Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? Ep.14: Blackrock to Blok

A TV villain. A recovering drug addict. A paradoxical Supergirl enemy. DC’s answer to the Hulk. A sentient rock. Which are hot, which are not? The Girls of the Hot Squad begin their assessment of Who’s Who #3’s entries based on sheer datability.

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

Listen to Episode 14 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.14 Supplemental

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19 responses to “Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? Ep.14: Blackrock to Blok

  1. Blackrock & Silverstone? Are you sure this isn’t a Flintstones plot?

    Black Spider is someone I am completely unfamiliar with, but the backstory (outside of shooting his father) does sound familiar. Probably a lot of overlap with all the Anti-Drug Anti-Heroes out there.

    Blackstar was a pretty decent Filmation cartoon with a nice toyline … What? It’s an Anti-Semitic Jew who’s smarter that 20 Einsteins? Oh. Nevermind.

    Finally, a character I know about. While I’ve read the appearances of Mark in “The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told” and “Legends”, I’m much more familiar with his brother Roland from the Nightwing series. The super-smart, super-strong crime lord was a great adversary for Dick Grayson.

    I’m not a big Legion reader, so I only know of Blok as the stand-in for The Thing when John Byrne had Superman fight the pseudo Fantastic Four.

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  2. After hearing the recipe for a bread sandwich, I know why no one picked a cooking show as their favorite. Zing!

    Black Rock – I also zoned out, but I think Les Vegas is cousins with Sam Francisco.

    Black Spider – that costume is so tight I can see the inside of his ear.

    Blackstarr – “She’s a holocaust survivor who came to believe in the Nazi’s….” Nope. Not today. I’d rather revisit Black Rock. Although a dress made from the fabric of space and time probably wins Project Runway.

    Blockbuster – Maybe he doesn’t bust blocks but he blocks Busters. Ever think of that?

    Bet you’re all having second thoughts about saying I’m funny now, arent you? Well, it’s too late. We’re all best friends and I’m coming for Christmas. How bad can the weather be in Canada this time of year anyway? I’ll just look it up and…mother of pearl!!! Nevermind. We don’t have to be that close.

    Blok – Black Spider puts in the time and effort to recover from addiction and get some sick ass abs and he loses to a rock.

    Favorite line is a tie “he could have been hot, alas he is not.” And “Blok fucking tracks”

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  3. Fun fact: Blackrock was not originally named after a building. From Action Comics #458:

    The origin of Blackrock's name.

    It could have been worse…

    Who Blackrock could have been.

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  4. Hilarious episode. Above average, even! Thank God you all enjoy doing this so much. We’d hate to live without it. Also, I am a Christian listener, and like the Baptist college recruiter, I find this to be a perfectly tolerable level of vulgarity. Not gonna lie, though, the quality of the comedy ups my tolerance a lot. It’s prudishness relativism.

    Siskoid is correct. Paul Kupperberg, co-creator of Blackstarr, is Jewish. He even lived in Chicago in the same apartment building that he put Supergirl in and had a darling Jewish landlady of the same name as Supergirl’s darling Jewish landlady. I know all this because I listen to…Funny! They Don’t Look Jewish! — the podcast about explicit Jewish content in comics. They covered the Blackstarr issues of Supergirl and interviewed Paul Kupperberg. Any errors I made in all my trivia above are due to my memory, not their excellent reporting.

    Looking forward to hearing you cover more “B” names. There are plenty more.

    1. Must reveal that when I asked if the show was ok for Christians, it was an inside joke because we’d talked among ourselves about a YouTube video trend where Christians ask “is _____ okay for Christians?” and of course only the most prudish, hardcore personalities were doing these. So throughout October, when we watched horror movies, someone would turn to the rest at some crucial point asking, “uhmmm… is this okay for Christians?”. So that’s where that came from.

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      1. This exchange made me think of 1 Corinthians 10:23: “”All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things build up.” I think for me, OHOTMU or Not is helpful.

          1. I don’t know enough about Heathens. I know I’ve seen material that conflicted with secular humanist values. One more quote from Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” I think “garbage in, garbage out” is a good warning for everyone.

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          2. Boy, this got off topic quickly.

            If you want to learn about Heathens, the most foundational thing to read would be The Havamal. Think of it as the 10 Commandments, except it’s a poem with 164 stanzas.

            https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/havamal.html

            But, yes, “Garbage In, Garbage Out” is usually the best way to look at a religion and its adherents, especially if there’s a lack of critical thinking.

          3. Gene, thanks for the source. I’ll check it out. I wasn’t talking about religion when I said “garbage in, garbage out.” I was talking about the content we consume. I think that what we see, hear, and think about affects our character, our emotional state, and our worldview. So I was making an argument that we should all have standards for the content we consume, regardless of our faith or the lack thereof. Based on what I know of your character, I expect, despite your joke above, that you actually have pretty high standards for what you consume. I meant to defend the concept of filtering our input, not insult you or your faith or anyone else or their beliefs. Please forgive me.

          4. I keep reading heathens as Heathers and trying to figure out what that movie has to do with all this and why you’re a Heather…..

  5. Great episode with lots of giggles. It felt like a sangria episode!

    I don’t have much to say other than I bet a month’s rent on Black Spider being ‘hot’. It’s called gambling because you might lose!
    Ah well.

  6. Horry for more Hot or Not! This show sounded like a blast, judging from the amount of laughing, snorts, and gasps. It certainly was a blast to listen to, and the Hot Squad were on form for this episode! I’m slowly catching up!

    Blackrock – this is a guy I first encountered in Who’s Who and I liked the look of the costume. I think it’s the mask and green/purple colour combo. I don’t know anything about any of his stories. Bonus points for Zappa’s “Help, I’m A Rock”

    Black Spider – this guy gives me body image problems.

    Blockbuster – every story I’ve read of this character (not that many), I’ve felt very empathetic towards him. I think the ladies would enjoy the character more if they read the stories.

    Blok – my wife used to be a massage therapist and, for some schooling, had to practice hot stone/rock massage on me. It was one of the weirdest feelings I’ve had. (not) fun fact: I really don’t like massages. Send your hatemail to the appropriate places.

    This was tons of fun and I’m looking forward to catching up! Keep up the great work!

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