oHOTmu or NOT Ep.91: Radioactive Man to Red Guardian

A villain off the Geiger scale. Another Kang. A noisy snake. A commie who hangs out with apes. And one who doesn’t. Which are Hot? Which are Not? Find out, as the Hot Squad continues its coverage of OHOTMU’s 10th issue and reveals how datable its characters are.

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

Listen to Episode 91 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.91 Supplemental

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10 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.91: Radioactive Man to Red Guardian

  1. Red Ghost is one of the worst villains of the FF. Personally I’ve renamed him the pink mist.

    I’m glad his apes decided to stop following orders and live a life out of action

  2. Ah, Radioactive Man. Tell me you don’t know what to do with Thor without saying you don’t know what to do with Thor.

    You know, I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t play Steve Martin’s “King Tut” at the end of Rama Tut, Siskoid. They lyrics even work. A descendant of Nathanial Richards in ancient Egypt? It’s BEGGING for the line: “He’s my favorite honky!” 😀

  3. Radioactive Man: Harness? Looks like a skirt. It sounds like there is a need in the MU for “Overnight Radioactive Leakage Protection”.

    Rama Tut: I was happy to see him show up at the end of Quantumania, especially NOT as a white guy.

    Rattler: I keep wanting to call him “Rattlor” after this Masters of the Universe villain, who he somewhat resembles!

    Rattlor

    Red Ghost: My first two encounters with Red Ghost and his Super Apes were in issues of Amazing Spider-Man spread a few years apart. So I sometimes have a hard time remembering that he’s primarily an FF villain. His powerset and hairstyle are much like The Mist, archenemy of the original Starman, over at DC. Does Ben Franklin-cut = intangiablity?

    Red Guardian: I never noticed how WEIRD her hair looks coming out of the top of her mask like that! Batgirl has her hair come from the base of her skull, and I totally think that works and makes sense. This…just no. Other than that, I like that classic costume look. The girls didn’t even trash the bucket boots!

  4. Red Ghost: Can’t wait for the reaction to his 1970s “disco” look!

    Red Guardian: I’m not sure why Rubinstein drew her hair coming out of her mask so high; in all of the comics I remember seeing her, the mask did cover the sides of her head and the hair-opening was down by the base of the skull, like Batgirl’s (to use Chris’ example). Maybe Rubinstein was looking at a reference picture that showed her at an odd angle that made him think her mask looked like this…

  5. This is a pretty weird combination of characters and it shows with the all the ‘maybes’ the crew gave the ‘Are they hot?’ questions.

    Red Guardian: I was more of a DC kid growing up but somehow several of the issues where the Red Guardian was part of the Defenders ended up in my collection as a kid. Even then I knew she was hot. I mean, I came for the ‘large breasts’ but I stayed for the ‘cool politics’. There was something about her being a Russian ‘villain’ but working with the Defenders that I found very interesting as a kid. Here it is a no-brainer. HOT.

    Rattler: out of this whole episode, the thing that struck me the most were the words ‘pragmatic brute’. As I was driving in I was thinking ‘what does that mean’. Does he say to himself ‘it isn’t practical for me to beat you up now, but I will later’? Or is it more ‘the most pragmatic way for me to kill you is to choke you out with my tail rather than use it to throw a car at you, so I’ll do it that way?’ I was so caught up in trying to decipher it that I was lost in my thought and had to rewind the podcast. Then I wondered ‘what if it describes his love-making style’? These are the things this show does to my mind!

    As always, loved the discussion and laughed out loud! Thanks to all!

  6. Radioactive Man: My first question… how did Marvel not sue The Simpsons for its in-universe comic book hero of the exact same name? As for the look… if green is the only thing you have going then you might as well own it I guess. But this “outfit” is… honestly my eye glazes over it. When I stop looking at the pictures I can remember his build and look but the shape and style of his “clothes” instantly fades from my mind. I can work with that build but everything about his look and expression says he’d be a terrible cuddler. He look’s like the Jolly Green Giant’s incel cousin who’s pissed off that he puts all this time at the gym and still can’t get a girl. Pass.

    Rama-Tut: I went back and forth initially since he does do more heroic stuff at some points and I was trying to give him credit for that. But the will sapping thing? Yeah, no. Pass. Hard pass. Fuck aaaaaaaaaaaall the way off with that. It’s somehow even worse than the usual hypnosis or mind control, because in theory there you could convince the person you’re controlling that they want whatever it is you’re making them do (which is still messed up and gross, to be clear), but here he just removes your ability to resist anything? Go to hell, dude. And on yeah, I’m sure he’s remembered as a just and fair ruler. So was Doctor freaking Doom in many iterations. Also, nice little sprinkle of racism with the implication that he helped Egyptians with some of their more advanced projects, because there’s no way an African nation could do that on their own, right?

    Rattler: Well somebody beat me to the Masters of the Universe joke, so let’s just talk about the level of resting rage face this guy has. It’s unsettling. So like the actual attached tail is kind of cool, I won’t lie, but nothing about the vibe of his personality has any appeal. Anybody who can be described with the word “brute” feels like a hard sell. Also I don’t believe Siskoid when he says that’s a suit. Because there’s no seams anywhere on there, and at the very least his suit is designed to evoke serpent nakedness. I can respect confident nudity but not when it’s done with this kind of aggression it’s deeply unpleasant. Pass (Although I kind of want to clip the discussion of the tail out of context “It’s so thick. It’s honestly too thick.”)

    Red Ghost: Honestly I’m more interested in the Super Apes than this guy. And the thing is, phasing is a pretty good power for somebody who can be creative with it (shout out to Kitty Pryde), but much like Rattler before him I just get the most toxic vibes coming off this guy. I just know he’s going to use his ghost powers to stalk me when I try to get some distance. And while I understand professional jealousy (and struggle with it myself) having it be such a major motivator really is concerning. Pass.

    Red Guardian: FINALLY! I thought this was going to be a full strike out again. The look is just amazing, and she’s rocking the hell out of it. She’s got layers from the sound of things. The radiation leak is a point of concern, but I can work with short in person visits. The whole falling in love with someone who abused her (albeit in a fantastical manner) is… not great, especially with the added narrative that she somehow made him better. But I’m not going to blame the character for that, I’m going to blame some idiot 1980s writers cut from the same cloth as what happened to Carol Danvers in the same decade. And if I don’t hold it against Carol I won’t do so here. Hot.

  7. There is a chance that this pod is an international crime. At the very least, it has helped to shatter the Canadian stereotype I was used to.

    I’ve been binging this show, and after listening to about 45 episodes in a row, my inner monologue is now 6 French-Canadian women, and they’re mostly just try to convince me that I should wear boots more often.

    This show has been a lot of fun. It’s so inappropriate and so hilarious. I don’t know how this panel goes from adorable spontaneous theme songs to observations on fashion to various ways of critiquing a character’s bulge to questioning if everything they know is a lie as they unravel the uncomfortable truths about the universe until they get all the way back to making another dick joke because Siskoid said “rod”.

    There are so many funny moments that it’s impossible to hear everything, and I find myself stopping and skipping back to catch lines that I missed because I was laughing along with the infectious chorus of joyful guffaws, high-pitched squeals, and snorts.

    Lastly, over the last decade or so, we nerds have been living in a era of excess, and frankly, we were all getting a little too big for our britches about it. Swaths of online douche-canoes would attack shows and movies and people for not being “comic accurate” because of a gender flip, or change in race or body type or because a woman simply existed on screen. So, my favorite thing about this pod is how the panel does the whole world a much needed service by pointing out, in a hilarious and disarmingly inclusive way, that sometimes comics are stupid. Very, very stupid. And while we can all love a stupid thing dearly, it’s okay that some things have changed.

  8. Another fantastic episode by a fantastic group of people! This episode was great and full of laughter, both by the Hot Squad and myself, chuckling along with the Hot Squad!

    Radioactive Man – The concept is better than the execution, in my opinion. While we’ve all seen all the arrows on other costumes that point towards the bulge area, this guy has a mini skirt that dangles down to show how…..uh….. long he makes it. My only thought is, is he wearing underwear under there?

    Rama-Tut – His hat has a reservoir tip. I can not un-see this now.

    Rattler – “You’ve chosen a life of stools” is THE line from the episode. I feel like the snake haters on this show would like Corook’s Snakes music video. Viewer discretion is advised for some coarse language towards snakes.

    Red Ghost – This conversation did not go where I thought it was going to go. Tangible penis!

    Red Guardian – Full transparency, I had a huge crush on this character as a kid. I think a huge part of that was thinking this costume was super hot. I don’t know how the hair works in that mask, but it works for me!

    I’m so cool, I need a harness? But….. wait, no….. I mean……. do you mean……. maybe………. I’ll just leave this alone.

    This was an amazing bright spot in my working day. This show is constantly amazing! Keep up the great work!

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