Not Doctor Manhattan. An Australian rogue. A rabbit who draws comics. A criminal dressed for winter. A man born 100,000 years before his time. Which are hot, which are not? The Girls of the Hot Squad continue evaluating Who’s Who #4’s entries based on sheer datability.
Featuring permanent panelists Isabel, Josée, Nathalie, and Shotgun.
Listen to Episode 20 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.20 Supplemental
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I’m so happy everyone loved Captain Carrot. That comic had more pop culture references than an episode of Gilmore Girls, and most of those had the added bonus of being an animal pun. (“Byrd Reynolds talking about that time he appeared in Playbill magazine” takes an extra effort to appreciate) though it can get a little exhausting in large doses.
But it includes *the* best crisis crossover of 1983 (because the only other choice was JLA where Black Canary became her own daughter) – “Crisis on Earth-C”. The Fire and Water Network on Earth-C would be named after Firestork and Aquaduck.
And I’m moderately embarrassed to say it took me years to realize that iconic DC editor’s name *wasn’t* “E. Nelson BIRDwell”.
And, as they say on Earth-C, “Happy Gnu Year!”
For the longest time I could not figure out what Cap. Comet was holding under his arm in Kingdom Come until today thank y’all this has been bugging me for years , cause the helmet looks like a drum in K.C.
The share amount of giggles that happened at ‘jet pack belt’ makes me wonder if this was a sangria episode?
Capt Atom – I sort of like the wonky Ditko costume. I don’t know if the plan is to do other costume versions later (like OHOTMU) but the original gold chain mail and the Kingdom Come version are pretty cool. I am glad you shared the updated version as it is superior. I never understood the ‘spraypaint’ need but I suppose it means he didn’t have to always have gloves and boots with him.
Capt Boomerang – yes, his son can manifest energy boomerangs and as the cooler ‘beanie, 5 oclock shadow, turtleneck’ look. Here he looks like a toy mascot which makes it work for me.
Capt Comet – I never quite understand his power sets. At times he is a b-lister with ‘enhanced physiology’, at times he is strong enough to take on Superman and be the sole warden in the super-villain gulag in Kingdom Come. Since I never quite know just how strong he is, I have never liked or disliked him. The costume is pretty straightforward fare for the time period.
Happy new year to all!
As a teenager I dug the new Captain Atom look. As an adult I like his previous Charlton costumes much more. Just more fun and colorful. I did like them weaving the Charlton backstory in, and roping in other DC characters, often without their permission (like Blue Beetle).
I highly recommend The Girls check out one of the best JLU episodes “Flash and Substance”. The two Captains of the Rogues Gallery, Boomerang and Cold, team-up with the Mirror Master to ruin the opening day of The Flash Museum. It’s a really great snapshot of how the Flash and his Rogues interacted in the Silver Age with some modern day examination thrown in.
Captain Carrot is boss, and it boggles my mind that DC NEVER got an animted series off the ground. Like Brian Ciufo said above, the “Crisis on Earth-C” storyline is wonderful. Where else are you going to meet Stacked Canary and Green Sparrow?
The laughter over the jet belt just proves my theory that The Girls can shake longtime comic fans out of their complacency by questioning such things. To me, Jet packs are part and parcel with sci-fi heroes Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, who were clearly, at least partially the inspiration for Captain Comet and the later (and more enduring) Adam Strange. But now that you mention it…it’s pretty silly!
Special All-Captain Episode Go!
I like how, because his universe runs on cartoon physics, Captain Carrot is virtually unkillable. Something falls and crushes him, he just flattens into a pancake and then bounces back up.
Captain Carrot was indeed originally named Roger Rabbit in his first appearances, but DC changed the name after learning that the book “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” had come out first. (They changed the name long before the more famous movie came out.) It was a gradual phase-out, first revealing that his full name was “Roger Rodney Rabbit,” calling him by all three names for a couple of issues, then calling him “R. Rodney Rabbit” and finally just “Rodney Rabbit.”
As a side note, I just wanted to mention that the cover of issue #14 included the Earth-C versions of the book’s creative team: Roy Thomcat, Scottie Shaw! (still with an exclamation point), E. Nelson Birdwell, Owl Gordon, and Duck G. Ordano. Inside the issue, classic comic writer Gardner F. Fox appears as a character, with his name completely unchanged from his human counterpart.
Captain Comet: I first encountered him in the 1970s series The Secret Society of Super-Villains, where he was the heroic antagonist of the title villain team. I didn’t realize at the time that he had been a vintage Silver Age character (I came into the book a few issues in, and all the characters were new to me.)
Since they asked about Captain Cold’s embarrassing surname “Snart” and whether his sister ever changed her name, she did indeed; even before becoming the costumed criminal Golden Glider, she changed her name to the more dignified “Lisa Star” during her career as a figure-skater. You’ll get to her eventually when you reach the G’s, but you’ll undoubtedly have forgotten this comment by then.
I have to disagree with the Hot Squad that someone named Leonard Snart could never be cool. In the Arrowverse, Wentworth Miller portrayed Leonard as an intelligent and highly competent villain with a sharp sarcastic wit, making him the epitome of cool. Of course, Miller’s handsome good looks didn’t hurt matters. Regardless, I thought his cool and calculating Captain Cold served as an excellent foil to Grant Gustin’s warm and caring Flash. Happily, the two characters grew to become close frenemies over the course of the series.
Thank you for another remarkable episode.
P.S. Yes, I realize my comment is full of cool/cold puns. Given the subject matter, I couldn’t find any way to avoid it.