oHOTmu or NOT Ep.48: Daimon Hellstrom to Hercules

The son of the literal Satan. An early humor and romance heroine. A golden beauty. The Prince of Power. Which are hot and which are not? The Girls collectively known as the Canadian Hot Squad make that determination. See if you agree.

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

Listen to Episode 48 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.48 Supplemental

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20 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.48: Daimon Hellstrom to Hercules

  1. If the girls are looking for a comic book wedding that came off without a hitch, may I suggest (TALES OF) THE NEW TEEN TITANS #50, the Donna Troy/Terry Long nuptials. That went off perfectly, if you can forget Terry Long was involved.

    1. Rob beat me to it! I am still listening, but was going to chime in with Tales of the Teen Titans #50. And Terry Long wasn’t THAT bad, until writers made him so. Okay, so he was in his mid-30s dating an 18 year old, but….

      Okay, he was kind of creepy.

      Also, Daimon Helstrom…Rosemary’s Baby grown up as a super hero!

      Chris

    2. Cyclops and Jean Gray’s wedding also went off without a hitch. Though they did get sucked in to the bad future to take care of Scott’s son on their honeymoon.

  2. Sorry we couldn’t have all the girls, but this was still a good time, as it always is.

    Daimon – This isn’t working for me but I’m having a really hard time putting my finger on why. Because it’s not just one specific look, the suit and tie doesn’t work for me, and the shirtless cape look doesn’t work for me. It’s something about him that’s turning me regardless of outfit. I don’t know. It’s a definite not, but I just… I don’t know. Words are failing me. Just gut reaction “nope.” Maybe something will occur to me later.

    Hellcat – I really like the evolutionary path this character has taken over the years. Marvel could have easily forgotten her when it left romance comics behind, but instead they folded her in and gave her a new lease on life. That said… not a huge fan of this outfit. I don’t think yellow works very well as a dominant color, especially back in the 80s and before when frankly the coloring tech of the time rarely let it pop properly. It almost always looks faded. I like the hair out the back of the mask (very Batwoman), but the mask itself I don’t love either. The only thing I really like is that I’m a sucker for the full body suit with the sash as a general look. Also I like the practical boots but not the claw feet. Call it a hot for the character and a not for the superhero outfit.

    Also, side rant, fuck Daimon with his “I have to push you away to keep you safe” bullshit. What a selfish ass polyp. I’m so sick of this idiocy being portrayed like some kind of noble fucking sacrifice. I’ll give a pass for secret identities where the woman (because it’s always the women being pushed away unless you’re Catwoman written by Tom King and therefore a fucking moron) doesn’t know about the superhero stuff. But here? She KNOWS who he is. She KNOWS the risks. She’s making a choice for herself, and he is disregarding her wishes, her choice, and her agency in her own god damn life. He’s not saving her, he’s negating her choices on his own presumed authority to save himself heartache if something happens to her. His pain at that idea is more valid than her choice to be with him. Fuck that, fuck him, fuck the writers, and fuck every man (real or fictional) who sees a woman through the lens of a supporting character in his story instead of as their own person. Ok… I think I’m done… wait… one more… FUCK!

    Her – Ok so right off the bat I love the look. She looks almost like she’s glowing, and the no-pupils (aka Youngblood’s Disease) even works here. Also I super love that she’s a woman by choice rather than being created as one. Yes obviously the writers just wanted a female counterpart to Adam Warlock, but in universe I like that she has her own agency about this entire aspect. I’ll admit to being a bit uncomfortable around her focus on finding a mate, but again I feel the curse is taken off that a bit because it’s a destiny she seems to have chosen for herself. Some people just have that super strong maternal drive and who am I to shame her for that? Clearly a hot.

    Hercules – Oh, Herc the Jerk (we can thank my partner for that one, though she used it to denote the mythological version of the character specifically but it’s always the first thing that pops into my head). I do like that the Marvel take goes for a “here for the adventure!” angle, because there’s something nice about a hero who just flat out loves what they do and isn’t broody all the damn time. Normally that degree of muscles and/or beardness wouldn’t do it for me, but I honestly think the personality shines through all this and it ends up still being a hot from me.

    Also PS, I can’t believe I forgot to mention this last time when the Hellfire Club came up. But my amazing partner has a burlesque number that she does as Emma Frost, aka The White Queen. I’ve had the privilege of helping apply all the body glitter needed for that one. Burly life is the best life.

  3. A few more comments:

    I remember being surprised to find out Patsy’s ex-husband/arch-enemy Mad Dog was her classic comic book Beau! Imagine Betty (or Veronica) as a super hero, and her most hated foe is Archie! Some very strange meta stuff going on with Patsy, especially for the time. I kind of always liked her look as Hellcat, but I do agree, it could use some more blue to break it up. The Cat/Hellcat outfit is very similar to the original Wolverine look in a lot of ways, and designed around the same time period.

    Gold-skinned, buxom woman with no pupils? Is it her or Starfire from The New Teen Titans? Either way, she works for me, probably because Starfire was an early comic book crush.

    I can’t look at Hercules without hearing John DiMaggio’s Aquaman from Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He was much closer Marvel’s Hercules than the classic comic version. Herc was on the Avengers team when I was first reading that book too, so I feel you Siskoid. I know there were some rumors that Herc may make it into the next Thor film, but now that we have the Jane-as-Thor plot, I wonder if there’s room for him?

    Fun show, even minus a few Hot Squad members. I guess the actual heat made up for the difference!

    Chris

    1. I thought the rumors were that he’d be in Eternals, though I think that he’s actually gonna be the Forgotten One who has been confused with the mythical Hercules.

  4. Another fun episode! During the discussion of Daimon Hellstrom and how his mom should have known something was up by the name her husband chose…if you had mentioned his sister Satana, that should have really spelled things out for her! (I think the OHOTMU entry for Satana, when you get to her, attempts to explain that their mother simply attributed the choice of names to “mere eccentricity” on her husband’s part.)

    I have no idea why the original costume for The Cat was yellow (not a particularly cat-like color). The original Cat had black hair, whereas Patsy’s is red…I don’t know whether or not that went better with the costume or not.

    Trina Robbins was a great choice of artist for the Patsy Walker Hellstrom entry, since Robbins was strongly influenced by the teen-humor titles of the ’50s and ’60s, like the original Patsy Walker comic. (Robbins even wrote and drew her own teen-humor title, “California Girls” for Eclipse Comics in the 1980s.)

    Hercules: Would have loved it if you’d used Johnny Nash’s theme song from the “Mighty Hercules” cartoon (though I don’t know whether or not you’re familiar with that show), if only for the line “Softness in his eyes, iron in his thighs…”

  5. Also, speaking as a Broadway musical fan, I would’ve enjoyed hearing “Her Is” from “The Pajama Game” as one of Her’s musical bits, just for the fun of the grammatical issues…

  6. Hellcat – I think the yellow body suit is unbelievably hot. And I think the dark blue mask/accents play of it well. This is a big win for me. It is interesting that I think I said something very similar when Firestar was reviewed by the gang. I don’t think they liked the yellow suit there either. But this works for me.

    Her – This is another winner for me. Young Anj liked the idea of ‘a mega-tall busty Amazonian woman whose biggest drive is to mate’. She’s totally hot.

    Hercules – I was most informed about his character in the first Prince of Power mini-series. In that, Herc throws a raucous party/orgy on Olympus. Ticked off at the collateral damage, Zeus kicks Herc out of Olympus and cuts him off, hoping Herc will grow up a little. I thought this was an important lesson for Herc and for me as a reader. Fly right .. or you’ll be tossed out. I think his outfit is a bit ridiculous but I suppose ‘sun’s out, guns out’.

    But the best best bestest thing about this show was the mentioning of Howard Keel and ‘7 Brides’, one of my favorite musicals/movies. I can basically sing that whole soundtrack. I seem to reveal the ‘no girl notices me’ emotional high school scars in this forum. Suffice it to say, I would listen to ‘Lonesome Polecat’ and say ‘it’s like my life … in a way.’

    Thanks again for a fabulous episode!

  7. Her (later Kismet) was a supporting character in Quasar for awhile, when she thought that the Protector of the Universe was her ideal mate. It will be interesting to see if the ladies agree with her assessment, when you eventually get there.

  8. As far as Hercules goes, I like to think that his womanizing is overcompensation for his past. Remember, in ancient times Hera made Herc insane, to the point where he killed his wife and son. His current personality could be an attempt to actually keep women away, so he doesn’t have that pain again. This would explain why he doesn’t obnoxiously pursue a woman if she turns him down.

    That’s just my reading of it, anyway. Your mileage may vary.

  9. I really enjoyed this episode as there were more hots than nots. The ladies seemed pretty positive about the characters, if not their specific costumes.

    Hellstrom, Daimon – Needless to say, my mom would have never let me buy a comic called “Son of Satan”. Having said that, I find this entry odd. I think it’s the pants and giant cape but no shirt. I feel like it would work if he had no cape. It’s like if a person wore a big bulky coat but no shirt on underneath. It just seems weird.

    Hellstrom, Patsy Walker – Though this won’t change their opinion on the costume, have any of the ladies read the latest Hellcat comics (Patsy Walker, a.k.a Hellcat from 2015)? It is written by Kate Leth and drawn by Brittney Williams and they do a great job (or, at least, I thought so). It has lot of LGBTQ positive messages and images, which is great. Also, readers letters with pictures of their cats reading Hellcat.

    Her – “We are talking about weird stuff for the fans.” This, by far, is my favourite sentence in the entire episode. Please keep it weird!

    Hercules – I always thought his older costume (with the sash and skirt) was in “Ancient Greek” style (disclaimer: not an Ancient Greek historian) and it seemed to fit the character more than the He-Man back support. Though fit is a bad choice of words as that skirt is short! But I guess if you’ve got all the muscles, it doesn’t matter what costume you wear as long as there is not a lot of it.

    Thanks for another entertaining episode!

  10. Another fun episode. Thanks ladies & gent.

    I like Marvel’s take on Hercules. In the DC Universe he was an irregular adversary of Wonder Woman. In Marvel he’s more heroic, eve if he still occasionally a lunkhead. It’s like DC used the toys from Greek & Roman mythology primarily, and Marvel used the Nordic ones.

    🙂

  11. Once again I lament that the ladies were not shown all of a character’s costumes. In this case Hercules. Which editor approved the yoke-and-undies look? I wish a picture of Herc in his classic skirt had been included. I think that he had kind of black outfit in one of his mini-series, as well.
    When the ladies were discussing Her, they got me thinking that she could depress the price of gold if she had a heavy flow.
    On the subject of super-hero weddings, when Karate Kid and Princess Projectra get married in the 30th century, there will be no problems! Okay, some of the guests have difficulties getting to the ceremony, but the wedding itself is crisis-free!

  12. Hellstrom: ah, the bad boy wins again. My first introduckion to Daimon was the most ridiculous, when his dark soul was put into … Howard The Duck. http://i.imgur.com/IvtNUhf.png

    Patsy: Something about red hair and yellow outfits that I love, and gimme the practical boots all the way for her Hellcat costume. I also was really enjoying her portrayal in the Jessica Jones Netflix series, but a little disappointed that it kind of turns her into “child actor gone bad” cliche.

    I have nothing against Her, but stories didn’t make Her that interesting either. If they’s had the Hot crew doing the writing, oh my, the places she’d go. As for the entry itself, can’t go wrong with John Buscema’s art!

    Now, I really like Marvel’s Hercules. His part in the Avengers during the 80s was great. Except! He eventually started to resent the Wasp being team leader and it seemed VERY misogynistic, which lead to disastrous consequences. Thankfully, he redeemed himself later and I can’t recall anything like it since. But it was a bad look for Herc.

    But thank you, Siskoid, for including the Disney Hercules song! I’m always up for a rewatch of that movie! The mind boggles about Disney owning Marvel, so could they have Disney Herc become Marvel Herc? Or have them team-up??

    Thanks for the laughs, as always!

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