FH Mini 131 - Hostesses with the Mostesses

[0:00] Hey, everyone, and welcome to the Flophouse Mini.

[0:07] As you all know, if you're listening, probably, the Flophouse is a podcast where we talk about

[0:13] bad movies normally.

[0:14] But in this case, we're gonna do something a little different in that it's an off week,

[0:20] and off weeks are when we do our Flophouse Minis.

[0:23] And for this mini, I wanted to combine something that Elliot loves with something that he hates

[0:29] and watch them fight it out in his brain.

[0:31] Fried chicken and Kokomo?

[0:34] Close.

[0:35] Marvel Comics and Fruit.

[0:39] Because in the 70s and 80s, hostess did a series of comic book ads for their fruit pies.

[0:45] Of course, these ran not just in Marvel Comics, but also in DC, Archie, Gold Key, and Harvey

[0:50] Comics.

[0:51] And some of the ads were for non-fruit treats like Twinkies.

[0:54] But I'm gonna be focusing on Marvel and Fruit Pies.

[0:57] And the premise of these ads were usually that superheroes were foiling crime with the

[1:01] strategic deployment of fruit pies.

[1:04] Yeah, the fruit pies would distract the villain often and they'd go, I don't wanna steal these

[1:08] millions when I could have these delicious fruit pies.

[1:10] Yeah, that makes sense.

[1:11] Take that, Thanos.

[1:12] Mm-hmm.

[1:13] And so we're gonna look-

[1:14] Take that, Fin Fang Foom.

[1:15] Yeah, Thanos is like, I love death, but even more, I love cherry pies.

[1:21] Fin Fang Foom, would a fruit pie be enough to even interest that guy?

[1:26] Well, the thing is, Fin Fang Foom can only be put to sleep by a special herb.

[1:30] So if that's one of the ingredients in Hostess Fruit Pies, then it would be enough to do

[1:33] the trick.

[1:34] Yeah.

[1:35] Anyway, we're gonna look through some of these ads.

[1:36] And obviously, this is not just for Elliot.

[1:38] It's also open to Stuart, but I especially wanted Elliot's insider knowledge of comics.

[1:44] And I-

[1:45] And I'm just here to keep him honest.

[1:47] Yeah, you're-

[1:48] Yeah.

[1:49] And I wanted to-

[1:50] We're gonna look through these things.

[1:51] I wanted to rate each of these installments on a scale of one to 10 in two categories.

[1:55] The first category, of course, Fidelity to the Material.

[1:58] How much does this feel like a regular adventure that these heroes might have?

[2:04] How on-model is the characterization, et cetera?

[2:06] So this really ties into our The Garfield Movie episode just last week, which was very

[2:10] off-model for that character.

[2:12] Yeah, that's true.

[2:13] And the second category, of course, is how well do we think the pies would work in this

[2:17] situation?

[2:18] Is this a plausible deployment of pies as weapons?

[2:22] So-

[2:23] What's the score rating?

[2:25] It's a one to 10 on each of these.

[2:27] Is 10 the best or worst?

[2:29] 10 is the best in this case, yeah.

[2:32] Just best, most-

[2:33] Most-

[2:34] Sorry, what was the question?

[2:40] That was a solid 10 joke, Dan.

[2:42] And you gave him nothing.

[2:44] I'm so distracted by seeing whether I understand how to share my screen.

[2:49] Dan's like, I'm confused by the rules of my own game.

[2:52] The ultimate jigsaw.

[2:57] That's working right, Elliot?

[2:58] No, I can see nothing.

[3:00] You can see nothing?

[3:01] I mean, I can see you guys.

[3:02] Well, I can see your doctor.

[3:03] Okay, well, hold on.

[3:04] Let's see if we're going to go back down.

[3:07] Yeah, my eyes, the goggles do nothing.

[3:09] Oh, now it's sharing.

[3:10] And I'm seeing a very small window.

[3:12] Well, I'm going to maximize it, so chill out, dude.

[3:16] Wow.

[3:17] I'm sorry that I was accurately reporting what I was seeing to you.

[3:20] I feel like there's no better podcast than hearing middle-aged dudes fiddle with technology.

[3:28] Here we go.

[3:29] So, of course, this first one, I got to move this screen sharing thing out of the way.

[3:35] We've got-

[3:36] If you press the play button on the top of that, it might just show the image and not

[3:41] the whole thing.

[3:42] Oh.

[3:43] At the top.

[3:44] Go to the left.

[3:45] And-

[3:46] Good tip.

[3:47] And there you go.

[3:48] Check that shit out.

[3:49] Okay, so thank you for bearing with us.

[3:52] This one is called-

[3:53] Because there's no way to edit any of that.

[3:55] It has to be shown in real time.

[3:56] No, impossible.

[3:57] Yeah.

[3:58] You know, I think that part of the charm of our show is how ramshackle it is.

[4:02] At least-

[4:03] That's what we tell ourselves.

[4:04] Yeah.

[4:05] It's convenient that it means that we don't have to do as much work.

[4:08] Now, anyway, this one's called Thing and the Ultimate Weapon.

[4:11] And we have, of course-

[4:12] The Thing and the Ultimate Weapon.

[4:13] The Thing.

[4:14] Sorry.

[4:15] The The was hidden in the T.

[4:16] Of course, The Thing from Fantastic Four-

[4:21] First steps.

[4:22] Is here-

[4:23] In theaters soon-ish?

[4:24] Yeah.

[4:25] Maybe already in theaters.

[4:26] Some purple-hooded fellow has The Thing under a hydraulic press.

[4:27] It says it has the power to push through a planet.

[4:28] It will certainly keep this strange-looking human in its place.

[4:29] He certainly has an atomic hydraulo-press, which is-

[4:30] Yeah.

[4:31] I do approve of that.

[4:32] I do.

[4:33] I do.

[4:34] I do.

[4:35] I do.

[4:36] I do.

[4:37] I do.

[4:38] I do.

[4:39] I do.

[4:40] I do.

[4:41] I do.

[4:42] I do.

[4:43] I do.

[4:44] I do.

[4:45] I do.

[4:46] I do approve as an unnecessary complication of what it actually is, which is a hydraulic

[4:50] press.

[4:51] Yeah.

[4:52] Yeah.

[4:53] And, of course, in the grand tradition of villains, he narrates what's going on.

[4:56] He says, look, his hands dig into the metal as if it were paper.

[5:00] And this art is by Sam Keith, right?

[5:02] Yeah, because the characters all have huge hands and feet, phone cord, threads coming

[5:08] off their clothes.

[5:09] And Wolverine is naked.

[5:10] Yes.

[5:11] Yeah, exactly.

[5:12] The Thing, you know, pushes this press off him.

[5:13] He's got this electro man, this robot man, and the robot says, it is time for the ultimate

[5:19] weapon.

[5:20] Torgo.

[5:21] I guess this is a Torgo from Manos, the Hands of Fate.

[5:24] Torgo, the assistant to the master from Manos, the Hands of Fate, the man with goat legs.

[5:29] Yeah.

[5:30] You're portrayed as a kind of somewhat Kirby-esque robot.

[5:33] Yeah.

[5:34] Thing is not enjoying this.

[5:36] Sheesh.

[5:37] Just when I need another challenge.

[5:40] They fight, you know, the Thing is not interested.

[5:44] He's like, oh, fighting is boring.

[5:46] Here, here's some hostess fruit pies, apple, cherry, peach.

[5:50] And the robot, despite being a robot, is eating this pies and says, these are very good.

[5:56] And the Thing says, do you like the light, tender crust and the real fruit filling?

[6:00] Everyone does.

[6:01] Everyone, including Metal Man, apparently.

[6:04] But not me.

[6:05] The Metal Man, of course, DC characters.

[6:07] Yeah.

[6:08] Thank you.

[6:09] Thank you for the fruit pies.

[6:10] But this, this is a generic Metal Man, Torgo.

[6:12] Yeah.

[6:13] So.

[6:14] But Torgo says, you're right.

[6:15] This is better than fighting.

[6:16] And this, I guess the hooded purple guy is a different guy.

[6:22] He says.

[6:23] There's two of them now.

[6:24] Oh, no, there's always two.

[6:25] So there's there's two in the first panel.

[6:26] It's just hard to make them out.

[6:27] Yeah.

[6:28] Oh, yeah.

[6:29] I couldn't tell that was two in the first.

[6:30] But he says they're more to the strange human creature than brawn.

[6:35] I would only wish that we, too, could enjoy some hostess fruit pies.

[6:38] Sigh.

[6:40] Yeah.

[6:41] Yeah.

[6:42] Seems like if they went into the room, they could just get some.

[6:43] Yeah.

[6:44] Part of it is part of it for them is the kink of watching them eat pies.

[6:47] Yeah.

[6:48] Yeah.

[6:49] They're pie cucks.

[6:50] Yeah.

[6:51] So, you know, first off, you know, my question is fidelity to the is Torgo a known Fantastic

[6:59] Four villain or is this to my knowledge?

[7:01] This is not an original Fantastic Four character.

[7:05] This is an addition.

[7:06] These two hooded characters are just kind of vaguely perhaps alien villains.

[7:10] One of them has kind of a green hand, whether they look like Orko a little bit from Masters

[7:14] of the Universe.

[7:15] They kind of look like like the tall man's henchmen that have been shrunk down when he

[7:19] puts them through the tuning forks.

[7:21] Yeah.

[7:22] As far as I know, Torgo is is not a character that that thing has encountered before or

[7:26] any Marvel character before.

[7:27] But the name is the ultimate weapon is the ultimate weapon.

[7:30] Torgo is he looks very Ultron ish.

[7:33] And Torgo certainly is the kind of name that a lot of Marvel characters from the old timely

[7:37] monster days would have had.

[7:39] Gugam, that kind of stuff.

[7:40] I do love the those like Kirby style metal lines on his body.

[7:46] That's just sick.

[7:47] Yeah.

[7:48] So, OK, maybe the villain's not, you know, close to the comics, but what about the characterization

[7:53] of thing here?

[7:54] Oh, he seems he seems to be the thing we know.

[7:56] Oh, but he says there's no overgrown toy is going to keep this blue eyed pretty boy tied

[8:00] down against as well.

[8:01] It's been established.

[8:02] It's canon.

[8:03] He's a he's he's everybody ever love and blue eyed thing.

[8:06] And Petunia's favorite nephew.

[8:08] And when Torgo comes out, he goes she's just running another challenge that she is very

[8:11] thing.

[8:12] So, yeah, he's he's on character.

[8:13] This is a man for him.

[8:15] Now, normally he would just keep punching the robot instead of offering the robot food.

[8:19] It seems like the third act.

[8:22] Yeah.

[8:23] That seems like more the kind of thing that Reed Richards would come Mr. Fantastic coming

[8:25] at the end and be like, wait, I can my electro spectrometer detects that this robot loves

[8:30] fruit pies and gives it to him.

[8:31] You know, but but I think, you know, thing he's he's a man of the people, though.

[8:34] So he would certainly share his his his fruit filled pastry rather than be selfish about

[8:40] it.

[8:41] Does he have to ingest like a shitload of calories because he's the thing you would

[8:44] have to assume?

[8:45] So he must burn so many calories just carrying the mass around.

[8:48] Yeah.

[8:49] Who eats more the thing or concrete?

[8:54] So do they ever talk about how much concrete eats in those stories?

[8:57] They must.

[8:58] Right.

[9:00] I never read Chadwick.

[9:01] Yeah.

[9:02] Daniel Chadwick's number.

[9:03] Right.

[9:04] Yeah.

[9:05] OK.

[9:06] I mean, similar to concrete, you have to assume that all the floors in the Baxter building

[9:10] are reinforced because the thing weighs so much, you know, much as concrete floors had

[9:14] to be read.

[9:15] Oh, yeah.

[9:16] So in there should be a concrete crossover.

[9:21] I don't know why there hasn't been if there hasn't been they should do it.

[9:23] Yeah.

[9:24] I'm going to call it realism, even though obviously there's no realism to be had.

[9:29] It's a superhero comic, but realism will stand in for, you know, fidelity to the source.

[9:35] What's your realism score, would you say, for this one?

[9:38] I'm giving this in terms of realism in the Marvel Universe, I'm giving it a 10.

[9:41] This is the kind of story Thing would have found himself in issues of two and one.

[9:44] The comic book where Thing would team up with a different other hero each week or each month

[9:48] and often with a B-list hero having a B-list adventure with a B-list villain.

[9:53] But I so I'll say in terms of fidelity, the original source, I'm giving it a 10.

[9:58] In terms of would this really work?

[9:59] I'm going to give it a 10.

[10:00] Give it a one.

[10:01] I think that the robot would not express interest

[10:03] in the fruit pie.

[10:04] It's possible that if you can get it to eat it,

[10:05] it would gum up the internal works and break the robot,

[10:08] but I don't think it would be that you would convince

[10:10] the robot that to love fruit pies rather than fighting.

[10:13] No, I have to agree with you.

[10:14] I don't think that these hooded figures,

[10:16] presuming they're the ones who made the robot,

[10:18] would have programmed the robot with taste bud technology.

[10:22] No, TBT.

[10:24] Yeah, so, okay, well, let's...

[10:27] Okay, number one down.

[10:29] Uh-oh, one's called Daredevil's Daredouble?

[10:33] I put the question mark in.

[10:35] It actually has an exclamation point, but...

[10:36] Yeah, an exclamation point outside of the quotes

[10:39] around Daredevil.

[10:40] It's quote, dare dash double, quote, exclamation point,

[10:43] which is an interesting way to...

[10:45] I guess it says Daredevil's Daredevil is the whole phrase.

[10:48] It's got exclamation point at the end of that.

[10:50] Okay, I understand now.

[10:52] There's sort of an explanatory box in here.

[10:57] It says, Ron Rainey, known to film buffs

[10:59] as the man with 999 faces.

[11:02] Yikes.

[11:03] I like that, has retired from the silver screen,

[11:05] but not from his love for disguises.

[11:08] And he's admiring himself in the mirror saying,

[11:11] yeah, I look perfect wearing this Daredevil costume.

[11:14] I can steal anything and Daredevil will take the blame.

[11:18] That's actually a really good plan.

[11:19] Yeah, I mean...

[11:20] It's a great plan.

[11:21] Assuming he doesn't get caught in the act.

[11:23] As someone without Daredevil's powers or fighting prowess,

[11:26] it's very likely that he would get caught

[11:27] in the act of stealing the money.

[11:29] And then he can't say, no, I didn't do it, Daredevil did.

[11:31] Because again, he would be the one holding the money

[11:32] in a Daredevil costume.

[11:34] Otherwise, a great plan.

[11:35] Well, also, I mean, fortunately,

[11:36] he has Daredevil's impressive physique as well.

[11:38] He's a very muscly guy.

[11:41] But it seems to be working.

[11:43] There's, you know, newspapers are saying

[11:44] Daredevil goes on a rampage, crime wave, et cetera.

[11:47] There's an anchor saying that Daredevil has stolen

[11:52] millions in two weeks, which is very successful robbery.

[11:56] And so, Foggy is reading the papers.

[12:00] Daredevil's best friend and law partner, Foggy Nelson.

[12:02] Yeah, he's saying, Matt, I can't just believe this

[12:05] about the Daredevil.

[12:05] And Matt says, neither can I, Foggy.

[12:08] Of course, he really can't believe it.

[12:11] But he has a plan.

[12:12] He has a hunch that the fake Daredevil

[12:15] won't be able to resist Hostess fruit pies.

[12:18] And Dan says that as if he's describing it.

[12:20] But Daredevil literally thinks to himself,

[12:21] I have a hunch the fake Daredevil won't be able

[12:24] to resist these Hostess fruit pies.

[12:26] What's this hunch based on?

[12:27] Just the quality of the pies, you know?

[12:28] Specifying that, yeah.

[12:31] Yeah, and sure enough, that night,

[12:36] fake Daredevil is stealing other stuff from the storefront.

[12:43] So it says the storefront legal services,

[12:46] which is Daredevil and Foggy's at that time,

[12:49] their legal company.

[12:51] They had a storefront law office, you know,

[12:52] because they wanted to help people.

[12:53] Stealing legal files, I guess.

[12:57] And he's loving it, he's laughing.

[12:59] He's laughing.

[13:00] It's hard to tell from the sack what's in there,

[13:01] but he's clearly, the fact that he chose

[13:03] to steal something from right next to or in Daredevil,

[13:07] the actual Daredevil's office.

[13:08] Hell's Kitchen's pretty small.

[13:10] Yeah, it's pretty small.

[13:11] It's a bad stroke of luck for him.

[13:12] Again, if you want to steal millions,

[13:13] at the time, Hell's Kitchen was not the place to go.

[13:15] But that's what it is.

[13:16] You gotta watch the movie, How to Steal a Million.

[13:18] Yeah.

[13:19] That'll tell you.

[13:20] Yeah, that's real up to date, yeah.

[13:21] Daredevil says.

[13:22] You gotta find that Brewster guy.

[13:24] Yeah.

[13:24] Take his stuff.

[13:26] He wants to get rid of it.

[13:27] He wants to get rid of it, yeah.

[13:29] Yeah.

[13:30] There he is right on time, thinks Daredevil.

[13:32] All right, you phony.

[13:34] You've got the pies.

[13:35] Now taking, okay, okay, he was there stealing pies.

[13:39] Oh, so he set a trap.

[13:39] From the law offices.

[13:41] So he seems to be, so, okay,

[13:42] if I'm understanding this correctly,

[13:43] I misunderstood that.

[13:44] Classic honeypot, guys.

[13:45] Daredevil seems to be putting out boxes of fruit pies,

[13:48] and then in panel four, the fake Daredevil's stealing them.

[13:51] If you put boxes of fruit pies

[13:52] on the street outside your office,

[13:54] it is no longer stealing.

[13:55] If someone takes them.

[13:56] You put a sign that says, not for stealing.

[13:58] But it is a trap to catch a thief.

[14:00] To catch him, that's true.

[14:01] Because that's true, he is the thief.

[14:02] Chris Hansen's waiting around the corner.

[14:04] And in the last panel, Daredevil magnanimously says,

[14:10] but I'll let you finish that hostess cherry fruit pie

[14:13] before I do, before I take you in.

[14:16] And Ron Rainby, the man of 999 faces,

[14:22] has a look of mania.

[14:24] He's taking the mask off as a way of acknowledging,

[14:27] you know what, I'm not the real Daredevil.

[14:29] I've been sunk, you know?

[14:29] Yeah, and he's enthusing, real fruit filling,

[14:33] light, tender crust, maybe curtains for me,

[14:36] but what a delicious exit.

[14:38] So, okay, now what do we think of the fidelity

[14:42] as a realism?

[14:43] Realism, that's this.

[14:44] Now, I like, they've got,

[14:47] So this is pre-Frank Miller Daredevil.

[14:49] Daredevil was pretty goofy at that time.

[14:51] So I kind of, the storyline of someone pretending

[14:55] to be Daredevil in order to rob places,

[14:57] that's a very Marvel Comics storyline.

[14:59] That's how Chameleon first came into the comics,

[15:01] who's pretending to be Spider-Man to steal things.

[15:03] There's, Bullseye has pretended to be Daredevil.

[15:05] Kraven's pretending to be Spider-Man.

[15:07] Characters are always pretending to be the heroes.

[15:09] And so, Red Skull, at one point,

[15:13] was in a cloned Captain America body,

[15:14] and I think he was wearing Captain America costume

[15:16] at one point.

[15:17] So I will say that's good fidelity

[15:18] to certainly 70s Marvel, too.

[15:21] A hero dressing up as the bad guy in order to commit crimes.

[15:25] The other way around.

[15:26] Once again, it's hard for me to believe

[15:27] that he loves fruit pies so much

[15:30] that he is going to show up in costume,

[15:33] in his felonious costume, to take those fruit pies

[15:36] and then stop to eat and then be like, you got me.

[15:40] He's already got millions,

[15:42] but he doesn't have those main pies.

[15:44] That's true.

[15:45] There's no way to get those pies with millions.

[15:47] There's just no way.

[15:49] And so, the fact that he doesn't try to run away

[15:52] and continue to take the fruit pies,

[15:53] but instead just stops.

[15:54] Maybe he just knows he can't run away from Daredevil.

[15:55] I mean, the taste of a pie that you steal

[15:57] is so much better than the taste of a pie you pay for.

[16:00] That's very fair, yeah.

[16:01] That's why all those hobos float on the air

[16:03] when they smell a pie.

[16:04] Yeah, and they don't float into stores

[16:05] and then give a couple dollars.

[16:07] Yeah, they don't float over to an ATM.

[16:11] Well, I mean, these are unhoused people,

[16:14] but we're thinking of cartoon hobos.

[16:15] Yeah, and also it's free ATM time periods.

[16:17] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[16:19] These are cartoon hobos with a few top hats.

[16:25] Yeah, it was back in the day where ATM

[16:26] just stood for ass to mouth, like Dan always tells me.

[16:30] That's what he says.

[16:31] Back, he calls those the good old days.

[16:33] But you're right, Dan.

[16:34] We should make clear, we're not talking about real life,

[16:36] unhoused people who float along pie scent

[16:39] to where pies are.

[16:40] So I'm gonna give this, again, a 10 for fidelity

[16:44] to the original comics.

[16:45] And I'm gonna give it a,

[16:46] I think I'm gonna give it a three.

[16:48] Okay, a little better.

[16:49] He's a human foil.

[16:51] It does make a little more sense

[16:53] that this fellow would be distracted by a box of pies.

[16:56] And as an actor, maybe he doesn't have a lot of time.

[17:00] In his busy career, he hadn't had time to eat pies

[17:03] and now that he has access to them.

[17:05] He's been so worried about his physique

[17:06] that this is a real treat for him.

[17:09] I mean, at the very most basic level,

[17:11] he needs sustenance and he also can taste things

[17:15] as opposed to the robot Torgo

[17:17] who neither of those things are true.

[17:18] We're assuming cannot, yeah.

[17:20] Now guys, you brought up Frank Miller before.

[17:23] This one in my research is purported

[17:27] to have been done by Frank Miller.

[17:31] It's the human torch in-

[17:33] The human torch?

[17:34] The human torch in the Ice Master Cometh.

[17:40] Okay, so-

[17:41] That's a very Marvel title.

[17:42] They love to do puns on or plays

[17:45] on kind of like titles of things, famous titles,

[17:48] but also Cometh was a big thing for them.

[17:49] You know, it was always, you know,

[17:50] or Lowe, a something, you know, that was big.

[17:53] So I'm giving him points for that, yeah.

[17:56] A little box says,

[17:58] the city is in the middle of a deep freeze.

[18:01] And the human torch, what does he say?

[18:03] Yeah.

[18:04] The Ice Master is living up to his threat

[18:07] to put us into a new ice age.

[18:10] And we see the Ice Master, he looks kind of like,

[18:14] what's the Rankin Bass character?

[18:16] Like a Jack Frost time?

[18:17] Mr. Freeze Master or whatever.

[18:20] Sure, I don't know.

[18:22] The Cold Miser or whatever, anyway.

[18:24] He looks like the Ice King in,

[18:26] there's a Wizard of Oz comic where they deal

[18:29] with an Ice King and he looks like that.

[18:31] Yeah, and he says-

[18:32] The Wizard of Oz comics, they're really good.

[18:35] Even you're not hot enough to melt my heart of ice,

[18:39] flame face.

[18:40] Interesting, the Wizard of Oz comic

[18:41] is also about someone melting a heart of ice.

[18:43] Interesting, okay.

[18:44] Yeah, it's funny that it says flame face specifically

[18:46] when the whole body is inflamed.

[18:49] Well, it's just meant as an insult, yeah.

[18:51] Spidey is often called the web head.

[18:53] When he's, again, he has webs over his arms

[18:55] as well and his feet.

[18:55] Yeah.

[18:57] The human torch says he's right,

[18:58] his power's not just ice,

[19:00] it's life-stealing cold.

[19:02] And he flies off, the Ice Master taunts him,

[19:08] saying, leaving me cold, hotshot?

[19:11] And he says, getting me something that will warm you

[19:12] from the inside out, Ice Master.

[19:14] Hostess fruit pies, which he tosses.

[19:16] Oh, for me.

[19:17] I assume they're warm now.

[19:19] Yeah, a flaming hand has been holding them, yeah.

[19:21] Yeah, and again, a lot of waxing poetic about these pies.

[19:27] The Ice Master says, what crust so light and tender?

[19:31] And I'm warming up to the real fruit filling.

[19:33] And guys, real quick, was this during a period of time

[19:37] where people were really concerned

[19:39] that the crust wouldn't be light and tender enough?

[19:41] I guess so.

[19:42] I mean, that's always the concern with pies.

[19:44] You want it to be very light and tender.

[19:46] And certainly a packaged pie with a shelf life.

[19:48] You know, you want it to be mushy, you know?

[19:52] But, you know, we again see the human torch flying

[19:55] over the no longer frozen city,

[19:58] saying things are warming up again.

[20:00] And now that the Ice Master has warmed up

[20:02] to the goodness of Hostess fruit pies.

[20:04] Underwhelming, an underwhelming adjective, just goodness.

[20:09] Well, I like how it implies

[20:11] that there's something helpful about them,

[20:14] which is not.

[20:15] I do like that the panel

[20:17] where the Ice Master is eating the pies,

[20:22] it is, he's like starting to melt.

[20:24] Yeah.

[20:25] Like in that eating the pies is killing him.

[20:28] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[20:30] Now, so I'm gonna say this is,

[20:33] in this one, the Human Torch is being a little generic.

[20:35] He doesn't feel like himself.

[20:37] I feel like I'm not getting a lot of Human Torch from him.

[20:39] He doesn't seem like Johnny Storm.

[20:40] The hothead.

[20:41] That thing, yeah, exactly.

[20:42] A hothead, a kid, like the youngest member of the team.

[20:46] But I assume this is very accurate

[20:47] to all the other times the Ice Master showed up.

[20:49] Oh, sure.

[20:50] Ice Master, what a big deal.

[20:52] Ice Master, huge villain, huge villain.

[20:54] You'll see him in the new movie, yeah.

[20:55] I will say, if this is Frank Miller drawing it,

[20:57] I kind of believe that,

[20:58] if only because of the panel placement,

[21:00] there are some vertical panels in here,

[21:02] and that's something that,

[21:04] and some very, much wider than they are

[21:07] tall horizontal panels,

[21:08] and that's the kind of stuff Frank Miller

[21:09] would be experimenting with quite a bit

[21:12] in his Daredevil run.

[21:14] So I believe it.

[21:14] And the character art, the drawings don't look

[21:17] too different from his earlier stuff.

[21:20] But I'll say, yeah, this one is a little bit,

[21:22] but less, in fidelity to the characters,

[21:24] I'm gonna give it more of a five.

[21:26] You know, they didn't give the Human Torch

[21:27] any powers he doesn't have or anything like that.

[21:29] The Ice Master's a new addition to the Rogues Gallery.

[21:31] But in terms of winning over the bad guy,

[21:33] I'm gonna give this an eight.

[21:35] You know, in terms of, the Ice Master,

[21:37] I totally believe this guy has never had a fruit pie,

[21:39] and it would blow his mind.

[21:41] Yeah, it would fucking rock his day.

[21:44] It does look like this was drawn by a guy

[21:46] with an affection for fedora hats.

[21:49] I hope, and ninjas, yeah.

[21:53] And complicated political views.

[21:55] Complicated?

[21:57] Nah, I guess you're right.

[21:58] If anything, too simplistic, yeah.

[22:01] Oh, look, this next one has our old friend Iron Man.

[22:03] He is our old friend, isn't he?

[22:05] Yeah, way back.

[22:06] The savior of the MCU here.

[22:07] Yeah, he says.

[22:08] Steel Jesus, they call him.

[22:10] Iron Man versus the bank robbers.

[22:12] Oh, my new favorite villains.

[22:15] Yeah.

[22:16] I mean, they have dope-ass outfits

[22:17] for having such a generic name.

[22:19] Yeah.

[22:21] But again, Iron Man's Rogues Gallery is pretty crappy.

[22:24] So I totally buy it, yeah.

[22:26] When you're making your second Iron Man movie

[22:28] and your villain is Whiplash,

[22:30] then you know you're not dealing

[22:31] with the best Rogues Gallery.

[22:33] We get kind of an unnecessary explanatory panel

[22:36] up at the top just saying robbers

[22:40] are holding hostages at the bank.

[22:41] We can pretty much see that from the drawing.

[22:44] But meanwhile, outside, Iron Man cleverly is saying,

[22:48] we needed a diversion to give us time

[22:49] to get through the door before the bank robbers

[22:51] harm anybody.

[22:54] Now they're demanding that food be sent in,

[22:56] says one of the SWAT cops.

[22:59] They'll get no food from us,

[23:01] says the hard-ass negotiator, I guess.

[23:04] Now it's time for me to throw some tear gas

[23:06] at protesters for no reason.

[23:07] Yeah.

[23:09] Iron Man says, wait, that may be our big break.

[23:12] Iron Man's always thinking, you know?

[23:14] That's classic Iron Man.

[23:16] Sure, yeah.

[23:17] Iron Man's irony.

[23:17] And wasn't he always drinking, too?

[23:19] Wasn't he drinking?

[23:20] Not always.

[23:21] Not always drinking, often, but not always.

[23:23] Now here's the thing.

[23:24] Iron Man, next panel, he says,

[23:25] send in these hostess fruit pies.

[23:27] I believe Iron Man eats fruit pies.

[23:29] It's one of the few foods that will fit

[23:30] through the mouth slit.

[23:32] That's true.

[23:34] They're slot-shaped.

[23:35] And, you know, something like Tony Stark,

[23:37] you know, he probably eats Soylent.

[23:40] You know, he doesn't care about food.

[23:42] He just wants something he can stuff in his face.

[23:44] It's just sustenance.

[23:45] He's a tech guy.

[23:46] He thinks he's gonna evolve his body past physical needs.

[23:50] Yeah, sure.

[23:50] Yeah, he's gonna be doing crimes of the future.

[23:54] He's just eating plastic.

[23:55] Chomping down some plastic, yeah.

[23:56] This is interesting.

[23:57] This is a new wrinkle on the fruit pies thing.

[23:59] He says, I'll listen in on their conversation

[24:01] with my cyber helmet receiver.

[24:03] So he's bugging the fruit pies.

[24:05] That's kind of a new wrinkle.

[24:08] It'd make me less eager to eat a fruit pie,

[24:11] knowing that it might be helping Big Brother

[24:12] keep their tabs on me.

[24:13] I do love this next panel.

[24:16] Yeah, well, why don't you describe it then, Stuart?

[24:17] Okay, so the bank robbers have received

[24:20] a cart filled with fruit pies.

[24:23] They are tossing their guns aside.

[24:25] They say, hey, hostess fruit pies,

[24:26] give me that cherry one.

[24:28] I'll take that apple.

[24:29] They are, the plan is working all too well.

[24:32] Just throwing their guns away at the mere sight of it.

[24:35] And having heard the guns clatter upon the ground.

[24:38] Yeah, with his cyber helmet receiver.

[24:40] I'm assuming through the wall.

[24:42] Yeah, he says, and now's the time

[24:43] for a little heavy handedness.

[24:45] Yeah, and he's blasting these things

[24:48] while fruit pies scatter about.

[24:50] Yeah, yeah.

[24:51] And the bank robbers put their finger

[24:57] on their face and say, ooh,

[25:00] we never should have put down our weapons.

[25:03] Truer words have never been spoken.

[25:05] But another one says, but who could resist

[25:07] the real fruit filling and the light, tender crust?

[25:10] Yeah, it's always the light, tender crust.

[25:12] Each one says a different thing,

[25:14] kiwi, dewy, and louie style.

[25:17] So, what do you, and then there's a little flag

[25:20] that says you get a big delight

[25:22] in every bite of Hos's fruit pies.

[25:24] Yeah, now again, I'm gonna jump in here.

[25:26] I'm gonna say in terms of Iron Man characterization,

[25:29] I'm gonna give it an eight.

[25:30] He is a tool, he's a total tool.

[25:32] He's a total, he's on the side of authority.

[25:35] He really, he's always gonna be helping the man

[25:38] keep down these, the people who just wanna rob a bank.

[25:43] Okay, I will say, they're bank robbers.

[25:44] They're not good guys.

[25:45] But he, I would totally see him working with the cops

[25:47] where a Spider-Man would stop these bank robbers.

[25:49] The cops would be like, hey, you stop.

[25:51] We got some questions for you.

[25:52] And he'd be like, sorry, more fruit pies.

[25:53] And he'd throw them to them.

[25:54] But I think, again, I think it is difficult to believe

[25:58] that they couldn't eat the fruit pies with one hand

[26:00] while holding their gun with the other hand.

[26:04] But, you know what?

[26:04] No, you want one in each hand.

[26:06] Yeah, but if these guys, they can't even come up

[26:08] with a cool name for themselves

[26:09] other than the bank robbers.

[26:11] So, I'll believe it's gonna happen.

[26:12] So, I'm gonna give it an eights all around.

[26:13] Eight for character representation

[26:15] and eight for this plan would work

[26:16] in stopping these bank robbers.

[26:18] Yeah, I'd buy it.

[26:21] You buy Hostess fruit pie?

[26:23] Uh, I mean, I have in my life.

[26:26] Not for decades.

[26:27] You truly have lived, haven't you, Dan?

[26:28] Not for decades.

[26:31] It's more of like a-

[26:32] I've been known to buy a fruit pie in my time.

[26:34] Yeah, in high school.

[26:36] Like Anthony Bourdain over here.

[26:43] Hello, this is Alex.

[26:44] Hello, this is Katie.

[26:45] We host Secretly Incredibly Fascinating

[26:47] and this week we released our 250th episode.

[26:50] 250, d, d, d.

[26:55] Every episode stands on its own.

[26:57] And every episode is about a seemingly ordinary topic.

[27:00] We reveal the history and the science

[27:02] of stuff like salt and clouds and your computer mouse.

[27:05] And episode 250 is about the word hello.

[27:08] Hello.

[27:09] You know that word, you're ready to go.

[27:11] So, let us say hello to you.

[27:12] Find Secretly Incredibly Fascinating at MaximumFun.org.

[27:19] Hi, is this Brennan?

[27:20] This is Brennan.

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[27:25] and Greatest Trek along with my buddy Adam on Maximum Fun.

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[27:31] have been named Maximum Fun's Member of the Month.

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[28:08] have a great day and live long and prosper.

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[28:18] Become a Maximum Fun Member now

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[28:24] We got another Daredevil comic here.

[28:26] Oh, okay.

[28:27] Our old friend Daredevil's back again

[28:28] for another pie to that pie.

[28:30] Daredevil versus Johnny Punk.

[28:32] Now, of course, we all remember Johnny Punk.

[28:34] Sure.

[28:36] Classic Marvel villain.

[28:39] What do we got here?

[28:40] Johnny Punk is saying,

[28:43] in the next set, we raise the decibels

[28:45] to mega pitch.

[28:47] The high frequency sound waves will lock their brains.

[28:49] They'll do whatever I command.

[28:51] Now, that's just science.

[28:52] Johnny Punk.

[28:53] I'll say this.

[28:54] That is science.

[28:55] It is punk.

[28:56] Johnny Punk, I love his character's design.

[28:58] He's got a classic punk mohawk.

[28:59] It's not a tall one,

[29:00] but it's like more of a Travis Bickle one,

[29:02] slightly taller than Travis Bickle's.

[29:03] From the neck down,

[29:05] he dresses like American Flag.

[29:07] I think the character,

[29:08] Ruben Flag from the American Flag comics,

[29:09] and I love that outfit.

[29:10] He's got a leather jacket.

[29:11] He's got a leather jacket,

[29:12] but also a necktie, which is an unusual.

[29:15] Dan, there are plenty of punks that wear ties.

[29:17] You know?

[29:18] No, it's true.

[29:19] I guess it's just the items together.

[29:20] It's playing on different ideas.

[29:21] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[29:22] Exactly, exactly.

[29:23] He looks cool.

[29:24] He looks cool.

[29:24] And the name Johnny Punk,

[29:25] that's a cool name.

[29:26] That's super cool.

[29:28] Daredevil is hanging from a building outside,

[29:30] and he says to no one in particular,

[29:33] my hypersensitive hearing picked up

[29:34] Johnny Punk's little plan,

[29:36] and it's not my idea of crowd control.

[29:39] Good one.

[29:40] He's just snarking to no one.

[29:42] I do like the sign that says,

[29:44] you can see the marquee.

[29:45] It says, Tonight Johnny Punk.

[29:47] Yeah, so he's already a headliner,

[29:48] unless he's a villain that announces

[29:51] where he's gonna be.

[29:52] Yeah, yeah.

[29:53] Very Batman.

[29:53] And Daredevil.

[29:54] Sorry, go on.

[29:55] I like this next panel.

[29:56] Daredevil goes in,

[29:57] and the sound guy who works for Johnny Punk goes,

[29:59] hey, look who's horny.

[30:00] That's a good joke.

[30:01] Daredevil has horns.

[30:02] Oh, right, right, right, right.

[30:03] That's right.

[30:04] And Johnny, Johnny Punk says back off or I'll blow the roof off with sound.

[30:10] First off, using ALF twice, unnecessary.

[30:13] And then with sound, I like that.

[30:16] Yeah.

[30:17] Daredevil again, he's thinking to himself.

[30:20] This is an internal monologue this time.

[30:22] My radar senses enough electric potential to do just that.

[30:26] Gotta think.

[30:27] He has to tell himself to think.

[30:29] How about hostess fruit pies before you turn on the juice?

[30:33] And Johnny Punk says, sure.

[30:34] I sure dig the real fruit filling.

[30:36] Now, this shows now this is very not punk.

[30:38] So you dig something?

[30:39] Come on.

[30:40] Yeah.

[30:41] What is that?

[30:42] Daddy-O.

[30:43] Apple and cherry.

[30:44] That's a dynamite duo.

[30:45] Johnny Punk has to give it up.

[30:47] He says, sharp move, Daredevil.

[30:49] You've got us, but we've got the goodies.

[30:52] Really, you know, didn't seem committed to this plan.

[30:54] No.

[30:55] Well, he's saying they've kidnapped the British sketch group, the goodies.

[30:58] They'll kill them if Daredevil doesn't let them go.

[31:00] Yeah.

[31:01] And Daredevil says, better a hostess fruit pie than the fruits of crime, Johnny Punk.

[31:05] And he swims away saying, and thanks to hostess, I don't have to listen to his music anymore.

[31:09] Wow.

[31:10] Wow.

[31:11] A real James Bond dissing the Beatles moment here.

[31:14] I will say, I will say, though, again, okay, there's a couple things in here that I think

[31:18] are very Daredevil and some are not.

[31:20] I don't buy Daredevil as a guy who listens to punk.

[31:22] I would believe that a guy who is a lawyer with a deeply Catholic kind of faith and sin

[31:27] and redemption background is probably not keyed into the punk lifestyle or necessarily

[31:32] the punk sound.

[31:34] But when he says, so I'll give him points for that.

[31:36] I don't think Daredevil would listen to punk.

[31:38] If he was like now to sit back for this Johnny Punk show, I'd be like, no way, Narc.

[31:41] You don't like this.

[31:42] But when he says, my radar senses enough, my radar senses enough electric potential

[31:46] to do just that.

[31:47] This is, I don't think that he can do that with his radar sense.

[31:50] That he can sense how much electricity is in there.

[31:53] It's really more of a second sight for him.

[31:55] So I'm going to say it's a mixed bag for Daredevil in terms of characterization.

[32:02] But I feel like Johnny Punk is the character find of 1976.

[32:05] Yeah.

[32:07] I could totally see, I could see he's a punk.

[32:11] He probably hasn't eaten that much lately.

[32:13] He's going to go live in a squat after this.

[32:15] I think he would and he would stop his crime for some fruit from free food.

[32:20] So good scores all around for this other than maybe some deductions for the realism.

[32:27] Oh, the thang's back.

[32:29] Boy, the thang.

[32:30] The thang has returned.

[32:31] This one's called The Thang and Earthly Delights.

[32:34] Oh, weird.

[32:36] So there's sex in it.

[32:38] So we're inside a New York deli.

[32:41] Sexiest place on earth.

[32:43] There's a UFO outside.

[32:45] Aliens are coming in and the deli owner or proprietor or whatever, he says, I've seen everything.

[32:52] And someone says, they're after us.

[32:55] And helpfully, the alien explains why they're here.

[32:59] He says, our appetite for Earthly Delights will soon be satisfied.

[33:03] Prepare for uplift.

[33:05] But the thang crashes in saying, not so fast, bub.

[33:08] You're not taking anybody anywhere.

[33:11] And I'm not sure what the thang is doing here.

[33:13] He seems to be tying.

[33:15] He seems to be taking the energy ray that they shot the people with and using it to tie up the aliens.

[33:22] Yeah, this is confusing.

[33:25] But then the thang says, if it's Earthly Delights you want.

[33:28] There's some real story problems with this ad for Hostess Fruit Pies.

[33:32] Earthly Delights you want for your trip.

[33:34] Take these Hostess Fruit Pies.

[33:36] Cherry for you.

[33:37] Apple for your friend.

[33:39] He's got them in a big box.

[33:41] They're in a deli.

[33:43] They're tastes of fruit pies for sure.

[33:46] You look like a cherry man, he says.

[33:49] And their countenance has changed entirely.

[33:51] They are nothing but smiles.

[33:53] Later after the thang has untied the space invaders.

[33:56] And they're again felling over these pies.

[34:01] Very nice, Dan.

[34:02] Wow, yeah.

[34:03] Thank you.

[34:05] In honor of Ben Grimm there.

[34:07] Yeah, yeah.

[34:08] In the deli, yeah.

[34:09] The light, tender crust and the real fruit filling.

[34:11] This must be what Earthlings call delicious.

[34:14] Yeah, it's a real mitzvah, right?

[34:16] Yep.

[34:18] And they zip off in their ship.

[34:20] Yeah, thang has knocked us over the whole thing, yeah, yeah.

[34:22] The deli owner says, I always thought Hostess Fruit Pies were out of this world.

[34:26] Now they are.

[34:28] So, yeah, again.

[34:31] So they were.

[34:32] Are these scrolls aliens?

[34:34] These are not scrolls.

[34:36] They seem like kind of generic aliens.

[34:38] They've got a little bit like they've got pointy ears and kind of bald pointy heads.

[34:41] So they look a little like scrolls.

[34:43] They look a little like the Impossible Man who is a Fantastic Four character.

[34:46] He's from the planet Pop-Up.

[34:48] But, yeah, they're pretty.

[34:50] I feel like thang is getting the short end when it comes to the bad guys he's dealing with.

[34:54] So they were totally going to have sex with these two guys, right?

[34:58] It's unclear.

[35:00] They just have an appetite for earthly delights as they take a man in a suit and fedora.

[35:05] Or maybe it's a pork pie hat.

[35:07] And the proprietor of a deli.

[35:08] So I don't know if they're going to have sex with them, if they're going to eat them both.

[35:11] I don't know.

[35:12] You make a good point.

[35:13] That does seem to me.

[35:14] But whatever unearthly, unholy appetite was about to be sated, thang has done that with fruit pies.

[35:22] So I'm going to give this one low marks all around, I think.

[35:26] Low marks on realism?

[35:28] Yeah, I mean thang does say your, Y-E-R, instead of your.

[35:31] So that's kind of like him.

[35:33] But he just kind of comes out of nowhere.

[35:35] The plot, I don't see why the aliens give up so easily.

[35:38] Also, how is he tying him up with laser?

[35:41] Yeah, how does he – he's super strong, but he's not so strong that he can bend a laser with his fists.

[35:46] Yeah.

[35:47] So, yeah, this is pretty low marks.

[35:49] I'm going to give it a two for is this plan going to work?

[35:52] Is the thang as strong as the Hulk?

[35:55] The thang is not as strong as the Hulk.

[35:57] And this is one of the enduring wonderful things about the thang is that he is not the strongest there is.

[36:02] He is very strong, but he's not the strongest there is, but he never gives up.

[36:05] So there have been a number of stories where he fights the Hulk.

[36:07] He pretty much always loses, but the whole point of those stories is he can't really be defeated because he's never going to give up.

[36:13] And there's a great story, a one-issue story where this character, the champion, comes down to Earth.

[36:17] And he tests – he challenges all the strong guys to a fight.

[36:23] And thang is the last one, and thang goes like 90 rounds with this guy until he's almost on death's door.

[36:28] And thang says, you can kill me, but I'm too stupid and I'm too ugly to give up.

[36:32] I'm still going to keep fighting you.

[36:34] And the champion is like, I won, but I have so much respect for you that I'm going to spare your planet like what you showed me today.

[36:40] So that's – the thang is not as strong as the Hulk, but he's got more heart.

[36:43] So that's the thang's real superpower is heart.

[36:46] I think we're closing in on the end.

[36:49] I've lost track on how many we've done, and I accidentally closed the window that shows how many we've done.

[36:55] But this one, for the first time, we're seeing our old friend Cap.

[36:59] Captain America in Fury Unleashed because Nick Fury is also here.

[37:03] Although ironically, Fury is not unleashed in it.

[37:06] He's in danger, and Cap has to save him.

[37:08] Cap busts in through the metal door.

[37:10] He punches it open.

[37:11] He says, the trapster is at it again.

[37:13] One trap leads to another.

[37:15] Now this –

[37:16] Elliot's bouncing his seat.

[37:18] He's got the trapster.

[37:19] Already I've got an issue with it.

[37:21] The trapster is a villain, but he really just uses a glue gun to get – it's not like he – he comes up with different traps.

[37:26] The trapster, as you know, used to be Paste Pot Pete.

[37:28] And he had his – he had like magic glue that was super strong, and eventually he changed it to a glue gun.

[37:36] And one of the fun things about him in the comics is he'll show up and say, the trapster's here, and they'll go, oh, hey, Paste Pot Pete.

[37:40] He's like, that's not my name anymore.

[37:42] It's always very fun.

[37:44] He just sets up different traps.

[37:46] How does the trapster feel about the fact that Spider-Man invented like web fluid and shit?

[37:50] That's like basically his whole deal, but he's also a Spider-Man and a kid.

[37:55] There's – I don't know that he – well, I don't think he knows that Spider-Man invented that when he was a kid.

[38:00] But also – but I – there's different – there's Oreos and there's Hydrox.

[38:04] You can have them both.

[38:05] One's more popular, but it doesn't mean Hydrox is not around unless they've went out of business and I don't know about it.

[38:10] Well, anyway, here Fury explains the deal even though we can see it in the drawing.

[38:17] Fury says, better not come any closer, Cap.

[38:19] The trapster's goon has to be by the neck.

[38:22] OK, I'm going to stop you right there.

[38:23] I also will point out that I love the classic buccaneer boot design of Captain America.

[38:30] I wish Chris Evans had buccaneer boots.

[38:33] The things that I wish they would do in the movies, I wish he had buccaneer boots.

[38:36] I wish he had the wings actually sticking out of his head.

[38:39] It's just not just – I like at least that they're painted on.

[38:42] He's got those gloves that have a little bit of extra opening.

[38:45] They're a little loose.

[38:46] It's just very flowy.

[38:47] I love it.

[38:48] So this goon – here's – I got two issues with this.

[38:51] Let me just talk about it.

[38:52] OK, Dan.

[38:53] Can I finish?

[38:54] Can I finish, Dan, before you continue on with this?

[38:56] It's that the idea that trapster has goons.

[39:00] Trapster is a B or C lister.

[39:03] He's not hiring goons.

[39:05] He's working for somebody else.

[39:06] He's probably working for the Wingless Wizard or something like that as part of the Frightful Four.

[39:12] But this goon, he also looks so much like Nick Fury's villain, Baron Von Strucker.

[39:18] All he's missing is an eyepatch.

[39:20] And I'm sorry.

[39:21] At first glance, I thought this was Baron Von Strucker, and I was like Von Strucker is working for the trapster?

[39:25] That doesn't make any sense.

[39:26] It should be the other way around.

[39:27] No, it's a guy who looks like him.

[39:29] Fury probably made the same mistake when he saw him.

[39:33] But it's just the idea that the trapster is kind of hiring people to do things.

[39:36] Maybe in the 70s, he was doing a little better.

[39:38] Maybe he was riding high and he had the money to do that.

[39:40] But usually the trapster is the guy who's like working for somebody else.

[39:44] Well, I mean, Elliot, in this version, he's riding so high that he can afford to not be in the middle of the action.

[39:52] He is watching on a monitor from a different room.

[39:55] He chuckles to himself.

[39:58] We'll see how Captain America solves this.

[40:00] Dilemma, I mean, it's not really much of a like dilemma or a trap. They just like the goon has Nick Fury by the neck

[40:07] But anyway

[40:11] Cap says my strength of my shield won't solve this mess, but strategy

[40:14] I don't know why the strength in the shield wouldn't solve this mess

[40:16] All he has to do is beat up the guy who's choking the fury guys

[40:20] This the thing is this fucking shield immediately is involved in his plan. Yeah

[40:26] He says, okay you big overgrown Goliath

[40:28] I can't bet what I bet you can't wait to get your hands on these hostess fruit pies and he throws the shields like a

[40:33] Serving platter with pies on it. I

[40:36] You know, I would think that that would mess up sort of the aerodynamics of it

[40:41] They would

[40:42] With centrifugal force, maybe he found the trapsters adhesive and his super adhesive and he attached on that way. I don't know maybe

[40:49] And but this the goon is again, he's loving it

[40:53] what is fury compared to this great taste real fruit filling light tender crust and

[40:59] fury compliments cap

[41:03] Hostess fruit pies that was using your brains cap and

[41:07] Trapster

[41:08] Curses fate. He says hostess fruit pies curses Captain America's as smart as he is strong

[41:15] So yeah, yeah

[41:19] Light tender crust, I guess sometimes he uses other traps to this one

[41:23] I feel like this is a the idea that um that Nick Fury couldn't deal with this goon

[41:28] I think is a little out of the ordinary

[41:29] I think this one I do like that Captain America has a smile on his face in panel four

[41:35] That's something I miss the character used to smile a lot. And now he very rarely does he's always kind of gritting his teeth in

[41:40] anger

[41:42] but yeah, this seems like the fact that they just run away and trapsters like curses foiled when he's

[41:48] Still on the loose and they're still in his hideout

[41:51] Yeah, I think there's some real issues with this one. Not as many issues as with the thing alien story

[41:56] But still this one this one fails to pass the smell test for me

[42:01] What a five would you say? Yeah, I got like a five for all around. Yeah, okay

[42:06] Well, I'll say a five five for characterization. Maybe a seven for whether the fruit pie plan would work

[42:12] Yeah

[42:15] Yeah

[42:17] And this is just a job if you're a goon working for trapster

[42:20] Why not stop for a fruit pie like come on what it this is not you're not this isn't a great job, you know

[42:25] Okay, here's the this is the final one. I remember this one being an oddball

[42:29] Adventure interesting. It's called the Incredible Hulk and the green thumb and there's there's a lot to take in here. I'm gonna move the

[42:38] Picture a little closer because there's so much stuff going on here art style looks really familiar

[42:43] But I can't put my finger on who it looks like

[42:47] I don't know why this

[42:49] Is it Charles Burns? Yeah, it's probably Charles Burns. It's probably Charles Burns. Yeah, so

[42:56] There's a there's an explanatory note up top. It says the Hulk has been befriended by cousin Betsy the plant lady and

[43:04] Also the the sign on the window for her shop

[43:09] Identifies her too as cousin Betsy the plant lady. It's odd. It's you can see it

[43:14] correctly

[43:16] Inside

[43:17] The the shop it's not backwards

[43:20] They might be outside and she's got a lot of plants on the outside a lot of a lot of

[43:26] Yeah, yeah

[43:28] Anyway, she says now my dear green thing or I'm only too happy to take you in

[43:33] Sorry, take you in with all my other or all my vegetables and plants and

[43:39] Hulk is dazed as he often is Hulk says Hulk

[43:43] No, remember how he got here, but Hulk happy finally find place where Hulk can find peace and nice cool shade plant to sit under

[43:52] Yeah, and

[43:54] Betsy explains to

[43:56] These sort of plant joke or lawnmower man. Yeah that one. Yeah

[44:00] She explains these plant creatures. She has all around her. Oh my beautiful plants my own little gang. What fine specimens you are Rhoda

[44:09] Mary Artie, I want you to meet the Hulk that Jade giant is going to join

[44:14] Artie is clearly an artichoke Rhoda's. Yeah, I wrote a dendron

[44:18] Marigold, this is stuff. This is good. Yeah, it's good that Jade giant is gonna join us in our next robbery of diamonds

[44:24] Can't say diamond robbery and other precious things. What a specimen and so green

[44:30] and

[44:32] Hulk

[44:33] Immediately rejects this Hulk no join strange plants Hulk no like people or plants Hulk want to be alone now, it's funny

[44:39] He's clearly liked that nice cool shade plant earlier. Yeah, yeah plants. I mean, there's one thing I know about Hulk

[44:46] He does like to be alone. So yeah, that's yeah

[44:50] The Hulk's famous Hulk's famous slogan Hulk want to be alone. Yeah

[44:54] I do remember that first issue of the Avengers where Hulk is dressed up as a what a clown robot

[45:01] He is a their pretend the circus is pretending that he is a robot strong clown, yes, yes

[45:08] Very odd. This was in the first issue of the Avengers the basis for the hit film

[45:13] You that would have been like elephants. Yes. I want to see that in a movie so badly

[45:18] So he's a clown and a robot. That's how he's so strong

[45:22] Cuz he's clearly the Hulk

[45:24] Betsy says I warn you green gargantua join us or else the artichoke chokes go get him Artie and

[45:33] Hulk Hulk doesn't like this

[45:35] Continues see Green Goliath when I talk to my plants. They listen like this. There's a lot of text. Yeah a lot of text

[45:41] I mean Hulk always wind up same double-crossed first by puny humans now by puny plant now Hulk mad

[45:48] Oh, you don't want to get it. You don't know I get when he's angry and he gets stronger. Yeah now this is very strange

[45:54] Hulk is not supplying the hostess fruit pies in this one. Hulk turns artichoke upside down and shakes her and

[46:04] You know diamonds and fruit pies fall out of I guess between the leaves of her artichoke

[46:09] There's originally the title of the Prince on the way diamonds and fruit pies

[46:14] and

[46:15] Mary says forget the diamonds save the delicious hostess fruit pies and

[46:19] Artie says with the real fruit filling in the light tinder crust. Yeah, we did it

[46:25] Yeah, she's she stored these fruit pies in in her head

[46:29] And then they're being led away by cops a criminal gang of plants that love juicy hostess fruit pies. What next? Yes, no shit

[46:37] And in the distance we see Hulk jumping away as he does saying next Hulk go find peace and city far away from green things

[46:50] Ball this is by far the best of them it we have got the other ones. They're like, yeah, you know what?

[46:56] This is a this is a pretty basic superhero story pretty basic Marvel story

[47:00] There's a bad guy the superiors gonna stop him. He stops with fruit pies

[47:03] This one this main character is so perverse and the way we find the information about her is so strange that she's like

[47:10] Join me Hulk join me with my other plants and then so casually in the second one, by the way, we also robbed diamonds

[47:16] Okay, I guess

[47:18] She says it right in front of Hulk and he gets mad that the fruit pies are already hidden

[47:22] They've also also been stealing fruit pies

[47:25] I guess or she just buys them and stores them in the artichoke and that's what they want to save and then by the end

[47:30] It's not even like he stops. I don't know how the police get there

[47:33] I don't know how they know I guess I just called because someone says the Hulk is fighting a plant monster

[47:37] Go deal with this and the Hulk could not care less that they have been stopped with fruit pies

[47:42] He's yeah, he's not offering anybody. He's

[47:45] Ago

[47:47] He he and the fruit pies never interact and the straightforward version of this would be

[47:54] Bruce Banner is getting mad and he starts to turn into the Hulk

[47:57] Another hero gives him a fruit pie it calms him down because he likes it so much and he turns back into Bruce Banner and

[48:02] He still likes the fruit pie. That's the straightforward version

[48:05] Anyone could tell that story but some genius stepped in and said no, I want to try something different

[48:09] I want to challenge the the basic narrative and I want to do it in a way that leaves the reader with more questions than

[48:15] Answers, I only answer and maybe that answer what they'll find will be inside a fruit pie

[48:18] But I don't know. They're just gonna look and I feel like they also want to soft launch their cousin Betty and plant

[48:26] Robbers gang. Yeah

[48:29] Yeah, maybe they're ready for the big time

[48:31] They yeah, they feel like such they feel like DC villains, too

[48:36] So it's almost like Hulk like jumped into a DC comic in the Silver Age

[48:42] Understandably mad. Yeah

[48:45] Shazam gang. Yeah

[48:48] That the song that came to my mind through it was of course diamonds and fruit pies by Joan Baez

[48:53] Later covered by Judas Priest. What a you know, yeah, what a song we both know what memories can bring

[48:58] They bring diamonds and fruit pies. And so yeah, I'm gonna give this one 10 for the Hulk

[49:02] He does not want to be a part of anything

[49:04] He loves sitting under a nice cool shade plants and then he jumps away does not care about fruit pies

[49:10] And I'm gonna give it. Yeah, of course this plan works. It's not even a plan. Well, that's

[49:15] Cuz that's life Dan

[49:17] Happen. Yeah. Yeah for you make plan like this is this is not sell fruit pies as a

[49:23] That's a crime-fighting tool like that's what I love about it. It is an ad for fruit pies which the fruit pies are almost negligible

[49:30] Not even part of the process because it's not even in the other ones

[49:33] It's kind of assumed the only way I can solve this problems with fruit pies here the fruit pies

[49:39] They're just a side to Hulk beating the crap out of this plant and then jumping away

[49:42] It's this one admits that there are some problems that can't be solved with fruit

[49:47] And I appreciate that. I appreciate the honesty of that that not all problems are fruit pie problems. Yeah

[49:52] Cuz I'm sure there's a version of this story where they're like, okay

[49:55] So Hulk is fighting these plants and he has to give him fruit pies to stop

[50:00] and they're like, but Hulk wouldn't give a shit.

[50:03] Well, also plants wouldn't want to eat fruit pies, right?

[50:06] That's what fruits are to plants.

[50:08] That one plant says, save the delicious hostess fruit pie

[50:10] and already chokes us with the real fruit filling

[50:12] and the light, tender crust.

[50:14] He's so obsessed with it, he's saying this out loud

[50:18] while he's being held upside down.

[50:20] Yeah.

[50:21] Yeah.

[50:22] Well.

[50:23] Yeah, it's a, this is, here's the thing.

[50:26] Sometimes someone takes kind of like a junk art form

[50:29] and makes art, what's been called termite art, you know?

[50:32] And in this case, we've seen a lot of craft

[50:34] go into the other ones.

[50:35] I think there's less craft in this one,

[50:37] but there's more art, if you understand what I'm saying.

[50:39] Yeah, I do.

[50:40] Yeah.

[50:41] Well, thank you for joining me

[50:43] for the most educational mini we've ever done.

[50:46] I'm just glad we've done two minis in a row now

[50:49] telling people about the Marvel universe, you know,

[50:52] which is, that's great.

[50:53] I don't mind it.

[50:54] Equally important corners of the universe.

[50:56] Yep.

[50:57] Well, when that Hulk and the Green Thumb movie comes out,

[50:59] people will know what it's all about.

[51:01] People will be ready.

[51:02] Thank you for listening.

[51:04] Thank you to Maximum Fun.

[51:07] Go to MaximumFun.org to check out all the other great podcasts

[51:10] on Max Fun.

[51:12] Membership of listeners like you in Max Fun

[51:16] is what keeps us going.

[51:18] Thank you to Alex Smith.

[51:20] He goes by HowlDotty on the internet.

[51:22] You can check out his music, his Twitch streams.

[51:25] He's got a podcast that I've been enjoying very much.

[51:29] It's a very strange concept.

[51:31] It's just a man and his giant possum friend

[51:34] talking about stuff.

[51:36] It's funny.

[51:37] Check that out too.

[51:39] What's the name of it?

[51:40] I believe it's called The Big Howl and Possum Podcast.

[51:44] But for The Flop House, I've been Dan McCoy.

[51:47] I've been Stuart Willington.

[51:49] And I've been Elliot Kalin.

[51:51] I'm not enjoying these delicious Hostess fruit pies,

[51:53] but it really makes me wish I could.

[51:55] Wait, with the real fruit filling and the light, tender crust?

[51:58] You know it.

[52:04] Maximum Fun.

[52:05] A worker-owned network.

[52:07] Of artist-owned shows.

[52:08] Supported directly by you.

FH Mini 131 - Hostesses with the Mostesses

Transcript

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