A jungle girl. A relative of the Cosmic Cube. Bruce Banner's cousin. Feathered aliens. A super spy organization. Which are Hot? Which are Not? Find out, as the Hot Squad continues its coverage of OHOTMU's 11th issue and reveals how datable its characters are.
Featuring permanent panelists Isabel, Nathalie, Shotgun, Josée, and Amelie.
Listen to Episode 99 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.99 Supplemental
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Shanna – Yeah, the outfit in the main picture relies a little too much on two-sided tape to work, which I don’t think is easy to get in the jungle. Of course, that could be why she’s riding a rhino into town, to get a year’s supply of tape.
Shaper of Worlds – As my first comic ever (Incredible Hulk #267) had The Shaper in it, I was long under the impression that he was a bigger deal in Marvel. That was reinforced by Batman Vs. the Incredible Hulk essentially equating him with The Joker.
She-Hulk – Like the Shaper, She-Hulk was in one my my older comics (Incredible Hulk #282) which gave me an early appreciation for her. In that issue she was trying to help Bruce Banner, which had control over The Hulk at the time, come to terms with being big and green. He felt guilty about turning his cousin into a monster, but she made it clear that it was a blessing for her. After that I read her in Byrne’s Fantastic Four and fell in love with the character.
Shiar – How to tell that the guys at Marvel are Trekkies without actually asking. 😉
S.H.I.E.L.D. – Quasar! … Sorry, it’s a pavlovian reaction. To answer the question raised, chaff is strips of aluminum foil that’s ejected to confuse radar, including radar guided missiles, and protect the vehicle.
Hi, everyone! I’m only partway through the episode, but I wanted to chime in to say what Gene already said about chaff. It’s very important for combat aircraft and combat flying cars and is named after the part of the head of wheat that you don’t use, which also blows away in the wind (so there is a connection). I have also heard an aircrew member use “chaff” as a verb for someone spouting double talk at him to make him shut up and go away.
Shanna: At the risk of committing both comic art blasphemy AND getting kicked off the network…the Girls are right. The proportions are out of whack here. If Shanna puts her arms down, her hands can touch her knees standing up. Kubert seems to have drawn the figure from the waist up at one size, and below at another.
Shaper of Worlds: He was the Marvel villain in the Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk intercompany crossover for some strange reason, so I always assumed he was a much bigger deal. He isn’t. He is about the most bizarre concept mainstream US comics have produced, this side of Steve Gerber’s output!
She-Hulk: If Shulkie hadn’t gotten a Hot my faith in humanity would have been completely obliterated. Big fan of the 90s early She-Hulk issues, and I ain’t gonna lie, part of that was the way Byrne drew her. I was in high school, sue me. The Disney Plus series is fun, and captures that spirit well, I just wished they’d let the FX bake a bit longer.
Shi’ar: Not a big X-Men person, so I have never had much love for these folks. I don’t really see the long-legged problem, which goes to show that I’ve been so brainwashed by comics, I accept certain anatomical snafus, unless they cross over into territory like Shanna above.
SHIELD: Don’t get pulled in by Sitwell and his charming glasses, ladies! Remember, in the MCU he’s really working for Hydra, and Bucky rips him out of a moving car and makes instant roadkill out of him!
I didn’t even realize it was Kubert (though nice intercompany spot, just like Curt Swan on Gladiator) until I gave the credits. I think he’s been inked out of his style here, but the proportion must still have been his.
Byrne only lasted 8 issues on Sensational She-Hulk, and his last issue was in 1989, so I’m still correct that the book went downhill in the 90s (AFAIC).
Oh yeah, you’re right on the dates. I didn’t stick around after Byrne left either. But since it was the late 80s, I have even more of an excuse to like the way he drew her, since I was in Middle-to-early-High School!
I’m still not through the SHIELD entry for reasons that will become clear in a minute. And this is a great episode. The Squad is always great, but these characters are excellent discussion fodder. (Shanna and She-Hulk…sigh.). Regarding SHIELD: First, absolutely right on Fury AND Clay Quartermain, in my opinion. And the MCU did Stilwell wrong! In the comics, he was a highly capable, true blue, pedantic, patriotic nerd! Without consciously intending to, I did my best to emulate him growing up, so he’s important to me.
Also, it was never clear to anyone who was in charge of SHIELD (including Fury, as you noted). It was somehow American and international at the same time, like some sports leagues. It was whatever the writer wanted. I should explain why this is taking me a while to get through. I was listening to this as I was driving to my military industrial complex job, which today takes me to a U.S. military base, and then you started reacting to the SHIELD logo, and I just kept running it back and cackling as I drove. I’m safely parked now. The danger was worth it.
Still more! Yes, add the Contessa to my list of sigh-inducing characters above. When she showed up in the movies, I was so proud that I knew who she was and that I knew her full name that I kept talking about her to my family and using the whole name every time. My daughters and I met Jim Steranko, the famous SHIELD artist (among many other things), at a con. I heard him talk about the gun in the holster panel. It was originally supposed to be a small part of the page. The main image was showing Nick and the Contessa in an embrace, but Marvel reduced the embrace or got rid of it to make it less sexy. Then they enlarged the gun in the holster image, which had the opposite effect.
Regarding weapons at the hip versus the side of the thigh, I’ve tried it both ways. I have short arms, so the hip is totally workable, and that’s my go-to. If a thigh holster or sheath is connected to the belt, it’s a huge pain when you go to the bathroom, unless it has a release clip. With release clip, it’s nearly perfect, unless you need to conceal.
Indeed, Captain. For the Hot Squad, here is the printed page 5 of Nick Fury, Agent of Shield #2:
And here is the original art that was “censored”… badly. Differences are on panel 1 (Contessa’s cleavage), panel 9, (phones left off the hook are a no-no), and the infamous panel 11 (using a stat of Fury’s gun from panel 1 to create a censorship epic fail).
The original art is pretty tame compared to what I read in comics now…
Thank you very much, Isamu — both for the research and the chance to look at this beautiful art again.
Don’t tell anyone, but you’re my favorite nephew.
Uncle Siskoid, you should add a warning to not listen to this show while driving or operating heavy machinery. Amelie’s custom compliments about wearing teeth on her calves made me laugh so hard I almost went off the road… almost.
Don’t tell my mom…
Since she’s often second-hand listening, you better turn it down during the comments section 😉
Regarding the Shaper of Worlds, why is he bald? As a former Cosmic Cube, surely he’d have lots of Cubic hair?
Can somebody help me post a Picard facepalm here? I’m old, and markup language is hard.
I don’t know whether the OHOTMU crew would remember the Shaper’s apprentice Glorian, but I can understand if mentioning him would muddy the waters of an already-complicated character.
It may have been a side effect of the Shaper’s lack of imagination that he was a terrible judge of character; he seemed to sincerely want to grant people’s wishes and make them happy, but he usually bestowed his gifts to bad people. In his first appearance, the Shaper was used by a literal Nazi who had the Shaper change him into a super-warrior named “Captain Axis,” until the Hulk defeated him. The closest he came to making a positive world was when he turned an uninhabited planet into a paradise for the Hulk, turning the native animals into duplicates of some of the Hulk’s deceased or otherwise departed friends. The Hulk was grateful for the Shaper’s efforts, but politely (well, polite for Hulk) turned it down because it wasn’t real.
Shanna: I first learned of her in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, in an episode with 4 guest stars. That cartoon was not afraid of deep cuts.
Shaper: Put me in the Batman vs Hulk camp. Such a strange choice for that issue, except that it let the Shaper bring in the Hulk’s entire rogues gallery by creating from his memories, which was an interesting cheat rather than having to pick one Hulk foe to match the Joker. So I guess the Joker is greater than all the Hulk’s rogues at that time?
She-Hulk: I’d read a couple of issues with her, and then she joined the Avengers when my collecting of that series was in full swing. Oh my, she was all the things the girls said: fun, sexy, sassy, a great teammate and friend, with amazing hair. They kept playing around with her costume, because the Wasp kept designing them for her, experimenting with different color schemes for her. Then they switched boots for leg warmers and sneakers. I’ll admit, I loved the “normal clothing” accessories! Almost never worn by superheroes at this point, so this was huge to me, and nowadays is common place. She-Hulk staying ahead of her time.
Thanks for laughs, hot squad!
Me too! I completely forgot Shanna had been on Amazing Friends!
7 Little Super-Heroes.
I think we got our first, authentic Canadian “eh” at the top of this episode and it made me very happy. We are also getting a lot more F bombs and I blame 2020.
I don’t think I’d want to hang out with Shanna because I’m very likeable and charming and we would no doubt become close friends with a strong platonic bond and then at some point, like everyone else she knew, I would get shot.
She-Hulk in all her incarnations is awesome and I want more Tatiana Maslany in the MCU. That lady is too good at everything.
I think The Shi’ar bulge is where they keep their eggs. You know. Because they are birds and they lay front crotch eggs. It’s canon now.
I also enjoyed the fact that the Shi’ar were so boring to everyone in the group that they used the bulk of that time to talk about when they heard their mom say the word “penis”.
I did not enjoy hearing Siskoid use the word “lover” in the Shield entry. It’s kind of gross. Much worse than imaging all those Shi’ar front crotch eggs.
Although the Shi’ar egg thing could be kind of endearing. Lilandra pops out an egg and pulls it from the front of her pants and presents it to Charles Xavier and says something like “It looks just like your bald head.” That story probably already exists on some fanfiction site.
Great points on Shanna and Tatiana Maslany, Chris, but “lover” is era-appropriate squickiness.
The other night, when my den was taken over by what seemed to be an army of Swifties, and that Disney+ Taylor Swift concert was blaring through my home, I heard her sing the line “lover” and wondered if she was 75. So, Eras appropriate too?
Chris, you just turned my face into an ROFL emoji! I guess everything really does come back in style.
Horry for more oHOTmu content! I keep saying it, but I look forward to the oHOTmu crew every month to help brighten up my day! The laughs are infectious and are welcome. Now on to the entries……
Shanna – If I ever saw a cover with Shanna, I knew my mom wouldn’t let me have it so she was always a forbidden fruit to me. I still don’t think I’ve read too many of her stories (at least, without Ka-Zar). Also, I had to fix this after your conversation (and Siskoid pointed out what I had been doing already) as I realized I typed Sheena for all uses.
of Worlds, Shaper – What is this Skrull crossed with a Transformer?
She-Hulk – Shulkie is just the best! I’m still collecting her comic today, and it’s very fun! Highly recommended. I don’t know about the smutty book club, but she does start a Punch Club with Hellcat and Titania in the new series!
Ar, Shi’ – I don’t get them. Birds? Really? I wonder how they would taste with the Colonel’s 12 secret herbs and spices?
Shield Uniforms – For some reason, this kind of stuff fascinates me. I’m a sucker for a variant on a theme (see my love for the Marvel (Shazam!) Family), so I like the different colours but I do find it funny that every department gets two shoulder holsters for guns. You may end up just being a technician for the water purification unit on the Helicarrier, but you are also trained in 10 ways to kill a man!
Shield Flying Car – I’m not too much of a car guy, but the drawing looks like a cross between and old school Porsche and a Volkswagen Bug, but the diagram drawing is definitely a Pontiac GTO.
Parade in bikinis?!? I’m not sure how much of a “compliment” this as NO ONE WOULD WANT TO SEE THIS! They would have to scrape out their eyeballs if they ever saw that abomination. BUT I used to be in marching band in high school so I guess I’ve already started my parading career?
Thanks for all the great laughs and discussion! Keep up the great work!
Ummmm … might be the hottest group ever. Shanna, She-Hulk, and Valentina! An Anj trifecta!
She-Hulk is definitely in my top 3 Marvel characters of all time and I recommend the Byrne stuff and the Slott stuff all the time. I think the show was ‘okay’ but didn’t seem to quite embrace the comics in the way I hoped. Great page here by Byrne.
I haven’t read all the comments but how crazy that I only know the Shaper of Worlds from the Batman crossover! I always thought he looked like a Skrull. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
Thanks again for all the laughs!
1980s She-Hulk is one of my favorite Characters. I’ll never forget when she joined the fantastic four after secret wars, it blew my 12 year old mind. That run of comics was great, with a very sci-fi bent rather than just the regular “superhero” tropes. Jack of Hearts is my favorite marvel character of all time (despite his obscurity) so it was good to hear of their romance. Something I would have liked to see back in the day. On another note, Did She-Hulk ever date SpiderMan ? I think that would have been fun as well.
Love that green hair and lips!
So glad to hear that Shotgun’s moniker was just that and not some kind of weird fetish.
Obviously her eyes are her most dangerous weapons.
I assumed it was because she liked sitting in the passenger seat on road trips.