straight up genderfluid character, how do I not know about this and how are they not my personal hero?” Then I finally got to the website and saw the look and everything kind of deflated. A strategically placed cloud sounds sexy in theory, but in practice it’s just really really goofy. They look like a still from an anime teasing at fan service by having a character step out of a hot shower and the steam is covering the naughty bits. And the idea that it just kind of stays there just creates laughable imagery in my head. And then I thought more about the character and how sexual preference appears to shift with their gender presentation. While that’s not an uninteresting character dilemma it is a bit of a forced heteronormative angle and that took the shine off the idea a bit more. I was sold on the basic premise of the character and let down the more I found out about them. I see why they’ve barely ever appeared since the early 90s. What a shame.

    Cobra really does look like one of the more outlandish G.I. Joe villains made manifest. G.I. Joe has never been my thing so that’s a hard pass.

    Not much to be said about the Collector for my part, though I like to think if he was created now he’d called the Hoarder.

    Hang on, one more random thought on Cloud. The male and female personas look AMAZINGLY similar. It’s the kind of design that’d usually be used for twins in comics. Which sounds fine until you remember that the forms are based off two halves of a dating couple and you suddenly go “why did those two look so damn similar?” Are we in a Lanister situation here or were they both so narcissistic they wanted to be dating somebody that looked as much like themselves as possible?

  3. I remember buying this issue as a kid and thinking that Cloud must be chilly, all the time, a fate I would not wish on almost anyone.

    And while I know that the girls’ HON ratings are based on personality just as much if not more than looks, I do wonder what their take on Angel would have been if he had looked like this in OHOTMU:

    http://fwpodcasts.com/rk/Treasury/mt18.png

    Fun show as usual!

      1. Oft-cited example of the quintessential speculator comic from the ’90s boom. Professor Alan did a special on the “Boom and Bust” of the ’90s back in May 2015, talking to Tom Panarese, Paul Spatarro, and our own dear Irredeemable Shag. They mention that Turok #1 was the sixth best selling comic of 1993 (the top five were all part of “Reign of the Supermen”), but now you can find scores of them weighing down quarter bins, and some retailers even throw them in the trash because there are so many undesired copies floating around.

  4. Another great episode.

    The girls talking about Cobra slithering into their ‘nethers’ and the picture of him slinking into the cannon made me think of the Ben Affleck line in Mallrats about ‘small uncomfortable places’. (Like the back of a volkswagon?) And his purple ‘hood’ looks like a Granny’s shawl to me, not that intimidating.

    Also fascinating to hear the girls’ collections – skeleton keys, beach glass, and bottles of poison! Fantastic!

Leave a Reply to Robert Kelly Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *