oHOTmu or NOT Ep.86: Paladin to Pluto

A purple mercenary. A techy Eternal. The Great Bird of the Galaxy. A villain with a green thumb. The god of the Underworld. Which are Hot? Which are Not? Find out, as the Hot Squad starts its coverage of OHOTMU's 10th issue and reveals how datable its characters are. Stick around to the end for a special announcement about a member of the cast!

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

Listen to Episode 86 below (the usual mature language warnings apply), or subscribe to oHOTmu OR NOT? on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

Relevant images and further credits at: oHOTmu or NOT ep.86 Supplemental

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14 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.86: Paladin to Pluto

  1. Don’t like this version of Rachel’s Phoenix costume. I met her in early Excalibur where she wore the spiked red leather body suit, or later something closer to the Dark Phoenix costume. She only ever showed the marks on her face when angry and she let her guard down.
    As a teen, she fell firmly in the “Hot” category for me.

  2. Is Phoenix here the longest entry in OHotMU? I’m trying to think who might have more backstory. Wolverine gets there, but at the time of this book he’s still mysterious and unknown.

  3. Paladin: Probably named after the lead character in the western series “Have Gun, Will Travel”. That’s a REALLY old TV show. Even older than me!
    “Black Hole Dick”… wasn’t that a song by Soundgarden (old band).

    Phastos: Again, leave it to the Hot Squad to point out how comic book body proportions can look REALLY weird out of context. Phastos seems to have a rather skinny neck for someone who is actually built pretty thick. Not to that extreme, but in real life you may call that the “Don Cheadle Effect”.

    Phoenix: I always thought Rachel’s design was pretty ugly, and honestly kind of lazy. I liked John Romita Jr.’s art on Spider-Man, but when he went to X-Men he adopted a style I didn’t care for as much, and that has evolved into one I don’t like at all now. The Cockrum Jean Grey Phoenix look is boss in either flavor.

    Plantman: Well, whoever guessed “hot” for this guy won the pool this week. I agree his earlier look is more compelling. He looks like a MORE evil brussell sprout. Brusell sprouts are already evil.

    Pluto: This version should defnitely come into the MCU. They have recently begun exploring the celebrity angle of the characters in that universe. Imagine him trying to cast She-Hulk in a film? Nice Mickey voice, Siskoid!

    Congratulations Ameile! But now that you’ve incuded engagement as a Patreon goal, ladies…be prepared for offers!

  4. Another great episode and congrats to Amelie!
    A few comments …

    Paladin – definitely the costume I would wear in this group. I agree that it seems like a relatively simple one to cosplay. A couple of baseball catcher’s chest protectors, a pair of safety goggles, and a ski mask. It was intriguing to hear that the Wasp dated such a mercenary. Then again, she didn’t always have the best taste in men. Black Hole Dick might be my fantasy football team name next season.

    Phastos – the art here is wonky. His arms are so wide that even facing forward his two arms together equal the width of his chest. As a result, he looks like a square. Not hot.

    Phoenix – I definitely love Jean. So as a younger reader, even though these are characters, I felt a little off thinking that Rachel was hot as well. Can you have the hots for the mother and the daughter? I guess so. I do like her more leather/spiky look than this costume and hope that look gets covered in the eventual ‘other costumes’ bonus episode we get now and then.

    Thanks again for the show. Always makes me smile.

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  5. So… What you’re saying is that Rachel Summers is fighting evil by Moon light. Winning love by day light. And never running from a real fight? This also makes Frank Richards Tuxedo mask.

    Also why has Dead Pool never fought Plant Man? The one villain that can be beaten by a weed eater.

  6. I will now be unreasonably definitive about subjective things.

    CAL, you’re right. When we were teens, and Rachel was a teen, she was hot. However, you and Anj are both wrong about the leather spiked costume. The one here is better, because it’s innovative and less S&M-y.

    Chris, you’re wrong about Romita Jr.’s later work. As it got more stylized, it stayed awesome. It may have become even awesomer. Remember the X-Men where Morgan Le Fey made New York into ancient Hyboria or something? That art was bangin’. His Eternals was great, too.

    And Anj, 65-year-old fitness icon Denise Austin just walked the runway with her grown daughter. They were each wearing bikinis. We can definitely find both the mother and the daughter attractive.

    There. I said what I said. Now, if the Fire & Water crowd weren’t so mature, reasonable, and amiable, we could have an old-fashioned flame war over these meaningless differences of opinion. (sigh)

    1. JRJR’s X-Men were MY X-Men, and I loved his work there and on Daredevil at the time. Not such a fan of how it evolved in the 2000, but mid-to-late 80s? Some of my favorite comics of all time.

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  7. First off, congratulations Ameile! All the best for the upcoming nuptials! Since I’m curious, what is the dollar value for the “My Girlfriend In Canada” Patreon level? 😀

    Phoenix – I got into comics when X-Men Classics was going through the Jean Grey as Phoenix story (specifically Proteus), so that was my touchstone for the character. Then, when I picked up X-Factor, I learned the “it wasn’t really Jean” retcon, and I really wish they’d have just let the concept die there. Not that I have anything against Racheal, but the whole “it was a possible future that won’t happen now” thing is a little much. Not to mention the overuse of the Phoenix concept in recent years.

    Pluto – This character (not necessarily this entry) kind of got me in trouble. I was in a “World Mythology” class in High School and we had to do a project for which we had several options. The one I chose was to write a short description of gods in a pantheon of our choosing, each accompanied by an illustration we drew. I chose the Greek Gods (no, the Norse were not on the list) and used Marvel as my inspiration. Long story short, my teacher said that Pluto looked “too Asian” to be a Greek God. However I did get an A on it and, since no one else in the history of the class had ever chosen that option, she asked if she could keep it to show other classes as an example.

    The map of Hades seems, to me anyway, a bit out of scale. If Elysium is the Greek “Heaven” then either VERY few people went there or the Palace is freakin’ ENORMOUS.

    1. Gene, thanks for the reminder! I feel like a heel! Also, my first X-Men comic was a Proteus issue, too — #127.

      Amelie, congratulations on your engagement!

  8. Well done, everyone! This a fantastic episode for the Plantman entry alone! While the squealing may blow out my speakers, it brings joy to my heart.

    Paladin – I agree with the ladies, completely forgettable. I think I first encountered him during Todd McFarlane’s run on the Amazing Spider-Man and he was a dull dish rag. I was happy to see him leave.

    Phoenix – Needless to say, Jean Grey is super hot in green OR red! This isn’t my favourite Rachel Summers costume but I really came to appreciate her on Excalibur, no matter what she was wearing.

    Plantman – That pose, though. He looks like an evil version of the Peanuts characters dancing in A Charlie Brown Christmas. The ladies’ reaction to him was perfect.

    Pluto – At least he looks better than Uranus! Hey-o!

    The Canadian Tuxedo? I’m not going to lie, in my teens I had a denim jacket and “rocked” the Canadian Tuxedo look. Unfortunately, since it rains quite a bit in the Lower Mainland, that denim started to smell something fierce! No more Canadian Tuxedos for me!

    Congrats to Amélie! Monsieur Luc is one lucky guy! And no Patreon level is high enough to get the Hot Squad because they’re priceless! (But that shouldn’t stop people from donating more……).

    I hope everyone is doing well, safe and sound, and you haven’t been affected by the storm too much. Thank you so much for the consistent high level of entertainment you bring us each and every month! Keep up the great work!

  9. This starts the episodes of the series I’ve been most looking forward to hearing. While I definitely read some TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE before, this is my first look at the Marvel Universe that didn’t come from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. I was nine at most at the time and I literally read it until most of the pages you’re discussing had long fallen off the issue. My copy of this issue opened with the Phoenix entry and has done so for decades, though I do have a handy reprint of the book.

    Perhaps it’s because their pages were lost to time for me, but neither Paladin or Phastos have ever really interested me either in these pages or elsewhere. Paladin is a weak design and an even weaker character, with better versions of “cool mercenary” all over the Marvel Universe. I’m not even sure why Phastos has an individual entry as the character has done nothing of importance I’m aware of at all. His portrayal in the MCU might bring him to a bit of a greater light, but no one really liked Eternals, did they?

    I knew of the Phoenix storyline from my brother and his friend. Seeing a “new” Phoenix in these pages made me want to read this issue, which in turn started my love for weird encyclopedias of various universes for decades to come. Though I prefer her Excalibur era costume, I adore the way John Romita Jr drew Rachel. As his art became more stylized in the late 80s, her design is arguably his first step into becoming a truly great comic artist.

    I both love the overly detailed Plantman main picture AND cannot understand why he would ever stop wearing his old costume and start wearing that one instead. His old costume was amazing, fit the plant motif better and doesn’t seem like it would be harder to draw — which is the usual reason I assume Marvel Comics costumes change. (See Jack of Hearts.)

    The Hot Squad put more thought into Pluto’s mask than I ever had in years of looking at that picture. Arguably, they put more thought into him overall as well. While he somehow gets three pages in this issue, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually read a comic where he was a major player in any way, shape, or form. Hercules battled Ares far more often while DeFalco and Frenz would remove any need for him in Thor titles with the (IMO) inarguably better Seth.

    As always fine work by the squad and I cannot wait for them to see Red Ghost and his own Fantastic Four…

  10. Phoenix: FYI Rachel Summers is cannonically Bisexual. I love her subtextual relationship with Kitty Pryde

    Plantman: His appearance on the cover of Strange Tales Vol. 1. 113 has some big plant balls just perfectly placed below his waist. That will always be my memory of him.

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