oHOTmu or NOT Ep.37: Foolkiller to Dominic Fortune

One who doesn't suffer fools lightly. A mutant inventor. The basis for many mythic heroes. A 1930s adventurer. Which are Hot, which are Not? Listen to the Girls, they know!

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

Listen to Episode 37 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.37 Supplemental

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14 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.37: Foolkiller to Dominic Fortune

  1. Thanks for another great episode of laughs and digressions. So much hologram talk! Amazing.

    This is an interesting mix of characters and, as always, I am surprised by some of the rankings the crew give the characters. My brief thoughts.

    Foolkiller – definitely could be the Dr. Anj of Earth-3. Depending on how overtired or undercaffeinated I am, many can be deemed fools by me. My co-workers always tell me that I don’t ‘suffer fools lightly’ when it interferes with the efficiency of my work. Glad I am usually caffeinated enough to work through issues and not skeletonize people.

    Forge – looks so much like Freddy Mercury here I’m surprised he wasn’t in the M issue as “Mr. Fahrenheit”. I am not a big Xman fan so I also have had a hard time wrapping my head around his powers. He seemed to be a walking deus ex machina. “If only we had a hair dryer that would vaporize Galactus. Let’s have Forge build us one!”

    Dominic Fortune – ahh, now here is a character I love. As a fan of pulps and secret agents, he is sort of a 1940s James Bond. His stories always crackle. He is most definitely a Howard Chaykin character – Russian Jew, great pilot, ladies man, liberal who is exhausted fighting against the system, excellent fighter. We see those traits in so many of his characters. (I would almost love a ‘Chaykin’ mini-sode of this show pitting all those variations on a theme – Dominic Fortune, Reuben Flagg, Blackhawk, Monarch Moonstalker, Cody Starbuck, ironwolf, and Harry Kraft – against each other in a beauty contest.) Thankful the girls found him hot.

    I am going to go sit on my holographic sofa right now and look out at the Grand Canyon on my hologram wall while seated in my enclosed Boston based office .

  2. Another entertaining episode!

    Foolkiller: The second Foolkiller’s criterion for “foolishness” varied from story to story, but generally he seemed to target people with “no poetry in their soul”…his motto was “Live a poem or die a fool!”

    Since the original Foolkiller’s calling card was discussed, the ladies might be interested to know the full text of his card: “FOOLKILLER. E pluribus unum. You have 24 hours to live. Use them to repent or be forever damned to the pits of hell where goeth all fools. Today is the last day of the rest of your life. Use it wisely or die a fool.”

    Liked the choice of “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” as his music clip…wondered if you’d ever heard the song “Foolkiller” by Mose Allison (also covered by Johnny Rivers). Might be a little too on-the-nose, but perhaps it could be the sound clip when you get to Foolkiller I in the Book of the Dead.

    Here’s the Mose Allison song:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72YcUYGXtOA

    Forge: I get that Claremont was probably trying to go for a “torn between two worlds” inner conflict, but making him both a master of technology AND a sorcerer was just putting too much baggage into one character. And while I love the way that Barry Windsor-Smith draws the prosthetic leg with all its wiring and machinery, I agree with the ladies that it’s awfully impractical and dangerous to his other leg…

    Forgotten One: I know that the artists’ identities aren’t generally discussed apart from the credits at the end of the episode, but I think it’s interesting that this entry was drawn by Larry Lieber, Stan Lee’s younger brother.

    Fortune, Dominic: One of Howard Chaykin’s most enjoyable characters…and one of his “Chaykin-est,” for all the reasons Anj mentioned above.

    In conclusion, to quote The Young Ones: “There’s no one home, Mr. Balowski! We’re all holograms!”

  3. A great episode! This podcast continually makes me laugh out loud.
    Forge – I enjoyed how most of the discussion was about his apartment and not himself. Should the question be is Forge’s apartment hot or not?
    Fortune, Dominic – By sheer coincidence, I just read in the last couple of days the Marvel Team-Up story with Spider-Man and Fortune, Dominic where they battle Turner D. Century aaaaaaaannnnd….. it was weird? T.D.C loved old people and wanted to kill young people by using a sci-fi bicycle horn. I will just leave that where it is.
    Keep up the great work!

  4. Now the girls have me wondering why its not “holgramic” instead of “holographic”.

    I’m glad that Freddie Mercury was mentioned for Forge, because I was going to if someone didn’t. All he needs is that “Flash Gordon” T-shirt Mercury was known to rock, and it would have been a lock. I agree his cybernetic leg looks a bit pointy to be functional.

    I believe Dominic Fortune was Howard Chaykin basically reviving the Scorpion character he created for the short-lived Atlas/Seaboard line of comics, which was ironically published by Marvel founder Martin Goodman. After Atlas went belly-up, Chaykin brought the general look of the character with him to Marvel, and gave him a new name. Devil-Slayer also has roots at Atlas in a similar way.

    Great episode as always. Siskoid’s voice was so incredibly manly, I think I just developed ovaries!

    Chris

  5. Great episode ladies! (And gentleman, of course.)

    However… I’ve had an earworm for Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers for a week now. I thought I was over it, but then this episode brought it back!! Not cool, dude!!!

  6. I was shocked to realize how long the Foolkiller has been in the comics. I picked up an issue in a quarter bin at Earth Prime Comics in Burlington, Vermont to send to Professor Alan, just to prove him wrong in his assertions that there are no quarter bins in New England. I grabbed it just because it looked ridiculous and I assumed this was a recent creation. And as unremarkable as his current look is, this era is just a big old hit of “go back and change into something less stupid, I’m not being seen in public with you looking like that.” So that’s a not. #WhatTheFuckIsThatBelt

    Over the course of the conversation on Forge I realized that while I’ve always had a soft spot for the character, he’s actually never had a very good fashion sense. I got to know him when he was rocking the yellow and blue spandex with fringe boots and a headband, and I honestly don’t know if that’s better or worse than the jogging shorts. Also, as I’ve gotten older the cynic in me has a hard time shaking the fact that this is the kind of character who exists as a logistical solution first and a character second. Because eventually the writers felt the need to explain how the X-Men had all the high end tech that they do when they don’t have government funding like SHIELD does. So they make Forge and boom, they can just point to him as the answer to “wait, when did they get THAT doohickey?” forevermore. If I could be sure he’d open up to me like he did with storm, then it’d be a hot, but knowing how unlikely that is I think I’d have to go fneh. I’m surprised that none of the girls mentioned the hazard of visiting his house while wearing a skirt or a bathrobe; see through floors and all that.

    There’s nothing really wrong with the Forgotten One, but over muscled almost never does it for me, and that seems to be pretty much all he has going on him. The space armor actually looks pretty awesome, and I wish that had been the main image. But I find myself forgetting him as soon as my eyes get off the image so it’s a not.

    Fortune, Dominic was really a tough call. The personality sounds like a lot of fun. I love a good swashbuckling character. But I don’t love the outfit. The black and orange just isn’t working for me. But then again it does match his personality. So it’s just going to BARELY be a “hot.”

  7. I swear I thought Siskoid’s head was going to explode during the hologram/holography discussion. But then, how could I be listening to the podcast? Hmmm. Sorry, but that was hilarious. “Star Trek has this thing called a Holodeck.” “Oh yeah, I know what that is.” BOOM!

    Not a lot of thoughts this episode except for … Foolkiller. Boy, that’s troubling.

    Ok #WhatTheFreakIsThatBelt, in some comics, I could swear his belt buckle looks like a spiral sea shell, like this one called a “Shark Eye” or “Moon Snail”. http://www.seashells.org/sharkeye.htm. What does that have to do with killing fools? I. HAVE. NO. IDEA! Just best not to think about.

    A “very important” feature of his costume? That red scarf attached to his hat can act as a short-distance parachute. If he jumps off a 3-4 story building, hold the hat in one hand and the end of the scarf in the other, and float gently to the ground. Uh… again… just don’t think about it. COMICS!

    I might have had comments on the 3rd character, but I forget.
    (Ba-dum. Tish!)

    “Old people need a chain to their keys, so he has a chain to his gun.” Oh, poor Dominic! I’ll always think of that from now on!

    Funny episode, ladies!

  8. Foolkiller: Drool. He’s just stupid. You gotta let the fools live, or who be stupid for us?

    Forge: Rule. He looks pretty cool, especially since he helps the X-Men.

    Forgotten One: Rule, but why’s he gotta fight Thor?

    Fortune: like his character but not his face. Meh.

    Unfortunately, the girls gave me the “do we have to” tone this time around. This segment’s days may be numbered.

  9. So many of these characters are ripe for the abuse you give. Foolkiller? What the hell is the timeline? Criminal career for…2 months? Arrest, trial, conviction…6 months? Rehabilitation, reform, medical school, new job…8 months? His nutty belt is not even close to being a problem for me!
    Is a hologram a holographic projection? Do we need the four extra syllables?

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