oHOTmu or NOT Ep.25: Cypher to Daredevil

A universal translator. A girl from the light side. A spider-hating newspaper. A hero for whom justice is blind. Which are Hot, and which are Not? Only one way to find out...

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

Listen to Episode 25 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.25 Supplemental

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13 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.25: Cypher to Daredevil

  1. CYPHER always struck me as a character whose special ability had a ton of real world practical applications but little fantasy adventure appeal. He can understand and communicate in any language? Okay, that’s nice. Get a job as a universal translator for the United Nations, or a senior position in any of the world’s intelligence gathering agencies. But how does it help him fight Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants exactly? Doug’s power makes him ideal for a tech support role, not a protagonist. Would I like to have his ability? Absolutely, because I’d use it to make cash money! But, like being able to always pick the winner of a horse race, it doesn’t provide any advantage in a fight, which is the true language of comic books.

    I tried to get into Cloak and DAGGER once but the characters never held much interest for me, and between the two, I find Dagger even less engaging. Their names always seemed too gimmicky and on-the-nose. Also, while I could generally understand the nature of Cloak’s power, Dagger’s “light knives” never made a lot of sense. Also also, her costume, while meant to be sexy, I guess, always gave me weird mixed feelings. Considering 80% of her body is covered by her costume, the 20% of flesh that we do get is awkwardly revealing. She was a teenage runaway drug addict, right? Should we be sexualizing her so much?

    Over the years I’ve found the credibility of THE DAILY BUGLE varies a lot. Some times it’s presented as the paper of record, on par with the NEW YORK TIMES or the WASHINGTON POST. At other times, writers have suggested that J. Jonah Jamison’s obvious biases have hurt the paper’s reputation to the degree that it’s known for being sensationalistic and high skewed, like the print version of FOX NEWS (making it the WALL STREET JOURNAL maybe?).

    I like how the entry doesn’t make a big deal of Peter Parker’s status as freelance photographer. They also include Fredrick Foswell in that category, failing to mention the fact that he was secrete an organized crime boss called the Big Man, the beta test version of the Kingpin. Ned Leeds married Betty Brant and eventually became the villainous Hobgoblin (one of, I think, nineteen people to take on that moniker). More notable than that, perhaps is that a very altered version of Ned Leeds is the best friend of Peter Parker in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING. Played by Jacob Batalan, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Ned is poised to become not Hobgoblin but rather the Guy in the Chair.

    On DAREDEVIL… Nothing I have to say would top what was already said: “I like him, and I think I could have a crush on him, but I don’t want to die.”

    1. Good point about Cypher. Originally created to show that not all mutants came combat-ready, but then became too important a character to leave at home, which I think is the reason why they combined him with self-fried Warlock after a while.

  2. Cypher would be the founding member of the Legion of Substitute X-Men if such a thing existed.

    Dagger has a cool look, but I always thought her and Cloak’s powers seemed too magical to come from just a drug. Even in the Marvel Universe, that’s a lot to expect from Super-Crack.

    I know Peter Parker is a freelancer, but why not show him in the Daily Bugle entry? That either shows tremendous restraint…or bad marketing. I can’t decide. Thank you for the J.K. Simmons Jameson audio. My favorite parts of the Raimi movies!!!

    I think Daredevil’s entry may be the single best piece of original art in this series. Leave it to Mazzuchelli to give us such movement in a static image. You can just see the billy club spinning on DD’s finger.

    And no Matt Murdock image? For shame, OHOTMU. Oddly enough, I picked up the Marvel Legends TV series Daredevil action figure this weekend, and was disappointed that an extra unmasked Charlie Cox Matt Murdock head was not included. Double bummer.

    The girls were a little saliter than usual this episode. Science Girl turned it up a notch, dropped the mic, and she’s out!

    Chris

    1. That’s Amelie. She’s quick with the F-bomb. Sorry you had to be exposed to that.

      And I’m not sure I realized at the time how visually incomplete OHOTMU was back in the day. Okay, it wasn’t keen on showing a character’s real face the way Who’s Who was (didn’t they know this would one day help the Girls make hot or not determinations?!), but excluding the yellow and black costume (or later, some well known Iron Man armors, etc.) is a little silly.

      1. Don’t apologize for the F-Bombs. If you ever ride in a car with me, you’ll soon realize I’m well acquainted with them. 😉

        Yeah, I didn’t even think of DD’s original costume! How could they leave THAT out? Maybe they figured D-Man covered it? But wait, he’s not in this volume, is he?

        Chris

  3. Seeing this pop up on my new podcasts this morning made me literally squee. I knew I was going to need the ladies today, and you didn’t disappoint (and I guess you helped too Siskoid.)

    It was really interesting hearing the conversation about Cypher evolve as it went on. And by an large I’m in agreement. His power is one of the more interesting non-combat ones out there. I wouldn’t have thought to change his hair color, but absolutely that would make a huge difference. Especially if he’s going to be stuck in that god awful uniform. I have to wonder if making students wear that thing was a form of hazing at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.

    Dagger… This is my unequivocal HOT of the episode. Oh my GAWD! No question that there’s double sided tape involved, and that tape is working overtime because DAMN. Just the pure white of the outfit and the blonde wavy hair and the cut out actually fitting her motif to make it ever so slightly less gratuitous than say Power Girl’s boob window. All the yes. Stepping back for a second, yes I have to admit it’s a shame that she’s a packaged deal with sad sack Cloak, though visually I still like them as a pair. I just know I’d be urging her to “leave the boyfriend at home and have a girl’s night” more often than not.

    The Daily Bugle… I would probably not read that… well, to be fair whether or not I read a paper (back when papers were more of a thing) largely depended on how good the comics and arts sections were (Boston Globe for the win,) so if it held up on that front I might have read it but would be skipping the front page nonsense. I was so glad that you used audio clips of J. K. Simmons because until he so perfectly portrayed that character on film I only say Jameson as a blowhard pain in the ass. Simmons brought a very rough kind of likability to the guy. I’d never want to work for him, but man was he fun to watch.

    Oh Daredevil. It’s a good look, and I’m glad he was in the red for this entry. The yellow suit and that god awful 90s redesign didn’t do it for me. When the topic of his sonar came up I couldn’t help but wonder how a particularly loud of high pitched lover might impact that. Would it enhance the moment for him or just be overwhelming? Does he like a screamer or somebody who’s more restrained in the bedroom (no, not restrained in THAT way, but I like how you think!) But the Catholic guilt, holy crap the Catholic guilt. It didn’t really come up in the conversation here, but imagine Spider-man’s whole taking the weight of the world on his shoulders thing with a big heaping of martyr complex on top of it. I just imagine a hot night followed by waking up alone because he had to run off to confession about the fact that he actually had fun. Couldn’t do it long term.

  4. Yeah, the ladies were lucky they didn’t have to see Daredevil’s first yellow costume, which retroactively became the butt of many “he MUST have been blind!” jokes. Even an early issue of “What If,” exploring an alternate reality where Daredevil’s blindness was publicly exposed early in his career, had Spider-Man observing “That also explains your costume!” (Spider then immediately apologized for the tasteless joke.)

  5. Ok, this is the second episode I’ve listened to, and damn, I’m hooked. Squad OHOTMU is so fun to listen to. I’m glad I tried it. They’ve seduced me. (No, not that way! Stop it!)

    The discussion about Cypher understanding animals was great. It should have been done more in the comics. Probably would have been like the first time Harry Potter heard a snake talking and learned he knew parseltongue. And I have way too much sympathy for Doug, as I was near his age when he debuted. His power helps him with computers, and I became a computer programmer. His pairing with Warlock worked well because ‘lock wasn’t much of a brawler, but with Doug, boy they opened cans of whupass all over. What teeange computer nerd hasn’t dreamed of doing that?

    I thought the reason Spider-Man was usually fighting Cloak & Dagger (back in their early days, not recently) was their methods were too extreme. Almost like the Punisher. I didn’t read many of those issues, but that’s my impression.

    Thanks for the show I *really* didn’t know I needed!

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