DC’s Phantom of the Opera. A goopy guy. One whose touch you should avoid. A punctual villain. Spoiler’s father. Which are hot, which are not? The Girls of the Hot Squad continue their evaluation of Who’s Who #5’s entries based on sheer datability.
Featuring permanent panelists Isabel, Josée, Nathalie, Shotgun, and Amelie.
Listen to Episode 26 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.26 Supplemental
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In the Batman cartoon Clayface 2 was given the actor origin as well as the shape changing powers ,but he can’t hold his forms for very long & the best version of him is in the Harley Quinn cartoon where he’s an actor who comes up with tons of unnecessary backstories. Clock King & The Riddler in the Harley Quinn show are up for best couple at the Villies award show. And no he still doesn’t remove the mask when they kiss. Do y’all think if the suit of Cluemaster might look better if they were smaller & more of them? Also in the comics Riddler tried to kill Cluemaster because he saw him as an inferior copycat, & in later stories Cluemaster is given the origin of a failed game show host.
During the Cluemaster discussion, the Blackadder character she was trying to remember is Lord Flashheart, played by the late, great Rik Mayall.
Rough week, so very grateful for some fun irreverance from the Girls (and Siskoid, of course).
Clayfaces: I’m not surprised Basil Karlo (Iove that name) got a hot. There’s something romantic about those old gothic villains, like the Phantom of the Opera. Clayface II looks pretty dopey here, especially once you are used to the big hulking BTAS version that became the default look of all Clayfaces. Although Rogers co-created Preston Payne, the face he gives him here doesn’t look nearly as affected by the acromegaly as in the initial Detective issues Rogers drew. Can’t wait to hear what the Girls think about the Mudpack storyline.
Clock King: And here’s where that irreverance REALLY kicks in. The mort of all morts (sorry Chris Mort) gets a hot. The flustered sound of Siskoid’s voice was worth it, though!
Cluemaster: A pretty no-nothing villain until the Spoiler connection was added. Carmine Infantino tended to add baggy elements to clothes in weird places, especially around this time. But I like the longjohns theory. As far as his crotch, artists tend to not follow previous artists’ takes on such matters, so depending on the book, the artist and the era, ol’ bandana-face may be packing one day, and shriveled the next.
So he’s a grower, not a shower.
Laugh out loud funny episode as I was driving in.
Clock King – I cannot believe he was a hot, even though he has that sweet face (clock pun intended). But seriously, such a bizarre costume and story and he is loved by the gang. Insanity. Love Siskoid’s incredulous tone around the whole thing. And as someone who is always punctual, the love of that trait gave me some hope!
ClueMaster – whoever said ‘looks like a bunch of tylenol’ voiced something I have said since I first saw this character. He should be called ‘Migraine Buster’ chucking tylenol motrin, and excedrin to those suffering. I simply cannot see him as anything other than a pill dispenser. Kudos!
OK, this episode is where my opinions of the characters were shaped by my first exposure to them.
Clayface 2 was a great villain for the Batman time-period when he first appeared. Batman was battling all kinds of weird creatures. If the writer or editor wanted to pull out another weird creature for Batman to fight, they could use Clayface and not have to come up with a backstory for a new creature. Just so you know, Batman took a dip in the rainbow pool in Detective Comics 312 for a little Clayface 2 vs Clay Batman action.
While certain versions of Clayface 2 look pretty cool, my first exposure to him was on the 1977 New Adventures of Batman and Robin cartoon. He looked like partially melted ice cream with a face and legs. He was also colored grey. I don’t think anyone wants grey ice cream or ice cream with a face or legs for that matter. The final damning comment on Clayface came from my mom, of all people. A Batgirl statue, based on The Batman Adventures Holiday special comic/Holiday Knights TV episode, was sculpted so Clayface is the base and Batgirl is kicking him. When my mom saw my statue, she said “Why is Batgirl standing in a big pile of shit?” Bless her, she didn’t ask why the pile of shit had eyes and teeth.
My first exposure to Clayface 3 was his first appearance. He came across as so sympathetic, he almost seemed like the protagonist and Batman almost seemed like the villain. I came to Clayface 1 last, in Detective 496. I didn’t even know he existed before then.
Clock King looks cool in his entry here. His costume is campy fun. My first exposure to him was the 1966 Batman TV show, where, he was just an overweight guy with clock decals applied to regular clothes. That said, the TV Clock King had a hench moll named Millie Second, played by Eileen O’Neill, who I think is one of the prettiest women on the show. Considering how many pretty girls guest-starred on Batman, that made Millie not just hot but an inferno. Yeah, Julie “Catwoman” Newmar and Yvonne “Batgirl” Craig were THE prettiest women on the show. Oh, the Clock King episode was the first writing credit Bill Finger received on a Batman story, so that makes it special. Considering how many Batman’s rogues Finger created, including all of the TV’s big 4 villains, I wonder why he didn’t pen a story featuring one of them.
Cluemaster…the first time I saw him, he was drawn by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez in Batman 336. JLGL can make anybody look good.
I’m glad to hear my purchase of a Clock King Lego figure was justified.