Episode 116: Thor RagnarOx

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1. The X-Men #19: The Mimic must have spent a lot of time near Steve Martin, because he’s sure a Jerk! HEY-OH!

   As for other “power duplicating” characters, the only ones I would add are Rogue (stealing/borrowing, close enough), and Nemesis Kid, a villain of the LSH, whose power let him defeat any opponent often by duplicating and surpassing their powers, although sometimes gave him immunity to the opponent’s powers instead. It seems like there should be more of them, but maybe the major characters like that just get used a lot. OH WAIT! I just remembered the X-Force villain, Gideon. Duplicating powers was his deal, too. But he didn’t duplicate the power to be memorable. HEY-OH! (I’ll try to stop now, honest.)

   Daredevil #15: I’d heard about Ox dying, but couldn’t remember the details. Well, now I know. And that’s I can say about that.

   But I do like John Romita’s artwork. It’s great fun to see his early work here. Gooooood stuff.

   Here’s how I handled the names in this comic:
   Smart guy’s mind in Ox’s body, Smart Ox = Smox
   Ox’s mind in little guy’s body, Little Ox = Lox

   Thor #127: Pro tip, never give your omnipotent power to anyone named “the Merciless”, “the Treacherous”, “the Ruthless”, or “the Shifty”. Just saying.

   So, you were asking about “Pluto” versus “Hades” in the Marvel Universe. It hasn’t been said yet, but they will establish that the Greek and Roman gods are the same pantheon, but the individual gods were known by and answer to both names. Which fits culturally with the heritage of the Romans gods being absorbed from Greek culture, as I understand it. In fact, I accepted that so intrinsically, that I was completely thrown when DC’s War of the Gods event in the 90s actually had the Greek gods fighting with their Roman counterparts!

   Ok, so the Asgar-nauts quest is over, and you talked about Odin sending them out because the warriors were bored and fighting too much. This sounds like my daughters when they’re on summer vacation. Alternating cries of “I’m bored” and “She’s bugging me!” Until me or my wife says “Go outside and find something to do!” So the whole quest boils down to keeping a bunch of rowdy boys busy. Now I’m terrified at the thought that I follow parenting advice from Odin. Noooooo!

   Wait a minute, the Ragnarok prophecy about Loki’s treason. Instead of being surprised that Odin trusts and believes Loki all the time, is this why Odin acts that way? Like, Odin thinking “I can postpone Ragtime by giving Loki as little reason as possible to betray Asgard, so I’ll give him all the chances I can.” Now that’s not really consistent with the early Journey Into Mystery stories (which I just finished reading to catch up), where Loki’s imprisoned in a tree, or chained to a wall, or something else. Not really feeling the trust there.

   Tales to Astonish #79: Namor gets shot in this story, and the questions is, is Namor bulletproof? I know he is in later stories, but couldn’t say if that’s been established yet. But the bullet gives him a bare scratch on the shoulder, and Namor passes out until he reaches water. And, there’s no blood in any of those panels. Unless, Namor’s blood is clear! WAIT! Is Namor’s blood just water? Is that why he gets stronger in water, literally his life’s blood? Maaaaaybe?

   Hulk vs Herc was pretty cool, but not a lot to say about it. I totally dug the mini-crossover with Thor’s comic. While this was also kinda done with the Wasp between Namor’s story and the Avengers, this was a bigger story in my mind. GASP! And they’re both Tales to Astonish crossovers!

   Question: does this kind of overlap with characters make the world seem “smaller”, or the continuity “tighter”? And are those thoughts mutually exclusive or not?

   FYI, I just started reading the Hercules mini-series from the 80s. It’s awesome!

   Great show again! Until next time, or until oh dang it, Jon used the same bit I was going to, namely “Ox’s brother becomes the new Ox and no one notices”, and I’m too frazzled to think of another bit, make mine Make Ours Marvel.

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