oHOTmu or NOT Ep.54: Iron Man to J. Jonah Jameson

Invincible Avengers. A card-playing hero. A Green Goblin wannabe. A tabloid publisher. Which are hot and which are not? An important episode for the girls of the Canadian Hot Squad who need to make these hard decisions.

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

Listen to Episode 54 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.54 Supplemental

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20 responses to “oHOTmu or NOT Ep.54: Iron Man to J. Jonah Jameson

  1. Wow, big day. Has there been a single episode with this many Marvel movie stars?

    I liked the Silver Centurion armor (as its often called) at the time, but you can tell it was heavily influenced by the Transformers craze. I do like the color scheme as an alternative, which is another reason I LOVE that Monaco scene in Iron Man 2, with the suitcase armor, which was inspired by this one. I think there is a more “boxy” red and silver/white armor in Iron Man 3 as well, but who can keep up with those.

    Rhodey not getting an unmasked headshot is kind of odd. In 1984, Mattel released an Iron Man figure in their Secret Wars toy line. His file card said it was Jim Rhodes, but the “Secret Shield” flicker image showed Tony Stark. So not a great track record for portraying a black man as Iron Man outside of his own comic.

    I enjoyed the girls refusal to let the scatalogical inquires go, despite Siskoid’s mounting frustration. And yes, Tony is usually shown with a body suit or clothes under his armor in the films so…eww.

    Jack of Hearts…I’m kind of surprised he got a hot. He’s a hot mess of a concept, that’s for sure. Most comic nerds site George Perez as designing intricate costumes that are hard for other artists to duplicate, but I doubt any equal ol’ Jack here!

    Jack O’ Lantern is a cool visual for sure, and I wish they’d just left him alone, and not had him become Hobgoblin II. Or III or however that worked out. I always thought his flying thing looked like the 80s gimmicky toy, the Pogo Ball. Not a sponsor.

    J. Jonah Jameson…what a complex character. Complex because in a lot of ways, there’s no real good motivation set for his hatred of Spider-Man in the early comics. Especially when he started bankrolling super villains and Spider-Slayers. J. K. Simmons’ version is more relatable because they never went that far with him…yet. And I hope they don’t. It’s a bridge too far, even if Lee and Ditko started it. Looking forward to what the girls think of his son’s convoluted life path!

    Great episode, as always!

    Chris

    1. Three has happened before (Baron Mordo, Baron Zemo and Batroc are all in the same episode, for example), and it’s gonna happen more and more as the MCU continues to expand!

      Record belongs to episode 46: Gyrich, Justin Hammer, Havok and Hawkeye have all appeared in movies.

        1. Oh, and I forgot to say…I never noticed Iron Fist wasn’t here, and I have this issue! And not in the book of the dead either? I’m surprised they didn’t put an “opps!” entry in at some point.

          Chris

  2. My one comment re: Jack of Hearts–the reason the character never really took off is because artists hated drawing the intricate costume and would sometimes flat out refuse to do a book if he was in it.

    Case in point: Back when I was in art school, one of my instructors was the legendary Tex Blaisdell, who at that point in his career was doing a lot of background work. Apparently not too long before I knew him, a Marvel editor contacted him about inking a book under a heavy deadline. Tex asked what the book was, and he was simply told “Spider-Man.”

    Tex gets the pages, and sees it’s a MTU with Spider-Man and the Jack of Hearts. Tex takes one look at the costume and calls the editor, complaining about how much extra work this book will be, with JOH on nearly every page. Tex then found out that the editor got turned down by about half a dozen other inkers, once they learned JOH was the co-star. By the time he called Tex, he knew just to mention Spider-Man only and hoped he could sneak the book by. Tex was not shy about voicing his displeasure generally, so I can only imagine he ripped the editor a new one.

    The credited inker for the issue I’m thinking of (MTU 134) was finally done by Mike Esposito, whose rep was being able to turn around a book in a weekend when you had no other alternatives.

    Oh, thanks for including the Dylan song. Nice touch.

    Ok, two comments.

  3. As usual, another great episode.

    I definitely like the red/gold armor as opposed to the silver version. It also makes more sense that Tony would have penis missiles. He’s such a playah. I wonder what he would call the barrage of penis missiles as a maneuver. Perhaps he calls it a ‘dick move’?

    I have always loved Jack of Hearts’ look but I can only imagine how painful it was to draw! I never noticed the arrow pointing to his junk. Sort of the reverse of ‘my eyes are up here’ comment. Hey ladies, my package is up here! Poor dude ended up dead I believe, blown up. I bet he has a great sense of humor. He looks like a real card.

    The Anj outfit of the day is Jack O Lantern. I would totally wear that rig. Of course, I’m an avid jack o lantern carver, so it seems appropriate. And I realize that I will like almost anything Ditko draws. I also wonder what he looks like without the mask. Would we say he is ‘out of his gourd’ regardless of the mask?

    Thanks so much for the Valentine. And for tolerating my puns!

  4. Carrying on the alliteration, it was later revealed that JJJ’s father’s name was ALSO J. Jonah Jameson. So JJJ is actually J. Jonah Jameson Jr.

  5. First off, a big thank you to Siskoid and the Canadian Hot Squad for the Valentine’s Day card. It is currently on display in our living room. As an added bonus, the arrival of the card gave me an opportunity to try and explain the concept behind this show to my wife and daughter. I only hope my feeble attempt at an explanation did justice to this quirky little podcast.

    Jack of Hearts: My only experience with this character was his guest appearance in an issue or two of Silver Surfer (vol. 3 #76-78). As I recall, he seemed an interesting enough character. It’s a shame that his costume design may have dissuaded creators from using him more often, which, in turn, may have kept him from becoming a more fully developed and interesting character. Why didn’t anyone redesign his costume? Wait a second [pause for quick Google search], Jack actual received a sleek new costume (sans crotch arrow) in that same Silver Surfer story. So, I guess his overly complicated costume design was not the only reason he never took off.

    Jack O’Lantern: This may be a stretch, but the green scales of his armor may be intended to look like pumpkin leaves. No? Oh well, I gave it a shot. I have to admit that I like the flames on the helmet, but they must play havoc with smoke alarms and fire sprinkler systems. Perhaps the reason he wears fish scale armor is that he’s constantly being doused in water by fire sprinklers. Still no? Curses, foiled again.

  6. At a recent comic convention, I met Keith Giffen (who drew Jack of Hearts’ first appearance) and saw that he had a sign posted with his rates for drawing sketches/commissions. As I recall, for most sketches he charged $150 for a full-figure drawing…but if you wanted Jack of Hearts, it would cost you $750, just because he hates drawing that costume.

    Regarding the use of alliteration: Most of the alliterative names (Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, J. Jonah Jameson) were from series that Stan Lee wrote, because he found it a useful mnemonic device. The non-alliterative heroes (Tony Stark, Don Blake, Hank Pym) tended to be in the series where Stan came up with the plots, but left the final script-writing to his brother, Larry Lieber. Maybe the reason Larry avoided using alliterative names was that he had one himself.

  7. Hey there,

    I’ve been waiting for this episode for awhile, like the original Guardians of Galaxy, Jack of Hearts is on of my favorite characters of all time, and yes, being an old comics fan I never really noticed the crotch arrow.
    Besides that, I always considered Jack to be an allegory of what it’s like being biracial, from two different worlds but never being truly embraced by either. The left half of his body is a purplish blue thanks to his alien DNA and the heart around his eye is a makeup/stick-on thing.

    When Jack first went into space, it was to rescue his mother’s home planet, contraxia, which was icing over as its Star was dying, after succeeding at that, he went deeper into space. So, he was considered a somewhat cosmic character for awhile. The Contraxia planet actually showed up in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I was super excited that maybe Jack could show up in the MCU someday. (Yeah right)

    His 4 issue mini series had some quite wonder artwork by George Freeman, while being written by Bill Manto (same guy that did Rocket Raccoon).

    He’s mostly been a supporting character, and not been around much, as others have said, because of the complexity of his costume. Jack of Hearts really is an interesting superhero and I wish we had gotten more of him over the years. Always a Jack never a King…

  8. Great show, as usual. Siskoid, excellent job on the editing for that last little stinger with JJJ. And thank you so much, everyone, for the Valentine’s card! You guys kicked arts and craft ass!

    Iron Man I – I always liked the Silver Centurion armour because the change seemed like a special event since he had the golden armour for so long. Now it seems every issue, there’s a new type of armour so it doesn’t seem as special anymore. I like the golden armour as well (minus the nose version), but that silver armour was such a big deal when it debuted.

    Jack of Hearts – A great, and warranted, reaction. He seemed too goofy to me but, then again, I always got him mixed up with Psycho-Pirate from DC (I don’t know why, they don’t look alike at all). I feel like the arrow is pointing to where he stores his zero fluid.

    Jack O’Lantern – I really enjoy that Marvel villains seem to steal other villains’ schtick. From Hobgoblin stealing Green Goblin’s thing and then, Jack O’Lantern stealing Hobgoblin’s thing. Because didn’t Jack O’Lantern become the next Hobgoblin at some point? It’s almost like a bunch of understudies to Green Goblin.

    Jameson, J. Jonah – He was always that guy I loved to hate. The ’60’s cartoon and J.K. Simmons just solidified that feeling. Paaaarker!! And if I remember my earlier Spider-Man correctly (please correct me if I’m wrong, anybody) but I think you were correct that he was a blustering blowhard at work but a very caring husband and father at home. Though I may be remembering his second marriage at this point.

    Keep up the great work as this show constantly brightens my day every time I see a new episode drop.

    P.S. – I’m the farthest thing from ruthless at card games but I’ll certainly try. Just to take down Gene Hendricks……..

  9. Impressive podcast…most impressive. I always liked the Silver Cantorian armor. It’s no Iron Man 2020 but, it’s cool… great I can now not look at those missle in that one panel and not see wangs any more…sigh. Can’t really see Rhodey waring an under bust corset. Though the image of him face wise in comics when he had the box hair cut….. which came latter. At this point he had the mini afro. But, with the box hair cut he looked more like Mike Jay White than Donald Cheadle (The voice of Donald duck. ) Or Terrence Howard with out the mask. Yeah the Blizzard fight is defiantly Tony as Iron Man. Though cool seeing the Briefcase suit.

    Was awesome seeing that in Iron Man too. Jack of Hearts…. how, how did I not see the arrow to his joy stick? The costume is now even weirder than I once thought. I get the look is based on a Jack of hearts plating card. But, oy. The heart thing on his eye kind of works. Cool character… but, he could use a character redesign.

    Ah Jack O’ Lantern. The Hobgoblin that Mark Hamel voiced in the 9s cartoon. Yep the mask is doing an expression. No it’s chain mail not fish scales… but that could work as that. Scale armor or scale mail as it’s called. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_armour Yep that’s how it looks, kind of like what Aqua man wares…which is weird he’d ware armor in the sea.

    Ah J.J.J. what a character. Stan has joked he was based on him. To ware in Spider Girl JJJ was drawn to look like him in the comic. The look kind of fits him. Any way can’t wait for the next episode.

  10. Ok, is polishing your tea pot some sort of Canadian euphemism that I don’t understand? I didn’t think anything about it when the ladies mentioned it in the body of the show, but when they complimented someone’s tea pot collection for the Patreon…well, it made me wonder.

    Also, what is a foot mask? In the US, we call those things that we wear so no one can recognize us by our feet shoes.

    The alliteration didn’t always help Stan remember names. Remember those Fantastic Four issues where Bob Banner turned into the Hulk.

    I always thought the Iron Man armor that Tony was wearing at this time looked too bulky, almost as if he had regressed it in design. I think the white coloring is too bland, too.

    As for JJJ, I wonder if Stan and Steve Ditko put him in so readers could be entertained by Spidey giving him comeuppance after Peter had to put up with his abuse. Working man’s fantasy and all.

    As always, I enjoyed the show. Thanks for sharing!

  11. The Valentines were great! Thank you for making a couple for my daughters. They remembered giving the “Cool/Drool” feedback, so they realized who the letters were from right away. Man, they’re so funny, you’re all such cards!

    Silver Iron Man was so cool as the new character design, even with the very 80s shoulder pads. I do wish it would come back. But not Tony’s jeri curl hairdo. And it’s not being jealous that he had the hair for it. Nope, not me, nuh-uh!

    Rhodey as Iron Man made for some great stories. The only Avengers who knew Tony’s secret were Wasp, Captain America, Thor, and Tigra, and he looped in a nerdy co-worker from Stark Enterprises to help him run the suit (hooray for nerds!), but other than that, he tried to keep it under wraps that he was a new Iron Man. Which makes sense or you could see supervillains trying to take advantage of that. The rep of “Iron Man” kinda made bad guys be cautious, whereas if they knew a rookie was in the armor, they’d have let loose on poor Rhodey. And talk about going thru imposter syndrome. Lots of love for Rhodey.

    Jack of Hearts costume is amazing. I totally understand why artists don’t want to do it for comics. I’m fine with it living on as pin-ups alone.

    JJJ alternates between being a supremely competent newsman and the biggest BS artist, but either way, he was the guy you loved to hate. And over the last 5-10 years, the comics have done some AMAZING things with him, and now I can’t hate him anymore. Siskoid, are you going to get into the more recent twists-n-turns in the “future looks” episode for this issue? It’s not really changes in costume, but as a character, he’s made MAJOR changes IMHO.

    Jack O’Lantern, Ghost Rider, Firelord, and the Human Torch should have formed a Billy Joel cover band to perform “We didn’t start the fire.” … I’ll let myself out.

  12. Man, Jack of Hearts origin is more convoluted than his costume!
    Has anyone ever explored JJJ’s past? What has puzzled me for years, at least since the first issue of Marvels, is how did he, a reporter, get to the position of publisher and/or owner? Did he come form money? Was he that determined and ruthless to not only rise from reporter to editor but also to publisher? Was the the last man standing in some corporate collapse. To mix genres, how does Clark Kent become Charles Foster Kane in less than 20 years?

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