Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? Ep.1: Abel to Aegeus

The House of Secrets' caretaker. Three demons. A 64th-Century stage magician. A Zeta beam victim. A guy who rides a pegasus. Which are hot, which are not? The Girls of the Hot Squad start a mini-series that will take us through Who's Who #1, which dares to ask if the characters of the DC Universe are any more datable than the ones from the MU!

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

Listen to Episode 1 below (the usual mature language warnings apply), or subscribe to the feed on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

Relevant images and further credits at: Who's Hot and Who's Not ep.1 Supplemental

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12 responses to “Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? Ep.1: Abel to Aegeus

  1. I heartily approve of this subject matter expansion! Thank you for giving us more great Hot or Not material, and five entries is better than four.
    Abel – I always liked him, so I’m glad he did well.
    Demons Three – I agree. They are not a concern.
    Abra Kadabra – f’neh. Kadabra was always one of those characters with no real limits except the ones that were imposed on him for a particular story so the Flash could beat on him. He’s plenty dangerous but still manages to be boring.
    Adam Strange – I’m glad he was a “hot.” Adam’s stories were always about human triumph of good over evil, despite long odds. He really represents everything good about 1950s America to me, with none of the racism, sexism, moral compromises to achieve foreign policy objectives, etc. He’s a regular guy, albeit a highly capable one. He has to solve complex problems with his jet pack, his ray gun, his wife, his father-in-law, and his brain, so he’s always been a thinking man’s hero. Fortunately, his wife is brave and equally capable, and his father-in-law is a brilliant scientist. His motives are an appetite for adventure and a desire to help people. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that, and I don’t know why people think it does. I always appreciated his relationship with the JLA. He was a longtime member (although usually absent), but they would take turns pulling Earth and Rann’s respective fats out of the fire. He and the regular members really held one another in high regard (highlighted in JLA #20 and 21). I understand they’re more distant now because of some difficult and ugly choices Adam made during an interplanetary war, which is too bad. Finally, I looked up more of his history. I always thought he and Alanna had gotten married pretty quickly, too, but it didn’t happen until the 1970s. I think most of their dates involved stopping monsters, natural disasters, or interplanetary invasions, so their romance has never been boring.
    Aegeus – I had forgotten about him. When Aegeus first appeared, the Greek revolutionary terrorist group 17 November was very active. Their hobbies included robbing banks and murdering people with guns and bombs. Fortunately, the Greek police rounded all of them up less than a year after 9/11. I would bet that 17 November was in the minds of Aegeus’s creators.

    Thank you! Can’t wait for more Hot or Not. It doesn’t matter what universe you’re judging.

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  2. Greetings from haunted Kentucky!

    So yes, there seems to be a lot of paranormal activity here in Kentucky. My hometown movie theater, the Rohs Opera House is purportedly haunted, and the owners make a lot of money off that during Halloween. We have Waverly Sanitarium in Louisville and Bobby Mackey’s bar in Wilder/Newport in my neck of the woods. They supposedly have some really nasty spooks there. All three of those places have been featured on many of those ghost hunting shows on Discovery, Travel channel, etc.

    If I ever find the House of Secrets for sale at a reasonable price, I may be in the market for a new house, since I am safe….apparently.

    I never thought about Abra Kadabra looking feminine. I always just thought of him as a dandy. There’s lots of villains like that at DC.

    I’m glad the girls liked Adam Strange too. I always enjoyed it when he would show up in guest spots with other DC heroes. Such a great visual, harkening back to Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. I think the “hopeful future” began to die out with Kennedy’s assassination, since he promised that future in may ways. It hung around for a bit, gave us Star Trek, and got us to the moon, but after that Watergate kind of washed that hope away. Awful crap has just piled up since. The never-ending news cycle of depression certainly doesn’t help.

    Pegasus was also white in the original Clash of the Titans. A bit more canon than Disney’s Hercules…minus the clockwork owl.

    Great to have the girls over on the DC side of things!

    Chris

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  3. In response to your blog post, Siskoid, we greatly appreciate, and love, your Christmas minisode.

    And I am stealing the “a time machine away from crime” line.

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  4. How great to get more Hot Or Not content!
    Bonus!

    This was a great beginning with such a crazy group of characters.

    As always, the crew doesn’t fail to provide this lifelong comic reader with crazy new ways of looking at the books I have read forever. This episode? Well, I will never be able to look at Clea’s cool leggings again without thinking ‘they are made of the skin of Rath’. That is some creepy stuff there.

    And thanks for the intros at the beginning. As someone who still confuses the girls now and then, hearing them each say their own name was very very helpful!

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  5. Hooray for more Hot or Not! Hearing the ladies talk about comic book wackiness always cheers me up, no matter what mood I am in. And now we get it in the DC flavour? Yes, please! The whole crew can do no wrong!

    Abel – I always pulled for Abel because, like me, he is a younger brother. My older brother was never as bad as Cain, but I can relate! Though, to be fair, Abel always came off as a sad sack. I got why Cain hosted a horror anthology, but why make Abel, the wet blanket, host horror stories? I’m guessing Abel is holding the newly released Who’s Who Omnibus, predicting the future! Or is that his custom binder for the Loose Leaf editions?

    A, B, & G – Yes to everything the ladies said.

    Abra Kadabra – Abra’s look took what the Shade had, and turned it dandy (like C. Franklin mentioned). I did enjoy his stories though. It seemed novel to me that a man from the future would be nostalgic for our time. Has he ever met Alley-Kat-Abra from the Zoo Crew?

    Adam Strange – I know this is only the first episode, but I’m interested to hear what the ladies would think of Adam after learning of his recent Strange Adventures series that paints him in an unfavourable light (I don’t want to spoil the series, but I do recommend it!).

    Aegus – I don’t know this character at all, so I was hoping the Greek terrorist was the horse. The new hotness scale to do with lightning is…….. interesting. I do agree that this douche canoe is a 0 lightning.

    Another fantastic show, everyone! I’m along for the ride and will never get tired of you. Keep up the great work!

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  6. Impressive podcast most impressive. Using the Dragon type and talk software again this time. My keyboard is still on the fritz. So hopefully this makes sense.Let’s see, able was fine enough within this. I could see him played by Jack Black after that movie he did with the kid magician. I did use Goldie in a fanfiction once. But have them with Kane. And put Goldie back to the original name that they had which was Irving. Since in the comic Kane told Able that they Dragon shouldn’t have a name that start with I. Would make sense for him to give the Dragon exam with an eye letter just to be Kane from the DC comics. Granted he was kind of the secretary Kane was. Since I had teamed up the Zed, enchantress and Mme. Xanadu as detectives. They laid heard before fables happened that was the idea, and had brought to the writer of that book. And he switched it out for fables. Well told her he had another idea he was thinking about. Her being as brilliant as she was asked with the idea was. Seems both con and Carmine were much better editors American credit for. After all warlord happened because Carmine stopped Mike Grell from going to work at Atlas.

    Since he had a very different idea he was going to take to them. And he came up with warlord on the spot.. Kane looks decent enough in this listing. Abel even. The this kind of wearing them old-school suit with a very old world bow tie. The lapel is a nice touch as is the red handkerchief. It’s all I can say about it. He looks fine.

    Moving along, we’ve already figured out the future can do nothing for her loss. Look at Jean-Luc Picard. Also it seems to do well for him and Cisco. Granted Cisco shaves his head. Maybe abracadabra was a big Star Trek fan. And realized Star Trek the next generation had a great looking bald captain and Cisco became way better once shaved his head. He was awesome to start with but he just got better once removed to hair from his head. Or scientist cannot handle balding. Karen Pollock once made a joke when Star Trek the next generation had first come out. Cancer take a pill, broken spine? Take a pill. Deftly crippling disease to me to try quarter. Bald sorry, but you are screwed. Back to abracadabra, in the flash TV show they gave him hair. He looks way better without it. The Carmine Infantino costume works well for him. Minus the weird elf boots.

    Adam strange looks fine. Typical Buck Rogers inspired character which would’ve been popular at the time. Think the best thing he’s been in is that showcase video. Where there is a big war between his wife’s home world and the hawk people. Where everyone but him and maybe his daughter are dead. Then he ends up on some mining world. And gets really drunk. But teams up with the lead minor to stop weird monsters at the end. The costume just kind of fits that aesthetic. Mixing Air Force pilot with 50s sci-fi. What they thought astronauts would dress. In that timeframe. Aegeus oy. Looks like what’s his face from Marvel comics. Though I’m guessing he comes out first. He kind of looks like a ripoff of him. Flying work horse and lightning bolt weapons. Though I’m sure this is based on some mythological character. He just seems like a ripoff of the character he probably inspired. Kind of like when John Carter of Mars came out. In everyone’s pointing out how it was so much like Star Wars and he man. Those guys costume is ugly. Why would you put on a Roman uniform with a collar? And where there rivets on the shirt collar? Orange and red are not an easy color combination to work. They didn’t really work for Adam strange. But he fit an arch type. I wouldn’t even suspect to see this goofy looking guy Aegeus to appear on Disney’s Hercules.

    I’m also not sure why he fights wonder woman. Since this was made before Zeus turned out to be wonder woman dad. It’s just weird. Maybe he was drunk and half-asleep when he bought it. And then put it on in the dark. And didn’t have time to go get a better outfit before committing his first crime. Or he lost a bet and the asked awareness costume for a while. Can’t wait to hear the next podcast.

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    1. Arkon! I think the Marvel guy you’re thinking of is Arkon, Liz Anne! I liked him a little better, though. And Scarlet Witch liked him better than I did.

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  7. More candid Canadian content! Hooray! I was listening trying to anticipate the next entry, and I thought “Ace, the Bat-Hound” would come after Abracadabra. I was disappointed he does not. I’m sure that Ace would’ve received much approval from the girls!

  8. Well well well! I’m happy for this — because I’ve always been more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy. 🙂

    Trying to get the ideas behind the beginning ‘radio switching’ intro. I caught the AC/DC and Abracadabra references, but the others went over my head. Be back after I finish!

    1. Same, Alex. My Marvel period was my teens (the 1980s), then it gets spotty, while my DC reading goes from spotty in the early 80s, to picking almost everything I could find post-Crisis up through 1998.

      I don’t expect “House of Secrets” is a recognizable song, no. Sometimes, it’s more to do with what the girls said, as with the Gremlins riff on the Demons Three. Often, it’s just about getting audio from a character that appears in the episode and on TV/movies somewhere (as with Adam Strange).

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