oHOTmu or NOT Ep.67: Madrox to Maelstrom’s Minions

The Multiple Man. A genius and his awesome creation. A giant among geneticists. His trio of agents. Which are hot, which are not? Only the girls of the Hot Squad know for sure!

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

Listen to Episode 67 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.67 Supplemental

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23 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.67: Madrox to Maelstrom’s Minions

  1. As someone who has a little sister, and knows others with little sisters, I can say that sisters kicking brothers in the balls is NOT normal. That was certainly a “Wait, what did she say?” moment in the episode.

  2. Man, coming in hot with the word “dick” before the disclaimer! You guys are living up to your expletive tag!

    I’m surprised the ladies didn’t mention Madrox’s hands. They are HUGE!!! My understanding is big hands on men is a turn on for some folks. We often tease a co-worker because our company has gotten a lot comments when he’s the hand model in our corporate videos. Madrox could make a fortune, duplicating himself and sending his clones out to hand-model everywhere!

    Do you suppose a lot of Silver Age Marvel villains got their jumpsuits/coveralls from the same supplier? Mad Thinker, Red Skull, and Dr. Octopus come to mind as all wearing basic olive green jumpsuits quite often. I think it’s the Marvel Universe equivalent of a sweat suit. Lazy.

    I have always found the visual for the Awesome Android kind of disturbing. And it kind of shows how unimaginative and lame the Mad Thinker is. He got the human form right, more or less (he cheated on the number of fingers and toes) and got to he head and said…”Ah, screw it. I bet Reed Richards couldn’t do any better!”

    I know you said “Gronk” but I kept hearing “Kronk”, and I kept thinking of Patrick Warburton’s character from The Emperor’s New Groove. So even though this guy is beyond gross, I kind of like him by association, because that Kronk is hilarious. If Kronk secreted glue when he sweated…well, I imagine he’d be covered in squirrels.

    Oh, and I got the zombie comment right off the bat. So not so bad.

    Chris

  3. So it is a little known fact that The Mad Thinker is one of my favorite Marvel characters. As a kid I remember reading an issue where he had some grand scheme and kept talking about Boolean logic and how he calculated the percentages of his being successful down to the thousandths of a percentage point. As a math nerd, I was impressed. So I was kind of hoping that the girls would find him hot. At least his lounge wear was a hit!

    And, as an American Football fan, and specifically a New England Patriots fan, I think of Rob ‘Gronk’ Gronkowski when I hear Gronk. Heck, the sticky sweat might explain how he catches so many passes!!

    Thanks again for another great show! The girls always lift my spirits!

  4. Impressive Podcast. Most impressive. Yeah the costume is weird. Though Madrox got a much better costume later. When he Joined X-Factor and latter led it. This one does look a bit like a motion caption suit. Also the weights of all Super Heroes are off. Like Jamie here. At 5’11 feet and weight 155 ibs. He wouldn’t be that built. Way to much of a hose build. 5 ’11 height and 155 ibs. He’d be a skinny man. Also Green and yellow… why? Also you had him, Mad Thinker and Gonk and you didn’t play It’s not easy being green in the music. Tisk, tisk.

    Yeah Mad Thinker does have the most conferrable out fit. Andy the Awsome Android was pretty cool. Though better in She-Hulk. Ware he gets a Chalk board around his neck with chalk so he can write down what he’s thinking. Maelstrom looks…fine. Minus the Hat and belt.

  5. This episode makes me intrigued about the follow up episodes. The Thinker’s best days are coming in New Warriors. The Awesome Android’s days working with She-Hulk us ahead. And of course the later day Madrox gets smaller but a better look.

    I was bemused that the panel took about much time to consider Maelstrom and his minions for about as much as Marvel has for the last 2 decades. He’s a far better villain than he’s been used as over the decades.

    His Minions not so much.

  6. Madrox: Now, I’m wondering how the human mind would even process multiple different memories from the same instance in time? Assuming it could, how would a person perceive those memories? This will give me something to ponder late at night, when I can’t sleep.

    As an aside, your talk about physicists learning to milk cows reminded me of some of my early dates with my future wife. Her doctoral research involved cannulated dairy cattle (i.e., cows with holes in the sides of their stomachs). I helped her manually empty cow stomachs, so that she could weigh the cows, while they were “empty”. Don’t worry, we refilled their stomachs, when we were done. Pro tip, never stand next to a cannulated cow when it sneezes, if its plug is out.

    Mad Thinker’s Awesome Android: This is the only character from this episode that I’ve actually encountered in a comic book. The Awesome Android was part of a team of robots (including Machine Man, as I recall) that attacked the Avenger’s Hydrobase. Namor defeated the Android by forcing it into the water, ripping its head off, and allowing its body to fill with water and sink. Knowing what I now know about the Awesome Android, I feel kind of sorry for it, in that instance.

    Maelstrom’s Minions: Sorry, I can’t stop staring at Helio’s hair.

    Thanks for another incredible episode.

  7. It pleases me to be the first to add to the conversation that MADROX once made it to the big screen! He was played amusingly (if briefly) by Eric Dane in “X-Men: The Last Stand”.

    Being an X-Men fan, I knew Madrox as being largely a background player, but that began to change when he became a pet character of writer Peter David, who mined Jamie’s weird powers for some truly interesting stories. The idea of his duplicates becoming individuals in their own right through unique life experiences was David’s invention, as was Jamie gaining additional skills by reabsorbing educated duplicates.

    For being a genuinely likeable guy with a fascinating power set, Madrox gets a HOT from me. He’s not the best partner for BDSM to be sure, but being a one-man ready-made orgy has to count for something!

    Between Machinesmith, Arcade, and MAD THINKER, I’m noticing a whole lot of Marvel characters who specialize in making android replicas of established characters. It makes me wonder just who is crafting all those Doom-bots, Life Model Decoys, and Red Skull replicas.

    I get the sense that Mad Thinker probably has all those androids around because he isn’t able to form real friendships. That’s pitiable, but I still don’t want to be his friend either. I like him plenty as a foil for my favorite Marvel heroes, but this guy is clearly a NOT on his own.

    Oh look! With MAELSTROM, we have yet another evil geneticist! This guy needs to get in line behind the High Evolutionary and Mister Sinister, both of whom wore it better!

    For whatever reason, the Inhumans have never really appealed to me all that much. They don’t have the grandeur of gods or the relatable humanity of mutants, yet strike a thoroughly bland note in between. They are the lukewarm coffee of the Marvel universe.

    And that’s what Maelstrom here is for me: bland. His costume, powers, and motivations all feel incredibly generic. Even being unappealing is preferable to being dull. That makes Maelstrom a NOT, one of the most certifiable in the handbook thus far.

    MAELSTROM’S MINIONS (dig that crazy alliteration, Jack!) are also a NOT, but they at least get points for being unique, albeit unappealing. I have to assume that Gronk has willfil control of his adhesives, otherwise the poor slob would eventually look like the floor of a movie theater, just covered in dust bunnies and discarded candy wrappers.

    As always, this is another fun show with plenty of food for thought. Like our buddy Chris Franklin, I’m always amused at how an outsider perspective differs from those of us who have drunk the superhero Kool-Aid from childhood and not thought twice about it!

    Unless I miss my guess, we’ll have Magneto next time around; I’m sure that will be a a fun and interesting discussion. The X-Men fan in me feels about Magneto the way some of our panelists here might have felt about Loki!

  8. What a fun episode, everyone! It’s always a joy to hear the ladies giggle away at the ludicrousness we nerds take for normal every day. I can’t wait until you get to Scarlet Witch and Vision and Siskoid can show the ladies the “comic” accurate costumes from WandaVision! On to the entries….

    Madrox – Absorbing babies??? That is just wrong. Just plain wrong. I don’t care if it was an accident and he “fixed” it later. Was it the same baby? Did he just make a copy of himself that was a baby? What happened to the woman’s genetic code that was in the baby? Is Madrox now part woman? So many questions. As for the Bachelor talk, I thought maybe he would work better on the Bachelorette. One girl gets to choose between 30 guys. I mean, sure, they are all the same guy but they all have slightly different experiences.

    Mad Thinker – Okay, this guy DEFINITELY has no friends and many sex robots. Sadly, since I haven’t haven’t had a hair cut in awhile, I now have Mad Thinker hair. Does the hair make me a “Not”? Or just a “f’neh”?

    Awesome Android – I agree with posters above that A.A. was done really well later on in She-Hulk.

    Maelstrom – That chest hair again. Him and Mad Dog can have a conversation. What are the ladies views on male cleavage? They sort of talked about it, but I’m wondering, if they saw some guy walking down the street with that amount of chest hair showing, is that a “Hot”? Or a “Run to the other side of the street”?

    Minions – Helios? More like Fabio-s, am I right?

    Thank you for the…. compliment, I guess? Though my first thought was to make a character called Synapses Carr. He is also an idiot that no one wants around.

    Well done everyone on fantastic show! The ladies can always lift my spirits during this stressful time and this show was no exception. Keep up the great work!

  9. Thanks for another cracking show.

    Madrox is definitely hot, you could have so much fun undoing all those straps, and if you can get him to split at just the right moment it would be a fearsome fountain of fun.

    The Mad Thinker, just no. He looks like a bum.

    Awesome Andy? Only if he changes into someone lovely, like Baldur or Foggy Nelson.

    Maelstrom? Granted, the body is good, but I need to know what’s under his helmet.

    Maelstrom’s Minions… I don’t DO minions.

    As for examples of chubby non-villains, I give you Bouncing Boy from the Legion of Super-Heroes, Roundhouse from Teen Titans and Big Bertha from the Great Lakes Avengers (she’s beaten Maelstrom, you know). And of course, the aforementioned dreamboat that is Franklin P Nelson.

    1. Martin, did you see the third season of Netflix Daredevil? It’s essentially The Adventures of the Fabulous Foggy Nelson with guest appearances by Daredevil, and it’s great.

  10. I had stopped collecting X-Factor shortly after the birth of Madrox’s son, Sean, so I saw the traumatic issue, but didn’t know that it was undone later! You can’t know how much a relief that is, because Madrox absorbing Sean WRECKED me! #DontAbsorbTheBaby

  11. I’m writing this before I listen and am assuming it’s a great show this time- I’ll be listening while driving – so before I listen I love Madrox, but In that “ironic” way that probably doesn’t make him “good” – his fate in the Earth-X is one of my favorite parts of that series- I also love Mad Thinker and Andy –

    I’m off to a socially distant day of driving- thanks for the show in advance-

  12. One of the interesting things about this show is the randomness of the material, as determined by the alphabet. Once again, you all made a great meal out of questionable ingredients.

    The Mad Thinker’s best appearance that I am aware of is in Fantastic Four #542. CBT covers part of it here (https://www.cbr.com/civil-war-reed-richards-pro-superhuman-registration-act/2/).

    It’s during Marvel’s Civil War. Inspired by science fiction, Reed Richards has invented a way to quantify and calculate societal trends. His pro-registration stance is based on his results, which show how badly things will turn out without superhero registration. Reed coerces the Mad Thinker into checking his math by threatening to spend ten whole minutes thinking about nothing but how to find evidence that the Thinker has broken a law.

    The Thinker finds Reed’s work to be flawless. However, he is humbled by the fact that Reed invented the mathematical discipline, which Thinker could never have done. He’s also moved by the Greek tragedy that, in trying to save people, Reed has committed increasingly evil acts and alienated his family and friends. He can’t invent the way Mr. Fantastic can, but he can see things through common sense that completely blindside Reed. It’s a telling moment for both characters.

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