WEBVTT - The Monsterfact Omnibus: Marvel Monsters 2

0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:06.439
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:11.080
<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is the

0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.040
<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.280
<v Speaker 2>Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:23.439
<v Speaker 2>This is going to be another special Omnibus episode, this

0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:29.800
<v Speaker 2>time collecting the four most recent Marvel Comics creatures, monsters

0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:35.040
<v Speaker 2>characters that I've profiled here on the show. So buckle

0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:41.520
<v Speaker 2>in because first up, we're going to consider Swarm. I'd

0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.560
<v Speaker 2>like to briefly return to the world of Marvel Comics

0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:49.760
<v Speaker 2>to discuss a rather unique supervillain, Swarm, as described in

0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:54.040
<v Speaker 2>the book Monsters Creatures of the Marvel Universe, explored by

0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:58.160
<v Speaker 2>Kelly Knox. Swarm is just your average former Nazi scientist

0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:01.800
<v Speaker 2>and acupuncturists consume owned by a swarm of radioactive bees

0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:06.440
<v Speaker 2>at a meteorite crash, transforming him into a sentient swarm

0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:11.200
<v Speaker 2>of bees. He manifests as a man shaped swarm with

0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:16.200
<v Speaker 2>stylish purple gloves and a ragged purple cape. The character

0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.760
<v Speaker 2>dates back to nineteen seventy seven, created by Bill Mantillo

0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.319
<v Speaker 2>and John Byrne in the pages of the Champions and

0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:25.319
<v Speaker 2>I think it's safe to assume that this one was

0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.960
<v Speaker 2>inspired by the old suit of bees stunt as well

0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:34.360
<v Speaker 2>as the curious properties of you social bees, because that's

0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.040
<v Speaker 2>the really interesting thing about the whole proposition here. The

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.480
<v Speaker 2>former Fritz von Meyer, again now known as Swarm, is

0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.920
<v Speaker 2>said to exert control over the bees, and his consciousness

0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.760
<v Speaker 2>is shared among the thousands of bees that make up

0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.760
<v Speaker 2>his bee bod. It's a fantastic concept, but it also

0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.600
<v Speaker 2>touches on the fact that bees do exert a form

0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.120
<v Speaker 2>of emergence intelligence and are often discussed as a super

0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:02.280
<v Speaker 2>organism and as a cognitive entity. Swarms exhibit properties that

0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.120
<v Speaker 2>are not shared by the individual organism, but are rather

0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.079
<v Speaker 2>exhibited by the larger group, such as the ability of

0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.640
<v Speaker 2>a beehive to thermoregulate. Is pointed out by a Cadame

0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.960
<v Speaker 2>at All in of Biofilms and Beehives, published in the

0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.440
<v Speaker 2>journal Biofilm in twenty twenty two. When temperatures drop, bees

0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.200
<v Speaker 2>move in closer to better share their heat with adult

0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.560
<v Speaker 2>bees on the outside, shivering to reduce additional heat, and

0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.680
<v Speaker 2>then moving into the interior of the mass to warm

0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:32.239
<v Speaker 2>younger bees that lack the ability. As the title of

0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.200
<v Speaker 2>the paper implies the authors compare bee swarms to biofilms,

0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:42.440
<v Speaker 2>multicellular communities of bacteria or fungi. Marvel Swarm kind of

0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.120
<v Speaker 2>stands as an attempt to take the inhuman intelligence of

0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.280
<v Speaker 2>bees and put it in a human wrapping, something that

0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.600
<v Speaker 2>is fantastic and certainly fun, but in a strange way

0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.720
<v Speaker 2>a little easier to fathom. While it's impossible to truly

0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.519
<v Speaker 2>know what it is to be another organism, much less

0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.040
<v Speaker 2>a honey bee or a swarm of honey bees, fantastic

0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:07.280
<v Speaker 2>treatments such as swarm allow us to imagine our way

0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:12.760
<v Speaker 2>a little bit closer to the reality. All right, Next

0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:18.560
<v Speaker 2>on the list, puff Adder. I recently picked up a

0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.240
<v Speaker 2>kind of ragged copy of the Official Handbook of the

0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:27.200
<v Speaker 2>Marvel Universe, Master Edition from I believe nineteen ninety, though

0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.080
<v Speaker 2>this also might have been a reprint from years later.

0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.720
<v Speaker 2>I'm not entirely certain, but it's filled with various Marvel characters,

0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.320
<v Speaker 2>from the famous to the obscure, each with profile data

0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:43.200
<v Speaker 2>and standardized character illustrations in this kind of glorious retro style.

0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.480
<v Speaker 2>Amid all the capes and tights, and there are a

0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.960
<v Speaker 2>lot of tights, there are some gloriously weird entries in

0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.880
<v Speaker 2>the book. There's the spiky faced skeleton man terror Ink,

0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.920
<v Speaker 2>with his ability to steal limbs and attach them to

0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.920
<v Speaker 2>his own body. I was also fascinated by Quasu Modo

0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:06.040
<v Speaker 2>or Quasi Motivational destruct Organism. He is a super powered

0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.880
<v Speaker 2>cyborg hunchback, and presumably he's quite motivational. But in this episode,

0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.160
<v Speaker 2>I want to focus in on the villain puff Adder

0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:18.720
<v Speaker 2>real name Gordo Freeley and apparently a native of Atlanta. Physically,

0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.000
<v Speaker 2>he appears to be a very large, muscular man in

0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:25.880
<v Speaker 2>a snake costume. He is a mutant in the Marvel comics,

0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.760
<v Speaker 2>with the ability to engorge his entire epidermis with blood,

0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:34.400
<v Speaker 2>thus making himself appear more powerful and menacing. Now, he's

0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:38.320
<v Speaker 2>already a very capable fighter with enhanced strength, but it's

0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:42.200
<v Speaker 2>curious that his mutant ability doesn't seem to actually boost

0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.080
<v Speaker 2>his fighting power in the way that many other mutant

0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.600
<v Speaker 2>powers do. Instead, it just allows him to better bluff

0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.520
<v Speaker 2>and better intimidate. Oh and he also has another weapon,

0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:56.359
<v Speaker 2>a noxious gas canister in the mouth like cowl of

0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.960
<v Speaker 2>his snake mask. His namesake is, of course, the puff

0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.159
<v Speaker 2>At or Snake consisting of several species native to Africa

0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.640
<v Speaker 2>in parts of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. The snake in

0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.480
<v Speaker 2>question is able to puff itself up to look larger

0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.839
<v Speaker 2>as a predator deterrent, and it does this by inflating

0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.080
<v Speaker 2>its body with air and then hissing loudly. And like

0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:21.040
<v Speaker 2>the Marvel character, the snake can also back up that threat.

0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.320
<v Speaker 2>It packs a powerful venomous bite, and the force of

0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:29.480
<v Speaker 2>its strikes alone is enough to kill small prey. Various

0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.760
<v Speaker 2>natural world creatures make themselves look bigger as a defensive

0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.599
<v Speaker 2>or mating display. Some the imposturing or the manipulation of

0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.680
<v Speaker 2>fur or feathers, while others actually inflate tissues with air, water,

0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.680
<v Speaker 2>or blood. These actions also frequently enhance the colors or

0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.680
<v Speaker 2>patterns of such a display as well. While Gordo's mutant

0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:51.400
<v Speaker 2>ability may appear at first to buck the general theme

0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:55.120
<v Speaker 2>we see in comic book Superpowers, it's certainly in keeping

0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.680
<v Speaker 2>with actual real world involved adaptations. There is a survival

0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.880
<v Speaker 2>advance in not actually having to fight a predator or competitor,

0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.960
<v Speaker 2>and the same holds true with not having to fight

0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.799
<v Speaker 2>every X man or avenger you encounter. On the pages

0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:21.120
<v Speaker 2>of Marvel Comics. All right, it's ted time, because next

0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:28.880
<v Speaker 2>we have man Thing. Let us return to the pages

0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.600
<v Speaker 2>of Marvel Comics to consider a true monster. Man Thing.

0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.400
<v Speaker 2>It's not to be confused with DC's swamp Thing, but

0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:42.080
<v Speaker 2>he stands as something of his spiritual twin sibling. So

0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:46.000
<v Speaker 2>both man Thing and swamp Thing are hybrid swamp based

0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:51.400
<v Speaker 2>humanoids created through an explosive collision of humanity, mad science,

0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.479
<v Speaker 2>and swamp water. Both characters hit the comics for the

0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.960
<v Speaker 2>first time in nineteen seventy one. However, most commentators see

0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.640
<v Speaker 2>to see it merely as coincidence and point to various

0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:08.400
<v Speaker 2>differences in the characters. Plus Marvel's walking swamp creature The

0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.840
<v Speaker 2>Heap predates both of them, dating back to the early

0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:16.120
<v Speaker 2>nineteen forties, as does the muck monster It from Street

0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:20.600
<v Speaker 2>and Smith Comics. Still, these various swamp beings become linked.

0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.800
<v Speaker 2>They have a kinship, and you'll even find a panel

0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:28.560
<v Speaker 2>in Alan Moore's swamp Thing run visually suggesting kinship between

0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.760
<v Speaker 2>swamp Thing, man Thing, the Heap, and others. But I've

0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.000
<v Speaker 2>already talked about swamp Thing on the Monster Fact, so

0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.920
<v Speaker 2>let's get serious about man Thing. As pointed out by

0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.320
<v Speaker 2>Kelly Knox in the book Monsters Creatures of the Marvel Universe.

0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:48.600
<v Speaker 2>Man Thing started off with a human scientist named Ted Sallas. Now,

0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.160
<v Speaker 2>like a lot of Marvel comic books, scientists, Ted worked

0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.440
<v Speaker 2>on super soldier serums, at least until enemies tried to

0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.640
<v Speaker 2>take it from him. Ted then injected himself with the

0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.400
<v Speaker 2>serum and acidentally wrecked his car in the Everglades and

0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.840
<v Speaker 2>was also exposed to extra dimensional forces in the process.

0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.520
<v Speaker 2>So what emerged from the swamp was neither man nor Thing,

0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:14.240
<v Speaker 2>but Manthing, a humanoid swamp creature that would become the

0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:19.880
<v Speaker 2>guardian of the Nexus of Reality, where science and magic converge.

0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.240
<v Speaker 2>Man Thing boasts incredible strength and can throw down with

0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.000
<v Speaker 2>the toughest of physical opponents, but some of his most

0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.440
<v Speaker 2>impressive powers are due to his empathy. Man Thing is

0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.199
<v Speaker 2>so empathic that negative emotions in others can cause him

0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:38.679
<v Speaker 2>physical pain and distress, especially when he senses fear. This

0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.839
<v Speaker 2>will also cause him to lash out violently at individuals

0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.040
<v Speaker 2>in the throes of fear and lay his burning hands

0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:50.160
<v Speaker 2>upon them. Man Thing's burning hands are a fascinating superpower,

0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.600
<v Speaker 2>brought to life most wonderfully in the twenty twenty two

0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:58.000
<v Speaker 2>MCU Werewolf by Night Special, which captures it as a

0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:02.360
<v Speaker 2>kind of holy fire that in sinnenerates Ted's victims. On

0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:04.480
<v Speaker 2>one level, this seems to be just another version of

0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:07.680
<v Speaker 2>various magical tales in which creatures feed off of fear

0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.920
<v Speaker 2>or sense fear in others, as if it is an

0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:17.080
<v Speaker 2>actual energy or a quantifiable substance. Man Thing's abilities, however,

0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:21.680
<v Speaker 2>are frequently explained in terms of chemistry. NOx attributes his

0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.840
<v Speaker 2>burning touch to chemicals in man Thing's body and sumeric

0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.760
<v Speaker 2>and wallace in marvel anatomy. The authors here presume that

0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.720
<v Speaker 2>this chemical secretion is something akin to sulphuric acid, that

0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.400
<v Speaker 2>it's excreted through man Thing's pores. I suppose we might

0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:41.080
<v Speaker 2>compare this ability to these self defensive secretions of various

0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.880
<v Speaker 2>natural world organisms, and given man Things plant based physiology,

0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.000
<v Speaker 2>we have to acknowledge that certain plants do secrete acidic

0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.680
<v Speaker 2>substances through their roots, in some cases to dissolve rocky

0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.600
<v Speaker 2>soil and in other cases to eradicate competition. But what

0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.520
<v Speaker 2>about this notion that a monster like man Thing, or

0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:04.319
<v Speaker 2>even ant natural world organism can quote sense fear. It's

0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.840
<v Speaker 2>a common trope but is there anything to it. Certainly

0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.920
<v Speaker 2>there is no true sixth sense for fear in which

0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:15.120
<v Speaker 2>humans or other animals can tap into an otherwise invisible

0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:20.920
<v Speaker 2>video game fear meter. Fear, like other human defined emotional states,

0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.520
<v Speaker 2>is hard to quantify in animals and subject to human

0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:29.000
<v Speaker 2>testing bias, as Ralph Adolf's discussed in the twenty thirteen

0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:33.679
<v Speaker 2>Current Biology article The Biology of Fear. Some argue that

0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:38.120
<v Speaker 2>fear is a mere psychological construct and something we can't

0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.000
<v Speaker 2>apply to animals as we cannot truly know their minds.

0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:45.199
<v Speaker 2>On the other hand, neuroimaging and rodents would seem to

0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.280
<v Speaker 2>reveal a clear fear network in their brains at all.

0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.760
<v Speaker 2>Stressed a distinction to be made between the conscious human

0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.840
<v Speaker 2>feeling of being afraid and fear as a functional state

0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:02.080
<v Speaker 2>of an organism. This state exists in relation to fear

0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.000
<v Speaker 2>inducing stimuli, which for humans releast can be in the

0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:10.040
<v Speaker 2>present past or in imagined future, and induces fearful behavior.

0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.960
<v Speaker 2>Fear in both cognition and behavior is largely adaptive, and

0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:19.440
<v Speaker 2>it's because fear can help us survive, though of course

0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.920
<v Speaker 2>all of this can become maladaptive as well. Now. Man

0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.520
<v Speaker 2>Thing's relation to fear is interesting in light of all this.

0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:30.760
<v Speaker 2>He acutely fears the effects of another organism's fear, but

0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.720
<v Speaker 2>the source of his own emotional distress in this scenario

0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.360
<v Speaker 2>is not the fear inducing stimuli that caused the original distress,

0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.920
<v Speaker 2>but the distressed organism itself, which he may then incinerate

0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.400
<v Speaker 2>with his burning hands due to a fear response chemical

0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.200
<v Speaker 2>secretion in his own body. So there's a lot to

0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:53.160
<v Speaker 2>unpact there. But hey, still a pretty great swamp monster

0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:59.000
<v Speaker 2>and I'm always down for a cool swamp monster. Finally,

0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:08.439
<v Speaker 2>let us explore the curious skin of Colossus. I've been

0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.719
<v Speaker 2>plowing through old episodes of The X Men, the animated

0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.400
<v Speaker 2>series from the nineties with my son in anticipation of

0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:19.760
<v Speaker 2>eventually diving into the X Men ninety seven series. This

0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:21.920
<v Speaker 2>show is a lot of fun, packs a lot of

0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.320
<v Speaker 2>nostalgia for me, and leads to some interesting conversations with

0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.240
<v Speaker 2>my son about the various themes. Some of our favorite

0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:32.840
<v Speaker 2>characters include Rogue and Wolverine, but Colossus is always a

0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:37.000
<v Speaker 2>treat as well. If you're not familiar with this particular mutant,

0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:42.240
<v Speaker 2>we're talking about Russian X Men Peter resputant An already

0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.200
<v Speaker 2>intimidatingly muscular man who is able at will to assume

0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.920
<v Speaker 2>an impenetrable steel form. Sometimes, as in his Marvel dot

0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:55.400
<v Speaker 2>Com profile, Colossus's transformation is said to convert his entire

0:12:55.600 --> 0:13:01.160
<v Speaker 2>body into an organic steel like substance. The transformation is

0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:05.640
<v Speaker 2>interpreted as something that occurs only at the dermal level,

0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.359
<v Speaker 2>so only at the skin level. Either way, the transformation

0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.680
<v Speaker 2>generally looks as if a segmented stainless steel coating flows

0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.680
<v Speaker 2>over his entire body. We're going to approach it here

0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:20.320
<v Speaker 2>as a dermal transformation because the idea of a full

0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:24.840
<v Speaker 2>body transformation leaves us less room to wonder over the

0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:29.240
<v Speaker 2>scientific details of the feet. But just the idea alone

0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:33.240
<v Speaker 2>has always been a captivating one, because here is Peter Resputen,

0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.920
<v Speaker 2>a powerful but peaceful man who would far rather pursue

0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.760
<v Speaker 2>art than conflict, but who for the greater good can

0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.800
<v Speaker 2>literally grow the thickest, most impenetrable skin imaginable to throw

0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:50.360
<v Speaker 2>down against adversity. For Colossus, this might mean the grasping

0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.480
<v Speaker 2>tentacles of Omega Red, always a favorite of mine, or

0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:57.120
<v Speaker 2>the machinations of the Shadow King. Once the threat is

0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.880
<v Speaker 2>dealt with, Peter reverts to his normal form and continues

0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:05.680
<v Speaker 2>on in his peaceful creative pursuits. Lynn Ween and Dave

0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.480
<v Speaker 2>Cockrum created Colosses back in nineteen seventy five, and he

0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:14.240
<v Speaker 2>remains a popular character to this day. So how might

0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.880
<v Speaker 2>we think about Colossus from a scientific and biological standpoint?

0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.320
<v Speaker 2>Turning once more to marvel anatomy by Mark Sumerac and

0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.840
<v Speaker 2>Daniel Wallace, the authors here discuss his ability in terms

0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.960
<v Speaker 2>of a transmutation of his dermal layers or skin, into

0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:34.240
<v Speaker 2>an organic steel, with his underlying body retaining its flesh

0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:38.280
<v Speaker 2>and blood form. Their explanation details a process by which

0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:44.080
<v Speaker 2>each individual's skin cell draws on metallic extra dimensional mass

0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.360
<v Speaker 2>to become an activated organic steel cell. So, in other words,

0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.720
<v Speaker 2>each cell of Colossus's dermal layer coats itself in biological

0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:59.000
<v Speaker 2>metallic material, and this translates into the transformation of the

0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:03.560
<v Speaker 2>entire epiderma, but at the cellular level. Thus, his mobility

0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.560
<v Speaker 2>is not compromised, and his already incredible baseline strength no

0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.520
<v Speaker 2>doubt helps out as well. Now, by this explanation, we

0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.520
<v Speaker 2>may not be dealing exactly with something like steel shutters

0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.000
<v Speaker 2>from nowhere flowing over his entire body, but that metallic

0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.720
<v Speaker 2>cellular coding has to come from somewhere if we're to

0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.800
<v Speaker 2>adhere to the law of conservation of mass, and the

0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:30.040
<v Speaker 2>answer they provide is that the ability draws on another

0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:34.120
<v Speaker 2>spatial dimension. That's where the metal comes from. And okay,

0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.800
<v Speaker 2>that works for me. Now. I also ran across an

0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.600
<v Speaker 2>excellent twenty eighteen paper in the journal Advances in Physiology

0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:45.520
<v Speaker 2>Education titled the Physiology of Impenetrable Skin Colossus of the

0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.720
<v Speaker 2>x Men by Barry W. Fitzgerald. His whole point is

0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.880
<v Speaker 2>the Colossus is a great example of how a fictional

0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:58.600
<v Speaker 2>character can promote multidisciplinary scientific discussion in a classroom. Now,

0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.080
<v Speaker 2>I'm not going to summarize everything Atzgerald has to say,

0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:07.200
<v Speaker 2>but he makes some great points about Colossus and thermoregulation. Basically,

0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.080
<v Speaker 2>we have to think about what human skin does for

0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.320
<v Speaker 2>the body and how that might be impacted by a

0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:18.080
<v Speaker 2>shift into a steel form. One key area of concern

0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:22.880
<v Speaker 2>is thermoregulation of body temperature, which the skin plays a

0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.600
<v Speaker 2>role in via such responses as vasodilation, vassal constriction, and

0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.640
<v Speaker 2>of course sweating. Can Colossus his steel skin do any

0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.600
<v Speaker 2>of this well? The author here contends that his body's

0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.760
<v Speaker 2>ability to thermo regulate would be severely impacted via this

0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:44.920
<v Speaker 2>steel or organic steel, or otherwise metal coating, and specifically,

0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.480
<v Speaker 2>during a heated battle, he would simply overheat. He wouldn't

0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.480
<v Speaker 2>be much good battling the Juggernaut if he passes out

0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.920
<v Speaker 2>from overheating just a few minutes into the struggle. Fitzgerald

0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.520
<v Speaker 2>isn't here to yuck everyone's young, though, with science he

0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:04.840
<v Speaker 2>presents a possible path forward. Perhaps he says Colossus's organic

0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:09.400
<v Speaker 2>steel skin is actually graphene due to its protective capability

0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:13.640
<v Speaker 2>and its biocompatibility. It's carbon after all, like we are,

0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.000
<v Speaker 2>and it's super thin, consisting of a single layer of

0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:23.440
<v Speaker 2>atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure. This biographene honeycomb

0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.800
<v Speaker 2>lattice layer hypothesis would therefore solve a number of the

0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:32.240
<v Speaker 2>key problems with Peter's mutant power, from thermoregulation to mass conservation.

0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:36.560
<v Speaker 2>The layer would swiftly form via protein folding and self assembly,

0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:41.800
<v Speaker 2>and bam, Colossus is ready for action. I highly recommend

0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.480
<v Speaker 2>checking out Fitzgerald's paper here of the topic interest you

0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:48.199
<v Speaker 2>in or out of the classroom, because hey, presumably Colossus

0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:50.919
<v Speaker 2>is headed back into theaters and back into action this

0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.360
<v Speaker 2>summer in the next Deadpool movie. So it's a perfect

0:17:54.359 --> 0:18:02.720
<v Speaker 2>time to embrace both science and mutant powers. All right, everyone,

0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.280
<v Speaker 2>thanks for tuning in to this omnibus episode of The

0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:10.080
<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact. Monster Fact or the Artifact or an Amalia Stupendium,

0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.320
<v Speaker 2>publishes each week a short form episode from Stuff to

0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.000
<v Speaker 2>Blow Your Mind. If you have any suggestions for future

0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.960
<v Speaker 2>episodes of the Monster Fact, including other possibilities for Marvel

0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.280
<v Speaker 2>comics or other comic lines, just write in I'd love

0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.440
<v Speaker 2>to hear from you. As always, you can email us

0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:38.919
<v Speaker 2>at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:42.000
<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.879
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:47.800
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.