oHOTmu or NOT Ep.41: Gardener to Geirrodur

An Elder with a green thumb. Marvel's answer to Etrigan. A 12-year old hero. A real troll. Which are hot and which are not? Find out as coverage on the fifth issue of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition begins.

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

Listen to Episode 41 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.41 Supplemental

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24 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.41: Gardener to Geirrodur

  1. Any week where Who’s Who and OHOTMU or Not appear back to back is a win-win for everyone.

    The Gardener: Wow, Siskoid, I never thought of Kurt Russell as actually being the Gardener instead of Ego, but now I kind of want that, so I don’t have to deal with “evil” Kurt Russell. Although I liked him as Ego, I had a hard time getting mad at him, because…Kurt Russell, man!

    Gargoyle: I don’t think this main mage really looks like the Gargoyle. The other images are the true design. Mark Badger is taking quite a few artistic liberties with his design here. Not really what OHOTMU is supposed to do.

    Gee: I think the Power Pack characters are inadvertently breaking the show’s concepts, because no one wants to say a little kid is “hot” so now you get…

    Geirrodur:…the girls not wanting to say a troll is hot? Power Pack has broken the show!!!

    Spider-Woman: As a father, I have to say the idea of an expectant mother endangering herself AND her child is just frightening, and really reflects poorly on Jessica Drew. If pregnant Spider-Woman wants to direct Avengers operations off the field then that’s great, but who at Marvel thought this was a good idea? This is harder for me to swallow than Gargoyles and Rock Trolls, in my opinion.

    Firestar: I still say that uninspired drawing of the original costume did it no favors, but yeah, her later looks are pretty nice too. Of course Perez adds quite a bit of sexy to the look.

    Fun show as always ladies (and Siskoid)! Thanks for lightening up a rough week.

    Chris

      1. In that series, a large part of the focus was on Jessica’s frustration with having to stay out of the action, tracking down the bad guys from behind the scenes and leaving the physical confrontations to her field agent Porcupine. She could still kick ass if she needed to defend herself, but she didn’t seek out danger.

  2. It always perks up my morning to see you ladies (and also Siskoid) in my feed! The show was a great listen. Pity the characters are a bit of a dud group.

    The Gardener – Totally works for me in concept (my father was an avid gardener too… and actually rocks a not dissimilar beard, which made the #screamingpeen thing all the more awkward for me to hear). The outfit is decent enough, good work ethic, probably the most altruistic of the Elders, this should be working. But then it’s the expression. Yeah, it’s too mad. I guess they were trying for intimidating, because ancient powerful being and all, but it really does undermine the vibe I’d want off the guy. I want him to be the laid back hippy gardener, but I look at that face and I’m afraid what I would get is prickly “plants are better than people so just leave me alone” horticultural perfectionist. So it’s a not, which is a shame.

    Gargoyle – Ok, so let’s get it out of the way: immediate points off for not being Goliath from Gargoyles. But that’s a detriment to any and every gargoyle that isn’t a tender hearted protector voiced by Keith David, so let’s move on from that. Actually, speaking of the Gargoyles cartoon, his overall design feels a bit like Bronx if he walked on two feet (it’s the ears). I have to say, that is a bit of a fetishy outfit. Harness with metal studs in it, yeah he’s so looking for somebody to collar him. But then given his personality, he probably wouldn’t admit to that. Which gets us to the crux of the issue. You lost me the instant you said he had old fashioned values. To me that immediately translates to “no sense of fun.” I mean, I get it given the time he comes from, but I know I’d never hear the end of it for wanting to put a stripper pole in the living room and it’d be downhill from there. He still gets the hot (partially by default given the rest of the line up), but it’s on the “I’m so going to teach you the joys of sin” basis. Yeah, I’m a bad influence.

    Gee – Nope. Just nope. Nuh-uh, no, and furthermore no way. I don’t know what it is about this image that immediately made me want absolutely nothing to do with this kid, maybe it’s the pose being that of somebody about half the age he’s supposed to be (as the ladies pointed out), maybe it’s being over the whole “I’m the oldest so I have to take care of everybody else” thing (only child here, for the record), or maybe it’s just how boring the costume is. Who knows. And I was all prepared to defend him when the comparison to Draco Malfoy was made (#SlytherinPride), but I just can’t with this kid.

    Geirrodur – I could totally respect him, but no way would could I date him. It was honestly when Siskoid pointed out the beard that it all fell apart. I was on the fence before that. It also doesn’t help that as soon as I heard “rock trolls” I immediately thought about the trolls from Frozen (aka the weakest part of that movie), and that didn’t help. I guess he’s just a bit of a fixer upper. But I’m going to pass.

  3. Great show, had me laughing in my car during a tormenting commute.

    Gardener – Don’t know how ‘watering can’ and ‘seeds’ immediately leads to penis but somehow ‘depends on how much hand-hoeing was done’ slips by without a giggle. As for the Gardener, he looks so angry. I wonder if he’s angry because some cosmic rabbits are nibbling away at his vegetables.

    Geirrodur – For me the middle of the armor looks like an old rotary phone dial. Whenever I hear the girls discussing if someone like Geirrodur is hot or not, it sends positive vibes to ‘High School Anj’ who listened to Morrissey and felt unloveable. If Geirrodur *could* be hot, then Anj will be okay.

    Sorry, original Firestar outfit is the best. Brings the HOT to oHOTmu !

    1. The watering can has a spout etc., so that’s pretty obvious, but the seed thing goes beyond the idea of gonads – it’s a French-language pun. Seed in French is “graine”. Guess what, that’s also a colloquialism for “dick”. The more you know.

  4. So I’m actually writing this before I travel and listen-
    I’m trusting the show will be entertaining as it always is-
    (Y’all are my current tied for favorite comic podcast)-
    But-
    Geirrodur?- I mean at this point in the alphabet a lot of my favorite obscure characters have failed to be in this book- and this “not from myth” nobody got an entry?

    (If I’m fair- some of those obscure characters became favorites- because they were too obscure for this series in particular- so I must let this pass-)

    1. To answer a question I couldn’t in the episode itself, Geirrodur had 12 story appearances before oHOTmu, going all the way back to 1964. That’s more than a lot of more recent randos we got in the Handbook. I count another 17 after this, the most recent in a run of The Mighty Thor in 2012. And it’s a good way to cover Asgardian trolls without giving them an entry.

      I think there’s a far more obscure character in the next episode. Keep your outrage for that one.

      1. Yeah got home and looked him up—-
        My “Thor should have red hair” childhood stubborn caused a lot of “Marvel Asgaud blind spots”- this is not the first time I’ve made this kind of error-
        (Because the D&D books looked more “official” pre-teen me)

  5. Glad to hear the ladies discuss Gee. I was not a fan of him growing up, and now that I am rereading and discussing the character, I find him to not be as bad. That said, he is a bit of a brat…and a little full of himself.

    A good show as always. Glad Time Preice provided you with the Power Pack issues.

  6. The system ate Gene Hendricks’ comment, so here it is:

    If you want the “Bob Ross of Gardening”, might I suggest the old HGTV show “Gardening by the Yard”. Paul James (aka The Gardener Guy) was a bit more wacky than Bob Ross, but his show was very entertaining and informative.

    https://www.hgtv.com/shows/gardening-by-the-yard

    As for Geirrodur, I’m not super familiar with the Rock Trolls beyond Ulic, who is a recurring Thor villain. The concept of the Rock Trolls is 100% a Marvel invention, as they don’t appear in the Norse Lore at all.

    Aside: In the “MythAdventures” books by Robert Asprin, a female Troll is a “Trollop”. Don’t worry, the female troll character in the books is actually a bad-ass assassin. Those are really fun reads and I’d recommend them if you come across some copies in a used book store.

    – Gene Hendricks

        1. The Myth series was great fun. But I especially loved Phil Foglio’s comic adaptation. Hilarious, and oh my, that Tanda the Trollop assassin. Love!

  7. Guess I can put in my proper comment now.

    Gardener: #WhereIsHisWateringCan #AforementionedHoe

    Gargoyle: I kind of liked the intention of kindly old man in the atypical role of playing hero, but it never really clicked. Sadly, Mark Badger’s version doesn’t help.

    Gee: Yes, Alex is smart and like most kids, doesn’t realize he comes off as being full of himself. But I still dig him and even those crazy boots. Doubly glad my little gift is ALREADY paying off!

    Geirrodur: I just … don’t … care about this one? (And can’t pronounce his name, either.) #RorshachsCostume. But #ArmadilloForLife

    Spider-Woman: 2 stories about pregnancy.
    1. I knew one fitness instructor who taught a high-impact class in her 8th month. She was fine, but scared the CRAP out of the participants! Which was awesome!
    2. My wife, while expecting the twins, was taking care of her horse the day her water broke. Yes! Her horse!
    So some women can do crazy active things when very, very pregnant!
    If Spider-Woman wants to fight crime like this, ain’t my bidness!
    That said, I also LOVED that volume of her comic. Ended far too soon.

    Firestar: For the “Avengers” version of her costume, she usually wore a red tee under this version to not show as much skin, so that’s a perfectly reasonable option for cosplaying that outfit.

    Time Priest: I completely endorse this origin story, and am starting to wrack my brain for cosplaying this for Halloween! Fair warning, I suck at making costumes. 🙁

    A downside of digital comics? No ads! Those old ads are definitely a joy.

  8. Gardener: Rule for growing plants.

    Gargoyle: Rule, but looks grumpy, like he’d say “you kids better behave yourselves!” #GrumpyGargoyle

    Gee: Fneh. We like him better in the all-ages comics. (from the 2000s)

    Geirrodur: F-rool? (Combination of Fneh and Rule. I just write what they says.) He’s confusing so we’re conflicted.

    Firestar’s other costumes: COOL!

  9. I’ve finally caught up! This show always brightens my day and all of you did a great job!

    Gardener – I’m amazed that the ladies can see past the superficiality of looks for determining the “hotness” of a character and think about that character’s personality and work ethic yet the ladies can came up with #screamingpeen. Not surprised, this many episodes in, but still amazed.

    Gargoyle – I always mixed him up with Etrigan, The Demon in my kid brain and both scared me. Don’t like him.

    Geirrodur – “Big googly eyes” made me laugh so hard. Also, I wanted so bad for him to part of the Boxtrolls (not Rock Trolls) because I like that movie so much.

    Keep up the great work and I will keep listening!

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